Even though Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat can be useful in order to gain knowledge about your potential customer’s interests and traits, getting to know them a bit before approaching them and polishing your specialized knowledge, LinkedIn is typically the only source that ultimately leads to new business.
LinkedIn Profile Tips for Salespeople
As a salesperson, your target customer base is unlike that of the majority of professional individuals. Aim to attract prospects rather than hiring managers or recruiters.
Your LinkedIn profile shouldn’t emphasize your success in sales. Do you believe that your clients are interested in the facts that you made it to the President’s Club or surpassed the team record for bringing in extra revenue?
Not in the slightest. The details just let them know you are a sales representative, which leads to distrust of your purpose.
So what do they care about? One thing: How you helped customers similar to them.
How To Optimize LinkedIn Profile
Your LinkedIn Summary Content Should Be Well Thought Out, Concise
1. Introduce Yourself
Create an attention-grabbing first sentence that clearly reflects your personality.
Perhaps, who are you when you’re not working? What problems do you solve on the job? Do you associate yourself with your educational degree? Do you think that your job or field of work defines your identity? Most of us have a certain experience or event that we associate ourselves with the most. Are you the sum of several interests?
The initial words you write have a great potential to give a brief overview of who you are.
2. Talk About Your Current Position and Accomplishments
The importance of your current position is paramount; most people will take note of it before exploring any other information.
Provide a detailed account of your job title and discuss the issues that you have successfully addressed, as well as key accomplishments that exemplify your leadership skills. Describe the various responsibilities you have in achieving your day-to-day objectives and how they relate to your position within the organization.
It is essential that you back up your successes with evidence from the data. An example of what a construction project manager could say is the amount of buildings they supervise, the customer approval results, and the amount of time needed to complete the task. A recent college graduate may want to indicate that they had been included on the Dean’s List for multiple years of their college career.
3. Talk About Your Previous Positions
Where you are today in your professional life is the culmination of every single one of your career developments and transformations. Whenever you swapped places of employment, you came away with prized knowledge and aspirations. Provide an overview of my travels and the lessons I have taken away from them.
Talking about your previous job duties and utilizing the other suggestions for LinkedIn while you don’t have a job assists the reader in comprehending your current situation and goals.
4. Describe Your Discipline in Your Industry
Explaining your area of expertise is when you use jargon and specific terms that are specific to your sector.
Highlight your area of expertise by naming some key terms, valuable insights, or notable facts. If you are inexperienced in this area, attempt to become a knowledgeable contender. Gather all the facts you can find concerning this job and demonstrate what you have learned.
5. Be Personable
Try to be approachable and ‘human’ to your network. Tell them something about yourself that will help them form a connection with you. You don’t need to reveal a cheerful part of yourself, just something real and true.
Particular facts may be anything that matters to you, so if you’d rather not reveal any information about your life, possibly you can give a quotation that you appreciate.
6. Give Your Potential Connections a Reason to Be Interested
What benefits can you bring to the people in your network if they decide to build relationships with you? How can you add value to their lives? It is possible that you have finished a particular expertise or latest undertaking that someone you may network with can gain knowledge from.
Be sure to give a concise account of your expertise or accomplishments and let everyone know you are more than happy to provide details of your successes and failures.
Don’t Be Afraid to Use the First-Person
Speaking in one’s own words is like narrating a tale, which always captures the attention of the audience. It is acceptable to be laid-back and casual when introducing yourself on Linkedin, even though it is mainly for business professionals. Some professionals choose to write bios for speaking events or articles in the third person form.
Nonetheless, utilizing the “I” pronoun facilitates the sharing of one’s goals and successes and is more befitting when including personal particulars.
Make It Easy To Skim With Short Paragraphs, White Space, and Clear Subsections
Create a concise version of your summary so that it is quick and simple to look over, as people generally don’t read in detail anymore. Brief sections, plenty of breathing room, and distinct subsections will make the summary simpler to scroll through quickly. Do not compose exhaustive passages to explain every aspect of your professional experience or the accomplishment you recently made as a project manager.
Jacqueline Fisch, a well-known writer, copy editor and corporate communication trainer, is bringing about a new perception towards writing. She came up with the following advice.
Individuals will quickly scan through a LinkedIn summary and the about portion in a few seconds; subsequently, if it appears to be written by a robot, they won’t continue reading. Your synopsis should be written in the manner of natural conversation, as should all the pieces of writing you produce.
You will have to accomplish this task employing plain language (unless anything alters in the future). Here are some ways to format this section to help with readability:
- Utilize emoticons or a simple dash with gaps for bullets.
- Use CAPS for subheadings
- Use emojis to streamline your contact information
Include Relevant Keywords to Your Industry
Using key words is something else that you should be taking advantage of in your LinkedIn strategy, though you likely are not.
Hannah of Career Sherpa advises that one should finish their summary with a collection of relevant keywords. The list of keywords is an ideal chance to include job processes, abilities, and technology that you wish to see without worrying about how to fit them into the text. Introduce the list with ‘Key Skills’ or ‘Expertise.’”
Examples and topics regarding residential construction might include: a “highly skilled salesperson for newly constructed houses”, “reducing the cycle time to 110 days”, “amending blueprints and determining the amount of lumber needed”, or “a home building customer service representative who resolves warranty issues within ten days of the closing date”.
By making the effort to compose a thoroughly composed account, you will enhance your opportunities of getting seen by employing managers and recruiters.
Michelle Humphrey, the founder and CEO at Resignation Letter Samples, added the following when asked by MatchBuilt:
A good summary is an essential piece of a successful LinkedIn profile. This is your chance to give a short description of yourself and emphasize the most relevant qualifications and background you possess. Be sure to include significant words in your summary that human resources professionals will be seeking.
