If you’re in the world of B2B sales, your LinkedIn Profile says a lot about you.
Friends, colleagues, alumni, current clients and future potential buyers are all checking you out and seeing what you’re about.
It’s therefore critical that your LinkedIn profile is up to snuff and represents you in a professional way.
Digitally Dangerous: An Incomplete Profile
Incomplete profiles are something we’ll cover in another post, but today I wanted to focus on one of the biggest points of digital danger: having fewer than 500 LinkedIn connections.
That’s right, if you’ve got more connections/friends on Facebook than LinkedIn, it shows where your priorities are.
If you’ve been working in a professional capacity for 3-5 years, chances are you’ve come across at least 500 people. Shouldn’t you be connected to them? LinkedIn is like your digital business card. If you’ve met people, you should use that as leverage to forge a digital connection on LinkedIn. Would you go to a networking event and feel shy about handing out business cards?
Danger Points: Less Than 500 Connections
With fewer than 500 LinkedIn connections, this is the danger you expose yourself to:
- People who view you as a person who’s not really connected. This is the last impression you want to leave potential buyers.
- If you conduct a search today for someone, chances are you’ll see people in a 2nd degree and some in a 3rd degree. This means that if you’re not connected to a growing number of people, you won’t be in the search results. Consider that you’ve got years of experience and domain expertise and none of it matters because you can’t get found.
- Your content/professional ideas won’t go to a broad audience. This means that your words are just recycled over and over again but have no ability to breakthrough to a larger group of people (especially potential buyers).
All of this just means that as the buying journey begins online, your chances of getting found and having a shot at a decent conversation are minimal at best.
The Solution
The solution to this common problem is quite easy and doesn’t require a lot of time.
- Invite your existing clients. The more people in the account you’ve worked with the better. Invite them if you’ve had a conversation and you plan on working with them.
- If you meet a potential buyer, let them know you’d like to connect on LinkedIn and invite them.
- Invite people that you know:
- Past and current colleagues is a great start.
- LinkedIn has a great “address book” feature where they can show you everyone you know that’s already on LinkedIn.
The Bottom Line
Most of us know lots of people but we haven’t taken the time to update our LinkedIn profiles. Don’t get left behind by not getting found or building a reputation as someone who doesn’t care about their digital footprint.
As you begin social selling, your LinkedIn profile is a key component to your success. Take the time to nurture this valuable piece of real estate.
Ready to get started? Book some time in my calendar and I’ll show you how.
