How LinkedIn Prospecting Tools Should Complement BDRs — Not Replace Them
Tim Edwards
Did you know that almost 150,000 emails are sent per minute? With prospect inboxes cluttered, many salespeople are looking for alternative ways to stand out. One of today’s biggest prospecting trends is treating LinkedIn messages as an inbox. This is where LinkedIn prospecting tools come into play: they allow salespeople to connect with prospects faster by leveraging automation.
However, LinkedIn’s AI tools are designed to complement a human BDR’s team — not replace them completely.
In this post, we’ll explore:
- Why salespeople turn to LinkedIn automation tools
- What LinkedIn AI tools are
- 4 reasons why human BDRs remain irreplaceable
- Predictions for the future of LinkedIn prospecting tools
Why salespeople turn to LinkedIn automation tools
LinkedIn automation tools are designed to save a salesperson’s time by automating touchpoints — such as sending connection requests, providing skill endorsements, and messaging hundreds of first-level connections in bulk.
These tools are popular for two key reasons:
- They significantly reduce time spent on manual tasks
- They can operate 24/7 — even when your sales and BDR teams are off the clock
What LinkedIn AI tools are
As AI becomes an increasingly popular buzzword in every industry, it’s important to recognize that most LinkedIn prospecting tools on the market are merely repackaged automation tools — not true artificial intelligence.
Automation vs AI:
Artificial intelligence involves self-learning capabilities
Automation tools rely on predefined “if, then” pathways to achieve specific actions
In many ways, these LinkedIn “AI” tools are similar to the early iterations of marketing automation tools. In the end, these tools are designed to market efficiently and effectively to as many people as possible.
Moreover, these LinkedIn sales tools are actually marketing tools; you use a marketing automation tool to create automated touchpoints based on predefined triggers.
Just like emails, you can mass-connect and mass-message to prospects on LinkedIn. We advise people to be mindful of how much of the business development process they automate.
Without a sound strategy, you risk slashing and burning through your finite market space — leaving you with multiple burned bridges and a bad brand reputation.
4 reasons why human BDRs remain irreplaceable
Human BDRs ultimately bring unique qualities that no algorithm can replicate. Here are four compelling reasons why you should not replace your human BDRs with LinkedIn automation tools:
- LinkedIn actively prohibits automation
- “AI” tools still need human intervention
- Automated outreach is often ignored
- Lack of human connection and emotional intelligence
1. LinkedIn actively prohibits automation
We’ve spoken to countless prospects who are overwhelmed and exhausted by these LinkedIn automation tools. Because LinkedIn’s goal is to keep people on their platform, they will respond to such negative feedback.
Since 2023, LinkedIn has prohibited third-party tools that automate activity on their website.
One of these automation activities includes “excessive invitation requests sent on LinkedIn.” This can result in suspension or even permanent restriction of your LinkedIn account.
Simply put, there is no way to substitute an automated BDR for a human one without violating platform agreements.
EBQ Tip: Yes, marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) are important. But what truly matters is the number of sales-qualified leads (SQLs) you draw into your pipeline.
A low MQL-to-SQL conversion rate indicates that you are wasting time targeting the wrong people — resulting in loss opportunities.
One of our Revenue Consultants, Donte Hamilton, has first-hand experience in how these automation tools dragged his sales cycle. While his connections did increase, he found that he lacked the meaningful connections necessary to make a sale.
2. “AI” tools still need human intervention
Even the most advanced AI tools still need human oversight. Why? Because they rely on pre-set rules and can not participate in complex sales conversations like a trained BDR can.
For example, Donte currently uses a tool that can automate connection requests. He enjoys how users can set complex drip campaigns that pause each time a prospect reacts to a trigger. Moreover, the tool provides some helpful best practices he hasn’t considered before.
“I have a person who goes in and labels each message in my LinkedIn inbox. He’ll go in, flag responses that might benefit from a thoughtful response, or push the prospect further down the drip campaign,” said Donte.
EBQ Tip: How do you know when you should manually respond to a prospect instead of pushing them further down your drip campaign?
A few examples include:
- If your automation tool hits a completely wrong prospect
- If the timing is wrong
“I’ve had countless prospects say to me, ‘I am interested, but this quarter just won’t work for me. Can we touch base in Q2?’ I’ll go in and tell them, ‘Absolutely!’ and tell them we’re here for them when they need us,” said Donte.
