You find the perfect candidate on LinkedIn. You send them a message:

"Hi [Name]! I came across your profile and was impressed by your experience. We have an exciting opportunity that might be a great fit. Would you be open to a quick chat?"

They don't respond.

You send it to 50 more people. 48 don't respond. The 2 who do respond say "not interested."

Here's why your LinkedIn outreach isn't working: You sound exactly like every other recruiter.

Passive candidates get 10-20 recruiter messages per week. Most delete them without reading past the first sentence.

Here's how to write outreach that actually gets responses.

Why Most LinkedIn Recruiter Messages Fail

The generic recruiter message:

Hi Sarah!

I came across your profile and was impressed by your experience in software engineering. We have an exciting opportunity at [Company] that could be a great fit for your background.

Would you be open to a quick 15-minute call to learn more?

Looking forward to connecting! [Your Name]

Why this fails:

1. It's obviously a template. "I came across your profile" = "I searched for keywords and you came up."
2. It's vague. "Exciting opportunity" and "great fit" mean nothing.
3. It's recruiter-focused. "Would you be open to a call?" = "Give me your time so I can pitch you."
4. There's no reason to care. What's in it for them?

Generic messages have a 2-5% response rate. Personalized, specific messages get 20-40% response rates.

The Formula For LinkedIn Messages That Actually Work

Good passive candidate outreach has four elements:

1. Personalization (prove you actually looked at their profile)
2. Specificity (say what the role is, don't make them guess)
3. Value proposition (why should they care?)
4. Low-pressure ask (don't demand a call immediately)

Example: Generic vs. Good

Generic (2% response rate):

Hi James,

I came across your profile and was impressed by your experience. We're hiring a Senior Product Manager and I think you'd be a great fit. Would you be open to a quick call?

Good (30% response rate):

Hi James,

I saw you recently launched the new checkout flow at [Company]—the post you shared about reducing cart abandonment by 18% was great. Really smart approach to the mobile UX problem.

I'm recruiting for a Senior Product Manager role at [Company], focused on building payment experiences for SMB customers. The team is tackling similar conversion challenges at a different scale (we're processing $500M annually and aiming to double that).

Not sure if you're open to exploring new opportunities, but I thought the problem space might be interesting given your checkout work. If you're curious, I'm happy to share more about the role and team.

Either way, hope the new feature launch goes well!

[Your Name]

Why this works:

• Personalization: References specific work (checkout flow, cart abandonment metric)
• Specificity: Says exactly what the role is (Senior PM, payment experiences, SMB customers)
• Value proposition: Explains why it might be interesting (similar problems at bigger scale)
• Low-pressure: "Not sure if you're open" and "either way" = no pressure

Personalized messages get 7x higher response rates than generic templates.

How To Personalize At Scale (Without Spending Hours Per Message)

"But I don't have time to write custom messages for 50 people!"

You don't need to spend 20 minutes per message. You need to spend 2-3 minutes finding one specific, relevant detail.

Quick personalization sources:

1. Recent LinkedIn posts or comments

Check their activity. Did they post, comment, or share something recently? Reference it.

Example:

"Saw your comment on the AI in product management thread—agreed that most teams are over-indexing on AI features without solving real customer problems."

2. Recent job changes or promotions

If they recently started a new role, don't recruit them (they just started). If they got promoted 6+ months ago, congratulate them and reference it.

Example:

"Congrats on the promotion to Senior Engineer—looks like you've been leading the infrastructure migration project."

3. Projects or products they've worked on

Check their experience section. What did they actually build? Reference something specific.

Example:

"I saw you were one of the early engineers on [Product]—I've used it for years and always appreciated how intuitive the onboarding flow is."

4. Shared connections or background

Went to the same school? Worked at the same company (different times)? Mention it.

Example:

"I saw you also worked at [Company]—I was there 2018-2020 on the platform team. I'm guessing you have strong feelings about the legacy codebase."

Even one sentence of genuine personalization increases response rates dramatically.

The "Problem-First" Approach (For Senior/Passive Candidates)

Senior passive candidates don't care about "exciting opportunities." They care about interesting problems.

Instead of: "We're hiring a Senior Engineer."

