Work LinkedIn by hand before you connect it

Not everyone connects LinkedIn on day one. You're waiting on Sales Navigator, or you want to see the research before you hand over your account. Either way, the accounts on your Board are getting ready to buy this week, not next month.

So Stage 1 lets you work them by hand. It does the research and the writing. You do the finding and the sending, and Stage 1 keeps the record.

What changes before you connect

Stage 1 still builds your Board, ranks every account by signal strength, runs the 3x3 research and drafts the Hypothesis Opening. Two things wait for LinkedIn. It can't search LinkedIn for the buying committee, and it can't send.

The account screen changes shape to cover both.

Find the people yourself

Open an account and look under Who to thread, and the way in. You'll see a box called Find them on LinkedIn, with a search link for each of your buyer titles. Search CIO at the account, Search CTO at the account, and so on, up to three, taken from the buyer titles in your Brain.

Each link opens a LinkedIn people search in a new tab. Find the right person, copy their profile link, and paste it into the form right under the links with their name and title. They join the account and Stage 1 sets their seat and fit from the title.

Send the opener yourself

The Hypothesis Opening on the account says Drafted from the research. Send it yourself on LinkedIn. Under the message you get three buttons. Copy message puts the draft on your clipboard. Open their profile takes you straight to the person on LinkedIn. I sent it tells Stage 1 the message went out.

Read the draft before you copy it. The four parts are laid out under the message, the research hook, the personal trigger, the hypothesis and the exit question, so you can check each one against what you know. Change what you want in LinkedIn before you hit send. It's your name on it.

If the person the opener is written to isn't on the account yet, the screen tells you to add them first. I sent it needs someone to attach the message to.

Why tap I sent it

Tapping I sent it is what keeps the hand-sent message from disappearing. Stage 1 records the message as the first one sent to that person, with the drafted text, the time and the latest signal at the account.

If the account was still on the Board, it moves to approved and joins your Watchlist. On the free trial, that counts as one of your 10 approved accounts.

The send counts in Insights as a person contacted, the same as anything Stage 1 sends for you. And once LinkedIn is connected, replies from that person land on the Desk with the next move drafted.

Skip the button and none of that happens. A week later you can't say what you sent, to whom, or what came back. That's how a promising account goes quiet without anyone noticing. More on that in the account that went quiet.

When to connect

Hand sending works for a handful of accounts. When you're ready for more, connect LinkedIn under Settings, Connections. Messages go out from your own account, never a shared pool.

Use Premium or Sales Navigator. Warm paths need one of them, and LinkedIn cuts free accounts off from search within days. The tradeoffs are in LinkedIn Premium or Sales Navigator for warm paths.

Once it's connected, Stage 1 finds the buying committee for you, looks for people who can introduce you, and sends on schedule after you approve.

Why it matters for a services sale

Big services deals start with one good conversation. You don't need automation to have it. You need the right person, a reason to write that's about them, and a record of what you said. Working by hand gives you all three from your first day, before a single setting is done.

Every plan starts with a 14-day free trial and no credit card. Plans and details are on the pricing page, or you can start your trial.