LinkedIn Outreach Benchmarks for Medical Devices (2026)

Key Takeaways

In medical devices, the average LinkedIn connection acceptance rate is 26.3%. Replies to the connection note average 2.5%, and replies to a message after the connection is accepted average 8.9%. Those numbers come from 63,946 connection requests sent by 55 medical device accounts between May 2025 and April 2026. All three sit below the cross-industry averages of 28.5%, 3.0% and 10.4%.

Medical Device vs. the platform average

Metric	Medical Device	All industries	Difference	Rank
Connection acceptance	26.3%	28.5%	-2.2 pts	30th of 38
Connection-note reply	2.5%	3.0%	-0.5 pts	26th of 38
Message reply after acceptance	8.9%	10.4%	-1.5 pts	31st 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 medical device outreach

Only three of the 38 reported industries turn outreach into replies less often than medical devices: biotechnology, e-learning and media production. About 2.3 in every 100 recipients of a medical device account’s request reply to a follow-up, 35th of 38 against 3.0 platform-wide. No single step collapses: acceptance ranks 30th, note replies 26th and message replies 31st, and the shortfall comes from acceptance and the follow-up sitting below average together.

On these numbers the medical device sector behaves more like machinery and biotechnology than like hospital and health care. Hospital senders accept at 27.7%, get note replies of 3.4% and message replies of 10.6%, all ahead of medical devices, and convert about 2.9 per 100. Machinery, the nearest match, sits within half a point of medical devices on all three measures.

Outsourcing and offshoring completes the nearest three and, like machinery, is below the platform on every measure. The sample here is 55 accounts and 63,946 requests, the small end of what is reported, which matters for a rank this close to the bottom: it places the sector among the weaker converters in the set rather than at a precise 35th.

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.

Message replies under 8.9%. The sector’s lowest-ranked measure at 31st of 38, and in proportion a wider gap to the platform than acceptance. A number below the sector line usually means the first message tries to do the work of a sales meeting, carrying clinical or regulatory detail the recipient has not yet asked for.

Acceptance under 26.3%. The sector is 30th of 38, 2.2 points below the platform. Below that line the list usually needs narrowing before the copy needs work, toward the named people involved in evaluating a device rather than everyone in a department that might one day use it.

Note replies under 2.5%. 26th of 38 and half a point under the platform. The end-to-end figure is built from acceptance and message replies, so this is the measure to leave until those two are at the sector line.

Further reading:

• Improving your LinkedIn Sales Navigator targeting
• How many LinkedIn invites can you send a week?
• Personalising a LinkedIn message request without tripping limits
• The LinkedIn message follow-up formula
• Tips for building a LinkedIn content strategy for B2B sales
• The best AI lead generation software to add to your stack

Frequently asked questions

What is a good LinkedIn acceptance rate in medical devices?

26.3% is the sector average, 2.2 points below the 28.5% cross-industry figure and 30th of 38 reported industries. Matching the 28.5% platform figure would put a medical device account ahead of its sector.

Does outreach from medical device companies perform like healthcare outreach?

Not on these numbers. The medical device sector sits closer to machinery and biotechnology than to hospital and health care, which accepts at 27.7% and gets 10.6% message replies against 26.3% and 8.9% for medical devices. End to end medical device accounts convert about 2.3 per 100 recipients, 35th of 38.

How does the medical device industry compare with other industries?

Acceptance ranks 30th of 38, note replies 26th and message replies 31st. End to end about 2.3 in 100 recipients reply to a follow-up, 35th of 38, against roughly 3.0 across all industries. Only biotechnology, e-learning and media production convert less.

How this data was collected

Medical Device is reported from 55 accounts and 63,946 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

• Machinery, 26.8% acceptance and 9.0% message replies
• Outsourcing / Offshoring, 26.1% acceptance and 9.2% message replies
• Biotechnology, 25.8% acceptance and 8.3% 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 medical devices 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.