LinkedIn for Building Products Sales Professionals. Part 4 of 7.
I'd been trying to reach a candidate for a week. Called multiple times. Nothing.
I could see they were looking. Had a strong feeling they'd be well suited to a role I was recruiting for. But the phone just rang out.
Turns out they'd been sick. Fair enough.
When they finally picked up, they told me something that made the whole week worth it.
"I don't normally answer calls from recruiters. But I knew who you were."
They hadn't commented on my posts. Hadn't sent me a message. Hadn't engaged with anything publicly. They'd just been passively seeing my content in their feed. Enough times that when my name appeared on their phone, they recognised it.
That's the real power of LinkedIn. Not replacing the phone. Making the phone work better.
Phone first. Everything else supports it.
I'll be upfront about my outreach sequence. Phone first. Always.
If I need to speak to someone, I call them. If they don't pick up, I follow up with an email. LinkedIn messages are a last resort.
That's not a popular opinion in 2026. Plenty of people will tell you that social selling has replaced cold calling. That LinkedIn DMs are the new first touchpoint. That the phone is dead.
It's not dead. It's harder. Call screening is real. Phone avoidance is growing, especially with younger candidates. But a phone conversation is still the fastest way to build rapport, understand what someone actually wants, and move things forward.
The problem is that cold calls are getting colder. When someone doesn't know who you are, they're less likely to pick up. Less likely to call back. Less likely to give you more than 30 seconds if they do answer.
LinkedIn changes that equation. Not by replacing the call, but by warming it up before it happens.
What "warming up" actually looks like
When I started posting consistently on LinkedIn about 18 months ago, I noticed something shift.
My cold call pickup rates improved. Not dramatically. But noticeably.
More importantly, the conversations changed. When someone picks up and they already know who I am, I don't need to spend the first two minutes explaining what I do, why I'm calling, and why they should care. That bit's already done. They've seen my name. They've seen my content. They have some sense of who I am and what I specialise in.
The conversation starts warmer. We get to the substance faster. It saves me having to sell what I do because they've already formed an impression.
That's not a dramatic transformation. There's no "10x your pipeline with this one trick" story here. It's a compound effect. Small, consistent visibility over time that makes every outreach attempt slightly more effective.
Over a year, that adds up.
LinkedIn messages are not the answer
Here's something that might surprise people. My LinkedIn message response rates are on the floor.
I use them. But as a touchpoint, not a primary channel. The reality is that most people's LinkedIn inboxes are a graveyard of unread messages from recruiters, salespeople, and coaches. The signal-to-noise ratio is terrible.
Phone first. Email next. LinkedIn message as a last resort.
That said, the phone is getting harder. Call screening is more common. Younger candidates in particular are less likely to answer an unknown number. Email open rates vary wildly. There's no single channel that works perfectly anymore.
Which is exactly why LinkedIn content matters. It's the layer underneath all of these channels. When your name is already familiar, every other channel works better. The call gets answered. The email gets opened. Even the LinkedIn message gets read because they recognise who it's from.
The generation gap is real (but not permanent)
There's a genuine split in building products sales between the old school and the new.
The experienced reps who've been in the industry for 20 years have something that no amount of LinkedIn posting can replicate. Endless contacts. Deep relationships. Years of trust built face to face over hundreds of site visits and trade show conversations. These people deliver huge budgets on the strength of their networks alone. Some of them barely use LinkedIn at all.
But they're the exception, not the rule. And they're a shrinking exception.
For everyone else, especially anyone in the first 10 years of their career, the phone and the handshake aren't enough on their own anymore. Your buyers are on LinkedIn. Your competitors are on LinkedIn. The architects, builders, and specifiers you need to reach are forming impressions about you based on what they see online before you ever meet them in person.
The smart move is to use everything. Phone for directness. Email for detail. LinkedIn for visibility. In-person for trust. None of these replace each other. They reinforce each other.
A simple framework for using LinkedIn alongside the phone
Not everyone needs a content strategy. But everyone can use LinkedIn more deliberately as part of their outreach.
Here's how I think about it, and it applies to salespeople just as much as recruiters.
When there's no urgency and no existing relationship. Connect with them. Don't call. Don't message. Just connect. If you're a BDM and you spot someone at a competitor or a potential client who might be relevant down the track, send a connection request. No pitch. No essay in the request note. Just connect and let them see your name in their feed over time. You're planting a seed, not harvesting.
When there's a clear opportunity and you need to move. Call them. Don't wait. Don't warm them up with three weeks of content. If someone is actively looking for what you sell or you have something genuinely relevant to offer them, pick up the phone. LinkedIn is the background layer, not the action step.
When you're doing new business development. Call the decision maker. That hasn't changed. But before you call, make sure your LinkedIn profile is solid (Part 2 of this series) and that you've been visible enough in your market that your name isn't completely unknown.
When you've met someone at an event or had a good conversation. Connect immediately after. Then the next time you call, you're not cold. You're someone they've been seeing in their feed since you met. The context is maintained without you having to do anything.
The common thread: LinkedIn works in the background. The phone works in the moment. Use both.
The maths that makes this worth your time
Here's the simple version.
If you post on LinkedIn consistently and build a network of relevant connections (see Part 1), a percentage of those people will recognise your name when you call. A percentage of those will pick up because of that recognition. A percentage of those conversations will lead to business.
Each individual percentage is small. But stacked together over 12 months, the compound effect is real.
One answered call from one person who knew your name because they'd seen your posts. One conversation that started warm instead of cold. One deal that came from that conversation.
That pays for a year of showing up on LinkedIn.
And the best part: the people who never engage, never like, never comment, are still seeing you. The candidate who picked up my phone after a week of trying had never interacted with a single post. They'd just been watching. Quietly.
Your silent audience is bigger than you think. The phone is how you reach them. LinkedIn is how they already know you when you do.
Quick action checklist
1. Keep calling. The phone is still the most effective tool for direct outreach. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
2. Use LinkedIn as the warm-up layer. Post consistently so your name is familiar before you ever dial.
3. Connect with people you might want to reach in future. No pitch. No message. Just connect.
4. When you need to move on an opportunity, call. Don't default to a LinkedIn message.
5. After every meeting, event, or good conversation, connect on LinkedIn immediately. Maintain the relationship passively.
6. Check your LinkedIn message inbox expectations. Response rates are low. Don't rely on it as a primary channel.
7. Remember that your silent audience is watching. The people who never engage are still seeing you.
I'm a specialist recruiter for the building products industry. James Bowesman runs Specified Select, a boutique recruitment consultancy based in Melbourne.
If you're a sales professional in building products thinking about your next move, or a hiring manager looking to build your team, get in touch at james@specifiedselect.com
This is Part 4 of a 7-part series on LinkedIn for Building Products Sales Professionals. Part 1: Clean Up Your Network | Part 2: Your Profile Should Sell You Twice | Part 3: What to Post and What to Stop Posting | Part 4: The Phone Still Wins | Part 5: Stop Broadcasting, Start Engaging | Part 6: When to Take It Offline | Part 7: LinkedIn for Job Seekers | Part 8: After You Accept a New Sales Role