LinkedIn Prospecting: How to Find New Leads on Linkedin

Salespeople are constantly on the hunt for qualified leads. However, traditional sales pitch methods like cold calling or cold emailing can feel outdated and yield low response rates.

This is where LinkedIn comes in. As the world's largest professional network, LinkedIn offers a goldmine of potential prospects waiting to be connected with. That's why you have to master LinkedIn prospecting.

This article will equip you with the tools and strategies to transform your LinkedIn presence into a lead-generation machine. From profile optimization to crafting personalized connection requests and messages, we'll guide you through every step of the prospecting process.

Let's dive in.

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What is LinkedIn Prospecting?

LinkedIn prospecting refers to the practice of identifying, connecting with, and engaging new prospects on LinkedIn to generate new sales opportunities. It involves leveraging LinkedIn's extensive professional network and suite of sales tools to research potential customers, initiate contact, build professional relationships, and ultimately convert leads.

With over 1 billion members in more than 200 countries, LinkedIn has become a crucial platform for B2B lead generation and outreach. The depth of professional data and the ability to target prospects based on role, industry, company size, and other attributes make LinkedIn an unparalleled resource for sales teams.

According to Statista, about 50% of business-to-business (B2B) marketers surveyed worldwide in 2022 considered LinkedIn "extremely" or "very effective" in reaching marketing goals.

So, if you want to generate more leads, opportunities, and revenue, you need an effective LinkedIn prospecting strategy. With the right approach, LinkedIn allows sales teams to:

• Identify and engage with key decision-makers across target accounts
• Warm up cold contacts or leads
• Initiate meaningful conversations by establishing mutual connections
• Promote thought leadership and subject matter expertise to attract prospects
• Monitor engagement with content to identify promising leads
• Build relationships over time through consistent nurturing and outreach

Getting Started with LinkedIn Prospecting

LinkedIn prospecting can be intimidating, but any sales team can implement an effective strategy with the right plan and tools. Here are some prospecting tips for getting started:

Step 1: Build a Strong Company Profile

• Optimize your company's LinkedIn page with keywords, an eye-catching banner image, a detailed description of products/services, and employee spotlights.
• Encourage all employees to use LinkedIn to showcase their roles and publish relevant content.

Step 2: Equip Your Sales Team

• Ensure every rep has a complete, optimized personal profile. Provide guidelines on headlines, summaries, skills, etc.
• Get team buy-in by demonstrating how LinkedIn drives results. Share prospecting success stories and ROI.
• Train reps on best practices: personalized outreach, engaging with content, and joining groups.

Step 3: Set Up Workflow Automation

• Automate repetitive tasks like sending the initial LinkedIn message and subsequent follow-ups.
• Use Copy.ai to scale personalized outreach.

Step 4: Target High-Value Leads

• Identify your ideal customer profiles and target relevant titles, companies, groups, etc.
• Use lead intelligence tools to find contacts that match your ICPs.
• Prioritize outreach to accounts with high revenue potential.

Step 5: Nurture Leads and Track Progress

• Set up automated nurture sequences to build relationships over time.
• Use analytics to see response rates and optimize messaging.
• Monitor social signals to identify hot leads and engagement opportunities.

The Evolution of LinkedIn Prospecting (How it worked before AI)

Before the rise of AI and automation, LinkedIn prospecting looked very different. Sales and marketing professionals had to go the cold outreach route, manually identify and engage prospects one by one.

The process of finding LinkedIn leads was extremely tedious. Sales professionals had to search through prospects’ profiles on LinkedIn for the right job titles, companies, skills, connections, and more. This manual process made it difficult to surface all the relevant prospects for a given opportunity.

Outreach was also challenging without automation. Reps had to manually send LinkedIn connection requests and customize initial messages to the target audience.

This resulted in very low prospecting output and limited ability to scale efforts.

Following up and nurturing connections was equally cumbersome. Keeping track of outreach cadences across an entire prospect list was next to impossible without some form of automation. As a result, many potential leads slipped through the cracks due to inconsistent or untimely follow-up.

