As soon as I pressed SEND on yesterday’s email, I received this InMail message on LinkedIn.
How would you respond?
I might respond to this message if I knew the person and worked with them in the past or had colleagues who could vouch for him.
But to enter into a business relationship with a complete stranger...
No thank you.
How should you ask people to connect?
I used to search for my "ideal" client then send them a message telling them why I wanted to connect.
Most of the time they accepted my invitation even though we never met in person.
It’s a long haul to move a complete stranger into a raving fan.
These days I rarely invite people to connect.
If I really want to connect with someone, I focus on getting their attention.
I look for active people who post interesting content and I engage with their content.
Occasionally they see that I commented on their content and they invite me to connect.
This is more effective than me blindly inviting them to connect.
Consider it a warm lead instead of a cold lead.
If I comment on their content a few times and they don’t invite me to connect, I invite them to connect with a message like "I’m enjoying your posts about XXX. (Add a sentence referencing a specific idea they mentioned and why you like/agree/disagree with it.)
They will almost always accept your invitation and again it’s a warm lead because you started a conversation with them through their content.
If you want more tips like this and want to write engaging emails and LinkedIn messages, then you need to check out my Messages That Sell course.
