Julio Viskovich describes how to avoid hard selling and coming across as a traditional sales creep. Text: Mistake #1 – The Stock LinkedIn Invitation The first thing wrong with this reach out on LinkedIn is that the individual used the stock LinkedIn invitation and did not describe or outline the reason a complete stranger would want to connect with me. This is always a red-flag as it immediately makes me wonder what value could come from allowing him/her into my network. To make the matter worse, he/she indicated that they were a “Friend” which was a complete lie as I have never spoken to this person in my life. Mistake #2 – Selling Without Social Currency First of all, social media and LinkedIn are not arenas for the hard sell. Social provides you touch points to build trust, familiarity, and credibility that will carry over into your traditional sales activities. Hard selling on social should be far less “hard” than the example below and should only be executed after you have built up social currency and enough of a reciprocal relationship to be able to ask for business. Even then, I tend to think that true selling should take place in person or over the phone while using social data and relationships to your advantage. In the case below, I received the “hard sell” email seconds after I accepted the individual’s connection request. The Result The result for the sales person in this case will be both a “no chance of a sale” and an immediate removal from my contacts. It’s tough to say if this will result in a change behavior, but if not, the lack of successful business that gets created from his/her efforts will speak for itself. The educator in me wants to see people succeed and better themselves, so I accompanied my removal with a small note to explain why.

1. Julio Viskovich
How Not To Do Social Selling

2. Julio Viskovich
This is the first episode of Social Selling Gaffes And Blunders –
where we look at examples of how NOT to do social selling. The first
mistake that we will look at is called the “Hard Sell” or the “16 Year Old
Boy Mistake” which I named after Gary Vaynerchuk’s example of a high
school boy trying to get in the bedroom without having a conversation or
getting to know the the object of his affection.
Mistake #1 – The Stock LinkedIn Invitation
The first thing wrong with this reach out on LinkedIn is that the
individual used the stock LinkedIn invitation and did not describe or
outline the reason a complete stranger would want to connect with me.
This is always a red-flag as it immediately makes me wonder what value
could come from allowing him/her into my network. To make the matter
worse, he/she indicated that they were a “Friend” which was a complete
lie as I have never spoken to this person in my life.
!

3. Julio Viskovich
Mistake #2 – Selling Without Social Currency
First of all, social media and LinkedIn are not arenas for the hard
sell. Social provides you touch points to build trust, familiarity, and
credibility that will carry over into your traditional sales activities. Hard
selling on social should be far less “hard” than the example below and
should only be executed after you have built up social currency and
enough of a reciprocal relationship to be able to ask for business. Even
then, I tend to think that true selling should take place in person or over
the phone while using social data and relationships to your advantage. In
the case below, I received the “hard sell” email seconds after I accepted
the individual’s connection request.

4. Julio Viskovich
!
The Result
The result for the sales person in this case will be both a “no chance
of a sale” and an immediate removal from my contacts. It’s tough to say if
this will result in a change behavior, but if not, the lack of successful
business that gets created from his/her efforts will speak for itself. The
educator in me wants to see people succeed and better themselves, so I
accompanied my removal with a small note to explain why.
!

5. Julio Viskovich
Key Learning or Takeaway
Social is not a place for the hard sell, it’s a place to build trust and
credibility.
For more information, contact NexLevel Sales or Julio Viskovich
julio@nexlevelsales.com.