Doris-Labs Social Selling
Purpose
Turn a cold LinkedIn profile into a warm conversation: engage with the prospect's world first, send a connection note they accept, and open with a first message that references something real — not a templated pitch they've seen a hundred times.
Inputs
- The prospect (LinkedIn URL, name + company, or profile text)
- Why you're reaching out (the trigger: their post, a role change, a mutual, an account play)
- The account context (existing deal, prior touchpoints, who else you know there)
Method
1. Profile-led engagement — warm before you pitch
Never let the connection request be the first time they've heard your name. Read the profile for hooks and engage on their terms first:
- Recent activity — posts, comments, reposts in the last 2–4 weeks. This is the highest-signal hook; it's what they care about right now.
- Role + tenure — new in role (<6 months) = openness to change; long tenure = owns the status quo.
- Career path / shared ground — past companies, schools, regions, mutual connections.
- About section + featured — the problems they self-identify with, in their words.
Warm-before-pitch rule: earn one to three touchpoints (a thoughtful comment, a relevant reaction) before the connection request. The request then lands as "the person who said that smart thing," not a stranger.
2. Content-comment cadence — engage before reaching out
Run this over 5–10 business days, not all at once:
| Day | Action |
|---|---|
| 1 | Follow (not connect). Like 1 recent post. |
| 2–3 | Leave one substantive comment on a recent post — add a point, don't praise. |
| 4–5 | React to a second post; reply if they answer your comment. |
| 6 | Send the connection request with a note (formula below). |
| 8–10 | If accepted and quiet, send first message. If ignored, keep commenting; retry the request in 3–4 weeks. |
Comment quality bar: a good comment teaches, disagrees respectfully, or adds a concrete example. "Great post!" is invisible. "We saw the opposite with X — curious if Y was a factor for you?" gets a profile click.
3. Connection-note formula
Keep it under 300 characters. Structure: context → relevance → low-friction reason → no ask.
<specific hook about them> + <why you, in one clause> + <soft reason to connect>.
Do not pitch, book a meeting, or "hop on a call" in the connection note. The only goal of the note is acceptance.
4. Identify warm-intro paths
Before going cold, check for a shorter route — a warm intro beats any cold note:
- Mutual connections — sort by who actually knows them (former colleagues > random 1st-degrees).
- Existing relationships at the account — a current champion, a past buyer, a stakeholder already in a deal.
- Internal paths — your exec, an investor, a customer who'll vouch. Ask the mutual for a soft intro or permission to name-drop ("Mind if I mention we both know you?"). Use cold outreach only when no warm path exists.
5. Sample connection note + first-message sequence
Connection note (post-comment):
Hi <name> — enjoyed your take on <topic from their post>, especially <specific point>.
I work with <peer role/company type> on <the problem space>. Would be good to connect.
First message (Day 1 after accept) — no pitch, one open question:
Thanks for connecting, <name>. Your post on <topic> stuck with me — <one-line genuine
reaction>. Out of curiosity, how are you thinking about <related problem> heading into
<quarter/initiative>?
Message 2 (Day 4–5 if engaged) — offer value, still no ask:
That tracks with what I'm hearing from <similar role/company>. We put together
<relevant resource / short teardown> on exactly that — happy to send it over, no strings.
Message 3 (Day 8–10 if warm) — the soft meeting ask:
Given <thing they said>, it might be worth 15 min to compare notes on how <peers> are
handling <problem>. Worst case you get a couple of ideas. Open to a quick chat next week?
Then break the thread — keep commenting on their content and re-engage in 3–4 weeks rather than sending a fourth chase.
Tool binding
This skill works from a profile URL or pasted profile text alone. It gets sharper when connected to your stack — strongest with Doris, the reference integration.
With Doris (recommended)
If the Doris MCP (mcp.meetdoris.com) is connected, pull relationship context so the
outreach reflects real history instead of guessing:
ontology_resolve("person", id, expand=["company","deals","meetings"])— use the prospect's company, any deals they're attached to, and prior meeting touchpoints to ground the hook in real context (e.g. reference a live deal at their account or a past conversation) and to avoid cold-pitching someone you already have a relationship with.ontology_searchto find the person record by name/company before resolving. This tells you whether this is truly cold or already warm — and surfaces the warm-intro paths and prior touchpoints that should change the message.
With a CRM / CI / email MCP
- LinkedIn MCP / Sales Navigator export → source the profile, recent activity, and mutuals.
- CRM MCP (Salesforce/HubSpot) → check existing relationship history, account owner, and prior contact so you don't cold-pitch a known contact.
With nothing connected
Ask the user for the profile URL or paste of the profile (headline, about, recent posts, mutuals). From that, produce: the warm-intro check, a 5–10 day comment cadence, a connection note, and the three-message sequence — all populated with the specific hooks from the profile. The user pastes them into LinkedIn manually.
Works without Doris
Fully functional from a profile URL or pasted profile text — Doris only removes the lookup step and tells you whether the prospect is already warm via existing deals and meetings.
Common mistakes
- Pitching in the connection note — the note's only job is acceptance.
- Reaching out cold when a warm-intro path existed and went unchecked.
- "Great post!" comments that add nothing and get ignored.
- Sending all messages on a timer regardless of whether they engaged.
- Templated first messages with no reference to anything specific about them.