Module 3: The Warm-Up
This is the module that separates social sellers from spammers. The Warm-Up Rule — engage visibly for two weeks before you ever pitch — plus the commenting mechanics that make familiarity real, not performative.
The Warm-Up Rule
The Warm-Up Rule is simple and non-negotiable: never pitch a prospect cold. Before any outreach, engage visibly with their content for two weeks — likes, but mostly thoughtful comments they will actually see. No pitch, no ask, no agenda. Just show up as a peer who finds their thinking interesting.
Why two weeks, and why visible? Because familiarity is built through repeated, noticed exposure. When you comment thoughtfully on someone's post, three things happen: they see your name in their notifications, they read your words attached to their ideas, and the platform registers a genuine interaction between you two. Do that four to six times over two weeks and you are no longer a stranger — you are "that person with the sharp comments." When your connection request or message arrives, it lands in a completely different mental category.
"Visible" is doing heavy lifting in that rule. A like is barely visible. A generic "Great insights!" comment is visible but forgettable — worse, it can read as flattery with an agenda. What counts is engagement the prospect actually registers: comments with substance, shares with your own added perspective, replies that continue a real conversation. The warm-up is not a waiting period. It is the work. Skip it and you are back to cold pitching with extra steps.
The Warm-Up Rule
Build brief
Pick 10 prospects from your list. For each one, find one recent post you could genuinely engage with. Write down the post topic and one honest reaction you have to it — no flattery, just real thought.
Saved
Comment like a peer
Commenting is the highest-leverage activity in social selling, and almost everyone does it wrong. Research into how the LinkedIn feed works shows that dwell time — how long someone spends on a post — is the top signal the platform uses to judge quality. A thoughtful comment that makes the author and other readers pause, read, and reply earns dwell time for everyone involved. A "Great post!" earns nothing, for anyone.
The rules of effective commenting, adapted from published engagement research: one, add insight or a genuine question — never just praise. Two, reference something specific in the post, proving you actually read it. Three, write like a peer, not a fan — agree, disagree respectfully, extend the idea. Four, keep it readable: two to four sentences beats a wall of text. Five, never pitch in a comment — the moment your comment smells like a sales hook, all trust evaporates. Six, reply when the author responds — conversations in comments are doubly visible.
Aim to show up in a prospect's notifications three to four times across the two weeks — enough to be familiar, not so much you look like a stalker. Space it out. Vary the posts you engage with. And engage with people who are not prospects too — visible, generous participation across your feed builds the public reputation that prospects check when they vet you. Comment like the peer you want to be seen as, and the platform — and the prospect — will treat you like one.
What your engagement actually earns
Build brief
Write three comment drafts right now — each one adding real insight or a genuine question to a real post you have seen this week. Not praise: perspective. Would the author remember this comment tomorrow?
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The nurturing principle
There is a principle from engagement research that most sellers miss: the work after you publish. Posting content is only half the job. The other half — the half that actually builds relationships — is what you do after: replying to every comment, engaging back with your commenters' content, staying present in the conversations you started. Nurturing is the difference between broadcasting and relationship-building.
Apply the same principle to your warm-up. When a prospect replies to your comment, reply back — that thread is now doubly visible and it deepens the familiarity. When they post again next week, show up again. Consistency is the entire game: twenty minutes a day, every day, beats a three-hour blitz on Sunday. The algorithm rewards sustained genuine activity; prospects notice sustained genuine interest. Both compound.
Build a daily routine and protect it like a client meeting: five prospect posts engaged with (likes on all, real comments on two), one thoughtful comment on a non-prospect post to stay visible broadly, and a quick scan of notifications for anyone who engaged back. That is twenty minutes. Social selling is not a campaign you run — it is a practice you keep. The sellers who treat it like brushing their teeth outperform the ones who treat it like a quarterly push, every single time.
Build brief
Design your 20-minute daily warm-up routine: what time of day, how many prospect posts, how many comments, and how will you track it? Write it like a checklist you could follow half-asleep.
Saved
The Warm-Up Rule: before pitching a prospect, engage visibly with their content for at least .
David comments 'Great insights!' on 30 posts a day, then pitches everyone he commented on. His reply rate is zero. What is broken?
Your turn: List your 10 warm-up prospects below. For each: the post you will engage with first, and the date you will start. Log your engagement daily for two weeks — this sheet is your warm-up ledger.
Saved.
Your next 24 hours
Pick your 10 warm-up prospects and leave your first real comment today — specific, thoughtful, no pitch. Set a daily 20-minute calendar block for the warm-up routine starting tomorrow morning.
Steal this template
THE COMMENT PLAYBOOK (5 rules)
☐ Add insight or a genuine question — never just praise
☐ Reference something specific in the post
☐ Write like a peer, not a fan
☐ 2–4 sentences, readable at a glance
☐ Never pitch in a comment — ever
Good: "Your point about onboarding emails hits home — we found the third email in the sequence does 60% of the activation work. Have you tested moving the case study earlier?"
Bad: "Great insights! Really resonated with me."
Cheat sheet
- The Warm-Up Rule: two weeks of visible engagement before any pitch. Non-negotiable.
- Visible means registered: specific, thoughtful comments — not likes, not 'Great post!'
- Dwell time is the top feed signal: comments that make people pause earn it for everyone.
- Show up in a prospect's notifications 3–4 times across the two weeks — familiar, not stalkerish.
- Nurturing = the work after you publish: reply, engage back, stay present.
- 20 minutes daily beats 3-hour blitzes. Social selling is a practice, not a campaign.