Recruiter & Chief
20/10/5 LinkedIn Daily Outreach Framework

This is a simple (but powerful!) daily BD outreach practice, that can be (mostly) automated.

Here’s the concept:

  • 20 new LinkedIn connections to prospects / day 👈🏻

  • 10 engagements (likes + comments) with prospects / day 🙌🏻

  • 5 custom messages to prospects / day 👋🏻

Let’s break it down. 👇🏻

20 new LinkedIn connections per day

This part lends itself well to automation.

The first ingredient: A highly relevant target list. 🎯

I have LinkedIn Recruiter, but it’s not built for BD / lead generation.

So I signed up for LinkedIn Sales Navigator. 🧭

Cost: First month is free and then it's $90-$125/month (depending on the plan).

Note: You can also create this list using other tools like public LinkedIn and Lite.

Here’s how I built my prospect list. 🍿

First I created a company (account) search: 🥇

  • Company size: 10-200

  • Company headcount growth: 10%-200%

  • Company HQ location: San Francisco Bay Area

  • Industry: I picked a bunch but the most important one for me was “Technology, Information and Internet”

  • Job Opportunities: Hiring on LinkedIn

  • Result: 808 companies (accounts)

  • I saved the search and named it

Then I switched to the individual (lead) search: 🥈

  • Company size: Same as above

  • Function: Marketing, Operations, Finance, Product Management and 4 others

  • Current job title: All relevant versions of CEO, founder, CMO, VP Marketing and Director Marketing

  • Geography: Same as above

  • Industry: Same as above

  • Connection: 2nd and 3rd degree

  • Posted on LinkedIn: Yes ← Indicator that the lead is active on LinkedIn

  • Account list: The account list I saved above ← CRUCIAL

  • Results: 566 individuals (leads)

Then…

I took that list (copied & pasted the Sales Navigator URL) into my Dripify account. 🔗

I’m brand new to Dripify - just set up an account this past week.

Cost: 7 day free trial and plans starting at $39/month.

I created a new campaign and added my lead list to it.

Then I set up a very simple sequence: 😎

This sequence does the following:

  • Sends a connection request (set at ~20 / day).

  • If / when the connection is accepted, it sends a message, then ends the sequence.

  • If the connection isn’t accepted, it will “follow” the individual on LinkedIn after 3 days and then “view their profile” after another 3 days.

  • Then it will sit there waiting for an acceptance for 20 days.

  • Then it ends.

The message I set in the sequence (after a connect) is the following:

%%first_name%% - Reading a bit about your current work and background, I thought it would make sense for us to connect. -Tal

This message works because:

  • It’s not “salesy.” It doesn’t pitch or push for anything. ⚾️

  • It leaves the door open for me to send them another message (even if they don’t respond to mine). ✍🏻

(Credit: Clark Willcox has been an awesome partner in helping me set all of this up. Thanks, Clark!) 🙌🏻

This campaign will run for about 4 weeks with my lead list of 566 individuals (20 / day for 7 days a week) 🏃🏻‍♂️‍➡️

  • Total investment: 2 hours to set up and zero additional work for 4 weeks (from a cold start).

  • Total cost: About $200/month after the free trial periods (and now I have two powerful accounts I can use for other campaigns).

🔥 TLDR: To create an automated process for 20 connections a day, I used Sales Navigator and Dripify to set a connect campaign that will run for 4 weeks on autopilot. This took me about 2 hours to set up from scratch. It should take you <1 hour to emulate.

10 prospect engagements per day

Engagements are likes or comments on my prospects’ LinkedIn posts.

This part of the process can be automated OR manual.

Some tools will do this for you using AI on auto-pilot.

I chose a hybrid model and here’s why. 👇🏻

I want the engagement (the like or comment) to be manual because I don’t want to accidentally like something weird and I think it’s important that the comment be authentic and add real value to the recipient. 

Side-note: This past week someone in my network posted a status update that was completely fake. The AI bots still liked and commented on his post, which was hilarious!

The hardest part of all of this is efficiently finding my prospects’ posts, because my LinkedIn feed is full of noise. 🙉

And my prospects don’t post that much.

Thankfully, I learned a trick this week (credit: Keely Flood). 🙏🏻

Here’s the play, using LinkedIn’s public search function:

  • Create a list of your prospects

  • Start a content search on LinkedIn

  • Click: “All filters” button

  • Sort by: Latest

  • From member: Add your list of prospects one at a time (start with 20 / search)

  • Click: Show results 

What you’ll see is a feed of posts from your prospects only! Magic!

Then I created a process to repeat this:

  • Copy & paste the URL into a spreadsheet for future use

  • Create new batches of 20 prospects as needed

  • Check these URL’s daily, make a note of “last checked date”

This method should take you <10 minutes a day, once you’ve set it up.

🔥TLDR: I used LinkedIn’s public search function to identify recent posts made by my prospects. I save these searches in a spreadsheet and run this process in <10 minutes a day.

5 custom messages per day

This is the most manual part of the process. ✍🏻

  1. Choose 5 prospects you want to message.

  2. Send them messages that are highly customized, value-added, and show curiosity about their position, company and/or recent posts on LinkedIn.

Which prospects are most valuable? I do a mix of the following:

  • 1st degree connections I haven’t talked to in a while.

  • Recently connected prospects who have engaged or messaged me back.

How to stay organized in this process: 🤓

  • I have a spreadsheet of 1st degree connections and candidates I want to keep in close touch with (I’d love to find a more efficient way for this!).

  • And I’ve been using Kondo to organize recent prospect messages.

5 messages isn’t a lot and should take you less than 10 minutes per day. 📨

🔥 TLDR: To send 5 custom messages a day, I use a system of spreadsheet + LinkedIn messages (using Kondo) to identify 5 people to message daily. This should take less than 10 minutes per day.

That’s my 20/10/5 outbound workflow!

Total investment:

  • 2 hour set-up 20 daily connects, from a cold start with new Sales Nav and Dripfify accounts (it will take you <1 hour using this guide)

  • <10 mins to set up new LinkedIn content search queries

  • <10 mins a day for 10 engagements

  • <10 mins a day for 5 messages

  • Cost: About $200/month (and you can do 10x with these tools now that you have them) 

P.S. - If the $200 price tag is a barrier to adopting this, here’s an idea: Do you know someone with a Sales Navigator account? Ask them for help exporting the list - you can get away with a pulling a list every 1-2 months and don’t need your own account. Dripify basic plan will run you only $39/month.