Episode 77: Writing a Powerful LinkedIn About Summary for Sales Professionals

Bob Woods  00:00

Greetings, everyone and welcome to Making Sales Social LIVE! I’m Bob Woods, the LinkedIn Sherpa and I’m joined as always by the LinkedIn Whisperer, Brynne Tillman. How’s it going, Brynne? 

Brynne Tillman  00:11

Good, Bob. How are you?

Bob Woods 00:14

I am doing fantastic! 

Today, we’re going to do something maybe a little different. I don’t know, when we talk about your LinkedIn profile, we usually hit pretty hard in what we call the “Above The Fold Section”  things like your headline, your photo, your banner image, and the like but above the fold is only part of the profile recipe that when you bake it, you need a lot of ingredients to make a great profile souffle or whatever baking metaphor you want to put in there. 

Your About section is another key ingredient of a successful LinkedIn profile too. The About summary is one of the first sections your audience or prospects will see after the top of the fold. So it needs to perform several tests, all within 2600 characters. 

Today, we’re gonna explore the primary jobs of the About section, starting with resonating and creating curiosity.  Say that three times fast, Brynne.

Brynne Tillman  01:39

Resonating and creating curiosity, resonating and creating curiosity, resonating and creating curiosity. Did it three times there, Bob.

So yeah, this is a really important section and here’s the thing, most of us when we see the about section, think it’s about us, our mission, our passion, our years in business and while this matters further down in the relationship, when we are starting conversations with folks, we want to make sure that our About section is not about us, but about them, right. 

And this is really content, just like content you share in a news feed or even in a message, your LinkedIn, if you are in a business development role, has the job of attracting and engaging our prospects and getting them to want to schedule a call with us. 

And if we start with all about us, that doesn’t get them excited to have a conversation with us.

Bob Woods  02:40

Not a bit. It’s just bragging, it’s not even humble bragging, it’s just bragging.

Brynne Tillman  02:44

Or it’s really written for like recruiters or hiring managers, right? And there is a point where on LinkedIn, if you’re looking for a job, don’t listen to our advice, because our advice for people that are out there looking for fr business development that are out there in a social selling atmosphere. 

So you started with the two pieces, which is we need to resonate with our audience, create curiosity enough for them to like lean in and say, “This is worth the investment of my time to read.” And we need to teach them something new that gets them thinking differently about their current solution, and converts them from lurkers to engagers. That creates a compelling moment that gets them to say, “Okay, I want to talk.” 

Now, you said 2600 characters, I mean, it’s a lot, but it’s not. We’ve got to be smart with how we use those characters, right? So often we start with what’s the challenge they’re facing? Because if we’re gonna resonate and create curiosity, first, the resonate is, here’s the challenge that your buyers are facing. And the curiosity is like getting them to lean in a little bit to go, “Hmmm… I want to keep reading.” 

So talk about that a little bit. Like when you talk about the challenge, how does someone identify that and put that into a line or two?

Bob Woods  04:18

Yeah, so when you’re talking about creating curiosity and resonating it’s all about showing that you have an idea of what they’re going through and what they’re feeling and if you’ve been in your business in what you’re selling for any time at all, you already know what challenges that they are facing, you just need to state it in a way that, you know, essentially says, you know, “Hey, you’re in this A, B, and C spot. I know this because, you know, I’ve either talked with other people or I’ve been there myself…” or you know, that type of thing. So, resonating really has to do with just identifying that you know what they’re feeling.

Brynne Tillman  05:00

Yeah, so something you know, like many marketing executives struggle with identifying the right message to attract the right people if you sell content, right?

So I want you guys as you’re listening to this to start to identify what is the challenge that your buyer is facing today that you solve? Now, don’t say you solve it yet but as Bob said, when you now have articulated that, this is, I’ve announced my buyer — marketing departments, salespeople, CEOs, business leaders, right, I’ve announced that I resonate with that, that’s me. 

And here’s the challenge, we now have the ability to, like, get them ready to learn more, ready to lean in and that’s where number three comes in, which is teach them something new. And when we do that, it’s literally, whether you’re teaching them how to think differently, or a new technique, or a way to leverage something that they didn’t know before, all leading to your solution, not leading with it. Because when you lead with your solution, then that sounds like a pitch, not a resource, right?

Bob Woods  06:27

So the main thing that you’re doing in this session is educating. So what happens when you educate? You’re obviously teaching them something new, just like Brynne said, but the thing that I like about this is that as you’re educating someone, they generally are open to new ideas at that point. 

And I think that that’s really big because once you get past that, “Oh, I know everything, you can’t teach me anything” part, once they’re like, “Oh, I didn’t know that, you know, tell me more! Why should I know about this?” At that point, they’re open to learning more about how you can help them with your products or services.  

