I’m on LinkedIn every day, how about you? Some days it’s a few minutes and other days I could spend a few hours. For me prospecting is not about how many phone calls I make in a day to people who don’t want to talk to me, prospecting with LinkedIn has turned me into more of a detective than a salesperson.

I have a dual profile, one for the Print4Pay Hotel where I’m listed as the CEO and the other for Stratix Systems, the dealership where I work. Every day I receive requests to connect and most of them are for the Print4Pay Hotel. In the last few months I’ve noticed a drastic increase in the amount of people who want to connect with me.

For awhile I was trying to figure out how they found me; could it be all of my connections (now more than 1,800)? Could it be from the groups I belong to? Could it be from all of the posting I do? Nevertheless, they found me and wanted to connect.

I would say that 90 percent of those that wanted to connect had no clue as to what I do with the Print4Pay Hotel nor did they take the time to research what I do. Much of the connection activity was from Far East toner suppliers looking for me to buy generic toner. Yet, I don’t sell generic toner or any toner! Thus, for those who wanted to connect, I selected the “I don’t know them” tab, and marked them as spam. You get t0o many “I don’t knows” and “spam” and you’re pretty much a goner with LinkedIn.

Think about it, are you prospecting on LinkedIn like this? If so, you’ll soon be booted or wondering why you are not getting any connections. It’s pretty cool that I can also look at LinkedIn from the eyes of someone who owns a company right?

Thus, if you want to connect with me, spend a little time figuring out what I do to make a living with the Print4Pay Hotel. Send me a custom invitation that maybe states that you liked a certain blog post or a press release and would like to know more about what I do. Maybe, even tell me that you’re currently doing business with someone that I do business with. If stated this way I will probably connect with you, and when you send me a follow up e-mail, I will most likely reply.

Take your time, do your research, and make sure your profile is awesome because as you were checking me out, I’m checking you out too.

Good selling!

About the Author

One of the most recognizable salespeople in the office equipment space and a veteran of 40-plus years in the sales game, ART POST is also the creator of P4P Hotel, a rest stop for salespeople to catch up on the highs, lows and developments in office technology. The site also allows industry pros to touch base with peers and have an open dialog about the state of the industry. Post’s blogs number in the thousands, and his writing has appeared in numerous industry publications. He can be reached at arthurkpost@gmail.com.