1 - For those of you who aren't as experienced with LinkedIn, there is plenty of opportunity on the business platform, as you can see in the below stats:

If it can work for others, it can surely work for you - you just gotta know how to use the platform effectively.

2 - Outreach is about them, not you. The more you focus on them and ask open-ended questions to get them talking, the better your results will be. Think of it this way - your goal is to get a meeting scheduled. And people will only take time out of their day to meet with you if they think you can solve a problem of theirs. So, how do you figure out what problem(s) of theirs to solve? By asking questions and letting them talk. So, get them talking - that's your MAIN objective here.

3 - Below is an estimate (not exact figures) of LinkedIn outreach numbers on a monthly basis. To see an estimated timeline of doing LinkedIn outreach for 12 months straight, see our "Results timeline" on this page.

4 - EXPECT slower/minimal results your first few months of LinkedIn outreach. From our experience, your outreach doesn't start to fully "click" until between months 4-6, so keep your chin up. It takes time to build trust & momentum when reaching out to a cold(ish) audience of people online. So if you're not booking many meetings within your first couple of months, that is perfectly normal.

5 - Most of your prospects will not be interested. And that is perfectly normal - see the image below. Prospects buy on their timeline, not yours. That’s why it’s not only important to have a follow up process in place, but it’s necessary to have one in place. Only 40% of your prospects will ever be interested, and of those, only 3-10% are interested right now. So how do you get the other 30%? By following up.

Image credit: The 1-Page Marketing Plan by Allan Dib (p. 136)

6 - You don’t need LinkedIn Sales Navigator or Premium to do outreach. Neither option gives you more total invites than a free Basic account (around 750 per month). The difference is in personalization and targeting. So, if you're debating on Sales Navigator vs. Premium, go with Sales Navigator. And if you're debating Sales Navigator vs. Basic (free), we recommend that you upgrade to Sales Navigator to make the most of your LinkedIn outreach.

7 - If you're new to doing LinkedIn outreach, go through an account warmup process to keep your LinkedIn account in good standing. Below is the process that we recommend you follow for your first month of outreach.

If you skip everything else, here is a concise version of our LinkedIn Outreach Playbook. And, at a minimum, at least read the Setting Expectations section above - that has really good information for you to be aware of.

Pro tip - if you're a financial advisor, do not target business owners. Do successful business owners make a lot of money? Yes. Are successful business owners also targeted a lot by financial advisors because of how much money they make? Yes. So, please be different from most advisors and target other high earners. Such as...

We suggest that you target: Sales / Business Development professionals who are in your city/state

Now that you are clear on who to reach out to, you need to make sure that your LinkedIn profile is attractive to that group of people.

As a quick rule of thumb, the higher up on your profile information is, the more important it is. For example, your Profile Picture, Banner Image, and Headline are more important than your Projects and Skills sections.

If you're wanting to do an entire profile-rehaul, start this video at the 11-minute mark. Note - we are not affiliated with Bootstrapped Giants or Notus, but this video was so thorough that we figured you'd benefit by watching it.

If you're looking to model your profile off of another financial advisor's profile, below are a few LinkedIn accounts you can use for inspiration:

Our founder, Austin, has a good profile to model off of, too.

And if you want to update your LinkedIn profile picture, check out Samantha Russell's post that mentions Google's Nano Banana tool.

You could have a perfect list of the most ideal prospects, but it won't matter if your scripts suck. So make sure to spend some quality time thinking through your messaging before reaching out to prospects - you only get one first impression.

To help you out, below are scripts we recommend using for the "Sales / Business Development professionals who are in your city/state" audience.

If, for whatever reason, you dislike the below scripts and want to make your own, use this LinkedIn post for writing inspiration. As a rule of thumb: short sentences are better than long paragraphs, and casual messaging is better than formal. Think of LinkedIn outreach like texting your friends & family instead of how you'd email your boss.

If you're a ReplyAssist customer, on the "Message Sequences" page of your Campaign, we recommend that you click the "Visit Profile" option to turn that feature on, and set it to the "Prior to each Step" option to make your outreach seem more human-like.

"{first_name} - it's good to see you're also in (X area) (I live here, too). Side note - I know I'm probably not the only financial advisor to reach out to you, so hopefully I can set myself apart and actually be a worthwhile connection & resource to you."

"By the way, I realize you probably get messages like this often, so I’ll be direct - and my goal here is to help you in any way I can. If that leads to working together, great. If not, no hard feelings.

