Is Your LinkedIn Invite DOA?

I took a two-week break from LinkedIn.
I'll admit it, I missed reading posts from many of the people I follow.

What I didn't miss were the connection requests.
Most have no valid business reason to connect. Others probably do, but they expect me to figure it out.

After nearly 40 years in sales, I feel a responsibility to help because this is one of the easiest mistakes to fix.

Most messages look something like this:
"Hi Robert, hope you're doing well..."

Then comes a paragraph that tells me almost nothing about the sender, what they do, or why they chose to contact me.

It also tells me they didn't spend a minute on my profile, my site, or my posts. It's all there.

Then comes the closing question:

"Would this be relevant for your team?"

My honest answer? I have no idea. That's not my job.

Your job is to inspire me to want to invest five minutes or more on the phone with you, by anchoring your outreach in something specific and relevant to me. With all the changes happening in my business right now, that should be easy.

Give me a trend. Share something I don't know. Tell me what's next in CTV.
Show me why you're relevant, how you're different.
Explain the problem you solve.

It's hard to do that in a short note the first time , but you'll get better at it.

Investing time in something that works is worth far more than sending hundreds of low-yield notes. The patient fisherman catches the fish.

I often reply anyway. Many of these professionals are early in their careers. If a few minutes of feedback helps someone become a better salesperson, that's time well spent.

One last thought...
The best outreach isn't clever.
It isn't casual.
It isn't copied and pasted.
It's personal.
It's relevant.
And it earns attention.

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