LinkedIn Outreach Benchmarks for Telecommunications (2026)

Key Takeaways

In telecommunications, the average LinkedIn connection acceptance rate is 21.8%. Replies to the connection note average 1.8%, and replies to a message after the connection is accepted average 11.2%. Those numbers come from 66,663 connection requests sent by 61 telecommunications accounts between May 2025 and April 2026. Against the cross-industry averages of 28.5%, 3.0% and 10.4%, telecommunications is above on message replies and below on acceptance and note replies.

Telecommunications vs. the platform average

Metric	Telecommunications	All industries	Difference	Rank
Connection acceptance	21.8%	28.5%	-6.7 pts	38th of 38
Connection-note reply	1.8%	3.0%	-1.2 pts	38th of 38
Message reply after acceptance	11.2%	10.4%	+0.8 pts	14th 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 telecom outreach

Outreach from telecommunications is accepted less often, and has its connection note answered less often, than outreach from any other reported industry. Acceptance of 21.8% ranks 38th of 38, 6.7 points under the cross-industry 28.5% and well clear of media production, the next lowest at 23.4%. Note replies of 1.8% are also last. No other reported industry finishes last on more than one measure.

After acceptance the picture changes. Message replies of 11.2% rank 14th of 38, 0.8 points above the platform, so the connections that do land are answered at a slightly better than average rate. End to end that works out at about 2.4 replies per 100 recipients against a cross-industry 3.0, 29th of 38. Every other industry gets accepted more often, yet telecom still ranks above nine of them end to end, biotechnology and e-learning among them.

Its closest matches are health, wellness and fitness, computer and network security, and financial services, all of which are accepted below the platform rate and answered close to it after acceptance. Telecom is the extreme case of that shape, with lower acceptance and fewer note replies than all three and more message replies than any of them. The sample is 61 accounts and 66,663 requests, so last place is a clear signal of difficulty at the door rather than a precise position.

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 21.8%. That is below the lowest of the 38 reported industry averages, so there is no sector further down to compare against. This is the binding constraint in telecom outreach, because every connection gained feeds a conversation that already performs above the platform. A number this low usually points at the list before the copy.

Message replies under 11.2%. The one measure where telecom beats the platform, at 14th of 38. Fall far enough below it and a telecom account is under the platform at every step. When this rate falls as well, the first message usually reads as a second cold pitch rather than a follow-up to somebody who has already accepted.

Note replies under 1.8%. The sector line is already 38th of 38, so a low note rate here is the sector behaving normally rather than a copy failure. The more useful test is whether the note is costing acceptance, which in telecom is the measure that decides the result.

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 telecom?

21.8% is the sector average, 6.7 points below the 28.5% cross-industry figure and 38th of 38, the lowest of any reported industry. Anything above 21.8% beats the sector, and an account near the 28.5% platform figure is doing very well for telecom.

Is LinkedIn outreach harder for telecommunications companies?

At the connection request, yes. Telecommunications ranks 38th of 38 on both acceptance (21.8%) and note replies (1.8%). After acceptance it is not: message replies of 11.2% rank 14th, above the 10.4% platform average. End to end it converts about 2.4 replies per 100 recipients against roughly 3.0 overall.

How does telecom compare with other industries?

Acceptance ranks 38th of 38 and note replies 38th, while message replies rank 14th. End to end about 2.4 in 100 recipients reply to a follow-up, 29th of 38 against roughly 3.0 across all industries. It is the only reported industry last on two measures.

How this data was collected

Telecommunications is reported from 61 accounts and 66,663 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

• Health, Wellness & Fitness, 25.1% acceptance and 9.9% message replies
• Computer & Network Security, 26.0% acceptance and 10.7% message replies
• Financial Services, 26.0% acceptance and 10.3% 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 telecommunications benchmark, plus see where you sit among all 38 reported industries. No signup.

Ready to improve & scale your LinkedIn outreach? Sign up for a 7-day free trial and put our LinkedIn automation tool to the test!

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