Episode 364: LinkedIn’s Providing Services Feature is Essential For 2025

Intro

0:00:18 – (Bob Woods): Welcome to the Making Sales Social podcast featuring the top voices in sales, marketing, and business. Join Brynne Tillman, and me, Bob Woods, as we each bring you the best tips and strategies our guests teach their clients so you can leverage them for your own virtual and social selling. This episode of the Making Sales Social podcast is brought to you by Social Sales Link, the company that helps you start more trust-based conversations without being salesy through the power of LinkedIn and AI. Start your journey for free by joining our resource library. Welcome to the show.

00:00:48:03 – (Bob Woods): That is such an appetite. And while it’s on and I hope that you do, too. So welcome, everyone. It’s time for Making Sales Social Live. Coming to you from the social sales of virtual studios and is brought to you by our new service. Ask SSL dot AI. Check that one out. I’m Bob Woods. Brynne Tillman is off today, but Stan Robinson Junior is here and is ready and raring to go. How you doing beyond all that, Stan?

00:01:18:18 – (Stan Robinson Jr.): Doing excellent. Thanks, Bob. Looking forward to talking about service. 

00:01:23:80 – (Bob Woods): You can tell that this is my this is my first one this year because, man, I’ve got energy and I’m sure it has nothing to do with. It’s impossible to like that. So with that, let’s get right in the things. So LinkedIn is a feature that’s still, you know, it’s still kind of sort of new, but I don’t see it  isused a lot out there by our fellow salespeople and revenue driven professionals.

00:01:50:01 – (Bob Woods): So I’m guessing that is probably new to you. It’s the providing services section, providing services section is what it’s called that you can use on your LinkedIn profile. This is available to anyone. This area lets you detail the services you offer to prospects and potential partners. This is a really important section, I think, because it’s the one area of the profile that kind of goes a little, I don’t want to say again necessarily, but we’re always talking about how we should be, you know, stop talking about how you help people and just help people.

00:02:26:16 – (Bob Woods): And that should be who out your your profile that feel that this section is probably the only section where you truly get to to your own proverbial horn, right, Stan? 

00:02:39:06 – (Stan Robinson Jr.): Yes, exactly. And as you said, Bob, the rest of your profile should be geared toward positioning yourself as a resource for your audience and talking about them. But in your services section, you have a chance to talk about yourself and what you offer, and you can. That’s where you can sell.

00:02:57:86 – (Bob Woods): Exactly, Exactly. So when you get that sucker first fired up, which, which, which when you go to your profile, click on the open to and then you’ll have a box pop up, a little modal box providing services is what you would click on to get to that. And then once you’re there, you’re you’re going to see all types of potential things that you can do with it.

00:03:21:03 – (Bob Woods): So you can, you know, there’s a little about section that you can fill out there. This is again where you get to trumpet yourself, where you get to talk about yourself. So take advantage of that, about the only drawback there, I think, Stan, is that you only get 500 person spaces, so you got to talk about yourself, but you got to do a quick.

00:03:42:18 – (Stan Robinson Jr.): Yes. Talk about yourself succinctly. 

00:03:47:06 – (Bob Woods): Succinctly, Yes. So, you know, probably a little bit more than what you would do at like a typical networking event where you’re introducing yourself, but obviously you’re not writing warranties that either. The next section is the services provided section. This essentially key words. And so you will need to use their keywords rather than just typing in what you want.

00:04:12:06 – (Bob Woods): So they are kind of limited, but you have a maximum of ten that you can use. And as you’re typing them in, you’ll see a draw. I think it’s been a while since I’ve done this, but I think you’ll see a dropdowns up there that will have like, you know, closest to or whatever. And if you type something in and nothing pops up, you’re going to have to think about how you’re putting it in there.

00:04:34:18 – (Bob Woods): So it’s not overly difficult, but it’s not quite as easy as you think you are. And if you have that proverbial list of of SEO keywords, I would obviously try those first. But just know that you may not be able to use those depending on what LinkedIn has in its own database. In terms of what’s available to you. The next section is a media section.

00:04:55:15 -(Bob Woods): You can use that to upload, I think to upload documents or what I use it for specifically is to link out to pages within the social sales Links dot com website that describes what we do more. And I can already tell that I’m going to have to change my a little bit because ask SSL is not out there yet, so I’m definitely going to have to include that one.

