Your natural instinct is to push your proposition. And that’s exactly why most LinkedIn outreach doesn’t work.
Imagine I asked you to write your best outreach message to a new prospect. What would it look like?
You’d probably try to explain as much as possible. You’d hyperpersonalize your message, show that you’ve done your research, explain the problems you solve and carefully describe why you’re the best person to help.
Sounds like a great strategy, right? Because if just one person bites, you’ve got them on the hook!
But here’s the problem. Nobody bites.
Instead, people find you annoying. They recognize your message as a sales pitch, don’t respond, and you’ve already damaged the opportunity to build a relationship before it even started.
And what happens next? Following up naturally becomes difficult, because there was never a real conversation in the first place.
People on LinkedIn don’t want to be pushed into a sales funnel. They don’t want to be treated like leads, and they certainly don’t want to feel like someone is trying to sell them something before they’ve even had a chance to get to know them.
LinkedIn is a networking platform, not a lead generation machine.
So why don’t we approach people the same way we would in real life?
Imagine you’re at a networking event. You wouldn’t walk up to someone and immediately explain your entire proposition, their business challenges and why they should work with you.
You’d simply say: “Hey, nice to meet you! How are you?”
And from there, a conversation might develop. You discover common interests, exchange experiences, build trust and perhaps, somewhere down the road, an opportunity to work together emerges.
That’s how networking works. And that’s exactly how LinkedIn should work.
Your first outreach message isn’t supposed to convert someone into a customer. It’s supposed to open the door to a relationship.
The real opportunities often come months later, after you’ve stayed in touch, shared knowledge and followed up naturally.
So stop trying to write the perfect sales pitch disguised as a personal message.
Start like a human. Start at the beginning.
And build the relationship before you try to build the business.