The lack of personalization in prospecting activities further reduced effectiveness. Copy-pasted generic messages led to poor open and response rates. Prospects could easily identify impersonal outreach, which damaged the credibility of sales reps.

In short, prospecting on LinkedIn before AI was incredibly time-consuming, hard to scale, inconsistent, and lacking in personalization. These limitations prevented organizations from capitalizing on the full potential of LinkedIn for lead generation and pipeline growth.

AI-Powered LinkedIn Prospecting Strategies

AI is rapidly transforming LinkedIn prospecting, enabling sales and marketing teams to achieve greater efficiency, productivity, and results. Sales teams now leverage AI-powered LinkedIn tools and workflows for outbound sales automation instead of relying on manual efforts.

The key benefits of using AI for sales and LinkedIn prospecting include:

• Increased Efficiency and Productivity: AI prospecting tools can automatically handle time-consuming tasks like finding and enriching leads, crafting personalized outreach messages, and managing follow-up sequences. This allows salespeople to focus on high-value activities.
• Better Targeting and Personalization: Sophisticated AI can identify the most promising LinkedIn users based on various attributes and customize messaging and content for each outreach. This results in higher response rates.
• Scalability for High-Volume Outreach: Manual prospecting makes it challenging to do personalized outreach at scale. AI workflows can simultaneously automate the sales process for hundreds or even thousands of prospects.
• Data-Driven Insights and Optimization: AI tools provide detailed analytics on prospecting campaigns, enabling the optimization of strategies based on hard LinkedIn data and metrics.

Top LinkedIn Prospecting Tools for 2025

LinkedIn prospecting relies on having the right tools and technology to enable efficient workflows and scale outreach campaigns. Here are some of the best LinkedIn prospecting tools sales and marketing teams should consider leveraging in 2025:

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1. Copy.ai

Copy.ai is a go-to-market (GTM) AI Platform that optimizes your sales efforts and boosts customer acquisition.

Key Features

• Automated workflows: Copy.ai unifies tasks like prospect research, content creation, and outreach automation within a single platform. This eliminates the need for multiple tools, reducing GTM bloat and simplifying your tech stack. It also enables your GTM AI Maturity and improves GTM Velocity.
• Prospect Research & Enrichment: It leverages AI to gather valuable insights from various sources (e.g., social media, LinkedIn profiles, and company websites). This data enriches your CRM, allowing you to identify high-value leads and personalize outreach for better conversion rates.
• Persona Research & Use Case Ideation: Copy.ai helps you develop use cases that resonate with specific pain points, ultimately lowering customer acquisition costs (CAC)by attracting the right people.
• Dynamic Personalization at Scale: Copy.ai enables you to craft cold InMails or connection requests tailored to each lead's profile. This allows for one-to-one personalization at scale.
• Seamless integration with your CRM platform (e.g., Salesforce, Hubspot) to ensure data consistency and simplify lead management.

Pros

• Versatile and can create various types of content
• Easy to use with customization options
• Generates high-quality copy quickly
• Includes 500+ pre-written AI prompts

Cons

• Some users report limitations in content accuracy
• Potential for generating repetitive content

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2. Sales Navigator

LinkedIn's own premium prospecting solution, Sales Navigator, allows for advanced search results, lead recommendations, conversation starters, and tracking capabilities. LinkedIn Sales Navigator is the go-to choice for many teams who are getting started with LinkedIn prospecting.

Key Features

• Advanced Search and Lead Recommendations
• LinkedIn Sales Navigator offers advanced search filters and Boolean search to target prospects. It also provides AI-driven lead recommendations based on the user's sales preferences and behavior.
• Real-Time Sales Intelligence
• The tool provides users with real-time updates on accounts, leads, and key decision-makers. This includes job change alerts, company news, and other relevant insights to help sales professionals engage at the right time with the right information.
• InMail and Relationship Building
• Sales Navigator allows users to send InMail messages to prospects outside their network, increasing outreach capabilities. It also offers features like "TeamLink" to leverage shared connections and "Relationship Map" to visualize key stakeholders within target accounts.
• CRM Integration
• For users with Advanced Plus accounts, Sales Navigator integrates with popular CRM systems. This integration helps keep customer data up-to-date, allows for easy addition of new leads to the CRM, and enables Sales Navigator features within the CRM interface.
• AI-Powered Insights
• The tool includes AI features like Account IQ and Lead IQ, which provide summarized insights about companies and individuals. These features help sales professionals prepare for meetings and personalize their outreach more efficiently.

