Which kinds of LinkedIn replies turn into meetings?
Most meetings start with a maybe.
Upscale Outreach ·
71% of meetings started with something other than “I’m interested”. A “thanks” opened 28% of them, nearly as many, and a thanks or a question ended in a meeting nearly twice as often as its campaign’s average conversation.
Outscale benchmarks, from 115,160 prospects reached in real campaigns.
Where meetings start
- Interested29%
- Thanks28%
- A question18%
- Everything else12%
- Not now9.8%
- A plain no3.9%
“Interested” opened 29% of meetings. A thanks opened nearly as many. Against the same campaigns, a thanks was 1.8 times as likely to end in a meeting as the average conversation, and a question 1.8 times.
Few people say yes to a stranger
A careful buyer takes it slowly. They say thanks while they look you up, or ask a question to see how you answer. That’s what interest looks like from somebody who’s never met you.
The seller hears a polite brush-off. A thanks got a message back 43% of the time, against 72% for a reply saying interested. Here’s how to answer a thanks.
“Not now” still books
“Not now” opened 9.8% of meetings, at 0.8 times its campaigns’ usual chance. Later is real, if somebody remembers. What to do with a “not right now”.
A plain no stays a no
A plain no ended in a meeting at 0.1 times its campaigns’ usual chance. Leave it. Every message you send spends your LinkedIn sending limit.
We checked the calendars
Some meetings get booked through a link and never mentioned in the thread. So we checked calendar bookings on the accounts where we can see them. “Interested” opened 29% of those meetings too.
What to do today
- Treat a thanks and a question as a yes in progress. Answer them with a time.
- Leave the plain no. It almost never turns.
More in replies and meetings
How long should a LinkedIn reply be?
Say something. The length takes care of itself.
Length barely matters. Short answers got written back less, 27% against 42%, but more than half of them were a pleasantry with nothing to answer. Against the same kind of answer from the same inbox, every length landed within 6% of usual. Their first name and an exclamation mark made no difference.
Read itHow to keep a LinkedIn conversation going
Ask them something. Nearly four in five answers don’t.
Ask them a question. In real conversations, prospects wrote back to 52% of answers with a question in them and 29% of answers without one. Yet 78% of answers asked nothing.
Read itHow to reply when a LinkedIn prospect just says thanks
“Thanks” is a maybe with good manners.
Ask for the call. When a prospect replied with only “thanks”, proposing a time booked 1 conversation in 6. Leaving it booked 1 in 53.
Read itWhat to do when a LinkedIn prospect says “not right now”
“Later” is a diary entry, and nobody keeps the diary.
Name the date now, even if it’s months away. When a prospect said “later”, proposing a time booked 1 conversation in 6. Leaving it booked 1 in 572.
Read it