This complements `, which covers profile optimization and the overall outreach + organic strategy. This file goes one level more tactical: how to define exactly who to target with LinkedIn's search tools, how to sequence connection requests without tripping LinkedIn's limits, and how to track an outbound campaign with nothing more than a spreadsheet. The actual message wording (what to say once someone accepts) is in `.
An important limit before anything else
LinkedIn's official API does not let a third-party tool send connection requests or direct messages on your behalf, and using browser-automation or "auto-connector" tools to fake that behavior risks LinkedIn detecting the pattern and restricting or permanently banning the account. Every technique below is manual: a human reviewing a profile, clicking connect, and typing (or pasting a lightly-edited template into) the message box themselves. The one LinkedIn-sanctioned way to message people outside your network at any real volume is Sales Navigator's InMail credits, used within LinkedIn's own send limits, not a script.
Build the target definition before opening search
Searching without a precise definition of who you want wastes every message that follows. Two levels, and both matter.
Company level - narrow by industry, employee count or revenue band (a company doing a few crore a year buys differently than one doing hundreds of crore), and any product-specific signal (e.g. "imports organic ingredients," "lists a private-label program"). For EximHub's audience this is usually the overseas buyer side: an importer, distributor, or retail chain in a specific country that already imports (or plausibly could import) your product category - cross-check against EximHub's own buyer/shipment data first per the standing rule in ``, then use LinkedIn to find people at that already-identified company, or as a fallback for categories where EximHub's coverage is thin.
Person level - the seniority that actually approves a new supplier. As a rule of thumb: skip recruiters, general staff, and most line managers - they have no purchasing authority. Target sourcing/procurement manager, import manager, category buyer, or head of purchasing at a mid-size or large importer; at a small importer, the owner or founder often is the buyer, so go straight to them. Director-level and above is the safer default when a company is large enough to have layered titles.
Using LinkedIn's search effectively
The search bar accepts Boolean operators, and combining them narrows a generic search into a short, high-quality list:
AND- both terms required:spices AND importer.OR- either term, used to catch title variants: `"procurement manager" OR "sourcing manager" OR "import manager"`.NOT- exclude noise:textile importer NOT recruiter.- Quotation marks - an exact phrase, not the words separately:
"import manager". - Parentheses - group logic:
(founder OR owner) AND (importer OR distributor)for smaller buyer companies where the owner is the decision-maker.
Run the query, switch to the People tab, and open a few profiles to confirm the title is current - Boolean matching can surface a past job, not the current one. On the results page, All filters adds location, current company, past company, industry, and connection degree on top of the keyword search; setting the buyer's country there is more reliable than typing a country name into the query itself.
What Sales Navigator adds
A free account can run this whole workflow at a slower pace. Sales Navigator (the paid tier worth considering for outbound specifically, as opposed to Premium Business or Recruiter plans, which target different jobs entirely) adds: filtering by seniority level and years in role directly (rather than guessing from title text), saving specific leads and target accounts with alerts when they change jobs or post, more InMail credits for reaching people outside your network under LinkedIn's own messaging rules, and visibility into who has viewed your profile so you can connect with a warmer opener. It is worth paying for once outbound is a weekly habit and the free tier's filters are the bottleneck, not before, and always start on the trial rather than committing upfront.
Reaching people you do not already share a connection to, for free
Two free ways to message someone you are not connected to yet, without spending a connection request slot or InMail credit:
- Shared LinkedIn groups. If a target buyer belongs to an industry group you can also join (visible from their profile's "Interests" section, or found independently by searching group names relevant to their sector), joining that group lets you message any member directly once your join request is approved - no connection needed.
- Second-degree connections. If a mutual first-degree connection links you to the buyer, you can either ask that mutual connection for a warm introduction, or (faster, though slightly less warm) simply connect directly with the buyer and open with a line noting the shared connection by name. Both approaches are covered with message wording in ``.
Connection request pacing and the risk of overdoing it
LinkedIn caps connection requests at roughly 100-200 per week depending on account age and standing - treat 80-100/day as a safe ceiling, not a target to hit every day. Sending near the cap from a brand-new or previously inactive account is itself a flag; ramp up gradually rather than starting at full volume. Going over the limit, or sending a burst of near-identical connection notes in a short window, can trigger a temporary block on sending new requests - inconvenient, and a second occurrence risks a longer restriction. There is no reliable way to know the exact current threshold since LinkedIn adjusts it without announcing changes, so build in headroom rather than testing the edge.
A connection request can be sent with no note at all, or with a short note (LinkedIn caps it around 300 characters) - a real, specific line (their product line, a market they buy from, a mutual connection, a recent post) measurably improves acceptance over a blank request, but keep it short: nobody reads a paragraph in the connection-request box.
Tracking outbound without dedicated CRM software
No mainstream CRM syncs natively with LinkedIn's connection and message state, so the practical answer, used at real volume by people running this kind of outbound, is a plain spreadsheet (Excel or Google Sheets), sometimes called a "hit list": one row per target contact, columns for company name, contact's first/last name, their title, email and phone (filled in once known, often blank at the start), the date a connection request was sent, how many times they have been followed up with, the date of the last contact, an estimated deal size if relevant, a free-text notes column, and the company website. It is not glamorous, but it is the only reliable memory of who has been contacted, when, and how many times - without it, follow-up cadence (see the message-scripts file) becomes guesswork and duplicate or missed follow-ups are common. Populate the company rows first from your target definition, then add individual contacts as you find them during search.
The through-line
Precision at the definition and search stage is what makes every later message land as relevant instead of generic - the same "who exactly, and what pain do they have" discipline that ` and ` both apply to buyer research applies here to sequencing outreach. Getting the target list right is most of the work; the message itself, covered next, is comparatively short.