Transcription
Could you ask permission before sending me a novel, please? Another one. Wow, super original. You know how to use chat GPT, but I'm not an AI again. I don't even know what that is. Do your research.
Booking meetings in 2025. So many reps get it wrong. They copy paste a cold email with a long salesy pitch and hope someone replies. But you see, LinkedIn isn't for that. It's way closer to WhatsApp or a text message. People scroll fast. They reply even faster. So if your DM looks like a novel, no one's reading it. You need to sound like a human, not a template.
This video, I'll show you exactly how to do that step by step. Again, no fluff, just stuff that fills your calendar with meetings. But before that, let's make sure you're not wasting time on the wrong platform. So, should you do LinkedIn outreach?
Let's talk about why it actually makes sense to use LinkedIn for your outreach. In my opinion, there are four good reasons that make LinkedIn mandatory.
You don't have their email or phone number. You've got the lead, but no contact info. LinkedIn is your safety net. It's sometimes the only way to reach them without losing the lead.
Your message will get delivered. LinkedIn has a 100% deliverability rate. No spam folder, no bounce. They'll see it pop up on their phone every time.
Your decision makers are there. If you're trying to reach VPs, directors, sea levels, this is where they live. Leaders build their brand here and they check their DMs.
You can warm them up for your next touch. Even if they don't reply right away, your name sticks. So, when you hit them later via email or phone, you're no longer a stranger.
But here's the catch. LinkedIn limits how many people you can reach. If you're using a free account, you get about 20 invites per day with four to five messages in connection requests a week. With a paid account, however, you can get up to 30 or even more depending on the plan and unlimited messages in the connection request. So, yeah, you don't want to waste these touches and keep them for your tier one accounts.
Is it dangerous to run LinkedIn outreach automation? In theory, yes. According to LinkedIn's terms of service, using bots or automation to script data or send messages is not allowed. But here's the real story. Most LinkedIn tools are tolerated as long as they don't mess up the user experience. If your tool acts like a human, blends in, and keeps things smooth, LinkedIn usually looks the other way.
So, how do they catch people breaking the rules? Well, it's not magic. It's just a few red flags. You're active at 3:00 a.m. when you live in Paris. You send 50 messages in 2 minutes, or you open 20 tabs a second like you're a hacker in a movie. That's what gets accounts flagged.
So, if you want to stay safe, here are a few simple best practices to follow. Limit your volume. I insist. If you're using Lemness to automate your LinkedIn outreach campaigns, your default limit is 20 invites a day for a reason. If you're on a premium LinkedIn account, you can go up to 30. Don't push more than that. It's not worth it.
Pick a smart automation tool. The good ones mimic human behavior. They delete cookies, use rotating IP addresses, and match your location. If you're based in Berlin and your LinkedIn suddenly logs in from Brazil, yeah, LinkedIn will notice. So, bottom line, don't look like a robot because you ain't one.
How to get leads using LinkedIn. There are two ways to get leads on LinkedIn. Let's break them down.
Inbound leads. These are the people who come to you. They liked or commented your post. They asked for your lead magnets and they viewed your profile. These leads are hot, hot, man. They already know you exist. They showed interest. But here's the tricky part with inbound sales. You don't control who they are. They might just not fit your ideal customer profile. At least you can influence who shows up. How? By sharing posts that speak directly to the problems your ideal customers face. If you focus on lead magnets that offer clear solutions to those problems, you'll naturally attract people who actually need what you sell. Isn't that what you want? So, the more relevant your content, the more qualified your inbound leads.
But most sales happen through outbound. You see, with outbound, you pick who you reach out to. On LinkedIn, you can use filters to find the right people before pushing the list to your sales engagement platform. And if you have sales navigator, you get way more precise filters by job title, company size, industry, location, you name it. You can go one step further by adding intent filters such as people who visited your profile or companies that use a specific technology. By the way, if you have LM list, you can use the Lemist B2B database. It saves you an extra sub you don't really need.
Now, one underrated trick, use your network. If someone is a firstderee connection, message them directly. If they're a second degree connection and you know someone in common, ask them for an intro. That's pure gold, baby. So, if inbound is about timing, outbound is about control. You don't wait. You go get the right people.
How to book meetings on LinkedIn. All right, this is the part you're here for, isn't it? How do you go from a cold connection to a booked meeting on LinkedIn? Well, first, here's what not to do. Don't have a generic average profile. Your LinkedIn is your landing page. Before someone accepts your invite, they check who you are. If your profile says sales at least, that's game over. Why? Because no one wants to be sold to. Instead, focus on outcome. Add something like, "I help sales team hit their targets or follow for real B2B marketing insights from the tech trenches or I help companies, entrepreneurs, and agencies drive traffic and revenue through strategic content creation. That's what I do." In part, you'll know what you'll get if you accept these people to join your network. Now they know exactly what you can do for them and you differentiate yourself from 99% of other sales profiles out there. We could go in deep on content strategy to build trust, but that's for another video. It's apply. We see you.
Also, skip the emails. I don't want to see them. They scream sales pitch and usually get ignored for a good reason. The only time to use them if you're doing ABM and want to drop an extra touch point like a bit of content or an ad.
Now, let's talk about messaging. LinkedIn works in two steps. Get in the network. When they accept, they're giving you permission to talk. Then start the conversation. Not the pitch, the conversation. And here's the golden rule. If you pitch in the connection request, you're dead. Seriously, nothing screams delete louder than a threeline cold pitch before someone even knows you. So, what should you do instead? We'll actually get to that next.
