Your LinkedIn connection requests are probably getting ignored. It’s not you, it’s the generic approach. We asked Charlotte Lloyd for a better way. As a top B2B sales trainer and founder of Charlotte Lloyd Sales Consulting, she turns cold outreach into real conversations. In this interview, the expert sales outreach consultant shares her exact methods. You’ll get tips on pre-outreach research, best practices for connection requests, and even some objection handling coaching. Stop getting deleted and start building rapport.
Who is Charlotte Lloyd?
A Sales Leader with 23+ Years of Experience
With over two decades in the trenches of B2B sales, Charlotte Lloyd is the kind of expert you listen to when she talks. She has built her career, spanning more than 23 years, on a simple but powerful idea: businesses grow when they have effective sales and conversion systems in place. It’s not about luck or magic; it’s about having a repeatable plan. Her deep experience has earned her a reputation as a top B2B sales trainer and landed her on lists like the “100 Most Powerful Saleswomen” and “Top Female Sales Creator” on LinkedIn. Charlotte focuses on building the foundational strategies that allow sales teams to acquire new clients consistently, turning unpredictable pipelines into reliable growth engines.
Founder of The Client Acquisition Club
Charlotte founded The Client Acquisition Club to make that process less of a struggle. Her goal is to demystify client acquisition, providing businesses with clear, actionable steps that they can implement right away. She firmly believes that sales is a skill, and like any skill, it improves with practice and a willingness to try new things. Her advice isn’t just theory; it’s practical guidance designed for the real world. Once you have a solid strategy like the ones Charlotte teaches, you can use tools with AI-powered workflows to execute your plan without getting buried in admin work. For more of her insights, you can follow her work directly on her LinkedIn profile.
Interview highlights & key takeaways
How can salespeople build real confidence?
Confidence isn’t a personality trait you’re born with; it’s a skill you build through deliberate practice. As Charlotte Lloyd teaches, the salespeople who seem most at ease are often the ones who have put in the most work behind the scenes. They’ve practiced their pitch, refined their follow-up, and learned from every conversation. A huge part of this is reframing what happens when a deal stalls. It’s rarely a personal failure. More often, it means the customer doesn’t fully see the value you’re offering. This simple shift in perspective is powerful. It turns a moment of self-doubt into a solvable problem: “How can I communicate my value more clearly?”
Solving that problem becomes much easier when you’re not buried in administrative tasks. You can’t find the time to practice and improve if you’re spending hours every day logging activities in your CRM or figuring out who to email next. This is where having a smart system makes all the difference. When you use tools with AI-powered workflows to handle repetitive tasks, you free up critical time and mental energy. Instead of guessing, you can focus on the high-impact work that actually builds your skills—like crafting a better value proposition or preparing for a key meeting. Confidence comes from knowing your process works and having the space to execute it well.
What should proper pre-outreach research look like?
According to Charlotte, the goal of the research should be identifying triggers such as company funding, expansions, increased revenue, and new product launches, among others.
1. Identify triggers: Look for specific events or signals that make a company more receptive to your outreach, such as funding rounds, expansions, or new product launches.
2. Segment your outreach: Divide the prospects based on different triggers and personas, ensuring a more organized and tailored approach in your communication.
3. Organize your prospects: Create groups such as “new,” “in progress,” and “priority” to categorize your contacts based on their level of interaction and engagement, helping in streamlining the communication process and prioritizing efforts.
What’s the best way to approach a prospect via LinkedIn?
Charlotte reveals a nuanced approach to LinkedIn outreach, emphasizing the importance of customization based on the activity levels of the prospects. She classifies LinkedIn users into three tiers and provides strategies tailored for each.
Tier one: Hyperactive users
1. Engagement: Begin by engaging with their posts and comments. Build a rapport by being actively involved in conversations that they are a part of.
2. Connection request: Once a level of engagement is established, send them a connection request.
3. Voice note: After the connection is accepted, send a voice note for a personalized touch, enhancing the connection’s quality and likelihood of a response.
Related post: 16 LinkedIn Message Templates That Don’t Scream “Prospecting”
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Tier two: Semi-active users**
1. Shared interests: Engage over shared interests and topics. Utilize their sporadic posts and comments to initiate conversations.
2. Direct messaging: Shift the conversation to direct messages (DMs) where you can discuss more about the challenges and solutions, moving towards setting up a meeting.
Tier three: Lurkers
1. Engagement on reposts: Engage on their reposts which usually have less activity, making your engagement stand out.
2. Specific connection request: When sending a connection request, be very specific and articulate a clear value proposition or solve a pain point in your message.
3. Direct ask: Given their lower activity levels, be more direct in asking for a meeting, ensuring that the outreach is compelling and to the point.
What are some best practices for LinkedIn connection requests?
1. Personalize: Personalize the LinkedIn connection requests to make them memorable and likely to be accepted.
2. Avoid blank requests: When sending out mass connection requests, it may be challenging to personalize, but avoid sending blank ones as they’re not very memorable.
3. Mention previous interactions: Reference any other interactions you’ve had with the person, like emails, make the connection feel more engaging.
4. Avoid generic messages: Sending generic messages such as, “Hey, I came across your profile. I see that you’re a social seller—so am I! Let’s connect.” don’t work. Charlotte deletes these types of messages immediately.
