5 Spammy Sales Tactics to Banish from Your LinkedIn Strategy Immediately

LinkedIn has fast become the go-to platform for B2B sales prospecting, and it‘s not hard to see why. With over 830 million members, including 63 million decision makers, LinkedIn provides unparalleled access to potential buyers in virtually every industry.

Consider these compelling statistics:

• 89% of top-performing salespeople say LinkedIn is an important part of their sales strategy
• Salespeople who focus on social selling are 51% more likely to exceed their quota
• 50% of B2B buyers use LinkedIn when making purchasing decisions

In other words, if you‘re in B2B sales and not leveraging LinkedIn, you‘re likely leaving money on the table.

However, as more salespeople flock to the platform, many are unfortunately bringing their worst habits with them. The rise of spammy, self-promotional tactics is not only irritating prospects and hurting individual sales efforts—it‘s threatening to undermine LinkedIn as a viable selling tool altogether.

As sales expert Jill Rowley puts it, "If we continue to pollute the LinkedIn pool with garbage, we ruin the water for everyone."

So what exactly constitutes LinkedIn "pollution," and what should you be doing instead to build genuine relationships with buyers? Here are the top five spammy tactics to banish from your LinkedIn strategy immediately, complete with data on why they don‘t work and actionable tips for what to do instead.

Tactic #1 to Trash: Impersonal Connection Requests

Far and away the most pervasive LinkedIn sin is the generic, templated connection request. You know the ones:

"I‘d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn."

"Let‘s connect!"

"Hi [Name], I came across your profile and thought we should connect. Looking forward to keeping in touch!"

If you‘re like most people, these vague, clearly copy-pasted messages go straight to the trash bin. After all, if the sender couldn‘t be bothered to personalize their invitation, why should you bother accepting it?

Believe it or not, many salespeople still take this ill-advised "spray and pray" approach, blasting requests to anyone and everyone in hopes that a few will stick. But the unfortunate reality is this tactic has the opposite effect of spurring connections.

In fact, a LendingTree analysis found that only 28% of people accept generic LinkedIn invitations from people they don‘t know. In contrast, connection requests accompanied by a custom message were accepted 56% of the time—literally doubling the hit rate.

Bottom line: If your connection request doesn‘t demonstrate you‘ve taken at least a few seconds to understand the recipient‘s world, don‘t expect them to invest time in you either. Implement these tips to boost your chances of making a quality connection:

• Thoroughly read the person‘s profile and look for commonalities in background, interests, shared connections, etc.
• Mention something they‘ve posted that resonated with you and why
• Highlight ways you might be helpful to them (industry expertise, content suggestions, etc.)
• Keep it brief but friendly and conversational in tone

For example:

"Hi Sarah, I saw your post on the challenges of onboarding SDRs and it really hit home. I lead sales training at ACME Corp and would love to swap ideas. My team had great success with a new role playing technique that I think your SDRs would find valuable. Let me know if you‘d like to connect and discuss further!"

Tactic #2 to Trash: Immediately Pitching Prospects

Congrats, your thoughtful connection request worked and your prospect accepted your invite! Time to go in for the kill with your pitch, right?

Not so fast. Another cardinal LinkedIn sin is immediately bombarding new connections with a lengthy, overly salesy InMail talking up your company, product, and why they should buy from you. Bonus "ick" points if you try to pressure them into a demo or call.

I call this the "Gross Married Guy Hitting on Someone at a Bar" approach (trademark pending). Just like that smarmy pickup artist, you‘ve barely said hello before trying to get the person to come home with you. It‘s awkward, it‘s presumptuous, and it‘s a huge turn-off.

Need proof? A 2022 Backlinko analysis found that the average InMail response rate is a paltry 10-25%—and that‘s for somewhat targeted messages. The hit rate for generic, instant sales pitches is surely even lower.

Here‘s the thing: You wouldn‘t (I hope) propose marriage on a first date, so don‘t try to close a deal in your first LinkedIn interaction. Treat it like any other relationship and focus on building rapport and establishing trust before asking for the sale.

Some suggestions:

• Provide value with no strings attached (relevant content, advice, introductions to your network, etc.)
• Ask questions to understand their challenges and objectives
• Engage authentically on their posts and in groups they belong to
• Share insights and anecdotes from your experience that could help them

Only once you‘ve nurtured the relationship should you even think about mentioning your product or service, and even then, it should be framed in terms of how it relates to their specific needs vs. a generic pitch.

Tactic #3 to Trash: Hijacking Group Discussions

LinkedIn Groups can be an incredible opportunity to demonstrate thought leadership, forge new connections, and stay plugged into your industry. Many salespeople have found success by consistently showing up and generously sharing their expertise.

However, some reps see groups as just another avenue to promote themselves, and therein lies the problem. You‘ve likely encountered that one person who constantly interjects in discussions with some variation of the following:

"Great question, Tom. My company ACME actually just published a whitepaper on this very topic. Check it out here: [link to landing page]."

"Hey everyone, I wanted to share my company‘s new ebook ‘The Ultimate B2B Sales Playbook.‘ Let me know if you‘d like a copy!"

This type of blatant self-promotion is unfortunately rampant on LinkedIn and it‘s one of the fastest ways to get yourself flagged as a spammer. Group members are quick to sniff out reps who join solely to peddle their wares vs. adding real value to the discussion.

How much do people despise promotional group content? A LinkedIn survey found that it was the #1 reason users left groups, cited by 47% of respondents.

The lesson? Treat groups like industry cocktail parties, not your personal billboard. Focus on asking smart questions, sharing relevant experiences and resources, and proactively helping other members. Be a giver, not a taker.