Pros

• Effective for finding and segmenting high-quality leads
• User-friendly interface
• Reliable data source for sales prospecting

Cons

• Relatively expensive compared to other tools
• Slightly lower ease of use rating (4.4) compared to category average (4.6)

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3. Dux-Soup

Dux-Soup is a LinkedIn prospecting tool designed to streamline the lead-generation process for salespeople. It automates many repetitive tasks that can consume valuable time on LinkedIn, allowing users to focus on building relationships with potential clients.

Key Features

• Automated LinkedIn Actions
• Dux-Soup automates key LinkedIn activities such as profile visits, connection invitations, profile follows, and endorsements. Users can set up personalized, automated campaigns with custom time delays to mimic natural human behavior and maintain account safety.
• Intelligent Messaging
• The tool enables users to send automated, personalized InMails and messages to prospects. It supports multi-step campaigns where prospects are automatically removed from the sequence once they respond, allowing users to focus on converting leads.
• Team Collaboration
• Dux-Soup offers features for team-based prospecting, allowing users to share campaigns across multiple team members. This enables scalable, collaborative LinkedIn outreach for sales teams and agencies.
• CRM Integration
• Users can integrate Dux-Soup with their preferred CRM systems, facilitating multi-channel strategies and centralized prospect management. This feature helps streamline the lead nurturing process across different platforms.
• Campaign Analytics
• The Dux-Dash provides comprehensive campaign statistics, allowing users to track and optimize their LinkedIn lead generation efforts. This data-driven approach helps users refine their outreach strategies for better results.

‍Pros

• Easy to use and cost-effective
• Effective for LinkedIn lead generation
• Time-saving automation features

Cons

• Some users report accessibility issues
• User interface can be confusing for some

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4. Expandi.io

Expandi.io is a cloud-based LinkedIn automation tool designed to streamline your outreach efforts and boost your lead generation on the platform. It caters to both sales teams and agencies.

Key Features

• LinkedIn Outreach Automation
• Expandi allows users to send up to 300 connection requests per week safely. It automates profile visits, content likes, and other engagement actions to warm up prospects before outreach. Users can create custom sequences combining different actions and conditions based on prospect behavior.
• Smart Campaign Builder
• The tool offers a visual campaign builder with flow visualization. Users can create automated scenarios using 10 different actions and 10 conditions in one sequence. This allows for complex, multi-step outreach campaigns that feel personalized.
• Data Scraping and Personalization
• Expandi has built-in scraping features to extract prospect data from LinkedIn groups, events, and posts. This data can be used to hyper-personalize outreach messages. Users can also incorporate personalized GIFs, images and videos into their campaigns.
• Analytics and Optimization
• The platform provides detailed metrics and reporting on campaign performance, Social Selling Index (SSI), and other KPIs. Users can A/B test different message versions and optimize based on reply rates and other engagement metrics.
• Multi-Channel Outreach
• In addition to LinkedIn, Expandi allows users to incorporate email outreach into their campaigns. This enables omnichannel sequences that combine LinkedIn and email touchpoints for improved response rates.

Pros

• Effective for B2B lead generation
• Robust LinkedIn automation tool
• User-friendly interface
• Personalized messaging capabilities
• Campaign analytics features

Cons

• Some features may be undiscovered by users
• Potential learning curve for new users

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5. LinkedHelper

LinkedHelper is a comprehensive LinkedIn automation tool that provides users with lead generation and outreach management features.

