My 1-Week “Old School” Social Selling Experiment

Having started my sales career long before social selling, social networks, and even the Internet, I can appreciate the concern that some sales experts have expressed over salespeople spending too much time on social networks. They argue that relationships are suffering and information is getting lost when people go 100% electronic in lieu of richer communication methods like phone calls or in-person meetings. As referral sales expert Joanne Black states in her book, “Pick Up the Damn Phone: How People, Not Technology, Seal the Deal”, salespeople should be tweeting less and talking more.

This prompted me to try an experiment combining social networking triggers with good old-fashioned outbound phone calls.

I love the “Keep in Touch” feature on LinkedIn that reminds me when my Connections:

• Are having a work anniversary


• Are starting a new job


• Have been mentioned in the news


• Are having a birthday

So, for the next five days, I am going to phone my connections to say, “Congratulations,” “Good Luck,” “Way to Go,” and “Happy Birthday.”

I will record the results and report back in October. Here are the ground rules I’ve set.

1. A phone call will be the first method for outreach given I have their phone number. Of course, people should have their business phone number in their LinkedIn Contact Information. I will note whether they do or not as part of the data collection.


2. If I do not have the person’s phone number, I will use LinkedIn’s internal communication feature, personalizing the message to encourage a response and stand out from the small percentage of their Connections who even send the default message.


3. I’ll do it for a maximum of twenty people each day. With thousands of Connections, I often have more than twenty of the “Keep in Touch” opportunities each day, but twenty should be a large enough sample size to draw some conclusions.

My 1-Week “Old School” Social Selling Experiment