17 Best LinkedIn Sales Message Templates To Boost Reply Rates

We all know that LinkedIn is the Mecca, the el dorado, and the gold mine to find prospects which is why you have to make your outreach message with care. People on LinkedIn are often on it to network and find jobs, not to be sold to like they’re at a trade show. So, if you send generic templated messages to a large number of people, or try to sell in the first conversation, you will be ignored.

So the question remains: How to send messages on LinkedIn for sales? 

We put together a list of LinkedIn messages that you can use to send connection requests, LinkedIn messages, and those precious InMails. 

Before we get to the templates, let’s look at some details you need to know about LinkedIn messaging. Strategy is everything, and you need to get yours’ right.

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How To Send LinkedIn Cold Messages?

Sales reps can message prospects on Linkedin in a couple of ways. But, because LinkedIn has prioritized the privacy of its users, getting a direct line to them is not easy. You can reach people who are not your connections on LinkedIn by sending them an ‘invite to connect’ request along with a personalized note or sending an InMail. We’ll go over the other options for reaching your prospects one by one for you. But before you go about shooting InMail messages at scale, we’d advise you to optimize your LinkedIn profile.

Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile To Stand Out

A whopping 49% of buyers research salespeople on LinkedIn. LinkedIn profile is like your brand. The better it looks, the easier it gets for prospects to respond to you. LinkedIn reports that 50% of buyers don’t engage with sales professionals that have incomplete LinkedIn profiles. So, before you do anything, complete your profile to boost response rates.

A complete profile includes the following:

• An eye-catching headline. This bit will show up underneath your profile picture. It shows the prospect what you do in one succinct line.
• A profile picture. Add a clear photograph of yourself in a formal setting cropped at the waist. You should also update the cover photo to include your company name and its value prop or your services to highlight your skillset to recruiters (in case you’re looking for a job).
• Your professional experience. Include your current role, previously held roles, what you have achieved in those roles, your education, and any certifications you’d like to showcase to the world.
• A personal summary. According to LinkedIn, this is where you can differentiate from other salespeople. Mention how you help buyers find best-fit solutions, and how they can reach out to you.

Here’s LinkedIn’s suggested structure to write your ’30-second pitch’:

• Passion Introduction – A sentence about what motivates you professionally and what that means for customers.
• Background – One or two sentences summing up your career to date.
• Company – One or two paragraphs about what solutions you offer, and how they’ve solved industry or customer problems in the past.
• Call to Action – How to get in touch with you.

We suggest keeping this short to about 100 – 150 words simply because prospects won’t be motivated enough to read paragraphs of information without an incentive. So if you’re showcasing yourself, keep it short. Stick to the most important highlights of your sales career.

All of these bits of information showcase your profile as credible and human. Since most sales outreach is often done via faceless messaging like cold emails, or cold calls, humanizing your messages sets you apart.

Pro Tip: Resist the urge to add superlatives into your writing mindlessly. Avoid words like “first-class, most innovative, turbocharged, best, and smartest,” says Dina Calakovic, co-founder of Authority Marketing, in one of her LinkedIn posts on building a profile on the platform.

Types of LinkedIn Sales Messages

LinkedIn Connection Requests – ‘Add a Note’

Character limit: 300, including characters, numbers, and spaces.

‘Add a note’ is an option to personalize your message when sending an ‘invite to connect’ with a prospect. Most connection request messages won’t be personalized and will go out in the format that Linkedin has already created a template for – “Hi Jane, I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.” Because it is an overused template, and people are fatigued by the same message, you will be rejected. Besides, once a prospect accepts your connection request, these notes automatically go to your inbox as conversation starters with your prospect. So, a warm, personalized message will do wonders to open the doorway for effective communication.

LinkedIn InMails

Character limit for the message: 1900

Character limit for the subject line: 200

LinkedIn InMails are direct messages you can send to people who are not on your connection list. This feature is not available to everyone. You can subscribe to LinkedIn’s premium plan to avail 5 LinkedIn InMail credits. To get up to 50 InMail credits, purchase the LinkedIn Sales Navigator Core plan. What you have to remember is–your credits in the LinkedIn Sales Navigator Core plan will get replenished when a prospect replies.

Here’s a pro tip: Prepare a targeted list of prospects before casting a wide net. Additionally, you can also use Smart Links to send personalized presentations and website links to your prospects if you’re looking to play around a bit.

LinkedIn Messages

LinkedIn Messages are direct messages you can send to your connections. While there’s no limit on the character count or how many LinkedIn messages you can send, limiting your actions on LinkedIn to 250 a day is advisable. And that includes every kind of outreach you do. Why? The omnipresent eye of LinkedIn watches over everything, and it would categorize you as a spammer if you consistently surpass these limits. So, do your due diligence, get connected to your prospects, and then you can start hashing out your outreach strategy. 

