Once upon a time, someone wiser than me told me a marketing truth I never forgot:
A confused prospect never buys.
In sales and marketing, Clarity is King.
Especially here in the 21st Century, when our ultra-connected, always on, stream-of-consciousness scrolling through one social media profile and update after another gives marketers precious few seconds to grab our attention.
LinkedIn is no different.
Is Your LinkedIn Summary Scaring Prospects Away?
Today, I want to focus on the first sentence of your LinkedIn Summary.
The way LinkedIn lays out a profile page, your Summary area is the first text area visitors come across after seeing yourheadshot and professional title.
Needless to say, the first sentence of your LinkedIn Summary is critical.
Let me ask: What do you have there right now? At this very moment?
(Don’t lie!)
Are you talking about yourself in the third person, like a professional athlete?
Are you telling us where you work and what your job title or duties are?
(Be honest!)
If you are, it’s okay.
Blame it on LinkedIn!
You’re far from alone. In fact, LinkedIn has trained us to think that way – to treat our profile page like a virtual résumé, listing our employers, job titles, duties, etc.
If you’re trying to use LinkedIn to generate business for yourself, that approach is a huge mistake.
Here’s why:
Your clients don’t care about you.
I hate to burst your bubble, but your clients do not care what your job title is, where you attended college, what awards you’ve won or anything else.
What they do care about is quite simple:
Your clients care about themselves.
Dale Carnegie penned those words all the way back in 1936, but they ring just as true in 2016, don’t they?
The Secret to a Successful LinkedIn Summary
Which leads us to the all-important first sentence of your LinkedIn Summary.
Take the template I’m going to share below and copy it, filling in the blanks to personalize it for you and your business.
Here it is:
WHAT I DO: I help [TARGET AUDIENCE] achieve [THEIR GOAL] by providing [PRODUCT/SERVICE].
See how simple and clear that is?
Using that approach, the first sentence of your LinkedIn Summary instantly identifies your target audience, tells that audience how you help them achieve their goals or solve their problems, and it explains how you do it (the service or product you provide).
It’s that simple!
Video: LinkedIn Summary Examples
Watch this video to see how some of my LinkedIn Riches students have applied the formula above to their profiles:
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