Related post: annah Ajikawo on Cold Email & LinkedIn Prospecting Best Practices
What are the biggest mistakes you see salespeople make?
1. Late disqualification: Salespeople often fail to disqualify prospects quickly enough, wasting time on the wrong prospects. If you know a prospect isn’t a good fit, don’t be afraid to disqualify them right away.
2. Drifting from the process: There’s a tendency to deviate from the sales process, especially when salespeople get overly enthusiastic or complacent. Do not skip steps to try to jump ahead.
3. Not trying new things: Salespeople sometimes repeat the same actions expecting different results. For example, they think what worked in the previous quarter will work again in the next one. This leads to stagnation.
A tip Charlotte shares is investing in external coaching to continue to improve in your role and enhance performance. This is independent from the internal coaching that is paid for by your company. That way, you’ll be more invested in the training and you’ll gain a lot more out of it.
Ignoring pre-call buyer perception
A final pitfall is walking into a call blind to the buyer’s existing views. As Charlotte notes, “Customers often have an idea about you before you even talk to them. Your sales call is often just confirming what they already think.” Prospects have seen your website, your LinkedIn profile, and your competitors’ ads. If their perception is that your solution is just another expensive tool, it’s your job to clearly communicate its value and align it with their needs. Juggling this for every prospect is tough, which is where a system helps. Instead of manually tracking every trigger, you can use AI-powered workflows to personalize outreach based on company news or engagement signals, ensuring your first touchpoint acknowledges their world and shapes their perception from the start.
What’s the most common objection salespeople face today?
The “No budget” objection is the most common sales objection today. Salespeople should empathize, ask open questions to understand decision-making processes, and offer educational insights to keep prospects engaged for future opportunities. They should aim to keep the conversation going and position themselves as helpful, rather than pushing for immediate sales.
Confusing price objections with value confusion
Charlotte points out a critical mistake many reps make: confusing a price objection with a value problem. When a prospect says, “we have no budget,” it’s easy to hear it as a dead end. But often, what they’re really saying is, “I don’t see how this is worth the cost.” If sales aren’t happening, it’s often because customers don’t fully understand the value of what you’re offering. Instead of immediately offering a discount, your job is to get curious. Ask open-ended questions to understand their real challenges and decision-making process. This is where you shift from selling to educating, using tools like AI-powered workflows to send follow-ups that reinforce exactly how your solution solves their specific pain points and delivers a clear return.
How can salespeople stay up to date with sales trends?
- Interviewing top performers: Learn from top performers both within and outside your organization, and be willing to engage with and ask questions of peers in the industry.
2. Using LinkedIn: Use platforms like LinkedIn effectively, keep conversations flowing, and stay engaged with conversations are great ways to follow trends within the sales industry.
Using AI to “remember more,” not just “send more”
When it comes to AI, Charlotte’s philosophy is clear: use it to find the right customers, not just to contact more of them. She believes AI should help you “remember more” about what works, instead of just helping you “send more” messages that miss the mark. If a deal isn’t moving forward, it’s often because the customer doesn’t fully see the value in what you’re offering, not just because of the price. This is where AI can be a huge asset. By using AI-powered workflows, you can automate the repetitive parts of your process, which frees you up to focus on what really matters: practicing your pitch and clearly communicating your value to the right people.
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s the biggest mistake I can make with a LinkedIn connection request? Sending a generic or blank request is a common misstep. According to Charlotte, messages like, “I see you’re a social seller, so am I! Let’s connect,” are instantly deleted. These requests show a lack of genuine interest. Instead, take a moment to personalize your message, even if it’s just referencing a shared interest or a recent post. The goal is to start a real conversation, not just to increase your connection count.
How do I build confidence if I’m not naturally outgoing? Confidence isn’t a personality trait; it’s a result of preparation and practice. Charlotte emphasizes that confidence comes from having a repeatable process you can trust. When you know your strategy for research, outreach, and follow-up is solid, you can focus on executing it well. You build this skill by practicing your pitch, learning from every conversation, and using smart systems to handle administrative work so you have more time to focus on what actually moves deals forward.
My prospect said they have “no budget.” Is the deal dead? Not necessarily. Often, when a prospect says “no budget,” what they really mean is “I don’t see enough value to justify the cost.” Your job is to shift from selling to educating. Ask open-ended questions to understand their actual challenges and decision-making process. This keeps the conversation going and positions you as a helpful resource, building a relationship for when their budget or priorities change.
How much research should I do before reaching out to a prospect? Your research should be focused on finding a specific “trigger” event. Charlotte suggests looking for things like recent company funding, new product launches, or expansions. These events signal that a company might be more open to new solutions. Once you identify a trigger, you can tailor your outreach to be timely and relevant, which dramatically increases your chances of getting a reply.
I feel like I’m doing the same things but getting worse results. What’s going on? This is a common trap. Salespeople often stick with a process that worked last quarter, assuming it will work again. But markets change, buyers become more sophisticated, and old tactics lose their edge. Charlotte advises salespeople to actively seek out new ideas by learning from top performers, investing in external coaching, and being willing to experiment with their approach. Stagnation is a choice, and the best reps are always refining their process.