00:05:16:25 – (Bob Woods): But so it’s like that type of thing. You also have a reviews section where you can request reviews from clients. You have up to 20 credits. I don’t know when those refresh, but you do have you can go out to 20 people and then whenever that refreshes, you can go out and talk to more. One of the nice things that we’re going to be talking about in a little bit is that you can actually accept a request for proposal or recipes if you want to get technical about it.

00:05:46:13 – (Bob Woods): So you can do that as well directly through that section. But for now, we’re going to get to our six compelling reasons why you should use providing services to its fullest. And we think that these are essential for salespeople, and especially for social sellers rather like like Stan Brynne & I like. So, Stan, why don’t you go ahead and take number one.

00:06:10:09 – (Stan Robinson Jr.): Yeah. So the first one is one that we’ve alluded to before. Services are the one area on LinkedIn where it’s okay to pitch, it’s okay to sell and talk specifically about your solution. You can talk about the product that you offer, even though it does say services, but but that’s where you can sell every place else. We say, please don’t sell, don’t come across that guy or that that woman here is where you can sell and you’re encouraged to. So that’s number one. 

00:06:47:17 – (Bob Woods): Yeah. that’s number one. I guess the only thing that I would add to that is definitely don’t don’t get finger snapping, you know, like the proverbial car salesman or whatever. I don’t know if I would go quite that far. Just present yourself and present your, your, your services in a you know, in a friendly way or however you want to put it.

00:07:06:15 – (Bob Woods): You know, definitely use your voice, but don’t make it feel like spam, for example, or whatever. So I do think that there’s probably just a little bit of a danger in terms of what you put in there. But as long as you are still have that authenticity and everything else there, you’ll be fine. So self. So I definitely wouldn’t worry about that.

00:07:27:21 – (Bob Woods): So number two is the providing services section is more than a listing of what you do though it can really be a two way communication medium. So like I said before, your audience or prospect can submit a request to get a proposal from you and whatever it is they’re looking to get done. Why they even came to your profile in the first place.

00:07:50:12 – (Bob Woods): So you’re tracking them via that curated a list of keywords that you’re selecting, but this doesn’t necessarily tell you what it is they want to accomplish by potentially hiring you. So this is a great way for them to tell you what they’re looking for

00:08:06:04 – (Bob Woods): so you can tailor your proposal to what it is they want rather than taking a shot in the dark about what it is that they want.

00:08:14:28 – (Bob Woods): Because none of us want to do that, because again, we want to look like that expert that we know what we’re talking about. You want to answer these questions directly, whether it’s in a whether it’s in a direct proposal or however you want to address that. Anything to add to this Stan? 

(Stan Robinson Jr.): Nope, that’s that’s pretty thorough. 

00:08:35:08 – (Bob Woods): All right. Sounds good. So, Stan, you are up with numeral trace. 

00:08:39:12 – (Stan Robinson Jr.): So number three is you can let people know how you would like to work with them. You have the option to checking two boxes, whether you work locally and you can put in your location, like from the New York metro area or whether you’re available to work remotely, which of course greatly expands the field of people that you can serve or both. So you can choose one or the other or you can check both. 

00:09:10:03 – (Bob Woods): Yeah. So obviously if you have a geographical restrictions for whatever reason, you would obviously want to choose like locally, I mean, whether whether it’s legal because you’re not licensed in other areas or you have a specific territory or whatever, that’s probably the or you just concentrate on the local market because you want to concentrate on the local market.

00:09:30:04 – (Bob Woods): So that’s where you would indicate that. Now, I know that for me, I think I’ve got both Lexington, Kentucky and able to work remotely. So I imagine that’s where a lot of people would would would probably fit in there. But, you know, obviously you all do yours. So whatever it is feels best there. You go ahead and you do it.

00:09:52:05 – (Bob Woods): So number four, is this new to you section? It’s actually a great way to promote a free phone or Zoom consultation that you may offer. And if you’re not offering one already, you know you should probably think about getting one started and then offering it in your session. It’s an excellent chance for you to to to take that and demonstrate your experience and also to attract new potential business.