Here are some situation-based LinkedIn message templates you can use to open sales conversations on the prospectors’ gold mine.

17 LinkedIn Sales Message Templates for Different Scenarios:

Let’s go over all the different scenarios you, dear sales maverick, may need to send LinkedIn messages for.

1. LinkedIn Connection Request Message Templates

Scenario #1 Befriending Your Prospects

Hi, (Name). I read your post on (pain point) that you had put up. Loved how you brought it all together to highlight (a specific aspect of the pain point). I cannot agree more on what you’ve mentioned. Would love to connect and fire up a discussion!

Scenario #2 Networking After a Demo/Event (Offline)

Hi, (Name). It was an absolute pleasure meeting you at the (event) yesterday. I’m only sorry our conversation got cut short. Would love to connect with you and stay in touch!

Scenario #3 Networking After a Demo/Event (Online)

Hi, (Name). Yesterday’s webinar on (topic) was an absolute hurricane. So many learnings on (topic), I enjoyed it very much! My interest was piqued when I saw you there as well. 

Would love to stay in touch since there's so much I'd like to learn from you and your experience.

Scenario #4 Connecting With Decision-Makers

Hi, (Name). I wanted to reach out, as it seems like you would be the right person to discuss (topic). Given your role, would love to talk to you about these analyses I’ve built from my research into your (pain point).

For scenario 4, have an analysis built or a piece of sales enablement content that would pique the decision-maker’s interest. Remember, you’d be talking to a decision-maker. So, do your homework. Wondering what to write in your connection requests for sales outreach? Here are the 17 best LinkedIn connection request templates with examples to help you.

2. LinkedIn Cold Message Template

Scenario #1 Prospecting message

Hi, (Name). Thank you for the connect.

I noticed that you were part of the (event/webinar) but I couldn’t quite connect with you there amidst all the bustle. I did, however, listen to your questions and found them to be both valid and interesting. 

I took some time yesterday working on it and I think you’ll like what I was able to come up with.

It would be great if we could connect over a coffee call? Would 4 P.M. this Thursday work for you?

Cheers,

Scenario #2 Thanking Prospect for Connecting

Hey, (Name)! thank you for accepting my invitation to connect. 

I think (pain point) should be solvable if we bring (solution) into the equation. I dug into this a bit last night, read up on the pros and cons of relying on a solution like (solution). 

Would love to get your opinion on it :)

Scenario #3 Basic Follow-up After Demo/Discovery

Hey, (Name)!

It was an absolute pleasure having you on call yesterday. My team is very intrigued after going over what you are looking to build at (Company).

I think with, (your product), we should most definitely be able to have your workflow implemented without a hitch.

I’m open if you have any questions :)

Scenario #3.1 Following up after a demo to ensure you are on the page

Hi, (Name)!

Thank you for being on call yesterday. I hope that you found our presentation useful for your use case. 

Now that you’ve had a chance to go over our platform, do you have any follow-up questions you’d like me to answer?

Scenario #3.2 Following up after a demo/discovery agreeing to their feature request

Hello, (Name)

It was absolutely great having you with us yesterday. I’ve always admired your company and to actually be on call with you felt amazing. 

The pain points you had mentioned on call were absolutely true and I went back to a discussion with our product team about it. They have given me a workaround which I think would solve your queries.

Would love to set up a call to follow up on them.

Scenario #3.3 Following after an unsatisfactory demo/discovery

Hi (Name)

Thank you for being on call yesterday and for taking the time to go in detail about what you’d like to build at (company).

I understand we couldn’t quite substantiate your requirements but you know what? I’m not willing to give up and I want to take another stab at it.

Let me talk to the product team and get back to you in a few days with a workaround. I’m sure we can work it out:)

Scenario #4 Qualifying the Lead

Hi, (Name)!

It was great to have you guys and judging by the great questions that were put forth, I think you have a brilliant team and we are really looking forward to working with you.

I know you’re the one who's supposed to have follow up questions (which I welcome wholeheartedly) but I’m so interested in this that I have some!

If you could let me know about (question 1). Also, if you could shine some light on (question 2), that would be great.

Let me know how I can be of help :)

Scenario #5 Messaging the Decision-Maker

Hi, (Name)

Hope you’re well :)

I hope that you had a chance to try out our platform. I wanted to reach out to gather your opinions on what’s good, especially on what I can do to improve your experience. 

Would love a quick call to go over how we can make it better for you.

Cheers,

Scenario #6 Reminder Follow-up Message

Hey (Name),

I know it’s been a while. I hope you’re keeping well.

I just wanted to quickly check-in regarding the demo we had last week. I understand that you’re busy and so I won’t take up much of your time. If you could give me a word on the demo and a peek into your decision cycle, that would be great.

