I received a connection request from a lady called Elizabeth; I sent a message a few times a week for 3 weeks then I decided to ‘up the ante’ and send the following email with a link to help her…
Good Morning Elizabeth,
I hope you had a wonderful weekend away from work and are returning to a positive week ahead; our emails went a bit crazy this weekend with lots of new interest in our offerings so my morning seems to have disappeared to a flutter of meeting arrangements and quotes!
Thank you for your kind connection request via Linkedin, but without a personalised message I am unsure how I can help or the reason for your connection request?
This is a blog I have written about connecting with people on Linkedin and the reasons I like to know who I am connecting with; http://www.creativecontent.company/CheckYourLinkedinConnections.html
I do look forward to hearing from you soon so we can network further.
Kind Regards, Hazel Cottrell.
I then received a reply from Elizabeth which gave me what I shall class as the ‘X Factor sob story’; she explained she was off sick from work for a long time and during this time she was sacked from her employer who she is now taking to court, further to this she has since found a tumour which was not related to earlier sickness but has now been removed.
After this she then copied and pasted her ‘About Us’ page from her website, I know this because I went to her website and saw the page for myself.
The X Factor sob story is never something I find a selling point and find myself cringing when I see it on TV, this followed by a copy and paste sales pitch looses my interest even more so; especially when it is then clear to see it is a ‘numbers game’ to connect with as many people.
And how do I know this? Because since sending the sob story / sales pitch I have received 3 subsequent sales emails through my Linkedin account telling me how wonderful her handcrafted goodies are…
What do you think; does a sob story work for you or does it leave you cringing?
While I appreciate business owners are encouraged to share their stories, is this not a case of too much information?
