LinkedIn Cracks Down on Lead Gen Tools

For the past few weeks, the B2B world has been buzzing about LinkedIn’s move to block Seamless.AI and Apollo.

For many, this came as a shock. But if you’ve been following our updates, you might remember that last year I wrote about how platforms like LinkedIn and G Suite would eventually move to kill traditional outreach. There are two key reasons for this shift:

1. The war on spam

At this point, 99% of connection requests on LinkedIn are straight-up spam — cold pitches with zero context. It hasn’t worked for a long time, but people keep trying.

2. The realization that data is king

Big platforms have started to recognize that in the future, data, not software, is the real asset. That means LinkedIn could easily evolve Sales Navigator into a full-fledged outreach tool — one that’s spam-aware and built on platform-native signals. We’re already seeing similar moves from Google and G Suite.

So, what should we take away from all this?

A. Outreach is dying

It won’t disappear overnight, but the days of automated mass outreach are clearly numbered.

B. Building “wrapper” tools is a losing game

Plugins, Chrome extensions, and simple prospecting tools that sit on top of other platforms are becoming obsolete fast.

C. It’s all about the data

If you’re building something, start with the mindset that data is the only lasting value. Software — if not today, then tomorrow — will be commoditized.

Artem Gladkikh
Founder & CEO, Signum.AI
Building The Ecosystem That Transforms Marketers Into AI-Driven Experts.

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