What should I write in a LinkedIn connection request to a prospect?
One or two sentences: a specific reason you noticed them and a light reason to connect, with no pitch. Keep it under 200 characters and in the prospect's own language.
A connection note has one job: to make accepting feel natural. It is not the place to sell, book a demo or attach a link. People decide in a couple of seconds whether you look like a peer or a pitch, and anything that reads like a sales sequence gets ignored or declined.
A short, specific note pays off. In our piece on connection request messages you can see how a single line about the person's work, sent from their profile, beats a blank invite, and that liking one of their posts a week earlier lifted one rep's acceptance by about 20%. In balanced B2B fields such as consulting or SaaS, around 70% of well-targeted requests get accepted, as covered in how to get clients on a sales call faster.
Language matters more than most people think. A note in English to someone who posts only in German signals that you did not look at their profile. The same goes for informal greetings: a first name is normal in English but can feel too familiar in German, French or Czech. If the person is already open to new business conversations, for example on Meetcatcher, you can skip the warm-up and say directly why a short call makes sense for both of you.
Three notes you can adapt
- Shared topic"Hi Anna, your post on onboarding small agencies was spot on. I work on the same problem from the software side and would be glad to connect."
- Common ground"Hello Tom, I see we both work with logistics firms in the Nordics. Always good to know people in the same corner of the market."
- Recent change"Hi Marta, congratulations on the new role at Brightly. I follow the fintech space closely and would be happy to stay in touch."
- What to leave outPricing, calendar links, "quick call?" and anything you would send to fifty people unchanged.
Wait two or three days after they accept before sending a real message, and make that one useful on its own. Keep your volume steady rather than high: how many requests you can send each week depends on your account, and a normal acceptance rate tells you whether the note is working.