00:10:23:16 – (Bob Woods): And also keep in mind that you should be offering that elsewhere in your profile as well, especially in your about session. If you want to see how that’s done, you can go to either Stans profile or my profile and click into our about sections. You have any thoughts, additional thoughts on this in that?

00:10:42:21 – (Stan Robinson Jr.): Not any additional thoughts on that one, that that is pretty thorough and just just keep in mind that unlike the about section on your regular LinkedIn profile, what we’re used to know 2600 characters, you don’t have that here as we mentioned get it down to 500 a tool like ask SSL can help with that if you want something condensing your text. so that’s good 

00:11:04:21 – (Bob Woods): and again no that’s a no that’s actually a great thing especially because within that 500 characters you can you know, you can say for more schedule a call or whatever, or reach out directly or whatever. You know, you can even put a calendar link in there, although I don’t think it automatically I don’t think it develops a link automatically, but they can copy and paste that and then schedule something with you as well.

00:11:28:23 – (Bob Woods): So with that in mind, let’s go to number five, which is which actually is is is is one of my favorite is and I have some thoughts but I want to hear Stan’s first. 

00:11:40:06 – (Stan Robinson Jr.): Yes. So the services give you a chance to ask for reviews. Just like your LinkedIn profile provides the opportunity for you to ask for recommendations for people to recommend you.

00:11:51:09 – (Stan Robinson Jr.): Same with services. People can your clients can post reviews of their experience and the reviews on a scale of 1 to 5. And we always suggest though, is pick up the phone or drop them an email or a direct message, just asking if they’re comfortable giving you a review before you send the automated question requests for the review.

00:12:20:01 – (Stan Robinson Jr.): So the first contact that they have with you requesting a review is not the LinkedIn message that was an email or believe it or not, even a phone call saying, Hey, Bob, you know, I appreciate the opportunity to work with you. Are you comfortable writing me a brief review from my LinkedIn services section that I can post? So that’s yes, So that’s that’s what we would recommend.

00:12:44:24 – (Stan Robinson Jr.): And as we do with LinkedIn recommendations, it’s a good idea to offer to help them by providing some bullet points or even just a draft that they’re free to edit, which will save them time when they’re writing your review. Bob, you said you had some thoughts as well. 

00:13:00:00 – (Bob Woods): Yeah, So, so so you cover most of mine. The one thing that I would add to that is just like in your profile, when you have those recommendations, social proof is always fantastic.

00:13:13:00 – (Bob Woods): And so these are people who are volunteering, volunteering because you asked, but they’re still volunteering to give you a review so that you know, you look good to them because you have helped them with whatever it is they did and you did a stellar job and they love you and they’re now stark raving fans. That same idea from the recommendations in the general section of the of the profile from the main page, that same type of thinking applies here specifically with the reviews.

00:13:45:15 – (Bob Woods): And I think it’s a great thing that they included it. If if if I had something on my wish list, which I’m pretty sure you can’t do right now, is if you could duplicate a recommendation over two reviews because otherwise you may be asking people to do too. And if that is still the case, which I think it is, you may end up helping them with two if they want to do two, but still at the same time do that, definitely ask.

00:14:11:21 – (Bob Woods): And if it appears twice, it appears twice. What can you do about that? But maybe they’ll do that one day. Who knows? But it’s still no matter what it’s a great social proof will have that. 

00:14:22:12- (Stan Robinson Jr.): Yeah. Yeah. And I did mention that people can review you on four categories overall product satisfaction, how knowledgeable you are, how timely you are in responding to their requests and communication. And then of course they can add text to that as well. 

00:14:43:15 – (Bob Woods): Yes. So it’s so so think of these almost more like a Yelp reviews or a Google review, but obviously with a little bit more detail with categories that are obviously important to business people who are who are looking to hire someone else for a project or just buying a service or whatever or product or whatever it is that that you do.

00:15:07:27 – (Bob Woods): So, so so kind of think of that a little bit more along those lines and that it has to do directly with their interaction with you during a particular business engagement, I think is the phrase that I’m looking for. So in other words, sometimes in recommendations you see other things talking about, especially from like partners and people like that who haven’t transacted with you necessarily.

