LinkedIn playbook

LinkedIn runs alongside your calls, not instead of them. The goal here isn’t to pitch, it’s to start a conversation with one open-ended question that pokes the bear. Keep it light, keep it human.

The sequence

1. Send a blank connection request (no note). Always.
2. No accept after a few days? Switch channels. Don’t sit and wait, fall back to email, and keep dialing. A non-accept isn’t a dead end, it’s a signal to try another door.
3. Look for a warm path first. If anyone at your company already knows them, leadership, a mutual connection, get that person to reach out instead. A warm intro beats the best cold message every time. Try the warm route before or in parallel with the cold one.

Connection requests

• Always blank, no note. Acceptance rates are higher, and a note makes it read like a pitch before you’ve said a word. A blank request doesn’t burn the account.
• Send from a senior account when you can. Requests from your sales leadership or execs convert better with senior buyers, and they set up the warm-intro path above. Ask them to send it for you, and to reach out first if they can.

Your profile is a landing page

Before anyone replies, they’ll check your profile. Make it read like a sales page for your product, not a BDR resume.

• Banner: about the company, with social proof (customer logos, a headline result).
• Headline: what you help people do, not your title.
• About: clear and outcome-focused — who you help and how.
• Consider dropping “BDR/SDR” for something more consultative, at least in your headline. It lifts connection and reply rates.

The first message

Once they accept, do not pitch. No booking link. No paragraphs. No “hopping on a quick call.”

Send one open-ended question that piques their curiosity and pokes the bear, the tension someone in their seat actually feels. You’re inviting a reply, not asking for a meeting.

The question that works for us at Letterdrop is dead simple:

“Hey [Name], do you go up against [Competitor 1] or [Competitor 2] pretty often?”

That’s the whole message. It’s casual, it’s specific to their world, and people answer it. Once they reply, take it from there: react to what they said, get curious, and run the same Diffuse → Discover → Sell-the-meeting logic as the phone playbook.

This isn’t the same as calling out their evaluation. You’re asking about their competitive landscape in general — fair game, and it gets people talking. You’re never saying “I saw you’re looking at X.”

Build your own version. The pattern that works: short, no pitch, names a real tension in their day, and answerable in one line. Ask yourself what the “do you go up against ___?” question is for your category, and lead with that.

What not to do

• No pitch, no booking link, no multi-paragraph intro in the first message.
• Don’t accuse them of evaluating a competitor (same rule as every channel).
• Don’t let a non-accept stall the account - move to email and keep calling.

Channel guides: Phone · Email · Who works what