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Sending a soft-touch LinkedIn connection request

48 hours after the first cold email step lands as Delivered, the SDR sends a no-note LinkedIn connection request mid-week between 09:00 and 11:00 local to the prospect. The touch is logged as a 'LinkedIn Touch' Salesforce activity so any AE who picks the lead up later can see the multi-channel cadence.

Category
Tags
sales-navigatorsalesforcelinkedinconnection-requestmulti-channel
What and why
The observed behaviour and the reasoning behind it.
Behaviour
Reasoning
Cause and effect
What initiates this pattern and what it produces.
Trigger
Outcome
Standard operating procedure
Step-by-step instructions to reproduce this pattern.
1

Outreach

Open the prospect's Outreach record and confirm the first email step shows status 'Delivered' and at least forty-eight hours have passed since send.

If the first email bounced, hold the connection request and raise the lead in the rev-ops channel for email cleansing. Connecting on LinkedIn after a bounce wastes a touch and the prospect now sees a stranger trying to add them with no warming via email first.

Expected: The first email is delivered and the cooldown window has elapsed.

2

LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Open the prospect's Sales Navigator profile via the LinkedIn link on the Outreach record.

Use the link from Outreach not a fresh search. The Outreach link points at the verified profile, a fresh search occasionally surfaces a different person with the same name and the connection request lands on the wrong inbox.

Expected: The verified Sales Navigator profile is open in the browser.

3

LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Click Connect and choose Send without a note when the dialog appears.

The team's tested copy on noted requests has not beaten no-note. Even 'thanks for the recent post' notes are flagged as templated by anyone in a sales-adjacent function. Send without a note unless the SDR has a personal mutual connection of any kind, in which case mention the mutual by name in a one-line note.

Expected: A connection request is sent and the button changes to Pending.

4

LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Check the prospect's local time before sending and hold the request if it is before nine or after eleven in the morning their time.

The team batches connection requests into the prospect's nine-to-eleven local window where accept rate is highest. Sending at eight at night UK time to a Pacific-time prospect lands on their morning but reads as automation, accept rate halves. Hold and send the next morning instead.

Expected: The request is sent within the prospect's nine-to-eleven local-time band, or queued mentally for the next morning.

5

Salesforce

Open the matching Salesforce lead, log a new Activity of type 'LinkedIn Touch' with subject 'Connection request sent' and save.

Use the picklist Activity Type 'LinkedIn Touch', not the free-text Comment field, the Activity Type drives the multi-channel touch report leadership review on Mondays. Always save the activity with the same date as the actual send, not the date of the lead update.

Expected: A LinkedIn Touch activity is recorded on the Salesforce lead and visible to any AE who later inherits it.

Related patterns
How this pattern connects to other patterns in the library.
Supporting actions
Actions that provide evidence for this pattern.
Sent no-note connection request to VP Operations at Pyramid Foods
Logged 'LinkedIn Touch' activity on Salesforce lead after Sales Navigator request
Held off connection request after first cold email bounced for prospect at Tetrapod Inc
Queued connection request for next morning after spotting Pacific prospect at 19:00 local
Metadata
Timestamps and identifiers.
EvidenceObserved 856 times across 4 connections
ApplicationsLinkedIn Sales Navigator, Salesforce, Outreach
First seen22 Jan 2026, 09:50
Last seen6 May 2026, 10:36
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