The Claude LinkedIn Lead Gen Playbook

How the system works

You define the job title and company type you want to target. Claude then:

→ Searches LinkedIn for matching profiles via Apify

→ Reads each person's most recent post

→ Writes a personalised connection request and follow-up message for each one using that post as context

→ Saves everything to a spreadsheet on your computer

Your daily routine: open the spreadsheet, copy the message, paste it into LinkedIn, hit send. That's it.

What you need before you start

→ Claude desktop app installed (claude.ai/downloads)

→ A free Apify account (apify.com) - gives you $5 in credits, enough for your first 400 leads at no cost

→ A LinkedIn account (free works, with limits covered in the sending section)

Step 1: Create a project in Claude desktop

→ Open Claude desktop app

→ Go to Projects

→ Click New Project > Start from scratch

→ Name it (e.g. LinkedIn Lead Generation)

→ Click Create

Step 2: Add project instructions

This is the most important setup step. Project instructions tell Claude exactly what you want it to do and how to write messages - without this, Claude asks clarifying questions every time and burns credits.

Your project instructions should define:

What Claude's role is

What your goal is with the outreach

What your offer is

Once written, go to your project > Instructions > paste it in.

Step 3: Connect Apify as a connector

Claude cannot access LinkedIn directly. Apify gives it access via 23,000+ scraping tools including a LinkedIn profile scraper.

Get your Apify API key

Connect Apify in Claude

Verify it is active in your project

Step 4: Install the message-writing skills

Skills are pre-optimised workflows you install once so Claude does not need to figure out how to write the message from scratch each time. You need two:

→ Connection request writer skill

→ Follow-up message writer skill

Why skills matter

How to install a skill

How to create your own skills if you do not have pre-made ones

The scraping prompt

Inside your project, paste this prompt structure and fill in your target:

"Find [number] profiles on LinkedIn of [job title] at [company type]. Store them in a spreadsheet file."

Example: "Find 10 profiles on LinkedIn of marketing directors and founders at AI SaaS companies. Store them in a spreadsheet file."

Claude uses Apify's LinkedIn scraper, finds the profiles, and saves a spreadsheet to your computer.

What the spreadsheet contains

Each row includes:

→ Name

→ Company

→ Role

→ LinkedIn headline

→ Profile URL

→ Context (summary of their most recent post)

The context field is what makes the messages feel personal. Claude reads the person's latest post and references it when writing the connection request. This is why acceptance and reply rates are higher than generic outreach.

Generate the connection request messages

Once the spreadsheet is populated, run the connection request prompt:

"Generate a personalised connection request message for each person in my leads spreadsheet."

If you have the connection request skill installed, Claude applies it automatically. The spreadsheet updates with a connection request message per row.

Generate the follow-up messages

Run the follow-up prompt next:

"Generate a personalised follow-up message for each person in my leads spreadsheet."

The follow-up message is more direct - it references your offer or the next step you want to take with the prospect. The spreadsheet updates with a follow-up message per row.

These are the messages you send after someone accepts your connection request.

Set up the scheduled task

→ Inside Cowork, go to Scheduled Tasks

→ Create a new task

→ Paste your lead scraping prompt with your target job title and company type filled in

→ Set it to run daily at your preferred time (e.g. 9am)

→ Click Schedule Task

Claude will now find new leads and generate messages for them every morning before you sit down. When you open your laptop, the spreadsheet is already updated.

Starting volume vs scale

Week 1: start at 10 leads per day

After the first week: scale to 333 leads per day

The daily routine

Each morning:

Step 1: Open the leads spreadsheet on your computer (saved locally by Claude)

Step 2: For each new lead:

→ Click their LinkedIn profile URL to open their profile

→ Click Connect

→ Click Add a note

→ Copy the connection request message from the spreadsheet

→ Paste it in and hit Send

Step 3: Move to the next lead and repeat

This is the only manual step in the entire workflow.

LinkedIn sending limits

Free LinkedIn account

Safe daily send volume

Scaling beyond one profile

Sending the follow-up after acceptance

Check your LinkedIn notifications daily for accepted connection requests.

When someone accepts:

→ Find their row in the spreadsheet

→ Copy the follow-up message

→ Send it via LinkedIn DM

The follow-up is more direct than the connection request. It references your offer and proposes a next step.

How to update the spreadsheet status

After sending each day, tell Claude what happened so the spreadsheet reflects current status. This keeps your pipeline visible without any manual tracking.

Close the spreadsheet file on your computer before running any of these prompts - if the file is open, Claude cannot update it.

After sending connection requests

After getting acceptances and sending follow-ups

After getting replies

Cost per lead

→ Per lead scraped on LinkedIn: $0.01 (1 cent)

→ Post scraping (to get context for personalisation): less than $0.01 per lead

Total cost per lead including personalised messages: approximately $0.01-0.012

Cost at different volumes

100 leads: $1.20

300 leads: $3

600 leads: $7

1,000 leads: $12

10,000 leads: $120

This includes the lead data plus the personalised connection request and follow-up message for each.

Getting your first 400 leads for free

Apify gives you $5 in credits when you sign up for a free account. At $0.012 per lead, $5 covers approximately 416 leads.

Run the full workflow - scrape, generate messages, send connection requests - before spending anything. If you land even one client from those 400 contacts, the system has paid for itself many times over before you hit your first paid credit.

Using Prosp.ai with Claude to book 15 calls/week from LinkedIn