Thanks for stopping by! Thanks for the additional input on this. It's funny how the social media channels are being seen of as a quicker way in to people.

That's not the case! It is literally just an electronic extension of real life. You wouldn't treat people like that unless you want a smack.

Thanks again! Hope you continue to enjoy my posts.

Thanks for stopping by! Much appreciated.

It's been great to have recruiters stopping by with their thoughts.

You have a great blog too – like the content. Keep up the good work!

Yeah playing the numbers game is a shame, but I guess they've just not realised it may not be as effective as it once could have been.

I guess it's a bit of internet bravery – we've all been there, said things (good or bad) that we wouldn't say in person face to face. Imagine him running up to me asking if I wanted a job whilst I'm walking by.

And you're right, you work for your client really hard, and effectively, even if they aren't interested, at that time – they could well refer you, and indeed be their first call when they are interested.

Thanks once again for the contribution, it's really appreciated.

When in recruitment, I worked within a number of industries and I don't think I was ever particulary 'pressured' to use a scatter gun approach with tools such as Linkedin. In some if not all of the companies I worked there was definitely a pressure to hit targets by playing a numbers game.

More people contacted=more people potentially interested=more candidates emerging=more interviews=more success. Easy in theory. Ridiculous in reality. It really comes back to the 2nd point in your reply “Or did they not care how many, as long as the targets were met?” Its the not caring bit which is the problem. As soon as you stop caring you lose a customer, or candidate in this case.

As you outlined in you original post, if the consultant had bothered to take the time to learn from your profile and use your own profile as a guideline when contacting you then it would have hit home a lot more and maybe he would have got a more successful reply.

We live in a world where connecting, sharing, engaging and interacting with others is at its easiest, there are so many mediums to do so yet these are abused regularly through laziness, especially when it comes to potential business.

Personally the most successful approach I found was through taking the time to show you care (whether you did or not). I still do this now, and while it doesn't work 24/7 (show me a sales technique/introduction that does) it still works to build and maintain relationships, which may mean more business in the future. For Example, if your friend John at XXX recruitment sends you a Linkedin message much alike the one you outlined above,even if you aren't interested in opportunities then you will possibly take the route of writing back to let him know. Now if you knew someone with similar skills looking for similar work then you would probably recommend them too. Indirectly the message has worked.

Cheers

Much appreciated from a guy on the inside ) Would it be fair to say that the places you worked within put you guys under pressure to scatter gun everywhere? Or did they not care how many, as long as the targets were met?

Did you find you got more results by spending more time and effort, or did you find no real difference?

Thanks again for stopping by on this one! Great to hear from someone who worked in the game.

I must say you have hit it on the head here. This happens everyday on Linkedin and while recruiters are a prime example you can cast the net wider and catch all kinds of sales disciplines using the same quantity over quality approach.

While I am happy to be out of it now, a large part of my working background was within recruitment. I will hold my hands up early and say I have done this myself, often on lower level positions as you see it more as a numbers game to have success. On the other side, I was always (and still am) a believer of putting the candidate/customer at the forefront of my thinking and personalising all correspondence as much as possible. If that means spending half an hour writing a proposal then so be it. If it brings me in the planned revenue then who cares if it takes a day. Not only that but it gives you a great grounding moving forward in terms of relationship.

I never re-hash old proposals now (generally), I always prepare and write new ones for all clients as it makes you think about them while doing so and what they actually need/want which as a sales professional should be a key interest.

A good post mate and hopefully some will take notice.

Thanks for your comment and stopping by. I wholeheartedly agree with you. We are getting fed up of a lack of personal response now and as I say I'm genuinely worried for companies that stick to this policy for much longer.

I would much rather have an email list of 100 highly responsive people that I have a good relationship with than thousands of people that are “just there” to make up the numbers.

Oh I love the Twitter background – did you take that photo yourself?