LinkedIn shows you who to reach. It won’t let you reach them.
Bradley Warwick is a business development consultant at deVere Group, an independent financial advisory firm managing over $10 billion in assets for 80,000+ clients across 100+ countries. Based in Zurich with 1,001-5,000 employees globally, deVere specializes in customized financial solutions for international investors, expatriates, and global businesses.
Bradley’s job: find prospects on LinkedIn who fit deVere’s ideal customer profile, reach them, qualify them, book meetings.
The problem: actually reaching them.
LinkedIn InMail response rates: 5%.
Oftentimes, he’d InMail prospects with few replies, or begin a lengthy sales cycle – having to pitch prospects through InMail, wait for interested replies, and then ask for a prospect’s phone number to continue followup.
Pitch via InMail. Wait for reply. Ask for phone number. Wait again. Hope they respond.
That process wasn’t slow. It was a dead end. 95 out of 100 prospects never replied. And the 5 who did? The back-and-forth took days before Bradley could even have a real conversation.
When COVID hit, InMail became even less effective. Decision-makers stopped checking LinkedIn regularly. Response rates dropped further.
Bradley needed direct phone access. He started using Lusha to pull verified mobile numbers from LinkedIn profiles.
Results: 50% more prospects reached. 25% more closed deals.
I’ve been able to reach 50% more prospects than I was prior to using Lusha.
Not marginal improvement. 50% pipeline expansion from one fundamental change: phone access that bypasses InMail.
The LinkedIn trap
For B2B sales, LinkedIn is essential prospecting infrastructure. Searchable database of decision-makers. Professional context. Company information.
But reaching those prospects? That’s where LinkedIn breaks.
InMail has limitations:
- 5% response rate
- Days of back-and-forth before getting phone numbers
- Lengthy qualification process via messaging
- No way to have real-time conversations
- Ineffective during COVID when people stopped checking regularly
Bradley found himself trapped on the platform. He could see exactly who he needed to reach—CFOs and financial decision-makers at target companies. But contacting them meant sending InMail into a void and hoping for replies that rarely came.
Bradley often found himself trapped on LinkedIn, reaching dead ends during his prospecting efforts.
He’s measured on clear KPIs:
Meetings booked
Pipeline generated
Sales qualified leads created
My key KPIs are based on meetings booked, and the outcome of those meetings.
None of those KPIs get met when 95% of outreach goes unanswered.
Phone calls that actually convert
Financial advisory sales require real conversations. You’re discussing complex topics—retirement planning, FATCA compliance, international tax strategy, education funding. None of that happens effectively via LinkedIn messaging.
Phone calls work. InMail doesn’t.
In sales, if you get a hold of a prospect by telephone it’s far more effective, rather than emailing or InMailing, typing an email, waiting for them to reply and getting back to them again, asking for their numbers. It’s just a much quicker sales process with Lusha.
The difference isn’t subtle. It’s the difference between:
InMail approach: Message → Wait → Follow-up → Wait → Ask for number → Wait → Maybe get reply → Finally call
Direct dial approach: Find prospect → Pull number → Call → Qualify → Book meeting
One path takes days and usually fails. The other happens immediately and actually works.
Lusha gave Bradley verified direct dials with 50-60% accuracy. Not perfect. But dramatically better than 5% InMail response rates.
50% more prospects in pipeline
Once Bradley started using Lusha to bypass InMail, his pipeline expanded significantly.
50% more prospects means 50% more conversations. 50% more qualification opportunities. 50% more potential deals entering the pipeline.
That growth didn’t come from working longer hours or making more LinkedIn searches. It came from actually reaching the prospects he found.
Before Lusha: Find 100 prospects → InMail 100 → Get 5 responses → Maybe convert 1-2
After Lusha: Find 100 prospects → Call 100 with direct numbers → Reach 50-60 → Qualify and convert substantially more
The math is simple. When you can actually reach prospects, your pipeline grows.
Sales cycles that move at conversation speed
Financial advisory sales typically involve lengthy cycles. Multiple conversations. Trust building. Complex solutions tailored to individual situations.
But those cycles don’t need to start slowly.
It’s just a much quicker sales process with Lusha.
Quick doesn’t mean rushed. It means:
Immediate qualification via phone instead of days of messaging
Real-time objection handling instead of asynchronous back-and-forth
Faster trust building through actual conversations
Shorter time to booked meetings because you’re already talking
When prospects are ready to discuss financial planning, you want to have that conversation immediately—not three days later after multiple InMail exchanges.
Direct phone access collapses the timeline between “found prospect” and “qualified conversation.”
25% more closed deals
More prospects reached. Faster qualification. Actual phone conversations.
All of that converted into bottom-line results.
Lusha has increased my closed deals by 25% and I’ve recommended it widely amongst colleagues.
25% more closed deals. Not 25% more conversations or 25% more meetings. 25% more actual closed business.
That growth came from one fundamental shift: escaping the LinkedIn InMail dead end and reaching prospects directly by phone.
For a financial advisory firm managing $10B+ in assets, 25% more deals represents significant revenue impact. Bradley saw it clearly enough to recommend Lusha across his team.
COVID accelerated what already worked
When COVID hit, traditional prospecting became harder. Office phone numbers stopped working. In-person meetings disappeared. LinkedIn InMail—already ineffective at 5% response rates—became even less reliable.
During Corona – it became even more difficult to speak to prospects.
Decision-makers working from home had different communication patterns. They checked LinkedIn less frequently. They relied more heavily on direct mobile communication.
Bradley already had the right infrastructure: verified mobile numbers that connected regardless of where prospects were working.
While other BDRs struggled with disconnected office lines and unresponsive InMail, Bradley maintained direct access to decision-makers through mobile phones that worked from anywhere.
COVID didn’t break his prospecting workflow. It proved that direct mobile access works better than office infrastructure even in normal times.
When “access” becomes infrastructure
Asked to describe Lusha in one word, Bradley chose: “Access.”
That’s exactly right. Not better data. Not more features. Access.
Access to decision-makers that LinkedIn shows you but won’t let you reach. Access to phone conversations that actually qualify prospects. Access to sales cycles that move at conversation speed instead of messaging speed.
50% more prospects reached
25% more closed deals
50-60% direct dial accuracy
Faster qualification through phone vs. InMail
Sales process that works during COVID
Recommended widely across team
Lusha has increased my closed deals by 25% and I’ve recommended it widely amongst colleagues.
Bradley didn’t just use Lusha. He recommended it broadly because the results were undeniable.
When you’re trapped on LinkedIn with 5% InMail response rates, access to verified phone numbers isn’t a nice-to-have feature. It’s infrastructure that determines whether you hit your KPIs or not.
LinkedIn shows you who to reach. Lusha gives you access to actually reach them. For Bradley and deVere Group, that difference converted to 50% more pipeline and 25% more closed deals.
That’s not better prospecting. That’s escaping a dead end entirely.