Try: "We're rebuilding our API infrastructure to handle 10x scale. Looking for an engineer who's solved distributed systems problems at scale."

Instead of: "We have a great culture and benefits."

Try: "We're a 12-person team building dev tools for infrastructure engineers. Lots of technical autonomy, minimal meetings."

Why this works: Senior candidates are motivated by problems, not perks.

Example: Problem-first message

Hi Maria,

I saw you led the database migration at [Company]—moving from Postgres to distributed Cassandra at that scale is no joke. I'm guessing you learned some painful lessons about data consistency.

I'm working on a similar problem at [Company]. We're migrating a monolith database (8TB, 50M users) to a distributed architecture. Looking for an engineer who's been through this before and can help us avoid the landmines.

Not sure if you're open to new opportunities, but I thought the problem might be interesting. Happy to share more if you're curious.

[Your Name]

Problem-first messages get 40%+ response rates from senior engineers.

The "No-Pressure" Close

Don't end with: "Are you available for a call this week?"

That's high-pressure. Passive candidates will ignore it.

Instead, use low-pressure closes:

✅ "If you're curious, I'm happy to share more."

✅ "Not sure if this is relevant for you, but thought I'd reach out."

✅ "No pressure if you're not interested—just thought the role might be a fit."

✅ "Let me know if you'd like to hear more—or feel free to ignore if timing isn't right."

Low-pressure closes double response rates compared to "are you available for a call?" closes.

What To Do When They Respond

When a passive candidate responds, don't immediately try to schedule a call.

Bad response:

Great to hear from you! When are you available for a quick call this week?

Good response:

Awesome! Here's a bit more detail about the role: [2-3 sentence summary]. The team is [brief context]. Typical comp range is $X-$Y.

If that sounds interesting, happy to set up a call. If not, no worries—appreciate you taking the time to respond.

Why this works:

• Gives them more information upfront (reduces friction)
• Lets them self-select out if it's not a fit (saves everyone time)
• Still low-pressure

Providing role details in the first response increases call conversion by 50%.

What NOT To Say In LinkedIn Outreach

❌ "I have an exciting opportunity"

Every recruiter says this. It means nothing.

Better: Describe the actual role specifically.

❌ "You'd be a great fit"

You don't know that. You haven't talked to them yet.

Better: "I thought this might be relevant given your [specific experience]."

❌ "Quick 15-minute call"

Passive candidates don't want to give you 15 minutes without knowing what it's about.

Better: Provide details first, then offer a call.

❌ "I'd love to pick your brain"

This sounds like you want free consulting, not to recruit them.

Better: Be honest: "I'm recruiting for [role]. Thought it might be relevant."

❌ Copy-paste their entire work history back to them

"I saw you worked at X from 2018-2020, then moved to Y where you were a Senior Engineer working on Z..."

They know their own work history. This is filler that wastes their time.

Better: Reference ONE specific thing that's relevant to the role.

The Subject Line Matters (For InMail)

If you're using LinkedIn InMail (paid messages), the subject line determines whether they open it.

Bad subject lines:

• "Exciting opportunity"
• "Great fit for your background"
• "Quick question"

Good subject lines:

• "Senior PM role - payment systems"
• "Question about your [Project] work"
• "[Shared connection] suggested I reach out"
• "Distributed systems problem at [Company]"

Specific subject lines get 2-3x higher open rates than generic ones.

The Bottom Line

LinkedIn outreach to passive candidates works when it's:

1. Personalized (reference something specific from their profile)
2. Specific (say what the role actually is)
3. Problem-focused (describe interesting work, not perks)
4. Low-pressure (don't demand a call immediately)

Template you can adapt:

Hi [Name],

[One sentence of genuine personalization—reference their work, post, or background.]

I'm recruiting for a [Specific Role Title] at [Company], focused on [Specific Problem/Project]. [One sentence about why this might be interesting given their background.]

Not sure if you're open to exploring new opportunities, but I thought the [problem/project/team] might be relevant. Happy to share more if you're curious.

[Your Name]

Personalized, low-pressure messages get 20-40% response rates. Generic templates get 2-5%.

Stop copy-pasting. Start personalizing. You'll get more responses—and better candidates.