It’s been happening more and more lately…
People have been “befriending” me on Facebook and then immediately trying to pitch me on their latest “ground floor!” business opportoonity or fancy-shmancy product.
In fact, it happened just the other day.
Some lady befriended me on FaceBook only to start spamming my wall with links to her site 5 minutes later.
Ugh.
I don’t know about you, but it’s kind of offensive.
No… not the spam part.
I speaketh of the the SALES part.
You see, it’s like in that episode of Seinfeld when Jerry’s dentist converts to Judaism just so he can get away with telling Jewish jokes, and Jerry tells the dentist’s ex-priest about what he’s up to.
The priest asks, “Does that offend you as Jew?”
And Jerry says, “No it offends me as a comedian!”
It’s the same with these social media carnival barkers screaming out links to anyone who will see it — they don’t offend me as a consumer, they offend me as a salesman.
It’s actually kinda brutal to watch.
I mean hey, I’m no social media goo-roo.
But I bet they’d have lots more success doing a few “sales 101” activities FIRST — like asking questions, getting to know people before pitching them, and finding out if someone even has the problem their product solves before mentioning the product in the first place.
Pretty simple, really.
Maybe that’s why so many hate true salesmanship?
Because they complicate it?
Ben Settle
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