Companies That Use LinkedIn for Cold Calls

7/14/23 A Guy Walked up to me on the Street and Asked …

Seriously, what is it about LinkedIn that someone I don’t know feels good about asking me proprietary questions about my business? I may ask a client about how much of their revenue comes from a specific product to help me decide whether it’s worth a feature page, but I don’t ask random strangers that question. I don’t even ask folks at business networking meetings that question.

He did answer my equally direct answer in good humor. But, then again, maybe ChatGPT answered my very direct answer.

Or, maybe ChatGPT is a masher.

Or, maybe we can just blame all our faux pas on ChatGPT.

7/11/23 religion Comes to LinkedIn

This one would make a great standup comedy topic. A new life will be mine with the Cross-Store Selling religion. Up til now, I have been a robot, a zombie, a puppet, I haven’t been alive. And, like Pinocchio, I am now being offered a real life!

I’d really like to turn this one over to high school speech and debate to see what fun they could have with it.

But, it is refreshing in that there was no trying to pretend to want to be my friend and connect with me. It’s just a LinkedIn Ad. Like the newspaper model, I will accept a certain amount of ads to be able to use LinkedIn.

2/14/20 Don’t put your Child’s Photo on Social Media

The text is getting better. Not good, just better. A little bit less like a full blown advertisement. But, this one really blows it on the security issues. Never, never, never put the photo of a small child on social media, unless they are a generic model that can’t be easily located. Of course, this photo could be stock photography, so maybe the children are actually models.

In a recent class, a student brought up the issue of how much he hates it when people try to connect with him and then give him a sales pitch. My student is very nice about it, but he mentioned that he has a friend in another state that has a rogue’s gallery like I do. Bummer, I thought I had a new and innovative idea.

7/5/19 SAYING IT AGAIN … Do your Homework First

If Mr. Wilson had done his homework, he would know that I believe that web development should be a transparent process. That means that the client should be able to talk to the folks doing the work. That means that the folks doing the work, need to be available. And, if a company is charging $25.00/hr for development, you can bet they are using off-shore developers.

5/1/19 This One Is a Little More Subtle, Not Much, Just a Little

I wonder if I am now one of the “same people whom I respect”. But, at least he says the right words before the sales pitch.

Do your Homework First

Cold calling without checking the companies you are contacting is just plain lazy. For example, this LinkedIn connection cold call that came in a couple of hours after accepting a connection request shows that John Ray did not do any checking into what I do. That means that he is not into connection, he is into cold sales. If he had checked even my LinkedIn profile, he would have known that I am a developer.

I wonder if John is one of those guys who really don’t know anything about development and use off-shore developers.

1/22/19: I THOUGHT THEY DIDN’T LIKE ME ANY MORE

I haven’t received one of these since October, and was starting to get worried. It looks like $25.00/hr is fairly standard. I wonder what education their “software engineers” have. Maybe they are helping their “software engineers” get their CS degrees.

If you would like to help someone overseas have work, there are ways to hire them directly. Former student and client, Steve Weber found a developer in Pakistan through Freelancer.com. Initially, Freelancer.com was taking a commission on the work, but over time, Steve and the developer were able to work through the language barrier to form a business relationship directly. This way, the developer and his family are able to gain the full value of his work.

10/8/18: And the formula continues

What differentiates this LinkedIn cold call from the rest? One item is that they give their pricing. That is either a temporary price, or they outsource overseas, or both. Or, they have their developers chained in the basement as slaves.

9/13/18: A new twist

Here is a new twist! A badly written demand that showed up in my email today.

8/30/18: This one looks an awful lot like the last one

Sometimes it’s hard to tell the sales guys apart. I’m not sure I can tell this Joseph from the last Joseph. They look alike and write alike. One way

they could be different is to not send ads. There are actually other ways they could communicate, but I don’t want to stifle their creative juices by telling them how to make friends.

8/10/18: IT’S SO TOUGH TO GET A DATE WHEN YOU ONLY TALK ABOUT YOURSELF

All the right beginning words! So, casually friendly. So, tacky.

So, if you want to get to first base, show some interest in something besides yourself.

I hope you have a wonderful day too, Joey.

8/8/18 – Bad Use of Work Anniversary

This one is really tacky! But, they get points for a new twist I haven’t seen before!

Who wants a sales pitch as an anniversary present. The best place for this is just a general LinkedIn post or article.