How NOT to pitch your website / application
The following is a quick summary of an experience I just had regarding my site PleaseDressMe. If you are going to approach website owners / content owners with your service, DO NOT do anything listed below.
I received a Gchat request from someone I didn’t know. I accepted it just in case it was someone I actually did know.
The individual started off with “Thanks for accepting my chat request.” - That’s fine.
Then the individual states, “I can’t remember where i saw you first but it must have been linked to a cool application. Do you have an application for social networks?” - Really? You couldn’t take 5 seconds to figure out who I am and what my company is about?
A few minutes later the individual writes, “I see that you have a facebook app, have you made one for OpenSocial?” - Actually there is no PleaseDressMe Facebook application… yet
The individual then responds with: “Ok, when you have a facebook app, you should add it to company XYZ” - Well that was clearly a quick, well calculated pitch.
Please, please, please, please don’t follow this model. If you are going to approach someone with a business proposal of sorts take the time to know who they are, what their website is about, and how you can actually help them. The individual who approached me did no preparation, and offered no reason as to why their site would actually benefit me. I had no idea what the site was and why I should invest my time into it.
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October 27th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Hey, so I hear that you are a really important person, and I really want to pitch you my service. Use me, because I am the bomb. I will gchat you, because that’s the most professional way to approach you.
October 27th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
you should also redirect all of your traffic to my personal website. I’ll give you a penny for every 10000 redirects. Thats money in your pocket!
October 27th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
It’s for the very reason you describe above, that sales people and sales in general gets such a bad rap. If people simply put in the additional effort to research, understand and personalize their offerings (as much as possible), everyone in the equation would be better off. In your example, besides wasting your time, the sales rep was wasting their time too.
October 27th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
i totally agree, and interesting point there. The person could have easily made a long lasting impression after just doing some real research, instead he left a bad impression… good lesson learned.
Maybe they will read this and learn for next time