How to Find the Warmest Path Into a Target Company

Breaking into a target account is far easier when you already have a connection inside it. If you have a list of companies you want to reach, check each one for people who work there who are already 1st- or 2nd-degree connections of yours. You can reach the 1st-degree contacts directly and get a warm introduction to the 2nd-degree ones — starting every account from a warm contact instead of a cold list.

How to map your way into each account

Work company by company:

1. Start with your target company list.
2. For each company, find your connections who work there — the people who are 1st- or 2nd-degree connections of yours.
3. Split them by degree. 1st-degree contacts you can reach directly. For 2nd-degree contacts, surface which of your 1st-degree connections could make the introduction.

The output is an account map: for each company, who you can reach directly and who you'd need a warm intro to, and through whom.

How to reach out once you've mapped it

• 1st-degree contacts — message directly. If they're not the right buyer, ask them who is.
• 2nd-degree contacts — ask the mutual connection to introduce you rather than cold-requesting them. If you don't know that mutual well, warm them up first — reconnect or comment on their posts for a bit so you're not a stranger when you ask for the intro.
• Accounts with no warm path — fall back to cold: a standard connection sequence, an engagement-based warm-up, or a signal-triggered reach-out when something changes at the company.

How to automate company warm routing with an AI agent

Give Sliq your list of target companies, and it will find the people at each one who are 1st- or 2nd-degree connections, surface who could make the warm intro for the 2nd-degree contacts, and group the results by account — then help you draft the messages and intro requests, with nothing sent without your approval.

Delegate this to a Sliq agent ->

Related workflows

• Find who in your network can introduce you to a target when you're starting from specific people rather than a list of companies
• Find customers in your LinkedIn network to source ICP-fit people across your 1st- and 2nd-degree connections, not just inside named accounts
• Monitor target companies for signals to catch the right moment to reach out to accounts where you have no warm path yet
• Warm up prospects before outreach for cold accounts — engage before the connection request lands
• Browse all GTM plays

Frequently asked questions

How do you find a warm way into a target company on LinkedIn?

For each target company, find the people who work there who are already 1st- or 2nd-degree connections of yours. You can message the 1st-degree ones directly. For the 2nd-degree ones, find which of your 1st-degree connections is connected to them and could make an introduction. A Sliq agent does this per company and groups the results by account.

Should you target the buyer directly or route through a warm connection?

Route through a warm connection whenever one exists. A message from someone already inside the account, or an introduction from a mutual, clears the trust filter that cold outreach into an account has to fight. Your warmest contact inside a company isn't always the economic buyer, but they can point you to the right person or make the internal intro that a cold message never earns.

What if nobody at a target company is a 1st- or 2nd-degree connection?

Then there's no warm path into that account and you fall back to cold outreach: a connection request to the right person, an engagement-based warm-up, or a signal-triggered reach-out when something changes at the company. Knowing which accounts have a warm path and which don't lets you spend your warm intros where they exist and cold-route the rest.

How is company warm routing different from finding warm intro paths to a person?

Warm intro paths start from specific people you already want to reach. Company warm routing starts from a list of accounts and works out who inside each one you're connected to — you don't know the target people yet. It answers "who at this company can I reach warm," then, for the 2nd-degree contacts, who could introduce you.