How to Book More Meetings from LinkedIn DMs

TL;DR:

• Send a blank connection request to increase acceptance rates if you don't have a very specific reason to send a note
• Engage with prospects' content and research their profile before sending a DM
• Set up sales triggers to follow up on
• Build credibility on LinkedIn to increase response rates and drive warm conversations

You're probably using email and cold calls to book meetings. While those channels do work, using them with LinkedIn can help you get much better response rates.

Messages sent from LinkedIn are far less likely to get ignored — this is especially true if you build some credibility through consistent thought leadership.

We do have a guide on LinkedIn DM templates (as well as comment templates) for sales, but here's how to book more meetings from LinkedIn DMs.

6 Steps to Booking More Meetings from LinkedIn DMs

Step 1: Send a Personalized or Blank Connection Request

Always send a blank connection request unless you've met the person before or someone you've talked to referred you to them.

Blank connection requests combined with a strong profile from a seller (not a CEO/exec) average around a 20% accept rate.

Met previously:

"Great meeting at Dreamforce. Let's stay in touch!"

Met a colleague:

"Just got off the phone with Anna. She thought we should connect because you're thinking through FINRA this quarter and I helped the Slack team think through it"

Never include a sales pitch in your connection request — that’s an immediate decline.

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Reponse rates on highly-personalized connection notes have been reported to be as high as 70%. We've seen about 20% reply rate on blank requests.

You should never include a sales pitch in your connection request. This is an immediate decline.

Step 2: Prep Before You DM

Good outreach begins before you send that first DM.

Engage With Their Content

Like, comment, and share their posts to build rapport. Thoughtful engagement shows genuine interest and warms up the conversation.

We have a feature where you can upload a CSV of target accounts from LinkedIn, and we’ll notify you each time they post so you can engage thoughtfully.

Do NOT programmatically like their old posts and send a generic, automated message. Everyone does this. This is not authentic engagement whatsoever.

‎Instead:

• Engage in deep-dive discussions, providing your expertise or perspective on something
• Agree or disagree with a topic and expand on why (keeping it polite!)
• Give feedback on a product or share a relevant experience
• Share a helpful resource based on the topic

You'll also want to see what they've been posting lately to better contextualize your outreach.

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Step 3: First Message - Have a Valid Reason to Reach Out

You need a good reason to message someone. This is where you set up your sales triggers.

Absolutely NO pitch slaps.

General advice is to have a hypotheses about a business problem they might have, make an observation and ask a related question.

Examples

1. When a prospect likes a post from you:

“hey Sarah, saw that [topic] might’ve hit home for you – appreciate the like. just dropped a playbook on this last week if you're interested, lmk!”

2. When you identify a relevant signal (job change, a website visit):

“Jake, congrats on the new role! noticed your team is growing fast – curious, how are you handling [challenge]? would love to hear your take”

3. When you find a common challenge you can solve for:

“hey Lisa, been hearing from other [roles] that [challenge] is a headache rn. is that something you’re dealing with too? happy to brainstorm if so”

Step 4: Transition to the Ask

Once you've built some rapport and have gotten replies, it's time to naturally transition to the ask.

Example DM Templates:

• “agreed. actually been thinking about something that might help – you free for a quick 15-min chat to dive into it?”
• “we’ve been working on [related issue] with a few teams like yours – want to brainstorm some ideas together? lmk when you’ve got a few mins”
• “curious, how are you tackling [specific challenge]? thinking it’d be cool to swap ideas – what do you think?”

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Step 5: Use Voice Notes and Personalized Videos

Consider sending personalized voice notes and video messages to help you stand out a bit more from the crowd.

Here’s a script template we use:

"Hey [Prospect], I noticed your recent post about [topic]. I often speak with [similar roles] who face similar challenges, and we recently helped [client] achieve [specific result] by [solution]. Would you be open to learning more?"

Step 6: Go Multichannel

You want to make sure you’re coming at it from all angles – studies show that a multichannel approach with three or more channels results in 287% higher purchase rate.

Mention to your prospect that you've left them a voice mail or dropped them an email to reinforce your outreach.

Bonus: Build a Credible LinkedIn Presence

Your outreach is much more effective if prospects see you as a credible voice in your industry. Establishing a strong LinkedIn presence builds trust and increases response rates across the board, as seen by the following companies:

• DreamData has driven +$1M in pipeline for the team through social selling
• For RB2B, 75% of the folks who engage with their founder-led content are dead middle-funnel ICP
• Nick Bennett from TACK drove $2M in pipeline for his former company, Alice, through LinkedIn alone

Here's Isaiah Crossman, former CRO of Tropic (who went from first AE to CRO at $XX million run rate in 4 years) on the value of LinkedIn for sales.

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How to Build Credibility:

• Share consistent, value-driven posts about your expertise.
• Engage with others’ content to expand your reach.

And you can do this automatically with Letterdrop.

• Turn your sales calls into LinkedIn posts automatically (objections, questions, you name it)
• Boost your visibility through automatic like, comment, and repost requests from connected team or partner accounts

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Final Thoughts: Be Human

Don't just be another bot in an inbox. With just a little research on your part and a true-value first message, you could be booking far more meetings through LinkedIn DMs.

If you're looking to build your credibility on LinkedIn to drive more warm conversations, give us a shout.