How I increased response rates on LinkedIn outreach by over 100%
Applying the customer relationship equation to your customer funnel
Welcome to A Founder’s Life for Me! I’m Alek, and I provide practical recommendations on how to build your company (or career) based on my experiences building tech companies. To learn from all past and future posts, please subscribe below.
Why I’m writing this now
In “Four principles for successful, long-term customer relationships,” I shared my equation for strong customer relationships:
Over the past four weeks, I’ve covered each component: Trust, Value, Cost, and Personal Relationships. Today, we’ll review how I’ve applied the entire equation to my startup, SolidlyAI, to increase response rates on LinkedIn by over 100%.
For every required action, optimize the customer relationship equation
The prospective customer is paying with, at least, their time at every step of the journey. So, I need to find ways to:
provide value now
build trust that I will provide more value in the future if they perform the action
build a personal relationship
minimize the cost of the next action I want them to do
lower their perception of future costs
20% response rate LinkedIn outreach
I scrounged up an old LinkedIn message I sent in June 2023 as an example for us to learn from:
Hey [name]! How've you been?
I was wondering if we could catch up at some point over the next couple of weeks. I've been working on an AI product (https://www.solidly.ai), and I'd love to get your thoughts. Solidly aims to help remote companies asynchronously communicate more effectively. I'm trying to build an understanding of how different companies communicate to see how/if this would plug in.
Hope you're doing well!
Alek
This was an old colleague, so there was already a personal relationship. Nine months later, I think this message could use a lot of work. Before moving on to the next section, I’d suggest thinking about how you’d handle a message like this. What would you say? What’s wrong with mine?
Why was the response rate low?
Here’s my analysis, let’s review sentence by sentence:
Hey [name]! How've you been?
PROBLEM: I’ve put very little effort into the personal relationship-building.
SOLUTION: I could do more research about how this person’s life has evolved since we last spoke and relate that to my own experiences.
I was wondering if we could catch up at some point over the next couple of weeks.
PROBLEM: I ask for something before explaining the value, and I don’t elaborate on how much time I’m asking them to spend helping me.
SOLUTION: I’d move the ask toward the bottom of the message, keep it brief, and specific.
I've been working on an AI product (https://www.solidly.ai), and I'd love to get your thoughts.
PROBLEM: This sentence says the same thing as the prior sentence, “I would like your time.” I’m also implicitly asking them to go to the SolidlyAI website, which costs even more of their time.
SOLUTION: I’d remove this sentence.
Solidly aims to help remote companies asynchronously communicate more effectively.
PROBLEM: I’ve finally started to explain the value SolidlyAI provides, but not in a way that makes it clear that Solidly would benefit them.
SOLUTION: I’d clearly explain how setting up a meeting with me might benefit them, whether through SolidlyAI or some other way.
I'm trying to build an understanding of how different companies communicate to see how/if this would plug in.
PROBLEM: I’m still talking about how this would benefit me, not them. In the future, I’d remove this sentence.
SOLUTION: I’d remove this sentence.
40% response rate LinkedIn outreach
Recently, my response rates on outreach have increased to over 40% by applying the customer relationship equation to my LinkedIn outreach. I’ve re-written the message above into something closer to what I’d say now:
Hey [name]!
Congrats on the recent promotion at [their company]! It looks like our time at [shared company experience] is paying off! Since [shared past experience], I sold my last startup and am now working on a new one.
My new company, SolidlyAI, helps teams like [their company] increase the productivity of their customer success teams by +40%. If you’re open to it, I’d love to buy you a cup of coffee, catch up, and learn from your experience at [their company] to help guide the future of SolidlyAI. I could meet you near your office. Are you available for 30 minutes sometime next week?
Hope you're doing well!
Alek
Before moving on to the next section, what do you think is better about this? Would you say anything differently? If you want to share your ideas with the community, please feel free to leave a comment below.
Why is the response rate higher?
The response rate has improved dramatically because I’m lowering the cost and increasing trust, value, and the personal element of the message:
Congrats on the recent promotion at [their company]! It looks like our time at [shared company experience] is paying off!
ANALYSIS: I revisit our shared experience and build the personal relationship by talking about their successes.
Since [shared past experience], I sold my last startup and, now, I’m working on a new one.
ANALYSIS: I build trust that I’m capable of running a company by mentioning that I’ve done it successfully before.
My new company, SolidlyAI, helps teams like [their company] increase the productivity of their customer success teams by +40%.
ANALYSIS: I’m specific that SolidlyAI would provide significant value to their company. The specificity also builds trust.
If you’re open to it, I’d love to buy you a cup of coffee, catch up, and learn from your experience at [their company] to help guide the future of SolidlyAI.
ANALYSIS: I offer more value by buying them a cup of coffee. If virtual, I could offer a $5 Starbucks gift card. People also enjoy catching up and helping others, so those components also provide value.
I could meet you near your office. Are you available for 30 minutes sometime next week?
ANALYSIS: I’m specific about the cost of the action, and I minimize it.
By applying changes like this over the past nine months, I’ve taken my response rates on LinkedIn messages from 20% → 40%.
Applying the customer relationship equation to your customer journey.
I’ve increased LinkedIn outreach response rates by 100% by finding ways in my outreach to:
provide value now
build trust that I will provide more value in the future if they perform the action
build a personal relationship
minimize the cost of the next action I want them to do
lower their perception of future costs
Responding to LinkedIn outreach is the first step in a multi-step customer journey to becoming a SolidlyAI customer. Applying these principles to each step of the customer journey will build a healthier sales pipeline and acquire more customers.
Recommendation: To achieve your desired outcome, the next time you ask someone to do something, find a way to encourage that behavior by applying any or all of the five techniques above.
If you want to discuss how to apply this to your work, email me at newsletter@alekhagopian.com.