What you'll learn
By the end of this lesson you can tell what each buyer role looks for on LinkedIn, write a first message after they accept, recognise when not to pitch and approach several people in one account without crowding them.
How LinkedIn differs from email for a senior buyer
An email arrives alone. A LinkedIn message arrives with your profile, your recent activity and the colleagues you share. A senior buyer usually looks at those before reading a word, so the profile does half the work.
Two things follow. Your headline should say who you help and with what, in words a buyer would use. And everything you send is visible in context: if three people at one company receive the same line from you, they can find out.
The connection notes themselves are in our LinkedIn Connection Request Messages by Buyer Role. This lesson covers what comes before and after them.
What each role looks for
| Role | What they check first | Open with | Avoid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Budget owner (CEO, MD, business head) | Whether you understand their business | A change at their company and what it may mean | Product detail |
| Finance leader | Whether you can talk about cost and risk plainly | A cost or risk linked to a dated change | Savings claims you cannot source |
| Technical leader | Whether you know their systems | Their project or platform, named | Calling your product easy to integrate |
| Operations head | Whether you know the daily problem | The daily problem, in their words | Strategy language |
| Procurement | Whether you respect their process | A question about how they work with suppliers | Going round them |
| Champion (manager, specialist) | Whether you can make them look good inside | Their work, specifically | Asking them to sell for you on day one |
The first message after they accept
Wait a day. Then send three parts, each in a sentence or two:
- Why them. The reason you chose this person, tied to their role.
- One useful thing. An observation, a source or a short piece of content. Nothing to sign up for.
- One question. Small and easy to answer in a line.
Example: operations head
Thanks for connecting, Asha. Your team will be running two sites soon, and the first question
other warehouse leads tell me about is who owns stock counts across both. There is a short
checklist on that if it helps. How are you planning to handle counts at the new site?Example: technical leader
Thanks for connecting, Marcus. I saw Northfield is extending its warehouse system to a second
site. Is the plan one instance for both sites, or a separate one for the new site?Neither message describes the seller's product. That comes when they ask.
When not to pitch
Hold the pitch, even if they accept quickly, when:
- You cannot name their role in the decision. Find out first.
- They have not answered your first message. A pitch will not succeed where a question failed.
- Their company is in public difficulty. Wait, or send nothing.
- You are still mapping the account. Pitching one person early fixes your story before you know who else is involved.
A pitch on LinkedIn is a short offer to talk, made only after the buyer has answered a question.
Multithreading on LinkedIn
On a named account you will reach several people. Order matters.
- Start where the problem lives. Usually the operations head or the champion, who feels it daily.
- Then the technical leader, who will judge whether a fix fits their systems.
- Then the budget owner, with something learned from the first two, never quoting them without permission.
- Space the requests over two weeks, so the account does not see a burst.
- Write a different note for each role. They compare.
- Record each person on your buying committee map: role, date connected, last message, answer.
When one person goes quiet after two messages, stop writing to them and move to the next role.
Worked example (illustrative, not a real company)
Quaywise sells warehouse software. Sam Carter works one Tier 1 account. All names are invented.
| Week | Person | Role | Message | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Asha | Regional Warehouse Manager | Connection note, then the counts question | Answers: counts are a worry |
| 2 | Marcus Lee | Head of IT Applications | Connection note, then the one-instance question | Accepts, no answer yet |
| 3 | Dana Whitfield | VP Supply Chain | Connection note on the second site, then one question about planning across two sites | Replies with a question |
By week 3, Sam knows what the site team is worried about. The message to Dana is better because of the two before it.
Key takeaways
- Your profile is read before your message. Make the headline say who you help.
- After they accept: why them, one useful thing, one question.
- Start where the problem lives, write a different note per role and space the requests out.
Exercise (30 minutes)
- Rewrite your LinkedIn headline so a buyer can see who you help and with what. (5 minutes)
- Pick one named account and list three roles in the order you will approach them. (10 minutes)
- Write the first message after acceptance for the first role, in three parts. (10 minutes)
- Check it against the four signs. If any applies, cut the pitch. (5 minutes)
Why this works on named accounts
Put it into practice
Buying Committee Mapper
Map the people behind a decision by role, stance and influence, and see who to approach next. Runs in your browser.
LinkedIn Connection Request Messages by Buyer Role
For sellers connecting with several people inside the same company.
You leave with 12 connection notes for six buyer roles, three messages for after they accept and three notes written out for one account.
Buying Committee Map
For sellers working a large account through a single contact.
You leave with nine roles to look for, a map you can paste into a spreadsheet, a brief for each person and a coverage check that shows where the account is exposed.
Multithreading Email Templates for a Second Stakeholder
For sellers with one contact in a large account and nobody else.
You leave with a who-next card, 6 email templates, a thread log and 2 emails written out.