I help tech sales AEs perform to their full potential in sales and life with coaching, courses, and community | Sales Coach | Former #1 Enterprise AE at Salesforce | $100M+ in career sales
If you want to get your LinkedIn connection request immediately rejected, send a note just like the one below. I get these type of messages every day and always reject them, as I could care less about “mutual connections” or “exploring synergies.” 🤮 Instead of generic, cut and paste notes, try using this approach instead: 👇 1. Don’t send a note with your connection request. Sales reps get a much higher acceptance rate without a note vs. with one, because most of the time it will sound like a pitch to your prospect regardless of what you write, if they don’t know you already. 2. If you decide to send a note, make it unique to them. Your note needs to be personalized, relevant, and short. For example - Ian, I’m reaching out because I heard you on 30 minutes to Presidents Club and loved your message! Look forward to staying connected on here as I’d love to learn more strategies from you for Enterprise selling. 3. If you are going to reference common connections, be specific as to who you are both connected with and confirm beforehand with your connection that they actually know the person. The key to any effective note is to make it about them, not you. And NEVER ask for time with them on your note. Their time is super valuable and they aren’t going to freely give it to somebody they’ve never met Save that request for DM once you’ve been collaborating for a while, rather than giving them an immediate pitch slap once they accept your connection. The only person pitch slapping hurts is you. Here’s to building deep, meaningful connections in 2024.
Sean P. Whitty
4mo
This is going to sound generic and not personalized. BUT... My honest response to this is I share and live your perspective on this 💯!
Andrew Livanos
4mo
Instant bot when the last name is in there 🤣
Zach Fowler
4mo
Agree with point 1 and ive experienced this as well. Most of the connection requests I send to ICP contacts are blank. If they aren't, Im direct and just ask with the hop of uncovering a pain point.
Jeremy Weisberg
4mo
I stopped putting a message in my connection request. Yes, some people see my request, go to my profile, and don't accept it, but I have gotten many connections from a blank request.
Dean Sloves
4mo
Hey Ian, I noticed we both breathe air. Let’s connect.
100% with you Ian Koniak Make it all about them and add context whenever it’s possible.
Anthony Goble
4mo
As much as I agree, knowing there are a bunch of rookies out there doing this, I can't help but wonder what opportunities were passed on because the initial message wasn't sent the way we know it should be. Would there be any? Would I even want to do business with a company that clearly doesn't invest in their people? It's never ending and what I call the quantity over quality conundrum. Businesses need to take note that quantity over quality is not always the right path. To them automation = volume and volume = $$$, so they overpay for this tech. In reality, they should be investing in quality sales people and quality sales leaders. A true SM would catch this day 1 in their due diligence process and coach accordingly. Instead, SM's are running EOD reports to confirm volume benchmarks are being met and walk away thinking "a job well done" while the AE gets more frustrated week over week, won't study their craft and either quit or get fired - rinse and repeat. I think this contributes to companies having only a few solid salespeople and turn/burn the rest. We would see these messages decrease tremendously if companies would invest accordingly. Until then, subpar salespeople with disengaging messages will fill our inboxes.
John Lamont
4mo
As a college student I had very good luck reaching out to reps at companies I was applying to, and asking for 6-8 minutes of their time to learn about their role and what brought them to the specific company. Acceptance of LI invite and a phone call was close to 75%, helped me figure out what roles and cultures would be a best fit. However, I do agree with the above statements if it the invite is targeted at a prospect / decision maker (especially with the language used in the example lol).
Sales Enablement Leader | Coaching, Problem Solving, Analysis | I help companies help their team sell better!
4moI was just taking to a new founder about this last week. They sent me something very similar. We walked through what their goals were in sending out these generic connection requests. (Hopefully they see my product and start using it) The how to improve them and make it relevant for the people she wanted to connect with. Oddly enough, they have a decent product, and I’d love to see them succeed. But I’m very much like you and would normally just ignore it and move on.