I network with 15 to 20 people per week. I attend numerous networking events and talk to many fractionals, consultants, and business owners alike. There’s one common thread that has been pervasive in our conversations over the past six months. Many people are expressing their frustrations behind closed doors, on calls, and in meetings, and today I’m volunteering to be the one to bring those frustrations to the public.
It’s frustrating receiving countless DMs from people who don’t know us and don’t seem to want to know us or our businesses. These messages often focus solely on what the sender does, their accolades, and their achievements, without mentioning us or our needs even once. The first rule of sales is: it’s not about you, it’s about us. The second rule is: if you’re making it about us, then at least be authentic.
It’s disheartening when DMs include open-ended questions like “What are your business objectives for the year?” Try not to ask questions where you don’t care about the answer or only care to the extent that it might gain you business. These are questions our mentors, friends, or colleagues ask us, not complete strangers.
It’s disappointing when people ask for our opinion on a topic just to use it for their gain. We don’t have the time to answer these questions for a hundred different people who are only going to use it for their own personal objectives. We’re busy focusing on ourselves and our businesses and trying to grow them in an authentic way.
We find it disingenuous when people say they’ve reviewed our LinkedIn profiles and “admire” our work. I’ve received messages saying things like, “I’m reaching out to female business owners,” which I’m not, or “I see that you’re an HVAC consultant,” which I’m not, or “I admire your profile”, when I’m quite sure you haven’t even looked at it. The number of stories about this number in the hundreds. If you’re going to do this type of outreach, make sure you actually have looked at our LinkedIn profiles.
Repeated follow-ups after we’ve not responded can be overwhelming. This approach makes us not want to do business with you. Receiving multiple follow-ups feels pushy and intrusive and merely adds to an already daunting number of DMs that we ignore and delete per day.
To those using AI and automation: A poorly crafted message sent out a thousand times is still a poor message. These approaches lack authenticity and can generate negative feelings towards your brand.
First impressions are crucial, and these impersonal methods often make poor impressions on a large scale.
A request from me and hundreds of others like me: If you’re using email or marketing automation, and using AI to generate your content, please rethink your approach. Authenticity and genuine interest are key. Get to know your prospects before reaching out. Personalized, thoughtful communication can make all the difference.
You can change this. AI and automation can be great tools for generating business and doing cold outreach, but you have to think about what you’re putting out there. Consider the messaging and how it’ll be received.
As an NLP Master Practitioner and Coach I work with clients every day on how to rework their messaging and I tell them all the exact same thing:
You don’t write your own messaging—the person reading it does. They interpret it through their own view, scope, experiences, the mood they’re in that day, and the previous DMs they’ve gotten from 100 people just like you.
So, when creating your email marketing campaign, make it authentic, personal, and consider the fact that you don’t know the person you’re sending things to, and they don’t know you.
Used wisely these tools can provide unlimited leads and business…automatically!
Used poorly you’re just alienating people and companies…automatically.