The Headline
98,719 Connection Requests, Every Client
98,719connection requests sent
21.3%accepted
4.3%of everyone approached replied
20.0%of accepted connections replied
26.9%of first replies came within an hour
3,519people replied
How Much Clients Differ
The same team, tools and approach, very different markets. Every client team that reached at least 1,000 people, from the best reply rate down.
| Client (anonymised) | People approached | Accepted | Replied, of people approached |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dutch leadership consultancy | 3,292 | 24.2% | 7.4% |
| Benelux e-commerce agency | 2,732 | 24.5% | 6.2% |
| UK hospitality consultancy | 1,758 | 29.5% | 6.1% |
| UK trade show | 1,636 | 11.1% | 6.0% |
| Dutch email marketing agency | 7,609 | 26.1% | 5.6% |
| Dutch brand and design agency | 9,098 | 26.9% | 5.4% |
| UK hospitality design agency | 3,226 | 21.0% | 5.0% |
| UK bid-writing software company | 3,411 | 27.4% | 4.9% |
| Sales Boutique (our own new business) | 16,642 | 23.5% | 4.7% |
| UK full-service creative agency | 1,554 | 21.7% | 4.1% |
| US M&A advisory firm | 5,792 | 19.0% | 3.8% |
| European software staffing firm | 1,711 | 18.3% | 3.6% |
| UK assistive technology provider | 6,121 | 16.6% | 2.5% |
| UK financial services firm | 1,055 | 15.5% | 2.4% |
| Contaktly (my own product) | 10,093 | 16.6% | 1.9% |
| ERP software company | 4,849 | 12.8% | 1.3% |
Acceptance counts requests sent at least 30 days before the pull, so pending requests don't drag it down. Our best single campaign: Sales Boutique's own campaign to agency founders, 59% accepted (209 of 354) and 21.5% of the people approached replied.
LinkedIn Against Email
Same 16 clients, same months (1 May to 26 Oct 2026): 4.2% of people approached on LinkedIn replied, against 1.8% on email. From 18 Sep to 26 Oct 2026, LinkedIn booked 3.02 meetings per 1,000 people approached and email 1.21. The full comparison is on the results page.
How These Numbers Are Counted
- Connection requests sent: request events in the GetSales activity log for every client team, warm-up flows excluded.
- Accepted: people who accepted after our request (existing connections excluded), counting requests sent 30 or more days before the pull.
- Replied, of people approached: people who sent us a LinkedIn message after our first touch, divided by everyone a campaign sent a request or message to.
- Replied, of accepted connections: the same replies divided by accepted connections.
- First reply within an hour: measured from our first message to that person; connection-request notes don't count as messages.
- Positive replies and meetings by channel are on the results page; GetSales doesn't record them reliably on its own.