00:15:30:09 – (Bob Woods): These are really focused on transactions. And then finally, for number six, there is a toggle you can switch on in your profile is called Open Profile, and you can find it at the very top of your profile. When you click on the edit pencil that’s just above your employer and school and just slightly below your your banner within your profile.

00:15:51:29 – (Bob Woods): So it’s definitely at the top of your profile. When you click on it, you’re allowing LinkedIn members who you’re not currently connected to. They can then message you for free. This way they can fire up a message to you directly, so they don’t need to go through some of the hoops that people have to go through sometimes, or just or just be blocked from from responding to you directly.

00:16:15:06 – (Bob Woods): So that’s just another way to attract more people to reach out to you by turning that toggle on that one is a very simple one, but it can be very effective because like I said, sometimes, you know, depending on your degree away that they are from you and whether or not they’re a free member or a premium member or sales navigator, there could be some blocks that are there not because of you, but because of how LinkedIn is.

00:16:41:16 – (Bob Woods): But when you click that to open profile, people can actually reach out to you. And none of that stuff. That is basically I said, 

00:16:51:04 – (Stan Robinson Jr.): yes, exactly. Exactly. And one other thing about this feature is that you can put your pricing in there. I’m not sure if we mentioned that. yeah, that’s right. Yeah, if you choose. So there’s the option to put, say, your hourly rate in or to invite them to contact you for pricing.

00:17:12:06 – (Bob Woods): Yeah. Yeah. So, so so when you go in there you have the added services work location. oh I do have both checked. That’s cool. I’m glad I thought of that. Yeah, pricing or contact for pricing and adding the media and yeah there is allow so so that messages that I mentioned there is also in the added services section within the whole set up for providing services as well.

00:17:42:08 – (Bob Woods): So there’s actually two areas to where you can you can click that on either in the main section or within the added services section here. And then also just to let you know, one thing that I discovered because I had to go and test something for this really quick, if you publish this and you’re like, I don’t want to do this for a while, for God knows, whatever reason that may be, you can click on unpublished and then it will unpublished that.

00:18:07:01 – (Bob Woods): But then when you click to publish again, it will actually save everything that you had before. So you don’t need to go through and and recreate the wheel. It will always be there. You would just need to click publish again at that point. Anything else to add there Stan just about stuff in general.

00:18:25:26 – (Stan Robinson Jr.): Just that this is this is one of those features that’s easy to overlook. Yeah, of course LinkedIn doesn’t do a great job of promoting new features that oftentimes can be really helpful. 

00:18:37:10 – (Bob Woods): Yeah. And this is this is definitely one of those sections that are that are very, very helpful. So in that vein, I hope we’ve given you enough information to check out LinkedIn’s providing services section and, you know, use it to trumpet your own more about what it is you do.

00:18:54:12 – (Bob Woods): And remember, you can even use it to take in those requests or proposal. And also, if you’re a sales leader who’s encouraging your people to use LinkedIn, your team can use this section. And all of the ways that we’ve described to increase your company’s sales success on LinkedIn as well. So definitely have your people take advantage of that too.

00:19:16:27 – (Bob Woods): So with that, thanks for joining us for this episode of Making Sales Social Live sponsored by Ask SSL dot AI. If you’re with us live on LinkedIn, YouTube or our other social channels, we do this every week, so keep an eye out for our live sessions. If you’re listening to us on our podcast and you haven’t subscribed already, go ahead and hit that subscribe or follow button to access all of our previous shows and be alerted when new ones drop and also drop us a link or comment.

00:19:44:11 – (Bob Woods): We love that type of stuff too. We do two shows weekly, this one and our Making Sales social interview series where we talk with leaders and experts in sales, marketing, business and all other different types of areas. We even go rogue a little once in a while. So. So definitely check those out if you’d like more info on our podcast, go to social sales link dot com slash podcast.

00:20:08:16 – (Bob Woods): So when you’re out about this week and every week, how we’re going to do this. 

00:20:11:90 – (Stan Robinson Jr.): Well, I guess I’ll solo. 

00:20:15:40 – (Bob Woods): Okay, so, so when you’re out about be sure to make your sales social There we go really misprint for that one. Have a great week everyone. We’ll see you next time. Bye bye.

00:20:29:13 – (Stan Robinson Jr.): Bye-bye.

Outro:

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