I work with a lot of professionals who have some level of variable comp. Specifically, I specialize in making the most of stock options, bonuses, commissions, tax strategy (both on the personal side & for businesses), and retirement distribution. I'd love to share with you how my team and I are helping clients strategize for a better financial future. Do you have 20-30 minutes for a quick Zoom over the next week or two?"

"Hey {first_name}, did you get a second to read over what I sent about a week ago?

Also, for context - a lot of the clients I've worked with are pretty on top of their finances in general, but all of them seem to have a certain question or two where they're kind of... stuck (going back & forth with themselves).

So that's why I figured it wouldn't hurt to reach out - open to a call to talk further?"

"Wanted to give this convo one last nudge, especially since a lot might've changed for you over the past month! Please feel absolutely no pressure to keep this convo going, though - I know I'm just another stranger on the internet. But I'd love to help however I can.

Also, if now's not the right time, that's all good. If that's the case, just let me know when might be a better timeframe for me to reach back out & I'll make a note."

The basics:

Below is how to handle conversations at a high level. Note - NEVER give up on a prospect too soon. Meaning, as long as they don't tell you to leave them alone, follow up. You don't want to leave potential opportunity on the table just because you assume they aren't interested. Even if they are being brief/unresponsive, it doesn't mean they aren't interested - you never know what’s going on in their life and maybe they're just busy or going through a stressful time.

What to do with unresponsive prospects

You need to have some sort of reminder (whether in your calendar or in the ReplyAssist inbox) for each qualified prospect you're talking to. The more prospects you talk to on a regular basis, the easier it is to start forgetting about people, so reminders are the best way to prevent them from slipping through the cracks and forgetting about them forever. You don't want to miss out on a client just because you forgot to follow up with them at the right time.

If a prospect tells you they aren't ready to talk yet, you can: 1. Make a note in your calendar on X date in the future to follow up, 2. Schedule a message within your ReplyAssist Inbox to send on X date in the future, or 3. Create a Reminder in your ReplyAssist Inbox that is due on X date in the future. We recommend doing #2 and #3. This way, you don't need to worry about remembering to send the future message, and, in case the prospect doesn't respond to your scheduled message, you have a reminder to check back in on the conversation.

If you don't use ReplyAssist, save all of your favorite scripts in one location, like a Word Document. If you do have a ReplyAssist account, use the Quick Response Templates section in the lower-left corner of each Inbox conversation to save your favorite scripts. This will reduce the time you spend prospecting, and will also give you ideas of what to say when you get stuck & aren't feeling creative. Here are some scripts you can save right now for use in the near future.

Once the prospect agrees to schedule a meeting with you, send the below script:

"Would you mind using my link below to snag a time to talk? Please let me know if none of those times work for you, by the way

(insert scheduling link here)"

Make sure to ask for the below information in your scheduling link form:

Although we are advocates of how great Calendly is as a scheduling tool, we started using iClosed for ReplyAssist because it allows us to capture leads who started to fill out the scheduling link but, for whatever reason, don't complete the process of booking a meeting. Plus, in iClosed, you're able to disqualify prospects based on certain answers. Feel free to check out using iClosed.

Notice how in the title of this step, we say effective not pleasant. You might feel like you’ve built good rapport, but that often leads nowhere - no new clients. The purpose of LinkedIn outreach is to grow your business and generate revenue, not to make small talk. So if you want results from your sales calls (not wasted time), follow the guidance we outline here.

The more you follow the same sales process, the easier it is to produce the same outcomes, so use this Intro Call Template for your future meetings as a guide to follow. And, of course, modify it as much as needed to match your style.

Here are some other very helpful sales call reminders, too.

Of course, these tips only apply to you if you have a ReplyAssist account. So if you don't already have an account, maybe you should 😉 feel free to book a demo call with our team by clicking the button below.

Make a reminder to yourself (in your calendar, in your Reminders app on your iPhone, etc) to check-in on your current ReplyAssist Campaign(s) every 2 or so weeks to make sure everything is looking good. For example, you can:

If you do need to create a new Campaign, leave your other Campaigns active - meaning, do not stop them. If you stop them, all automation (invites & follow up messages) will stop. So if you still want follow up messages to send from previous Campaigns, go into your previous Campaign(s) on the Campaign Settings page, and set the daily Connection Requests Limit to 0 per day and leave the Follow-up Messages Limit around 25 per day.

Actually use the ReplyAssist Inbox. In ways such as:

You've reached the end! If you feel like there is anything we missed in this playbook, please email us at: info@replyassist.com.