Trust me, I know how it feels: you approach your prospect with a great DM, and they completely ghost you.
The reason I know is that it happens to us and our clients too. But much less often than to you, because we have been doing this for 8 years and have learned a thing or two.
To keep this short, I will presume that you know LinkedIn’s rules and your local laws regarding DM communication. I will also presume you are posting relevant content, addressing the right prospects, and have a relevant offer. So, you are all set and should be getting a 5–25% success rate when sending a DM, right?
Almost. This is the typical success rate when you send a good text. The conversion rate I am talking about is how many of those DMs actually turn into relevant meetings.
If you aren’t getting this kind of success, chances are your DM has one of these issues:
It’s longer than 4 lines.
You’re trying to prove yourself (you should have done this through your posts; it’s too late to do that in a DM).
It contains more than one question.
It’s too vague.
It’s ingratiating.
As it happens, I just received a message that suffers from all of these issues at once. Here it is:
“Wishing you a nice day, Mr. Pavljuk,
It is a pleasure to “meet” you. I have a question for you. What type of boss are you? Do you require control and direct management? Do you wish to always know about everything that is going on? Do you feel that you spend a large portion of your energy on leading people, but that it simply cannot be done any other way? Or, on the contrary, are you more comfortable building on trust, preferring to delegate tasks and only intervening in your team’s work when absolutely necessary?
For years, I have been dedicated to teaching harmonious leadership. I say without false modesty that no matter what slows you down or limits you in leading people, I can help you with it. I will show you the path to a dream team.
Would you like to take advantage of this? To discuss the topics that matter to you? We can have a brief call. Message me to arrange a time.
With esteem and respect,
X”
So what I would write instead?
“Hi Sergej, may I ask you for a meeting? I believe I can help you.”
I know this is a huge, even shocking difference. But remember, the person you are reaching out to should already know you from your posts. So, you don't need to do anything except ask if they want to meet.