(why your DM’s might be quiet, too)
Hey Reader!
I was on a call with a client last week reviewing his LinkedIn DM strategy.
His posts are going viral…literally – getting thousands of impressions!
Connections flooding in.
“I get connections. But after the first message? Crickets.”
So I asked him to show me what he’s been sending.
He pulled up his messages to someone at a top company.
First message:
“I’d love to connect and explore how we could support [Company]. We specialize in [detailed pitch about their services with technical details].”
Second message (four days later): “Thank you for connecting with me. I’d love to learn more about your work and see if there’s a way we could support you and your team. Would you be open to a quick call at your convenience?”
Professional. Polite. Well-written.
A true pitch-slap.👌
And zero response.
I asked him: “How do you think it’s working?”
He said: “Obviously not well. But I don’t know what else to say. I’m being professional. I’m not being pushy.”
Then I asked him a different question.
“Would you say this if you bumped into her at the gym?”
He looked confused.
“What do you mean?”
“If you ran into Sarah at the gym or a coffee shop, would you walk up and say exactly this?”
Long pause.
“No. That would be weird.”
Exactly.
Then he started laughing.
A few days before our call, he ran into someone from a target company at his gym. The exact scenario I was asking about!
Here’s how that conversation went:
Client: “Don’t you work at [company]?”
Guy at gym: “Yeah, you look familiar. What do you do? What are you selling?”
Client: “Well, not selling anything…we’re a service bureau. We actually do a lot of work with [company].”
Guy: “Oh cool, who do you work with?”
Client: [Rattled off some names]
Guy: “Oh cool. Nice to see you.”
That was it.
No pitch deck. No “let’s grab coffee.” No calendar link. No “discuss potential synergies.”
Just a normal, human conversation.
And you know what?
He sees this guy almost every day now at the gym.
They’ve built familiarity.
The relationship is growing naturally.
“I’m playing the long game,” he told me. “Slowly probably start slipping in the work stuff.”
After I pointed out the contrast between his gym approach and his LinkedIn approach, he went silent.
Then he looked up her profile again.
“Oh. I’m looking at her LinkedIn right now and there’s like a whole bunch of other things I could have asked her because she’s got a picture of herself next to the spaceship and all this other stuff…”
There it was.
At the gym: Genuinely curious. Casual. No agenda.
On LinkedIn: Pitching. Positioning. Asking for time.
He didn’t even realize he was doing it.
The Gym Test
Before you send ANY LinkedIn DM, ask yourself:
“Would I say this if I ran into them at the gym (or coffee shop)?”
If the answer is no, rewrite it.
Think about how you network in real life.
You don’t walk up to people at events and immediately hand them a brochure.
You don’t corner someone at a coffee shop and ask if they have 15 minutes to discuss synergies.
You’re curious. You’re human. You read the room.
But on LinkedIn? We forget all of that.
We think we need to be “professional.”
We think we need to “add value” immediately.
We think we need to “move things forward.”
And in doing so, we kill any chance of a real conversation.
Your Challenge This Week
Pick one person you’ve been wanting to reach out to.
Look at their profile like you just ran into them somewhere.
What’s ONE thing you’re genuinely curious about?
Send them a DM about that.
No pitch. No ask. Just genuine human curiosity.
See what happens.
Until next time!
Toodles!
Natasha
P.S. My workshop is filling up FAST!! And I haven’t even done a single promotional post about it. Curious how I’m doing it? Come to the workshop and ASK!!! : )
October 30th at 12:00 ET: What’s working on LinkedIn TODAY!
P.S.2: The 2-year businessversary discount ($500 off the next cohort) ends this Friday!
Are you looking to get your profile optimized with fresh messaging and branding? A custom content system so easy you can’t NOT post? Access to my SDR-trained brain for social selling and DM strategies that don’t feel gross? Plus an awesome community of business owners all getting more visible and winning more sales?
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