For instance, if you work in the marketing field, you should consider using words like “branding”, “strategy”, and “social media”. Furthermore, abstain from utilizing code terms and wordings like “industrious individual” or “group member”. Instead, focus on specific examples of your accomplishments. For example, you could talk about a campaign you personally initiated that was successful or an accolade you got for your efforts.
How to Prospect on LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a lead generation goldmine. There are several strategies for finding prospects. Let’s discuss each, ranked from most common to least.
Search
Through its significant user network, its capacity to perceive mutual connections, and the different assortments of channels, LinkedIn’s pursuit is known to be the most potent and established strategy for spotting potential customers.
If you have a free version, you can look for prospects with the following qualifiers:
- Connections: You can choose whether you want to find first-, second-, or third-degree connections. Here’s the difference between the three types.
- Connections of: This option lets you find a prospect who’s connected to one of your current connections. This is a great way to find potential common areas that you can use to start a conversation.
- Locations: You can find the prospects nearest to you or in your target geographical area.
- Current Company: Use this filter to find prospects at target businesses.
- Past Company: Use this filter to find prospects who might share common ground with you. For instance, if they worked at one of your former employers, you can use this information to open up the conversation.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator (Paid)
It may be profitable for you to put money into LinkedIn Sales Navigator if you plan to search for potential customers on the website a lot.
There are various tiers you can sign up for:
- Sales Navigator Professional: You get 20 InMail messages per month and advanced filters.
- Sales Navigator Team: You get 30 InMail messages per month, advanced filters, and administrative tools.
- Sales Navigator Enterprise: You get 50 InMail messages per month, advanced filters, and CRM integrations.
Your Customers’ Connections
Looking for referrals? Once the agreement is finalized, be on the lookout for reports and publicity from the customers related to the project, especially from the person who endorsed you. Take a look at other LinkedIn users who comment on or like your content to decide if they are potential customers. You can request a referral from a present customer or reach out directly with the reminder to bring up the shared connection.
Notifications
LinkedIn will let you know when one of your connections makes an alteration to their profile. Before you take advantage of any employment chance, ensure that you are set up to get updates distributed. Every new job presents an exciting opportunity. It’s probable that a current client who is changing companies is ready to get going with a program they are familiar with. Or maybe your champion just made a lateral move. Could the advantage of your product be seen in their new department like it did in their old one?
Check your Notifications section from time to time to see if anyone in your network has been given a promotion, changed jobs, or transferred to a different organization.
LinkedIn Pulse
Post a piece of advice or provide insights into a common issue that your customers experience on LinkedIn Pulse in order to reach a large number of potential customers. Mention a few of your colleagues, professional contacts, and/or clients in the comments to stimulate conversation and make the post more noticeable.
Then wait for prospects to begin commenting. As the topic at hand relates to them, it is likely that most of the people present will require your product.
How to Research on LinkedIn
Checking your potential customer’s LinkedIn page will supply significantly beneficial information such as their role and organization, primary duties, length of time they have had the job, where they are located, and what industry they work in.
It may also provide you with an understanding of their character, hobbies, and preferred method of expressing themselves. Look over the LinkedIn profile and endorsements quickly and try to get an idea of their personality. How do others describe them? How do they describe themselves?
Highlights
““Highlights” reveals any links or existing partnerships between you and another person based on mutual acquaintances or shared careers” In your communication with the person, use something to create a connection. For example, try saying, “I noticed you have experience with Dunder Mifflin,” or “I’m a friend of Pam Halpert’s.”
Featured
“Featured” shows your prospect’s content in chronological order. It is visible what posts they have taken a liking to, made comments on, and/or have published themselves.
Activity
Next is the “Activity” section. This part provides an understanding of their individual and occupational interests. Did they make any remarks regarding an article about providing nutritional guidance in the workplace? That would make an excellent starting point for your initial dialogue. Did they enjoy reading a passage from a publication on leadership? Ask them for reading recommendations in your email.
Interests
Finally, check out the Interests section. The organizations, associations, opinion-shapers, and educational institutions they keep track of or are associated with will appear in this place. Gain a brief understanding of the people they admire, their professional circles, and more.
How to Build Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn
A personal brand is the reputation you’re known by. Concisely stated in 3-8 words. Jeff Bezos could be described as “ambitious, zealous, incredibly intelligent, and business-oriented.” On the other hand, Tina Fey could be portrayed as “lighthearted, tough, self-mocking, peculiar, and courageous.”
Your personal brand isn’t necessarily positive. If you come off as too forceful with possible customers, people will begin to associate “intense” with your organization. If you’re manipulative or dishonest, “untrustworthy” will define you.
Fortunately, LinkedIn is a great system for purposefully forming and advertising an attractive personal image.
Discover which adjectives you want customers and prospects to associate with your business. These should be realistic but slightly aspirational. An example of this might be to choose “event marketing expert” even if you are still working towards understanding the concept of event marketing better.
Determine what material you can generate that will display those qualities.
Here are the main areas of your profile that will reflect your personal brand:
- Your summary
- The recommendations you’ve received
- Your posts
Try to create “themes” that run throughout your profile. You could show your enthusiasm and knowledge for events marketing in your overview to demonstrate. You could inquire of a colleague to endorse you and point out that your expertise in events marketing strategies is highly advantageous to patrons. You should craft several pieces about events advertising – how to begin, top techniques, etc.
When a potential customer examines your profile, they can immediately ascertain that you are experienced in event promotion. You’ll gain instant credibility.
