The shift was simple: stop trying to interrupt people in their inbox and start showing up where they were already talking. Her buyers — HR Directors, People Ops Managers, and CHROs at companies between 200–2,000 employees — post on LinkedIn constantly. About hiring challenges, onboarding friction, retention problems. About the exact thing her product addresses.

Sandra spent one week doing nothing but writing thoughtful comments on those posts. No DMs, no pitches, no mentions of her product. Just substantive responses that added something to the conversation. At the end of the week: 8 discovery calls on her calendar, all initiated by the people she'd commented on.

8
Discovery calls booked in one week
0
Cold messages sent
5 days
Of commenting before first DM opened

Why commenting works when cold outreach doesn't

Cold outreach requires the recipient to make a judgment about you with no prior context. They've never heard of you, have no sense of whether you know what you're talking about, and have three other unread messages from people making identical claims. The cognitive load of evaluating a stranger's pitch is high enough that "delete" is almost always the path of least resistance.

A comment on someone's post is the opposite dynamic. They wrote something. You responded with something substantive. They can see your name, your title, your recent posts. The interaction happens in public, which means it carries social accountability — you can't be obviously wrong in a comment the way you can be obviously wrong in a cold email nobody else sees. The bar for quality is higher, which is exactly why it builds more trust.

The three types of comments that generate the most response

01
The "I've seen this too" comment with a specific example
When someone posts about a challenge they're experiencing, responding with "we ran into this exact situation when [specific context], and what worked was [specific resolution]" accomplishes three things: it validates their experience, demonstrates that you've been in the trenches, and gives them something actionable. Sandra used this format for posts about onboarding drop-off rates — her area of deepest expertise.
02
The respectful counterpoint
Agreeing with everything is forgettable. A well-framed "I'd push back on one piece of this — here's why" gets remembered. The key is framing: "this is interesting, and I wonder if [alternative perspective]" lands differently than "actually you're wrong." The goal isn't to win an argument, it's to demonstrate that you think independently and rigorously about the same problems they do.
03
The question that shows you've read carefully
Asking a specific follow-up question that only makes sense if you read the whole post signals genuine interest. "When you say [specific phrase from their post], are you referring to [specific scenario]?" shows attention in a way that "great post!" never could. It also opens a conversation — the author has to think about their answer, which makes the exchange memorable.

The moment to move from comment to DM

Sandra's rule: a prospect is ready for a DM when they've done at least one of three things — replied to your comment with substance, liked two or more of your comments across different posts, or sent you a connection request. Any of these signals that they've noticed you and found what you said worth engaging with.

The DM itself references the conversation, not her product: "Really enjoyed the exchange on your post about [topic]. Your point about [specific thing they said] made me think about [related challenge] — curious how you're approaching that." No pitch. No link. No mention of what she sells. The goal is a conversation, not a close.

"The week I stopped trying to sell in every interaction was the week people started asking me what I did. The product conversation happens naturally once someone decides they want to know more about you."

Building the target list systematically

Random commenting on whoever happens to appear in your feed is inefficient. Sandra built a list of 20 people in her ICP who post on LinkedIn at least twice a week. She turned on LinkedIn notifications for each of them so she'd see new posts within hours of publishing. She also followed 5 high-follower accounts in the HR space — people with 20,000+ followers whose posts attracted comments from her exact ICP. Commenting on those posts put her in front of a larger, already-filtered audience.

The notification list is the infrastructure. Without it, you're reactive — you see posts when the algorithm decides to show them, which may be 2 days after publishing and buried under 80 other comments. Being early in the comment thread matters: the first 5–10 comments on a post get more visibility than the 50th.