Cheers,

3. LinkedIn InMail Templates (Subject Lines)

Scenario #1 Networking With CXOs

Hi, (Name)

Hope you’re well.

I’m an ardent follower of (LinkedIn Influencer) and I noticed that you are too (from your comments). I also noticed that you work at (Company), a place I admire a lot!

I’d love to know your thoughts on (pain point) as I’m quite passionate 
about it and I think that I can learn a lot from you.

Cheers,

Scenario #2 Interacting With the Decision-Makers

Hello, (Name)!

How are you doing?

I noticed that you’re part of the (LinkedIn Group). I could not help but notice how enlightening the discussions you start in the group are. I can say, since I have been part of the group myself for close to 6 months now. 

Do you think that (solution discussed in the group) would work for a team like the one you manage? Do you believe that you would be able to implement it in a short span with minimum onboarding?

Cheers,

Scenario #3 Messaging To Find the Right Person To Talk To

Hello, (Name)!

How are you doing? I’m (Name) and I’m with (Company).

I'm looking to connect with the manager of the team you're a part of at (company), as I noticed from your profile. I had a few queries regarding (subject matter that interests the manager) I'd wanted to get across.

Could you point me in the right direction, please?

Cheers,

Scenario #4 Mentioning a Referral in Your LinkedIn Message

Hi, (Name)

Hope you’re well :)

I’m good friends with (Mutual connection) and they recommended I connect with you regarding (pain point).

I’d love an opportunity to get together and go over what slows your workflow. Do you think we can do a quick call some time tomorrow for a short discovery?

Do let me know if some time this week works for you.

Cheers,

Are you looking for LinkedIn InMail templates? Check out the top 10 LinkedIn InMail templates for sales, designed to help you create a lasting impression on your prospects.

7 Tips To Write LinkedIn Sales Messages That Your Prospects Can’t Ignore

LinkedIn Messages are not like emails. You cannot address your prospects like you would on an email. You cannot go supacaz either.

So how can you write a LinkedIn Message that gets more replies?

Personalize Your Message

Check out your prospect’s profile. Comb through their company and their activities on social media platforms. Give their articles a read. What events have they attended or signed up for? Did you guys go to the same college? Are you both from the same city? Use bits of such information to establish a connection with your prospects. Sales begin with trust, and trust is built through shared interests. 

Keep Messages Under 100 Words

Don’t write a press release outlining your business’ value proposition. Tell them what you want straight, in the least possible number of words, because, like you and us, nobody would indulge in wordy sales pitches. Blair Decembrele, Director of integrated marketing and communications at LinkedIn, told a news organization that their in-house research found messages with 100 words or less increase your chances of getting a response, but those with over 200 words decrease the likelihood. 

Don’t Start by Selling

This is a mistake many make on LinkedIn. We get that your sales strategy would include LinkedIn as an effective outreach channel for sales. But LinkedIn is a networking tool, not a sales tool unless you use LinkedIn Sales Navigator. So network. Talk about your prospect’s webinar. Their blog articles. Your friend’s cat if that interests your prospect. Build your network, gain their trust and sell when the time’s right.

Don’t Apologize for Reaching Out

While sending a message that respects their time is important, apologizing for reaching out isn’t a good practice. “You don’t need to apologize for messaging them or taking time from their busy day. Chances are if a person is bothered by outreach attempts, they aren’t worth your time,” says Kim Peterson Stone, LinkedIn expert, and CEO of Linkability, in one of her tweets on cold messaging on LinkedIn.

Stay active on LinkedIn

LinkedIn reports that 92% of the buyers have engaged with sellers who were seen as thought leaders. So post engaging thought leadership content in the industry you’re selling in, write about your buyers’ pain points, share a case study or two, and the different solutions available for your prospects’ problems. That doesn’t mean you should sell your product at every turn, moderate the number of brand plugins in these posts. Remember, you are there to provide value.

Mutual Connections Are Gold

Let’s face it. People don’t trust salespeople. So, you’d need to get your mutual connections to do it for you. If you have mutual connections with your prospect or if you’re both part of a LinkedIn Group, get someone to introduce you to them. This way, you’ll skip the first two steps needed to break the barrier. They’d be willing to listen to you and be okay with spending time on what you have to show. 

Outline Next Steps Clearly

Just like you’d write emails, add a clear call to action in the message. Decembrele adds, “be sure to include clear next steps or a call to action, encouraging the recipient to respond.”

Key Takeaways

LinkedIn works like emails. As in, you have to have a strategy to make the effort valuable. Just like you’d set up an email campaign,

• Research the prospect to find common ground
• Personalize your messages to establish connect
• Keep your content short and engaging
• And don’t be salesy

Once you’ve a solid strategy in place, invest in a tool like Klenty that supports LinkedIn automation and ramp up your LinkedIn outreach game.

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