I recently had someone with a mutual contact reach out to me to ask to connect. There was a personalized message with some specific comments on a past blog post, so I accepted. 

After a few quick DMs, I could tell this person was trying to sell me services, and I told them that in the interest of time, that while I appreciate some of the reflections, if there was a sales pitch coming, then I’ll save us both time and politely decline now.

I never heard a response, but the next day I got a connection request from the same person.

To be clear, this person unconnected after seeing I wasn’t a lead, then I came up in a search again, and then they tried to reconnect using the exact same templated message as before. 

Look, I get that sales people are looking to do business here, and that’s fine. It’s the blatant lack of caring that’s the problem.

Business is relational, not transactional. You want me to buy? Build trust first. 

And that second connection request? Thankfully, by just leaving that request unfulfilled, I now can remember who not to do business with in the future.