How to setup your LinkedIn profile to talk to buyers
How to setup your LinkedIn profile to talk to buyers
Your current LinkedIn profile is hurting you
LinkedIn started off as an online resume platform for recruiting. So it’s understandable that you have your resume on there right now.
But if you want to use LinkedIn for outreach and building an audience with your buyers, you’re going to need to have to redo your profile.
If your buyers is a CTO for example, they don’t care that you’re an:
“Experienced Account Executive with a demonstrated history of working in SaaS sales. Skilled in Sales, Communication, Teamwork, and Leadership.” — I literally copied that from the first AE I found on LinkedIn search btw. 🤦
Adding “+120% to quota” and “President’s Club” means nothing to them, and in fact probably makes them less willing to talk to you.
Also the title “Sr Account Executive” or “Business Development Representative” makes them not want to connect with you because they know you’re going to pitch slap them in their DMs shortly after.
Good sales is about the buyer, not you. Similarly, a good LinkedIn profile for a seller is buyer-centric (you can still keep the above or change it when you’re on the job market), but for the purpose of hitting quota in your current role, the above type of profile is actively hurting you.
How to fix your LinkedIn profile
Let’s turn this on its head.
How can you become someone that your buyer WANTS to connect with, follow, and talk to?
Checklist:
Some examples of good profiles:
Headline
There are two parts to a good headline.
Part 1: A title that isn’t AE/BDR/SDR. Instead, think of a title that your buyer might want to connect with — a good format
Here are some examples:
- “GTM Engineer” if you sell automation tools to RevOps leaders
- “Procurement Advisor” if you sell vendor management solutions to CIOs and CFOs
- “Talent Development Associate” if you sell executive coaching services to HR leaders
Part 2: A 5-10 word description of what you solve.
Here are some examples:
- “Helping salespeople have more conversations with their most-valued prospects”
- “Slashing vendors costs 20% for IT buyers”
- “Streamlining payroll, benefits & business bullsh*t”
Then put them together with a | dividing them like this:
Headline: Part 1 | Part 2
Cover Photo
Your cover photo should have the following:
- a value prop for your buyers
- a clear CTA to follow or connect with you
- company branded - ask your marketing or design team for help or put something together yourself in Canva
About
Your about section contain:
- 1-2 sentence description of who you are
- A sentence on why your buyer should trust you
- Some social proof for your product or service quantified
- How to contact you - let them know your DMs are open or provide your email (I use an @ instead of an at so bots don’t bug me)
Featured Section
This might require some posting to build up but once you start posting content that seems to be resonating and driving inbound, you should pin the best ones to your featured section.
You know the post has historically piqued buyer interest, so make it easy to access for future buyers. Any posts that are candidates for boosting via thought leadership ads also probably belong here. Add your top 3-4 posts here.
Some ideas for posts to pin:
- Product Demos that are well received
- Customer stories and case studies
- Industry thought leadership that went viral
What not to do
Do not connect and immediately send a pitch.
Instead focus on starting a conversation. If you met a prospect in an elevator at a conference, would you immediately say “Hi, I’m Alice from Acme. We do XYZ. Can we find 30 mins to meet after the conference?”
You’d have way more success trying to start a conversation or making an observation “That last talk was something, right?” or “You’re at PiedPiper? I have a friend, Jared, who works on the Partnerships team there.”
And then that opens up the door for them to ask about you now that their guard is down and tell them what you do in a way that feels natural.