Creating The Best LinkedIn Profile For Sales In 6 Steps
You’re making a big mistake if you work in sales and you’re not paying attention to all the details on your LinkedIn profile.
Your LinkedIn profile should be created with a focus on your prospects and clients.
Turn your LinkedIn profile into a strong sales landing page
Your LinkedIn profile acts as your unique landing page where your prospects and future clients get to know more about the problems you solve and learn more about you. If you’re trustworthy, genuine, knowledgeable, etc.
All the information you put on your LinkedIn profile tells people a lot about you. From your profile photo, cover photo, headline, summary, and featured section, all the way to your job experiences.
If optimized, your LinkedIn profile can become the differentiating factor as to why prospects choose you over competitors.
How does having a LinkedIn profile lead to sales?
Let’s face it. Selling is all about TRUST! And you want to build that trust early on since first impressions are important.
Imagine your prospect finding your LinkedIn profile from a post on their newsfeed that is filled with valuable information. They notice you speaking about a topic passionately and how engaged your community is with what you say.
Then they start seeing your name more frequently on their newsfeed, providing genuine comments and insight to people in your network. They check out your LinkedIn profile and learn more about your expertise, how you help, and your social proof. They begin to trust you and start seeing you as a go-to expert.
You reach out to them in an Inmail and they already know who you are and instead of feeling cold, they feel warm. They openly accept your message and respond to you. You talk and build a relationship and they seek your help.
That’s a client won.
Everything on your LinkedIn profile should build trust with your prospects and clients. You need to show that you understand their problems, provide value through free tips or resources, and inspire them with client testimonials.
These should be elements you include throughout your LinkedIn profile.
6 steps to optimize your LinkedIn profile for sales
To better improve your LinkedIn profile in building trust early with your prospects and clients, start by following the tips below:
1. LinkedIn profile photo and cover photo
Having a clear, professional photo with a smile and a plain background will do the job most of the time. But if you’d like to stand out more, you can opt for a bold background instead.
For your cover photo, you want to utilize the real estate to highlight the problems you solve, who your target audience is, and anything that supports your authority as a go-to expert.
It acts as a hero image of your profile and helps leave a critical first impression on your audience.
Here are two examples:
2. A Catchy LinkedIn Headline
Your LinkedIn profile headline should not just be your job title. It’s best to contain keywords that speak to your dream client market, a unique selling point, and something fun about you as a person. Learn more about why you need to optimize your LinkedIn headline right now.
My own magic formula is: Unique selling point/What you’re known for | Skills/keywords | Something fun about you
There are 220 character spaces for you to play with and find some inspiring examples here:
3. Write a compelling LinkedIn Summary
With 2,000 characters, there is a lot you can cover. Most people treat this as a resume intro.
Instead, use this section to address the pain points of prospects and explain how you can help. This is the flow/elements that I like to include:
- Start with a hook – what pain points are you addressing? Why should they care?
- Build a story on the client’s situation and how you can help – address their current situation and challenges. Talk about where they actually want to be and then how you can help them.
- Results/testimonials from clients – social proof builds credibility.
- Your skills and experience – demonstrate your authority.
- Call-to-action – Should they book a call, demo, or email you? Tell them.
4. Leverage The LinkedIn Featured Section
This is a great section to highlight more about your expertise, your story, and your WHY. We suggest highlighting top-performing posts that show value, links to your website or other authoritative assets, and videos that speak more about you and your story. Showcasing your previous work, experiences, and insights will help build content that resonates and establishes trust with your potential clients.
5. Get recommendations and skill endorsements
People want social proof.
Endorsements and recommendations are a great way to showcase your authority and are especially great from various individuals (co-workers, supervisors, and past clients).
For sales, the most important is client testimonials. A great way to get more of these is to ask your past clients to complete a recommendation to share their thoughts.
The more social proof you can feature, the more reputable and trustworthy you become in your client’s eyes.
6. Customized LinkedIn profile URL
Once your LinkedIn profile is optimized based on the 5 steps above, you would want to include a URL to it in all the places where prospects or clients can potentially discover you. Some of the best places are your email signature, a business card, brand materials, and other social media platforms.
By default, LinkedIn prepopulates a LinkedIn URL for you that looks something like this:
Don’t let this ugly URL stand in the way of potential leads and client acquisition. Follow the steps HERE to change your LinkedIn URL.
So, what’s next?
Optimizing your LinkedIn profile for sales is the start – you now have a great, credible, and trustworthy landing page. It sets a strong foundation for your successful social selling journey on LinkedIn.
The next steps would be to consistently connect with prospects and post content on your LinkedIn page to expand your reach and provide value.
Need a push in the right direction? Learn how to grow 500+ quality LinkedIn connections or use these 7 content ideas to build your personal brand.
If you want to accelerate your journey and turn your profile into an opportunity magnet, you can work with me to help you build your personal brand.