Brynne Tillman  07:08

And that becomes the bridge, right? So now we’ve educated them and now, to your point, this is our call to action. Well, first is, here’s how we fix this, right? And then a call to action, right?

So if you’ve resonated with this, and you are looking to explore new ways to do X, let’s chat. Whether or not we decided to work together, I’m confident that our talk can bring some insights and value to you, right. 

So I think that that is critical that we have those elements. So it’s the challenge. It’s the education, the resource, then it’s how you help, then it’s a call to action and number five needs to be your email, calendar link, phone number — it needs to be easy for them to get in touch with you.

Bob Woods  08:05

Yeah, and we always get that question a lot. It’s like, “Well I have my email or whatever in the contact info section.” There’s so many people who don’t know about the contact info section that, you know, just make it easy for them to get in contact with you. So just put it right out there so that people can reach out and, you know, email you or schedule, with your scheduling link, with phone number sometimes, you know, people may not want it out there if that’s their cell phones, if not, you know, find some kind of number that… ( Brynne: You could do a Google number.) You could do a Google number, there are all types of ways to do that to where you’re mobile number isn’t out there. 

So I wouldn’t necessarily let that hold you back from actually putting out your phone number because some people still do like to pick up the phone and or pick up their mobiles nowadays and give you a call.

Brynne Tillman  09:02

Yeah, and my cell phone is everywhere. so right now, as you’re listening to this, you can text me, I love texts, by the way. (Bob: Me too.)  And that would be you know, and I’m putting this out into the universe right now. right? But honestly, like, for me, email, I’m checking a few times a day but it seems that I look at text all the time. So, and I don’t answer necessarily calls unless that’s really convenient but a text is a great way to connect with me, so my mobile is everywhere. 

There is one other thing that we can add, well not … There’s one other thing that we can add in this summary that may go beyond your general summary, right? There are other things that we can add in here that although the Featured area and connecting links in your experience area are primary places to put stuff because it doesn’t hyperlink inside of your About summary. You can, if you have a page that you want to take them to or something, you can actually add links they just can’t link through, they have to copy and paste those.

Bob Woods  10:16

And then also another way around that is if you really want to have a link there somewhere so that they can easily add to that would be to just add a line saying, you know, if you want to know more about X, scroll down to my Featured section and click on the very first picture there too. That’s… (Brynne: I love that!) Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So…

Brynne Tillman  10:41

So watch a video on X, to read a blog on x. Yeah, that’s the featured section. Or if you’re in creator mode, scroll up to the Featured station.

Bob Woods  10:51

That’s true. That’s a good point.

Brynne Tillman  10:55

Right? And click through the link, I look great. That was a great way to like kind of bring this all to a close. So the About section, it is so absolutely critical that you are leveraging this. So that’s all I could say and Bob, bring us out.

Bob Woods  11:11

So before we go, there’s one thing that I want to add, though. So if you have that stuff up in your About section that we had talked about before, in terms of you know, who you are and what you do, and why you feel about how you feel and things like that, don’t get rid of that. We’re not saying it’s bad, you just need to bring that down to the experience section because all this stuff does speak to your experience. 

So it’s not that it’s bad having it up there. It’s just in the way that we do things here at Social Sales Link. It’s just not in the right place, essentially. So don’t nuke that stuff, just save it and then you can, you know, you may need to rework it a little bit but that stuff works very, very well in the Experience section.

Brynne Tillman  11:59

Awesome! And as long as you’re giving one last tip, I’ll give one last tip is before you make changes to your LinkedIn profile,  PDF it because there is no undo once you’ve saved something. So when you click on the three dots, next to the Add Profile section, the second one down is Save to PDF. 

Inevitably, if you don’t do this, you’re going to make a change that you want to go back and see. if you save it as a PDF,  there’ll be no mistakes, you’ll never be… it’s just Murphy’s Law. So yeah, yeah, make sure you PDF before you make any changes in your profile ever, PDF at first.

Bob Woods  12:45

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely! 

Brynne Tillman  12:47

All right, take us out my friend. 

Bob Woods  12:49

It’s hard drive space. So thanks again for joining us on Making Sales Social Live! If you’re with us live on LinkedIn right now, we do this every week. So keep an eye out for our live sessions. If you’re listening to us on our podcast, if you haven’t subscribed already, we invite you to hit the subscribe or follow button to access all of our stuff. 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 a lot of different areas that are all great and beneficial and everything else. 

If you want more information, go to socialsaleslink.com/podcast. Again, that’s socialsaleslink.com/podcast. And if you are listening to us on a podcast, be sure to drop a like and rating for our efforts here because we would certainly appreciate it. So when you’re out and about, be sure that you’re making your sales social! Thanks, everybody. Bye. (Brynne: Bye, guys. )

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