Get a phone call with your connection of interest. Keep following up until the appointment happens. If you think email and SMS are going to close a deal you are wasting your time. Remember the old adage, most sales happen after the 5^th Keep reaching out.

Move the conversation OUT of LinkedIn as fast as possible. Track people in a spreadsheet or your CRM system.

Nothing else matters except a phone appointment. You cannot sell effectively via chat. The LinkedIn mailbox is a horrible place to track conversations. You can grab people’s personal email addresses and sometimes their phone number from their contact info.