How to get your LinkedIn connection request accepted. There's a bit of a debate here. Should you add the message to your connection request or not? If you already share three to five mutual connections, skip the message. The social proof is usually strong enough. But if you don't have mutuals, only write a message if you have something relevant to say. And by relevant, I mean something that couldn't be sent to a thousand other people. I know, crazy, right? So, here are four message types that actually work.
The genuine compliment. 75% acceptance rate. Hey, Tal, I found myself binging your content. Love your post on email deliverability and thoughts. The next natural step was to send you a connection request. Best Santa.
Sealing audience attention. 40% acceptance rate but deeply results orientated. I noticed you liked person's post about getting more website visitors. I think you'd be interested in an ebook I wrote about increasing traffic this year. Can I share it with you and get your two cents?
Simple networking. It's a bit of a trick, but a rep at lemnist did it on his profile and viewers got a solid 60% acceptance rate. Hi, first name. Just a simple networking invite. LinkedIn has recommended your profile to me three times now. Curious to learn more about what you're up to.
The referral angle. Anything below 50% of people accepting this invite would look odd. I first name. Notice we're both connected to referral. I'm looking to connect with experienced job titles and your profile stood out. would be great to connect.
Now, if personalizing each one takes too long, use tools with Lemnist's AI variables and a model like perplexity, you've heard of it, you can build hyper relevant intros like so company just launched AI feature. I bet competitor is sweating. Are you the one leading the GTM at company? To do it, add an AI step in your sequence before your connection request. That's where you drop your prompt to define what you're looking for. I like to use AI to find things like if they're VC backed, their most recent feature launch, who the main competitors are, and whether they're SOC2 compliant. Depending on your niche, you can dig into the details and find something that grabs attention fast. If you still want to go manual for this step, no worries. It's just a toggle to swap.
Last tip, if you want to boost your acceptance rates by 18%. Do this one day before you send the request. Like and comment one of their posts. It takes 30 seconds tops. But now they've seen your name and you don't feel like a stranger.
How to write the perfect message. If your prospect accepted your connection request, great. Now don't blow it. This isn't the time to pitch. This is the time to talk, to build trust, to understand their world. You're forming a connection. So your job now is simple. Lead with value. Ask questions and do not sell. The goal, figure out what problems they're facing. Do your little diagnosis. and only then if it makes sense. Suggest something that could actually help.
One great approach is Socratic questioning. Now, what is that? It means asking open-ended questions that spark thought. You're not digging for a yes or no. You're starting a conversation. Here are some ways to do it. Make an observation. Notice you recently hired three SDRs. Looks like you're launching in a new market. Saw your post about shifting GTM Focus. Big move. Then follow up with curiosity. Quick question. Have you ever tried doing whatever to support that? Have you ever thought about alternative approach? Do you think pain point might come back later in the process? The key here is to spark curiosity or tap into something they care deeply about.
Example, just got a cold call from one of your reps. I hadn't heard of your company before. Have you ever looked into warm outreach? Might be something worth exploring.
If they don't reply, you follow up. And here's where you get creative. Take a page from Willken. Shout out to him. Follow up with context in a new format. Drop a quick voice note or record a short video. You can usually do this inside lemist. Add a voice note to your sequence and hit send. Less than 1% of reps do this. If you do, you will stand out.
Here's a voice note structure that works. Hey, so just a bit more context on why I reached out. I saw you've been doing cold calling and it looks like a lot of your reps are calling people without any intent signals. Now imagine turning that around and boosting your answer to meeting rate by 36%. That's what warm calling is all about. Instead of calling at random, you start with an email or LinkedIn touch point. Then when someone opens, clicks, or accepts, that's your moment to call. With a tool like Lemlist, you can set advanced triggers in your campaigns to do exactly that. We've been working with teams like Gorgeas, and I thought it might be worth a quick chat. Let me know. Happy to keep it casual.
Another one. Hey, just a bit more context on why I reached out. I noticed you've been doing whatever and it looks like challenge. Imagine being able to specify the desired result. I've been working with similar company and I thought it might be worth chatting. Let me know. Happy to keep it casual.
Another angle that works well. Leverage social proof. Use your customers messages like this. Hey, first name. So you're connected with client name. We helped them go from pain to result and now they're using keymetric. Would love to share the exact strategy we used to get there. Want me to send it over? Keep it short. Keep it real. Keep it helpful.
But what if they don't reply? So you send a great message and nothing happens. Should you stop there, do nothing? Of course not. That's your cue to shine. On other channels, maybe LinkedIn isn't their thing. Cool. Send them an email. Want to get even smarter? Use advanced conditions to guide your next move. Example, they opened your LinkedIn DM but didn't reply. Perfect moment to give them a call. You sent a custom video and they didn't watch it. Send an email summarizing what's in the video. Add a quick hook to spark curiosity and get them to click. Multi- channelannel isn't a fancy tactic. It's your best shot at getting a reply and avoiding the ignore pile. And let's be honest, if you spent time building a list of the right people, people you know have the exact problem you solve, then don't give up after one try. Follow up. Try another channel. Try another angle. Give yourself a second chance. Until they say, "Not interested." You're still in the game. Don't give up.
All right, let's wrap this up. LinkedIn in 2025 isn't about pitching. It's about earning attention, starting real conversations, and playing the long game. Remember, use LinkedIn when you can't reach leads elsewhere or when your spotted leads are highly qualified for what you do. Don't sound like a salesperson. Sound like someone worth talking to. Keep the messages short, relevant, and personal. Ask smart questions. Listen, then suggest only if it makes sense. Follow up across channels until they tell you to stop or accept. This isn't magic. It's just good outreach done right. If you want to book more meetings, treat LinkedIn like a real conversation. And if you're not sure if you should add cold calls in your campaigns or how to do it, check out this video right here.