Come On Edward! You don’t know me, but you so have to buy this. Ha ha, Silly Solicitations over LinkedIn. I am so done with them!
7:57PM and I have had a rocking day. Spent some quality time with Jude and just met with the amazing Daniel Doherty from MERLINFX. Feeling great!
But oh no, I come home to see some stupid Spam Email in my LinkedIn Account. I totally love LinkedIn and this is not a shot at the company. It’s people who don’t like leaving me alone and love just sending me silly stupid stuff. I was actually going to write my article about something else – but this just tipped me over the edge.
What I have found is that people generally in business aren’t very sensitive about their Sales & Marketing. From Business Coaches who I have met once months ago sending me a spam bulk email, to people that add me to autoresponders that annoy me, to silly people over LinkedIn.
Most are great on LinkedIn, but some you connect with just want to spam you with pointless stuff. This one just annoyed me so much I had to hide details and post it:
XXXX
Edward
I am very glad I saw your profile! I have an opportunity to share with you that may be PERFECT for you (and me)! I saw your profile – especially your love to help Small Business Owners and Entrepreneurs succeed worldwide. Have you heard of [Silly Thing].
[Silly Thing] is based on revolutionary self-discovery and leadership development products (books, CDs – soon to be digital books and MP3 files) that can be customized and personalized to everyone’s goals and needs. They are based in the [Silly Stuff].
[Blah Blah] Over seventy percent of all money collected is returned (paid back) to [Silly Thing] – based on their group membership levels – and the sales of people (including what they order for themselves) in their organization. Every person in Australia that you or I recruit after you will also be in your organization (as will be the next people sponsored by the people who signed up ahead of you) – how great is that?
In [Some Silly Month, The Silly Concept] will be launching in Australia and New Zealand. One of the leaders in my group (my “up-line”) will be working with some of the first people to be sponsored in Australia and New Zealand. I am putting together information on people for them to contact – but nothing has been formalized (I will meet with them in a week). If you are interested, I will send you more information – please tell me an e-mail address to send it to – and invite me to connect with you.
This may not be “fast money” – but if we get in at the ground-level of [Silly Stuff to Annoy Ed] exploding in Australia and New Zealand, we will be helping people in all areas of their lives – and we may be financially set for life.
[Signed – Silly Person that Loves Spamming Edward]
XXXX
Don’t get me wrong, I am open to new ideas and people even selling me stuff. But if I don’t know you, you just can’t spam me like this and expect me to respond positively. This gets me thinking at a much deeper level about Marketing and Permission. I bet this guy is LinkedIn’s worst nightmare – he would just be spamming people one after the other trying to flog his what appears to be a silly concept from where I am sitting.
Great Marketing in a Small Business Context should be selling the right thing, to the right person, with the right permission in a way that is good for everyone! My advice and lesson from this? Don’t be silly! Get permission first and before you sell anything – build some type of relationship. Be it Face to Face or Online, take your time, give people value – and then approach them with your proposition!
Hope you enjoy my rant / lecture in this one! Touch wood to no [Silly] messages from LinkedIn for a short while!
Edward Zia – Marketing Mentor and Man who doesn’t quite enjoy [Silly] LinkedIn Messages!
2 Responses
That is what ruins the image of MLM, we need to be personal and help people that are looking not just spam people, doesn’t matter what industry.
Thank you Simon for your great comment and contribution. It’s true that in the Multi-Level-Marketing Industry you have some which are great actual products. Sendoutcards, Neways are some which I really love! The complaints about MLM are almost always the over-selling and the over-promising about financial results.
One of the top Multi-Level-Marketers I know, Viola Tam (The Business Mum) is an MLM but she is the opposite of my article. She is so respectful and brings amazing credibility to the industry.
Going beyond MLM I think the Product / Service can be anything. When shonks sell things badly it becomes not about the product, but how shonky the sales pitch is!
Love your work Simon! I think you are on rocking ethical operator 🙂