LinkedIn Leads: How to Find, Import, and Convert Prospects

LinkedIn is the best database of B2B decision-makers ever built. Every profile is self-reported, continuously updated, and searchable by job title, company, industry, seniority, and geography. The challenge isn't finding leads — it's finding the right ones efficiently and reaching them before your message gets ignored.

Step 1 — Define your ideal LinkedIn lead

Before opening a search page, write down the exact profile of the person most likely to buy from you. Vague targeting produces vague results.

• Job title(s): be specific. 'VP of Sales' and 'Head of Revenue' are different titles for the same function — include both.
• Company size: are you targeting 10-person startups or 500+ enterprise? Filter by headcount.
• Industry: LinkedIn's industry filter is broad — combine it with keywords in the search bar for precision.
• Geography: city, region, or country depending on whether your product is local or global.
• Connection degree: 2nd-degree connections have a mutual contact, which improves acceptance rates by 15–25%.

Step 2 — Use LinkedIn's lead finder filters

LinkedIn's people search is the most powerful free lead finder available. Go to linkedin.com/search/results/people/ and use the All Filters option to access every filter at once. LinkedIn Sales Navigator unlocks additional filters — including headcount growth, recent job changes, and posted content keywords — if you're doing high-volume prospecting.

• Keywords in the search bar search across the full profile, not just job title. Use this for niche roles.
• 'Changed jobs in the past 90 days' (Sales Navigator) is a powerful buying signal — new leaders often bring new budgets.
• Save searches to get weekly alerts when new profiles match your criteria.

Step 3 — Import leads with a Chrome extension

Once you have a search results page with 100–500 targeted leads, use a lead import tool to pull them into your CRM or outreach platform without manual copying. outreachKoi's Chrome extension imports every visible profile on the page — name, title, company, and LinkedIn URL — in one click.

• Import across multiple pages to build lists of hundreds of qualified prospects.
• Duplicates are detected automatically — existing leads are never re-imported.
• Leads are organised into Lead Lists which you can reuse across campaigns.

Step 4 — Build a multi-step outreach sequence

A single message rarely converts. A well-timed sequence of 3–5 touchpoints dramatically improves reply rates. The standard LinkedIn sequence for cold outreach:

• Day 0: connection request (with or without a note — test both for your audience).
• Day 3–5: first follow-up message after connection accepted. Reference something specific about them.
• Day 10–12: second follow-up with a different angle or additional value (a case study, a relevant stat).
• Day 18–21: closing message — low pressure, leaves the door open.

Step 5 — Personalize at scale with AI

The biggest conversion lever is personalization — messages that reference something specific about the recipient. At scale, writing custom messages isn't feasible manually. outreachKoi's AI personalization reads each lead's LinkedIn profile before sending and rewrites the template to reference their actual role, company, and recent activity.

• Enable AI personalization on any campaign step in the campaign editor.
• The template acts as a brief — write the structure and intent, and the AI fills the specifics.
• Review a sample of generated messages before launching to confirm quality.

Measuring and improving lead quality

Two metrics tell you whether your LinkedIn leads are well-targeted: connection acceptance rate and reply rate. Low acceptance (under 25%) means your connection note or targeting is off. Low reply rate (under 5%) after connection means your message isn't resonating.

• Track acceptance rate per campaign in the Analytics tab.
• A/B test connection note vs no note — results vary by industry.
• If targeting is good but replies are low, the problem is the message, not the leads.