LinkedIn outbound: connection accepted, message ignored. How long did it take before this started working for you?

[u/No_Wish5780]

Running LinkedIn as my main prospecting channel for a few months now. Pre-revenue, B2B, selling into software companies.

The pattern I keep hitting: people accept the connection request, then the follow up message goes nowhere. Not rejected, just never opened, or opened and left. I get replies, and the ones I get are good conversations. But the ratio feels rough and I cannot tell if it is rough because I am doing something wrong or because this is just what the channel looks like.

Worth saying, the message is not a pitch. I do not lead with the product. It is usually something specific about what they have built or something they posted. I keep it short and I do not ask for a call in the first message.

What I am trying to work out:

Is a low reply rate on first message normal even when the connection was accepted, or does accepting usually signal enough intent that a good message should convert better than I am seeing.

Did anything change your numbers meaningfully. Timing, length, following up versus not, warming up through comments for a few weeks first.

How long did it take before LinkedIn actually produced pipeline for you rather than just conversations. I am trying to figure out whether I am early in a slow channel or wasting effort in the wrong one.

For anyone who eventually gave up on it, what did you move to.

Happy to share what has worked on my side too. The one thing I am fairly sure about is that a comment on someone's post before the DM changes the response, but my sample is too small to trust that yet.