How to reply when a LinkedIn prospect just says thanks

“Thanks” is the second most common reply on LinkedIn

You send the request. They accept. You send a message. They write back: “Thanks.”

15% of everyone who replies opens like that. A thanks, an ok, a “will do”, a wave back. Only a flat no is more common.

So what’s going on in their head? They accepted, they read your message, and ignoring it felt rude. A thank-you is the cheapest polite thing there is. It costs nothing, promises nothing and keeps the door ajar.

They’re a little curious. They’re also not going to be the one who asks. Asking a stranger for a call feels like admitting you need something, and nobody likes going first.

Why salespeople hear goodbye

Everywhere else in life, “thanks” ends things. At the till. At the end of a phone call. On the last email in a thread. So your brain files it as a full stop.

Then there’s the fear of looking pushy. Answering a thank-you with a calendar invite feels a bit like proposing on the first coffee. So you write something warm and harmless: “Glad it was useful, let me know if you ever want to chat.”

It feels polite. It also hands the next move to someone who has just shown you they won’t make it. And it spends a send from your LinkedIn quota.

Of 1,386 people who replied “thanks”, 566 got any answer at all. 93 were ever asked for a call.

Ask, and 1 in 6 books

One extra line, and a polite nothing turned into a meeting 1 time in 6. Leave it, and the odds drop to 1 in 53.

Asking works because it shrinks a vague maybe into a tiny decision. “Thursday at 10 or Friday at 2?” takes four seconds to answer. Saying yes takes one word. Saying no takes an excuse.

“Later” works the same way, only more so

“Try me after the new financial year.” “Ask again in March.” It sounds like a brush-off. Often it’s a busy person telling the truth, who forgets all about it the moment they hit send. The diary entry is your job.

When someone proposed a time for then, 18% of those conversations booked. When nobody did, 0.2%. That’s 1 in 572.

Every kind of maybe follows the same pattern. Even prospects who said they were interested booked 3.5 times as often when somebody named a time. “Interested” is a feeling. A time is a plan.

The habit that splits a team

Same campaigns. Same offer. Wildly different habits.

41% of all the answers in our benchmark were pleasantries and nothing else. Between inboxes, that ran from 1% to 81%. And when the prospect left the door open, how often each inbox proposed a call ran from 0% to 40%.

Asking risks a no, and a no stings, even from a stranger. A pleasantry risks nothing and feels kind. Left to themselves, most people pick comfort. Their numbers show it.

What to do today

• Answer every “thanks” with a time. “Glad it landed. Worth 15 minutes on Thursday at 10, or Friday at 2?” Two options, one line, done.
• Turn every “later” into a date. Agree it in your reply, put it in your diary, and propose the call when it comes round.
• Ask the keen ones too. They booked more often with a time on the table, like everyone else.
• Check your own habit. Open your last 20 “thanks” replies and count how many you answered with a time. That’s your number to beat.