How to Make LinkedIn Cold-Callers Flee

I get slammed by cold-call LinkedIn connection requests. 

They usually start with something like this…

“I visited your website and was really impressed…” or 

“I read your profile, and we seem to have a lot in common…” or

“It looks like you do some great work…” 

My favorites are the ones that make it seem like they’ve looked at my profile — when it’s actually kind of obvious they didn’t. Like this one: 

“Hi Tom, I hope that you’re having a pleasant day. I read your recent LinkedIn post which prompted me to reach out. I also noticed that you’ve done some work in marketing…” 

(Gimme a break!)

All of these connection requests have one thing in common: Before I even have a chance to say, “Nice to meet you,” they ask me to schedule a meeting. 

I used to accept most social media connection requests. The more connections, the better, I thought. 

I know better now. 

When I get requests like these, I ignore most of them. If there’s something that interests me about the person’s profile, I send a reply…

…without accepting the connection request. 

Here’s one I sent recently…

“Hi Jack. Thanks for the connection request. Tell me something about yourself that I can’t learn from your profile. Me? I’m the father of boy/girl twins, now 23. We named the boy Jacob (Jake) only to realize later that Tom & Jake are the words for adult and juvenile male TURKEYS. That’s about right ;)” 

Jack’s response? 

Silence. 

I guess my effort to build a relationship, to learn a bit more about him, to share a bit more about me… 

…didn’t fit with his firehose approach to LinkedIn Lead Generation. 

And here’s the funny/sad thing…

When I send those “tell me more about yourself” replies, almost everyone of those people who were so impressed,” who say we have “a lot in common,” who think I “do great work…”

…disappear without another response. 

9 times out of 10, those LinkedIn cold-callers won’t reply if I send them anything deeper than, “Sure. Let’s connect and schedule that complimentary consultation call you’ve offered.” 

Don’t be that kind of cold-caller. 

And if you hear from that cold-caller who might be worth the connection, offer some conversation before you connect. 

I’ve had a few who have replied and turned out to be valuable connections. 

I’ll take one good connection out of 10 requests versus 9 lousy connections every time. 

Are you on LinkedIn? How do you handle connection requests like this? How do you build your connections? I’d love to hear from you. Please email me if you’d like to share your approach.  

Also, if you want to connect with me on LinkedIn, you can find me here. Warning: I may ask you to tell me something about yourself before we connect 🙂