Latest / Sales Leadership with Fexingo: Quota Carriers, Sales Managers, and Revenue Teams / Why Sales Reps Should Prospect on LinkedIn Not Email
Transcript
- Lucas: Luna, I want to talk about something that's been quietly reshaping B2B sales over the last eighteen months. It's the shift from cold email to LinkedIn prospecting. And I'm not talking about sending a connection request and immediately pitching — I mean using the platform as a primary outreach channel. Luna: I've definitely noticed more reps doing that. But does the data actually back it up? I feel like cold email is still the workhorse. Lucas: It was, until response rates cratered. In 2020, average cold email reply rates were around three to five percent. By 2025, most sales teams I talk to are seeing one to two percent. Meanwhile, LinkedIn InMail response rates are holding steady around eighteen to twenty-two percent for a well-crafted message. Luna: That's a massive gap. But is it apples to apples? I mean, LinkedIn users are already in a professional mindset. Email inboxes are a dumpster fire. Lucas: Fair point. But there's a specific case that convinced me. I was talking to a SaaS company — mid-market, selling project management software to construction firms. They were sending about two thousand cold emails a week, getting maybe twenty replies. Their SDR team was burned out. Luna: Classic volume play. What did they switch to? Lucas: They didn't abandon email entirely, but they shifted seventy percent of their prospecting effort to LinkedIn. The SDRs would spend fifteen minutes researching a prospect, find a mutual connection or a relevant post, and send a personalized InMail. Within three months, their reply rate jumped from two percent to eight percent on LinkedIn — and that doesn't count the connection requests that led to conversations. Luna: Eight percent still sounds low, but if you're going from twenty replies to eighty per two thousand touches, that's four times the conversations. Lucas: Exactly. And the conversion to meeting was dramatically higher. They went from about two percent meeting rate on email to twelve percent on LinkedIn. Why? Because the prospect already saw their profile, saw mutual connections, and had context before the first message. Luna: So the key is personalization? But isn't that hard to scale? I've seen reps spend twenty minutes crafting one InMail. Lucas: That's the trap. You need a framework that's repeatable but not templated. I call it the three-three-three rule. Three sentences max. Three bullet points of value. Three questions to invite a response. Luna: Break that down for me. Give me an example. Lucas: Sure. Sentence one: 'Hi, saw your comment on the construction tech trends post — great point about mobile adoption.' Sentence two: 'We've been helping firms like yours reduce project delays by eighteen percent using a mobile-first platform.' Then three bullet points: 'Integrates with Procore, no training required, pilot in two weeks.' Then three questions: 'What's your biggest challenge with field reporting? Is mobile access a priority? Open to a fifteen-minute chat?' Luna: I like the structure, but three questions might be too many. One good question might be better. Lucas: You're right — I've seen that too. Some reps use just one question. The point is to give the prospect an easy way to engage. And notice: no link, no attachment, no calendar link. That comes after they respond. Luna: That's critical. Nothing kills an InMail faster than a Calendly link on the first message. It screams 'I don't care about you, I want your time.' Lucas: Exactly. Now, the other thing that makes LinkedIn work is social proof. When you send a connection request with a note that mentions a mutual connection — 'John Smith suggested we connect' — the acceptance rate is over fifty percent. Without a note, it's like thirty percent. Luna: But not everyone has a warm intro. What if you have no mutual connections? Lucas: Then you engage with their content first. Like a post, leave a thoughtful comment, then wait a day or two. Then send a connection request referencing that interaction. 'Enjoyed your take on lean construction — would love to connect.' That's still warmer than a cold email. Luna: I've seen reps get their accounts restricted for too many connection requests. LinkedIn's limit is about a hundred per week, I think. So there's a scale issue. Lucas: True, but that's actually a feature, not a bug. It forces reps to be selective. And if you're sending a hundred high-quality InMails per week instead of two thousand blast emails, your quality goes up. Most reps waste eighty percent of their email volume on prospects who were never going to respond. Luna: So you're saying the shift is about quality over quantity, and LinkedIn naturally enforces that? Lucas: Exactly. Plus, LinkedIn gives you data you don't get from email. You can see if they viewed your profile, if they have a history with your company, if they're active in relevant groups. That intelligence helps you tailor the message. Luna: But what about the sales manager who looks at activity metrics? They see their rep sent a hundred InMails and their cold email counterpart sent two thousand emails. The email person looks busier. Lucas: That's a management conversation. The metric should be meetings booked, not messages sent. If you're a sales leader and you're rewarding activity over outcome, you're going to get more activity, not more revenue. I'd rather have a rep who sends fifty great InMails and books ten meetings than one who sends five thousand emails and books five. Luna: So the real unlock is changing the culture around prospecting. And this ties into something we hear from listeners all the time — they want practical tools that actually move the needle. If these conversations have helped you sharpen your own approach, I'll just say that listener support is what keeps this show independent and ad-free. Lucas: Yeah, it's a small way to give back if you've gotten value. There's a page at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo where you can chip in. No pressure, but it helps us keep doing deep dives like this. Luna: Alright, back to LinkedIn. One thing I hear from reps is that they feel spammy on LinkedIn. How do you avoid that? Lucas: The golden rule: don't pitch in the first message. Your goal is to start a conversation, not close a deal. Ask a thoughtful question about something they've posted or their industry. If they respond, then you can start the discovery process. Luna: Give me an example of a non-spammy opener. Lucas: 'Hi Sarah, I saw your post about modular construction timelines — really interesting data. We've been tracking similar trends with our clients in the multifamily space. Are you seeing delays specifically in permitting or material sourcing?' That's it. No product mention. Just genuine curiosity. Luna: And if they don't respond? Lucas: Follow up once after five days. Keep it short: 'Hey, just circling back in case this got buried. Happy to share a one-pager on those trends if helpful.' If they still don't bite, move on. Don't be that person who sends five follow-ups. Luna: I think the other risk is that LinkedIn is a public platform. If you mess up, it's visible. I've seen reps get called out in comments for being pushy. Lucas: That's the cost of doing business on a social platform. But it also means you have to be authentic. If you're genuine and helpful, it works. One construction SaaS rep I know built a whole pipeline just by commenting on industry posts — no InMails at all. He'd share insights, and people would DM him. Luna: That's the inbound approach within LinkedIn. So there are multiple layers. But let's talk about metrics. If a sales manager wants to track LinkedIn prospecting, what KPIs matter? Lucas: Connection acceptance rate — target above forty percent. Reply rate to first message — target above fifteen percent. Then meeting conversion from reply — target above thirty percent. And ultimately, pipeline generated. I've seen teams that track these see a ten to fifteen percent lift in overall conversion compared to email-only teams. Luna: That's compelling. But what about the cost? LinkedIn Sales Navigator isn't cheap. Lucas: It's about eighty dollars a month per seat. If it replaces a five hundred dollar a month email tool and yields higher response rates, it's a net positive. Plus, the search filters save time. You can find decision-makers by job title, company size, years in role — that's hours saved per week. Luna: Alright, so what's the one takeaway you want a sales rep to have from this episode? Lucas: Stop treating LinkedIn as a backup to email. Make it your primary prospecting channel for at least thirty days. Use the three-three-three framework, personalize every message, and track your reply rate. I bet you'll never go back to cold email as your main tool.