Key Features

• Automated Connection Requests and Follow-ups
• Linked Helper allows users to automatically send connection requests to 2nd and 3rd-degree connections with personalized notes. It can also send follow-up messages after connections are accepted, helping to expand networks more efficiently.
• Customizable Message Sequences
• Users can create professional and customizable message sequences with personalization options. The tool offers a powerful template editor with standard LinkedIn profile variables and custom variables, enabling hyper-personalized outreach at scale.
• Data Scraping and Export
• Linked Helper provides data scraping capabilities to extract information from LinkedIn profiles and company pages. Users can export this data to CSV files or send it directly to third-party CRM systems, facilitating lead management and analysis.
• CRM Integration
• The tool integrates with various CRM systems like HubSpot, Pipedrive, and Salesforce. This allows users to automatically transfer LinkedIn data and conversation history to their CRM, keeping all lead information synchronized and up-to-date.

Pros

• Powerful automation tools for LinkedIn outreach
• Smart campaign templates
• Full control over campaigns
• User-friendly interface

Cons

• Learning curve for new users
• Potential risk of violating LinkedIn's terms of service
• Some users report issues with customer support

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To learn more, check out this conversation with Jen Allen-Knuth

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Crafting Compelling LinkedIn Sales Messages

Personalized and value-driven messaging is crucial for effective LinkedIn outreach. When crafting compelling LinkedIn sales messages, there are several key elements to focus on:

Importance of Personalization

• Hyperpersonalized messages have much higher open and response rates compared to generic outreach
• Show you took the time to understand who they are and what they care about
• Avoid sounding robotic or spammy

Highlight Relevance and Value

• Quickly establish how your solution solves their challenges or goals
• Focus on the benefits you can provide, not just features
• Demonstrate you can add value to their role or business

Strong Call-to-Action

• Every message should have a clear CTA, even if just to continue the conversation
• Make it obvious what you want them to do next
• CTAs should match their stage in the sales funnel

Appropriate Tone and Voice

• Adopt a helpful, consultative tone
• Avoid sounding salesy or pushy
• Mirror language patterns from their profile and industry

Building a Strong LinkedIn Profile for Sales

Your LinkedIn profile is the foundation of your sales prospecting efforts and can make or break your chances of connecting with potential customers. An optimized profile establishes your credibility and demonstrates your expertise right from the start, helping you make a good first impression.

Here are some of the key elements of an effective sales profile on LinkedIn:

• Compelling Headline and Summary - This is often the first thing prospects see, so make sure it grabs attention and conveys what you do. Use your headline to summarize your value proposition and highlight relevant keywords. Craft your summary to tell your professional story and showcase your expertise.
• Professional Photo - A high-quality headshot makes your profile more memorable and approachable. Dress professionally and smile to convey warmth.
• Background Photo - Choose an appropriate background image that aligns with your brand and industry. It offers another visual cue about who you are.
• Skills and Endorsements - Showcasing relevant skills and achievements helps establish your credibility. Proactively add key skills and encourage colleagues to endorse you.
• Recommendations and Social Proof - Client testimonials and recommendations from past employers demonstrate social proof. Seek out written recommendations on your profile.

Measuring and Optimizing Your LinkedIn Prospecting Efforts

To get the most out of your LinkedIn prospecting efforts, monitor performance metrics so you can identify areas for optimization and improvement. Here are some of the key metrics to track:

• Connection/InMail acceptance rates - The percentage of people accepting your connection requests or responding to your InMail messages indicates the functionality of your targeting and messaging. Declining rates may signal issues.
• Response rates to outreach messages - Beyond just InMail accepts, track how many prospects engage with your messages or emails and respond. Monitor response rates over time.
• Meetings booked and pipeline generated - The ultimate goals of prospecting. Analyze how many quality leads turn into meetings and opportunities to close business.

