We all know of someone in the sales game who does this.  Blasts out e-mails or, in this case, mass in-mails or messages to people on LinkedIn hoping to get business.  Maybe that one in a million will reach out and need your service.  Undoubtedly not.

It happened again to me today.  Someone I’m not even connected to.  I routinely have people asking to connect with me and, if their profiles look mildly interesting, I may connect — especially if they personalize their invitations.  All too often as soon as I accept the connection, they blast me with marketing material.  Just as quickly I sever the connection.

In this case, the person and I are not even connected.  We share a group.  His reference on the note was “shameless plug and a guy in Jersey.”  I knew right away it couldn’t be good.

His message to me indicated he had reached out a while ago and invited me to check out some sort of invisible resume service and that “thousands of members have gone from introduction to accepted offer in less than a month.”  Really, I’m in the recruitment business and it’s rare for any company to move that quickly unless you are interviewing for a retail role in a shopping mall (and sometimes not even then!)  I guess he wants us to think that, by subscribing to his service, a person will get a job in one month flat.

He told me I probably “wouldn’t retire at my current job” but their service “screens jobs for me while I am happy so I have options when I’m ready and don’t have to start a job search from scratch.”  Really?  Will I start with jobs that were available months or years ago?  Are these jobs they are sourcing for me while I’m not looking going to be around when I am looking for a job?  How current will that information be at that point?  But, to make matters worse, had he read my profile rather than just mass-blasting this, he would see that I am not in a “current job” but rather run a consulting practice FOCUSED ON RECRUITING AND CAREER COACHING.  Does he think I really need that service?  Doesn’t he know that most roles are filled through networking and the contacts you make and NOT through sourcing on-line ads?

He goes on to say that one VP of sales got through “thousands of interviews in minutes” and loved the “anonymity” of it.  Huh?  How do you go through thousands of interviews in minutes?  I can’t even begin to think what he was talking about?  People find their service “cutting edge“?  Cutting edge?  Resume screening?  Job posting?  What?
The one thing he did get right was that his note came “off as it’s intended — in good fun.”  Why?  Because it’s a laugh.  This is not the way to source new business.  It doesn’t even make sense.

When I looked this fellow up, he’s held six jobs in the last two years — none longer than 4 months.  All in sales.  Anyway think he should look for another line of business?

The learning from this?  Sales is more than just throwing darts at a board and hoping something will stick.  Sales is about knowing what you are selling and identifying your market.  Then it’s about reaching out to that market in a meaningful way to make a connection, to build a relationship and to ultimately get that sale.  Sadly, all too often people are looking for the easy way out.  Wonder where he’ll be working next?