Sellers: Your LinkedIn Profile Can Cost You Meetings. Here's How to Make it Great.

It’s the first moment of the first call with a new prospect. It’s go time.

I get straight to the point. 

“I’ve averaged 140% quota attainment over the past twelve quarters. I’ve been to Presidents Club three years running.” 

My colleague chimes in and lists the last five companies he’s worked for. He also says he’s been trained in SPIN, SNAP, MEDDIC, and Challenger.

This call is critical so we brought one of our senior leaders with us. She proclaims her 20-year demonstrated experience in cross-functional people management and the fact that three of her previous employers raised large funding rounds. 

We’ve got this. 

Surely the buyer will be eating out of our hands.

Buyers look at LinkedIn profiles too.

It never ceases to amaze me how few sellers seem to look at their own LinkedIn profiles through their buyers’ eyes.

Who would ever talk like that on a call? What an awful first impression. Would the buyer even stay on the line? I’m not sure I would.

But in many cases, those opening moments aren’t the first impression at all. It already happened when they looked at your profile.

A buyer-centric profile is entirely different.

We’re long overdue to retire the notion that your LinkedIn profile is “your resumé, online."

It’s time we see it as a market-facing asset. A buyer-facing asset. A clear and compelling statement of who you are, who you serve, and how you make a difference in their life.

It seems very few sellers have flipped this mindset and embraced this change.

It’s probably the best 30 minutes you can possibly spend to rise above the crowd and show up in an entirely better light.

But I don’t know what to say! 

Imagine you’re speaking to your ideal prospect right now. What would you say to them? 

Who are you? What do you believe? What do you see changing and why is it important?

Who is your company? What do you do? Who do you do it for?

What makes you, your team, and your entire firm different and better? And for what sort of customers?

What outcomes do your customers achieve when they work with you?

Can you name some of them? If not, can you tell us what industries, functions, or growth stages you often serve and what business challenges you help them overcome?

You do this sort of thing all the time on calls, in meetings, and in emails.

Do it on your LinkedIn profile, too.

Say goodbye to the old formal voice.

Another old notion that really needs to be retired is the idea that LinkedIn profiles should be written in the third-person.

“Steve is...”

Everyone knows I wrote my profile. Why not write like I speak, in the first-person?

“I am...”

“We are..." 

It’s hard to come across in a modern, authentic way if your profile is stuffy and impersonal. It’s like the difference between a color photo and an antique oil painting.

Add the ‘About’ section.

The ‘About’ section isn’t a default section, and most sellers haven’t added it yet. It’s time to fix that too.

There are lots of ways to write a great ‘About’ section.

You might tell a story about where you came from and what you’ve learned on the road to where you are now.

A friend of mine – and an excellent enterprise software seller – starts his like this:

“Two of my most important life lessons were acquired while sliding dirty dinnerware into a plastic tub. I was a 15 year-old busboy at a restaurant called Spinnakers."

It ends with: “31 years since Spinnakers, and only the venue has changed. I'm still wildly driven to serve others. I speak fluent Human, and there's not a Sales Robot bone in my body.”

It’s exactly right for him.

My own ‘About’ section is more of a personal belief or mission statement.

It starts with “This is what I’m fired up about –

We’re in the very early days of the rise of the Super-Connected Enterprise, and I’m ALL IN on this exciting future.”

There’s no one right way. It’s got to work for you, your style, your objectives, and your buyers.

Don’t miss this huge opportunity to humanize and connect. 

Tell us about your company in the ‘Experience’ section.

I could click on your company’s logo in the ‘Experience’ section and go read about them on the company page. But I probably won’t.

Make it much easier for your buyers by giving them that context right where they are: In your profile. 

Seems most sellers have nothing more than their title and company name here, and unless you work for a very well-known brand, this is another missed opportunity.

A good one-two punch is to make the ‘About’ section your story and the ‘Experience’ section your company’s story.

It’s a mindset, not a template. 

There’s no one perfect way. And if there was, it would be pretty dull and inauthentic if we all looked alike.

It’s a mindset above all. 

It starts with remembering that LinkedIn profiles aren’t just for your next job. They’re for today’s buyers and today’s customers. Speak to them. Make it count.

A parting thought – what if you are open to a new job?

Do all this anyway. 

Modern recruiters get it. Modern recruiters will respect your buyer-centricity.

There’s plenty of opportunity to talk quota attainment, Presidents Club, and all that other good stuff on your resumé and in your interviews.

Don’t let it get in the way of your success today.