LinkedIn Prospecting Best Practices and Tips

LinkedIn prospecting success requires consistency, personalization, and nurturing relationships over time. Here are some best practices to keep in mind:

• Targeted and segmented outreach - Research prospects beforehand to identify the right decision makers and influencers to contact. Segment your outreach lists based on industry, company size, job role, and interests. Copy.ai workflows enable you to personalize messaging at scale, even for large outreach campaigns.
• Leverage content marketing and thought leadership - Establish yourself as an industry expert by consistently publishing valuable content. Share links to relevant articles, insights, and resources when engaging prospects. You can use Copy.ai can help generate, promote, and distribute content.
• Nurture warm prospects and existing connections - Don't just pitch to cold prospects. Engage with those who have shown interest by liking or commenting on your LinkedIn posts. Provide ongoing value through content sharing and thoughtful comments.
• Join and engage with relevant LinkedIn groups - Join groups related to your industry or target accounts to expand your reach. Contribute thoughtful comments and post relevant content.
• Consistency and follow-up - Persistence and discipline are key. Follow up with prospects who don't initially respond. Use Copy.ai workflows to set up and automate multi-touch outreach campaigns.
• Compliance with LinkedIn policies - Avoid spammy behavior that could get you banned. Carefully follow LinkedIn's guidelines around InMail frequency, connection requests, and group engagement.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What is LinkedIn prospecting?

LinkedIn prospecting is the practice of identifying, connecting with, and engaging potential customers on LinkedIn to generate new sales opportunities and grow your business.

2. How is AI changing LinkedIn prospecting?

AI is transforming LinkedIn prospecting by enabling sales and marketing teams to work more efficiently, productively engage prospects, and ultimately achieve better results. AI-powered tools can help automate tasks, personalize outreach, and surface the most promising leads.

3. What are some top LinkedIn prospecting tools?

Some of the best LinkedIn prospecting tools in 2025 include AI-powered platforms like Copyai that optimize your sales efforts, boost customer acquisition, and integrate with your existing workflows. Look for tools that leverage AI to automate key tasks.

4. Why is personalized messaging important for LinkedIn outreach?

Crafting compelling, personalized messages is crucial for effective LinkedIn prospecting. Generic, spammy messages get ignored. The most successful salespeople take time to research prospects and tailor outreach to their specific needs, interests and pain points.

5. How can I optimize my LinkedIn profile for sales?

Your LinkedIn profile forms the foundation of your prospecting efforts. Optimize it by clearly communicating your value proposition, showcasing relevant experience and success stories, and using keywords your ideal customers search for. Think of your profile as a landing page to convert prospects.

6. What are the most important LinkedIn prospecting metrics to track?

Key metrics for measuring LinkedIn prospecting success include connection and InMail acceptance rates, response rates to your outreach messages, profile views, and ultimately meetings booked and pipeline generated. Track these numbers over time to identify what's working and where to optimize.

7. How often should I post and engage on LinkedIn for prospecting?

Consistency is key for LinkedIn prospecting. Aim to post valuable content and engage with your network regularly, ideally at least a few times per week. This keeps you top of mind, demonstrates your expertise, and warms up prospects for sales conversations.

8. What types of content work best for LinkedIn prospecting?

The most effective LinkedIn prospecting content educates your target audience, demonstrates your unique perspective, and starts conversations. Share quick tips, how-to guides, opinion pieces on industry trends, and content that sparks discussions. Avoid overly promotional posts.

9. How can I balance personalization and scale with LinkedIn prospecting?

Striking the right balance between personalization and scale is an ongoing challenge with LinkedIn prospecting. Leverage AI-powered automation where appropriate, such as pre-written message templates, but always add a human touch. Segment your prospects into buckets and tailor messaging for each group.

Final Thoughts

LinkedIn sales prospecting is an essential part of any modern B2B sales strategy. This guide covered the key elements required to maximize your prospecting efforts in 2025 and beyond.

The future of LinkedIn prospecting is GTM AI. You can transform LinkedIn into your most powerful lead-generation channel with the right strategy and the top LinkedIn automation tools (like Copy.ai).

And with Copy.ai, the leading GTM AI Platform, your sales team can achieve GTM Velocity and supercharge your GTM AI Maturity by curing GTM Bloat and enhancing efficiency across the board. You can also do more with our free tools; just check our free tools site for more information.

These innovative tools will give you the edge you need to make a splash in your market and stand out from the competition!

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