I received a question from Jason who asks;

Hi Paul,

I have a few dozen people in my LinkedIn network who never respond.

I don’t know if I should continue reaching out to them or if I should drop them like a bad habit?

Please help!

The first thing you should do is take a good look at your messaging.

Are you continually hitting them with a sales pitch or are you being helpful.

And you’re allowed to do both, just make sure that 80% of your messaging is value driven.

Oh, and don’t kid yourself into thinking that opting them in for your newsletter is being helpful.

Important Note: You can have the most valuable, helpful message, but if you are sending it too often, you’re going to condition people NOT to read it.

Also, try asking a question.

Questions get responses.

Think I’m kidding? Try ending your emails with a question and watch what happens to your response rates.

Next, take a look at where you’re delivering your messages.

Are you assuming its OK to send them an actual email instead of a LinkedIn inmail?

I can tell you that most people (myself included) don’t appreciate it when someone confuses an invite acceptance as an email opt in.

Have you tried a handwritten note or a card?

Have you tried something creative?

Have you tried calling?

That last one was actually a trick question.

Calling is a good thing but it might creep someone out in your social network if they really don’t know you yet.

Last, but not least, you need to step back and reevaluate the “relationship”.

You might want to ask yourself if this is a “connection” you want to keep.

Step back first and give them the benefit of the doubt.

Maybe they’re really busy or going through some personal challenges?

After you’ve waited a reasonable amount of time, you should think about keeping them or ditching them.

There are many people who feel “What do you have to lose by keeping them?”.

I respect their opinion but I don’t believe in keeping things that aren’t real.

You know, like continually keeping that account on your pending accounts list each week, that in all reality has a 1% chance of closing.

I want to know that the people I’m networking with are real and not just some static name on my screen.

Otherwise I’m kidding myself.

Now if I have continually tried to communicate and someone refuses to respond, after we’ve agreed to CONNECT on a SOCIAL network, I’m going to remove them from my network.

And not as some childish “I’ll show you” type of move.

This way I can focus the limited amount of time I have where I can get the greatest return and;

So I don’t run the risk of exposing the good people in my network to an asshat!

Want to Reduce The Probability Of Having “Non Responders” In Your Network?

Come join us on February 23rd, at 11:30 am EST for our How To Generate MORE Leads Via LinkedIn webinar.

I’m going to show you:

• What to say and do, from the moment, you connect with someone. And I’m going to give you the exact templates that I’ve been using!
• How to position yourself as an expert and THE Absolute BEST choice.
• How to provide value WITHOUT conditioning a bunch of freeloaders who love to “friendzone” you! Another lesson that I learned the hard way!
• How to create a referral machine . . .Even with people who’ve never bought from you!
• How to IMMEDIATELY increase your phone appointments each week. Note: My coaching clients average 10 more appointments each week. Your mileage may vary.
• How to use LinkedIn groups, LinkedIn Publisher etc to create MORE opportunities.
• How to send inmails without paying for a premium membership.
• How to dramatically increase your response rates via LinkedIn.
• How to approach someone without coming across as salesy. How do you feel when this happens to you on LinkedIn?
• How to do this all on a tight schedule (I mean, I’m sure you don’t have all day to play around on LinkedIn, right?

Click HERE to learn more and to reserve your spot in the webinar!