For the third edition of The Bowery Capital Sales Leaders Series, we have Chad Wiedmaier from NewsCred with a few must have aspects of your LinkedIn profile .
Do you evaluate your prospects on LinkedIn? Guess what, they evaluate you, too. Why should they respond to your email? Why should they return your call? They receive hundreds of vendor messages every day; claiming that they can solve their problems. Seller deficit disorder is real (read the link). Long-story-short, it means that within all you’re out-bounding efforts, your prospects automatically assume that you don’t understand their business. And that you’re just another automated email. No matter how perfect that subject headline was. Don’t give your prospects any reason to doubt your ability to solve their problem.
Here are a couple MUST HAVE aspects of your LinkedIn profile:
1) Update your headshot
While you’re at it, your entire team should. Chances are your sales team is on the younger side, and you’re calling upon senior folks. A cropped picture from another event won’t cut it anymore. It doesn’t have to be Hollywood production value; smartphones have incredible photo resolution. Book out an hour for your whole team, preferably during the golden hours, meet at a location outdoors, and get this done.
2) Update the “skills” section of your profile
If Microsoft Office is still in there, then you’re wrong. Add keywords and skill sets that are actually relevant to the world you sell into and service.
3) Work with former friends/colleagues to add recommendations and endorsements
If you were successful at your previous job and developed good relationships, people will be happy to help.
4) Move your “skills” section to just below your head-shot
This is an important section, make it impossible to miss for anyone who visits your profile.
5) Remove your college graduation year
I’d like to think that I’m good at my job and understanding the challenges of folks I speak with. I won’t tell you who, but one time I received a message saying, “You’re to young. Is there someone else on your team I can speak to?” That stung.
Making these small tweaks in your LinkedIn profile should make a big difference. It did for me.
