How Not to Sell Your Product (and Yourself)

In my last post, I talked about why social media is making me cynical. One of the main reasons for this is the constant harassment to buy this, that or the other. So many people seem to assume that being aggressive in their sales pitch is the way to go. It isn’t. And generally, a sales pitch isn’t the way to go either – you need a genuine connection with people who your product can actually help.

But enough about what you need to do. This post is actually about the things you shouldn’t do to try to sell your product and along with it, yourself (because people need to trust you to some extent to buy from you).

Keeping Bothering People Once They’ve Said No

There’s nothing wrong with reaching out to someone again a year down the line, maybe even six months down the line if you have a special offer, or you have reason to believe they might now be in a position where you can help them. Assuming you have made a genuine connection with them, then you might indeed be privy to this information.

Where this becomes a problem is when you have been told no, and you still continue to pitch. You are not only wasting your time and theirs, you’re also giving them a reason to never want to buy from you in the future if they do at some point have a need for your product or service.

Sending Unsolicited DMs

Again, I talked about this a lot in my last post, but to reiterate it, it is so annoying when you receive a DM that is a sales pitch from a total stranger. Why would a stranger be happy to part with their hard earned cash this way? They don’t know you.

If you must insist on sending people DMs, at least make an effort to get to know them a bit before you start pitching to them.

Demanding Things Then Acting Like an Ass When You’re Told No

First up, demanding anything is a good way of getting shut down even if the person you’re approaching was actually interesting in your product or service. To then act like a brat when you’re told no is not only rude and unprofessional, but it’s honestly just cringey.

I remember once being approached by someone to run an article promoting their company on my blog. Their budget was too low, and I politely declined. They asked what I would normally charge and I told them. They then replied “No, that’s too much. We will give you $30. Have the post live tomorrow.”

Now I wouldn’t have done it for $30 anyway, it’s not a payment, it’s an insult. But that’s beside the point here. Assuming I would have done it for that price, there was no way in hell I would have done it after such a rude message.

Treat people how you would want to be treated and act with a bit of professionalism.

Not Taking a Hint

You’ve approached someone, they’ve politely declined and you’ve decided to keep bothering them. When they stop responding to your messages at all, you’ve lost them (if you ever had a chance at having them in the first place). Take the hint. Don’t continue to bombard them with follow up messages.

If you don’t hear from them after your first email, one follow up is fine, sometimes people genuinely do miss things. If you keep going after that, you’re just irritating them, and if they do eventually reply, don’t be surprised if it’s too tell you to jog on.

These are some of my biggest per peeves when it comes to online sales. As a rule of thumb, if you wouldn’t behave a certain way in a face to face scenario, then you probably shouldn’t act that way in an online scenario either.

There’s no harm in trying to sell your wares online, the skill is knowing your audience and warming them up a little before you start trying to convert them.

Do these things bug you as well? Do you have any other pet peeves to add to the list? Let me know in the comments 🙂

You can find me here: Twitter Facebook Bloglovin Pinterest and Instagram Please do stop by and say hi!