Linkedin for Sales: Resume or Sales Letter?

When I browse through Linkedin I see tons of missed opportunity. Profile after profile looks like the tired old resume or curriculum vitae. This particularly saddens me when it’s a person that sells for a living.

Here’s the problem with most people’s Linkedin profile and usage: You set it up because you’re on the hunt for a job or because you might be in the future. Then, it sits and ages—dormant to you and your potential market. Even if one of these prospects does find it they get job titles and companies, but not a clue how you can help them right now.

My suggestion? Switch your thinking. Make your Linkedin profile a sales letter.

Here’s a quick couple of hints to get you started.

Get Attention

The headline in the Linkedin profile is one of the most under-utilized sales tools in Linkedin. Most people leave the default option, which is your current job title. Think about it. No one wants to buy a VP of Sales. They want to buy network performance monitoring, security software, a professional speaker, or a dog training guru.

These are elements of a headline. Let me illustrate.

Here’s my profile:

Here’s the average sales person’s profile (sorry to pick on someone):

Who’s going to get the click/call? Obvious, right!

Here’s another reason this is so important. It’s your mini-sales ad in a Linkedin search (think Google AdWords). Again, who gets the click/call here:

Pretty boring, and certainly no value proposition in any of these. You’re only ad space in Linkedin search is the headline. Make it count.

Generate Targeted Sales Traffic

Here’s another little under-utilized lead generation trick. Use your update or status box to generate targeted sales traffic. This is a simple way to land on your connections’ Linkedin home page (staying top of mind) and provides a call to action for new visitors to your profile.

This simple little update box, when combined with a website link, can be a powerful lead generation tool. Make your updates a brief call to action and add a link to a compelling landing page. This could be your website, a blog, a squeeze page, Slideshare.net LeadShare, your Facebook fan page, wherever you can capture leads or generate calls.

Here’s the box I’m talking about:

Here’s an update in action. Would you click?

Do you want more ideas on turning your Linkedin profile into a sales lead generation tool?

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