I enjoy participating in a number of LinkedIn Groups: Pro Marketers, e-MC and Technology Marketing among them. Recently I turned to my peers in a couple of groups to request recommendations on web development companies as I’m looking for a company to build out a client portal for Idiom Strategies. I was not surprised, but rather disappointed in the responses.
I posed the question in two groups: 1) Technology Marketing Community and 2) On Startups (I was hoping to find recommendations on some startup companies.) Here is what I received in response from these community groups:
- A total of 9 comments posted: 8 were NOT recommendations, they were all sales pitches directly from providers and 1 was a “recommendation” but from someone who has a vested interest in the company they recommended.
- 10 inmail messages directly to me: All 10 were sales pitches
- 7 phone calls: They tracked down my business number and, you guessed it, all were sales pitches.
My first reaction is to ignore them all, but I am looking for someone to do this work. I’m quite bummed that not one of my marketing peers looked to help me out with a recommendation, but perhaps my interests would be best served to go find reviews of companies instead of seeking advice from peers who are busy trying to find recommendations for their work.
What’s your opinion on the sales pitches? Is it detremental to the group if sales people are trolling for prospects this way and they all pounce when they see a chance? If I had turned to a web development community group and asked the question there I would expect that the members of that group would come back saying they offer that type of work. But I went to a marketing and a startup business group to ask for recommendations, not sales pitches.
I enjoy participating and listening to the groups I’m a member of, but this type of experience reduces my enthusiasm.
What do you think? Is it a positive marketing or sales approach to troll for leads this way?
