I think part of it is that only a bad sales pitch really comes off as a sales pitch to begin with. A good one feels like a helpful recommendation. Networking is

I think part of it is that only a bad sales pitch really comes off as a sales pitch to begin with. A good one feels like a helpful recommendation. Networking is similar--good networking feels like making friends, not something transactional. So when people think of sales or networking and get the creeps, it's because they're mainly remembering all the bad examples.