LinkedIn Outreach Benchmarks for Computer Software (2026)

Key Takeaways

In computer software, the average LinkedIn connection acceptance rate is 27.5%. Replies to the connection note average 2.8%, and replies to a message after the connection is accepted average 8.8%. Those numbers come from 1,831,933 connection requests sent by 1,851 computer software accounts between May 2025 and April 2026. All three sit below the cross-industry averages of 28.5%, 3.0% and 10.4%.

Computer Software vs. the platform average

Metric	Computer Software	All industries	Difference	Rank
Connection acceptance	27.5%	28.5%	-1.0 pts	22nd of 38
Connection-note reply	2.8%	3.0%	-0.2 pts	15th of 38
Message reply after acceptance	8.8%	10.4%	-1.6 pts	32nd of 38

Across the 38 industries with at least 50 sending accounts, acceptance runs from 21.8% (telecommunications) to 36.5% (staffing & recruiting). Note replies run from 1.8% to 6.6%, and message replies from 7.2% to 18.9%.

What the numbers say about software outreach

Software is the most heavily measured industry in this dataset and one of its weaker performers. The 1,851 accounts here sent 1.83 million connection requests, about 17% of everything measured, and they land 22nd of 38 on acceptance and 32nd on message replies. Multiply the two and roughly 2.4 in every 100 people who receive a request from a software company reply to a follow-up. The cross-industry figure is about 3.0, and staffing gets 6.9.

The interesting part is the shape rather than the level. Software ranks 15th on note replies and 32nd on message replies, a 17-place drop between the two. People will answer the note and then not answer what comes after it. Whatever software sellers are putting in those 300 characters works about as well as anyone’s; the message that follows does not.

The simplest explanation is saturation on both sides. Software is the largest sending industry in the dataset and also one of the most heavily targeted audiences in B2B, so a software seller is often writing to someone who received four similar requests that week. Nothing in this data proves that, and the number it does prove is narrower: the largest sample in the set performs below the average of the set.

If your numbers sit below these

The dataset says where an account sits, not why. From what we see in campaigns, three gaps come up most often in this sector, and they point at different problems.

Acceptance under 27.5%. That is below your own sector, which is already below the 28.5% cross-industry average. Acceptance gets decided from the profile and the note preview before anything else is read, so a number here tends to be about who is on the list rather than what is in the message.

Note replies at or above 2.8% but message replies well under 8.8%. This is the sector’s characteristic failure and the most common one we see. The note earns a response and the follow-up loses it, usually because the note opened a conversation and the message opened a pitch.

Everything below average at once. When all three sit under the sector line, the list is normally the cause rather than the copy. Software sells to software more than any other pairing in this dataset, and a list assembled by firmographics alone will be full of people three other vendors are writing to the same week.

Further reading:

• Improving your LinkedIn Sales Navigator targeting
• Personalising the message request without tripping limits
• The LinkedIn message follow-up formula
• Tips for getting your first SaaS customers

Frequently asked questions

What is a good LinkedIn connection acceptance rate for a software company?

27.5% is the software average and 28.5% is the cross-industry average, so software runs slightly below the platform as a whole. A software company above 30% is doing better than its sector and better than the platform. Under 25% points at the target list rather than the message.

Why are message reply rates so low in software?

Software ranks 32nd of 38 on message replies at 8.8%, against a cross-industry average of 10.4%, while ranking 15th on note replies. The drop happens between the note and the message rather than at the connection request. This dataset shows the pattern but does not explain the cause.

Is software a harder industry to sell into on LinkedIn?

On these numbers, yes, relative to most sectors. End to end, about 2.4 in every 100 people who receive a request from a software account reply to a follow-up message, against roughly 3.0 across all industries and 6.9 in staffing and recruiting.

How this data was collected

Computer Software is reported from 1,851 accounts and 1,831,933 connection requests sent between May 2025 and April 2026, drawn from the LinkedIn Outreach Benchmarks 2026 dataset of 13.2 million requests across 13,302 accounts. That report carries the full methodology, along with the breakdowns by sender seniority, company size and month that are not repeated here.

Two things to hold in mind while reading any of these figures. The industry is the sender’s, taken from their company profile, not the recipient’s. And only industries with at least 50 sending accounts are reported at all: below that, a single unusual account moves the average by several points, which is why some of the most extreme numbers in the full appendix are not published here.

Related industry benchmarks

• Management Consulting, 28.0% acceptance and 9.2% message replies
• Insurance, 28.1% acceptance and 8.8% message replies
• Internet, 28.2% acceptance and 10.0% message replies
• All industry benchmarks

Grade your own outreach against these numbers

Enter your own acceptance and reply rates and grade your outreach against the computer software benchmark, plus see where you sit among all 38 reported industries. No signup.

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Data updated 19 August 2026. Refreshed quarterly against the source report.