'Tis the season for -- The "Pitch-Slap"

The ugly side of Marketing is back with a roar with the New Year

This is what it feels like when I accept a connection request and am immediately “hit” with a sales pitch. I call this — The Pitch-Slap.

At the first of the year, these kinds of Marketing tactics ramp up - I have ZERO data behind that statement, but anecdotally it sure does “feel” that way.

On social media channels I will get the very well crafted emotional sale based message “we are very interested in learning about your journey” and on occasion I will accept the connection request hoping beyond hope that a real person might actually give one iota of caring about me or my company challenge. Then, without even bothering to look at my company or my service offering I get the “we have a proven model to fill your pipeline - blah, blah, blah”. The best of these use AI to at least get my industry correct while the worst can land off base so far that if I wasn’t so irritated it would be funny. No, I am not in the Oil and Gas business and I do not wholesale farm implements.

For me, it is not about the junk email or junk invite on social media channels. I know how to hit delete and block. It has just become another cost of doing business as a solopreneur. For me, it is the total lack of integrity.

The very first thing you have done is LIE to me. You do not give a crap about me or my business, you just want to sound like you do so you can make a sale.

So tell me the truth.

Hey — I want to connect with you so I can sell you something. Here is what I am selling:

• A program

• B service

• Delivers X result

If I accept your invite or connection from there, we are starting off on solid ground. If I don’t, well, you won’t even notice because you did not send the message anyway, it was automated and I am marked as a dead prospect as I should be.

Here is another tip - if you are bringing me a “proven model”, you better have something to back that up. No, your word is not good enough; show me other clients in my high-trust field that have seen the results you are claiming. You should also be prepared to include crisp OUTCOME based deliverables in your SOW. If I am looking for more clients, THAT is the outcome, Things like how many likes the content you created for me has or a brand guide or a training doc on how to create content can all be part of the deliverable, but without the outcome, they are meaningless.

If your marketing says - we generate 4 to 6 new clients per month with our proven process — I expect to see that in the SOW and you should expect not to get paid if it is not delivered.

The other side of the coin.

So, most of these marketing campaigns I get are focused on “filling the pipeline” with future clients.

My fellow marketers, read the above.

I believe in what I am selling (Executive Coaching and Consulting). It is a high-trust service as my clients and I will be addressing fears and blind-spots and all the things we executives walk around pretending not to have. These are HARD conversations and you need to trust the person you are having them with.

So, if you are coming at me with to “fill my pipeline” using these pitch-slap methods, I am going to save you some time and money right now. Take me off your mailing list.

I value integrity, candor and transparency - it IS my brand and I am not going to sacrifice it to maybe find a hand-full of clients.

Right now, I find clients the hard way. I build and leverage relationships and ask for referrals. I am not alone, many of my fellow consultants do it like this.

I came across a post that boldly stated that “using networking and referral channels were a urban myth and failed 95% of of the time”. Of course, no data was given to back that up. Another sure sign of pitch-slap marketing waiting to happen (there was even a subsequent post about the value of cold message marketing. I openly challenged this person to show me some results and while I did get some snarky replies, I got no example of success.

I would love to be wrong.

I would wake up a happy person tomorrow if there really were an easy button out there to throw money at to find and land clients for high-trust coaching and consulting.

Are you a marketing professional who believes I am wrong? Reach out, show me your data and reference-able clients who have had success with your programs; bring me your SOW with outcome metrics and lets do some business together.

Are you a consultant or coach with high-trust clients who has found a marketing company that actually delivers. I would love to “buy you lunch” (or a virtual coffee) and hear all about it.

Have a great 2025 y’all!!