These automation tools also rely on a good database to execute tasks successfully.
“Simply put, you need to feed these tools a good list to find the right people. But the right person may not have a large footprint online, so an automated tool will never be able to find them,” said Heather.
3. Automated outreach is often ignored
Have you ever been targeted with a robocall? If so, you probably hung up right away.
According to the Federal Trade Commission, people are often hit with many robocalls because “it’s cheap and easy for (scammers) to make robocalls over the internet from anywhere in the world.”
This has caused people to have a knee-jerk reaction against automation outreach — whether that’s through phone calls, emails, or LinkedIn messages.
Despite this, many business leaders are still tempted by automation tools. Heather has worked with multiple clients who leverage automation outreach tools to minimal success. They typically face scarce follow-ups.
To soften such customer aversion to automated messages, many AI tools have tried to pretend to be human. But this can cause a lot of eerie unsettling feelings — also known as the uncanny valley.
First coined by Professor Masahiro Mori in the 1970s, the uncanny valley is a phenomenon that explains the feeling of unease one feels when something almost feels human but is not quite right.
In other words, people will always be wary of tools pretending to be human. Your human BDR team is ultimately the best tool to foster strong relationships with your prospects.
4. Lack of human connection and emotional intelligence
To be a successful salesperson, you need two key skills:
- Finding the right people who match your buyer persona
- Code-switching and mirroring to build trust with your prospect
Ultimately, great salespeople do what AI can’t:
- Identify ideal buyers beyond job titles & keywords.
- Read tone, intent, and objections to guide the conversation.
- Build trust through natural conversations—not canned responses.
Donte has accidentally targeted college students who are “President” or “Director” of their student organization. While he can understand why these people do not match his ideal customer profile, the automation tool struggled to identify why these LinkedIn users are not worthwhile.
As mentioned repeatedly, automation tools are meant to cast as wide of a net as possible. The pre-canned responses fed to automation tools are meant to do just that: craft a message that can be applied to as many scenarios as possible.
This means you can not personalize each interaction for optimized outcomes. Human BDRs can pick up subtle hints and nuances better than robots, so they can adjust their messaging accordingly.
From a B2B perspective:
A trained BDR can navigate the B2B buying committee, a group of decision-makers who decide whether to invest in a solution. Therefore, B2B lead generation can never truly be replaced by AI.
“Instead, your prospecting should merely be enhanced by these tools — but never replaced,” said Brent.
Predictions for the future of LinkedIn prospecting tools
Based on the current trend of artificial intelligence disrupting workflows, we’ll see more sophisticated tools that can replicate a human response closely, such as
| Replication | Example |
|---|---|
| Colloquial and nuanced sayings | “You got it!” “No worries!” |
| Learning from past encounters | The tool might know how to navigate this conversation if it has encountered a similar scenario before. |
| Mirroring prospect’s tone | Adding short pleasantries versus keeping the tone straightforward |
However, you will still need a human to build out each response and decision tree. This will inevitably be complex and time-consuming.
“You have to set these tools up properly for it to work properly. Otherwise, you’re just wasting your time,” said Brent.
So can AI replace human BDRs completely?
In short, a human BDR will always be invaluable to your sales process. They understand how to respond to objections and navigate challenging conversations that can not be replicated.
“You can never ‘set it and forget it’ — despite how much these tools try to market themselves as so. You’ll always need someone to vet, qualify, and respond to leads for the best results. You need someone who will learn from current problems and respond intelligently,” said Heather.
After all, your goal is to foster strong relationships to convince a prospect to invest in your solution. Over-relying on automation tools is great for identifying prospects, but you still need a human BDR to actively nurture these relationships.
If you are looking for business development help, EBQ offers appointment-setting services. While AI and automation tools may augment, our BDRs are trained to personalize outreach, nurture relationships, and book meetings — while truly mastering your brand voice and better selling your solution.
About the Author:
As the CEO of EBQ, Tim founded the Inc 500 Hall of Fame company in 2006 from his one-bedroom apartment as one part of a three-person team. Now with 200+ employees and six core services, his sales expertise has helped thousands of businesses scale and succeed sustainably.