Some engagement Do‘s:

• Share a useful article or tool (not your own content)
• Offer advice based on a challenge you‘ve overcome
• Ask members‘ opinions on an industry trend or pain point
• Give specific, constructive feedback on others‘ ideas
• Make introductions between members who could benefit each other

And the Don‘ts:

• Constantly redirecting the conversation to your company/product
• Reposting the same self-promotional message across multiple discussions
• Sending unsolicited pitches to other group members
• Asking for likes, shares, or upvotes on your own content
• Selling under the guise of "starting a discussion"

Tactic #4 to Trash: Fake Accounts for Competitive Espionage

It‘s only natural to want to keep tabs on your competition. But some ethically-challenged reps have given into temptation and begun creating fake LinkedIn profiles to infiltrate competitors‘ networks and poach clients.

Here‘s how the scheme typically works:

1. Rep creates a phony profile posing as someone in the competitor‘s target audience (e.g. a Chief Marketing Officer if selling marketing software)
2. Rep connects with competitor‘s salespeople to access their full list of connections, including customers
3. Rep reaches out to these connections to siphon them away, either by openly selling or by pretending to seek advice and then pitching

Sneaky, right? This is basically the B2B espionage version of catfishing. Not only is it a huge violation of prospects‘ trust, it‘s completely antithetical to the authentic, human-centric approach that should be at the core of social selling.

Fortunately, LinkedIn is becoming wise to these tricks and has been cracking down on fake profiles. The platform deploys AI and human intervention to detect and remove phony accounts. However, some still inevitably slip through the cracks.

If you‘re a sales leader, the onus is on you to set clear expectations that these "black ops" tactics are 100% off-limits for your team. Make it a fireable offense—not just because it jeopardizes your company‘s standing on LinkedIn, but because it‘s fundamentally the wrong way to build relationships and close deals.

Your salespeople should be investing their limited time in showcasing your unique value proposition and earning prospects‘ business on the merits, not resorting to deception.

Some ways to outmaneuver competitors the right way:

• Leverage social proof like glowing customer reviews and case studies
• Highlight your differentiators in an educational (vs. combative) way
• Share ideas for solving prospects‘ challenges, even if they don‘t directly involve your product
• Engage prospects in a dialogue about their goals first, then connect the dots to your solution

In short, use LinkedIn to build your credibility as a trusted advisor in your niche. Prospects will naturally gravitate to providers who have taken the time to deeply understand them, not those using underhanded gimmicks.

Tactic #5 to Trash: Untargeted, "Spray and Pray" Outreach

Rounding out our list of LinkedIn no-no‘s is the much-maligned "spray and pray" approach to prospecting. We‘ve all been on the receiving end of a message like this:

"Hi [Prospect], I help companies in [Your Industry] improve [Generic Pain Point]. I‘d love to connect and share how we‘ve helped leaders like you achieve [Vague Benefit]. When would be a good time to hop on a quick 15-minute call?"

Messages like these are the calling card of a salesperson who is playing the numbers game rather than doing their due diligence. They figure that if they blast enough people, a few are bound to respond out of sheer luck.

Here‘s the issue with this scattershot approach: It‘s highly inefficient and generates mostly unqualified leads that are unlikely to convert. You could be wasting hours chasing dead ends vs. starting meaningful conversations with well-matched prospects.

Not only that, you run the risk of tarnishing your professional brand by pestering people with irrelevant, poorly targeted messages. Even if they don‘t respond, you can bet they‘re rolling their eyes at yet another "spray and pray" InMail clogging up their inbox.

The antidote is simple, even if it requires more work on the front end: Narrow your outreach to those who most closely fit your ideal customer profile. Use LinkedIn‘s powerful search filters to identify prospects based on criteria like job title, company size, industry, location, and even the skills or keywords mentioned in their profile.

Then, do your homework on each contact to tailor your outreach. An easy way to do this is to check their recent LinkedIn activity for timely conversation starters. For example:

"Hi Tom, I noticed you shared an article on the challenges of improving first call resolution rates in contact centers. I spent 10 years managing call centers before making the jump to consulting. Sounds like your team is dealing with many of the same issues I used to face. I‘d love to hear more about your approach and swap ideas from my experience. Would you be open to finding a time to chat?"

A thoughtful, relevant message like this is far more likely to get a positive response than a generic pitch. The key is to make your outreach about them, not you.

Consider these stats:

• Personalized InMails have an 11% higher open rate and 16% higher reply rate than generic messages
• ICPs (ideal customer profiles) that receive highly targeted content are 75% more likely to become marketed qualified leads

The Way Forward

LinkedIn is an incredibly powerful tool for connecting with your target buyers—but like any tool, you need to wield it properly to be effective. Resorting to spammy tactics like the above will ultimately backfire in the form of ignored messages, rejected connection requests, and a general lack of trust in salespeople on the platform.

The common thread in all of these bad behaviors is a lack of empathy and an over-emphasis on "me" rather than "them." To be a true social selling pro, you need to shift your focus away from pitching and toward building genuine relationships founded on a deep understanding of your buyer‘s needs.

Remember: Nobody likes to feel like they‘re being sold to. They want to feel like you "get" them and have unique insights to help them achieve their goals. If you prioritize adding value and cultivating trust, the conversations that lead to sales will follow naturally.

So don‘t be that smarmy guy at the networking event who‘s always looking over people‘s shoulders for a "better" prospect to talk to. Be the one who listens intently, asks insightful questions, and offers help without expecting anything in return.

Ultimately, this is the key to unlocking LinkedIn‘s full potential. By approaching each interaction from a place of service instead of self-interest, you‘ll organically build a robust network of people who actually want to hear from you. No spam required.