LinkedIn has already established itself as THE social network for professionals – a virtual space where business networking takes place globally. It is therefore interesting to see what makes a LinkedIn profile stand out, in particular a salesperson’s professional profile.
The generic guidelines of a sales LinkedIn profile
A sales rep exemplary profile is the definition of efficiency itself, applying the prerequisite of gaining the viewer’s attention “from hello”. A neat, well-chosen photograph, paired with a headline acting as a compressed UVP and updated, precise contact info are highly recommended.
Some might consider that such elements go without saying, yet customizing your profile takes a certain amount of content skill, both in what the text and the visual content are concerned. The HubSpot infographic mentioned above cleverly points out how each customary page element should be conceived in order to generate an overall informative, driven and valuable profile.
Further details from the same perspective are available here. Another HubSpot article goes into detail and breaks down what a perfect profile photo means. Face, body, setting and editing all have their secrets – and the tips use a survey in which viewers rated 800 of photos.
To summarize:
-the visual content should be classy and professional (without improvised, low budget innovations), showing quality appreciation;
-the written content should be concise and to the point, without lengthy unnecessary elements and without gaps;
-the profile should be consistent (stick to the truth, concentrating on the most empowering, relevant and positive elements);
-do not neglect any subcategories: give equal attention to all the elements that represent your persona in this online business environment.
The recommended mindset when setting up a sales LinkedIn account
We have seen how appearances matter because they give an insight on the account owner personality and professional tenure. Yet when setting up a sales representative LinkedIn account one should not aim only at resolving the appearance elements by following the standard recipe.
Personal variations appear when considering the particular situations – and these variations are welcome, because they customize and personalize each account.
A very instructive article from WiseStep enumerates precisely the steps in creating a winning LinkedIn account, strategy-wise. The main elements to pay attention too would be:
- Establish your targeted people, the way an advertiser would do when drafting a campaign and, having them in mind, structure your data wisely to serve the account’s purpose;
- Be consistent with yourself and others by offering real, specific details about your abilities, goals and experience;
- Stay connected by monitoring your profile and by joining helpful groups and communities within the LinkedIn social network (the recommended minimum would be 3 profile times/week);
- Select the recommendations and endorsements, as an expression of your personal values goes into each connection that endorses you or that you endorse in turn.
For the most technical types, another article lists the main Summary section items that should stand out, in a mix of strategy and delivery tips. Going through the crucial 5 steps (what the person does, who is the targeted customer, how can the person help, what is essentially different for the better in his contribution and the exit points), the author elaborates on how a successful summary looks like and adds another essential tip: its overall goal to expand the LinkedIn connections outside the social network’s area.
The goal of an effective LinkedIn profile for sales
Let us consider that a sales person has configured his/hers profile by taking into consideration the visual (design) recommendations while using the right mind set that generates a coherent strategy and glues together the best and the most representative LinkedIn persona for himself (as mentioned above).
Once all this is done, a profile check should also be made, one that allows the same person to have a critical view of the resulting profile. In order to do that, all the effort put into strategically assembling all the necessary information into the required shape is best put aside for a while. Trying to see your profile as others would perceive it, there are a few useful elements to check:
- The profile should generate an “urge” for the targeted customers;
- The urge should be fueled by a “curiosity” related to what the profile owner can do professionally;
- The above mindset should lead to a reason and motivation to “act” – to which the answer lies in the Contact area of the account.
Or, to sum it up, act through your account to get potential customers to react in an immediate and positive manner.
Why is it necessary to learn how to set up a profile?
Nobody is fully aware of the gap between his perception of himself and the way others perceive him/her. At least not all the time, since grasping an outside look of ourselves and performing our everyday activities can be rather an incompatible paradigm.
We know all sorts of details about ourselves that others do not, yet we somehow assume our peers, colleagues and even customers somehow have access to the plethora of details accessible in fact only to us. It is a normal (fake) assumption. When bringing this fact into light and having to select what to let the others know, what is most relevant and important to actively share – it may prove difficult.
This is even more difficult when the relevant details are constrained into a fixed shape – such as the typing limits of a menu window. Putting your entire professional presence and activity into a limited number of words and pictures is never as easy as it may seem.
An IdealCandidate article on the best LinkedIn profile for sales features some helpful survey insights. Only 26 percent of the salespeople manage to fill in the skills list of their profile, while only 44 percent remembers or choose to reveal their personal interests, although 93 percent of the studied accounts include recommendations. Yet the researcher conducting the study quoted in the article studied the LinkedIn profiles of the Fortune 500 salespeople – so what does this tell us? Even the best in the sales profession can be inconsistent in setting up their professional accounts.
However, given the growing importance of online business networking, learning to master the modern digital tools is crucial. It is useful to always assume there is something new to find out and assimilate, and crafting the best online image (and the best reflection of your professional status) is an ongoing process.
