Several weeks back an old contact called me for a review of his profile. He’d made good progress since we spoke a year ago, but he was concerned his profile wasn’t quite hitting it. And he was right.

It suffered from what I call the ‘Go It Alone’ syndrome.

An average profile speaks about the problem you solve, while an excellent profile will leave your prospect feeling they have no choice but to hire you now.

When someone comes to your profile, they could be in one of three places:

• They know they have a problem and are looking for a solution
• They know they have a problem but have no idea a solution exists
• They have no idea they have a problem

If your opening paragraph can pull a punch and speak to all three audiences at the same time you’ll have your prospect’s attention.

The problem is, do you have their attention enough to make them take action and hire you?

With my client on the phone I played him a testimonial video that he features on his profile of delegates praising his talk on entering the Asian business market.

The testimonial went like this:

“Until this seminar I had no idea I was committing these mistakes. I just thought it was normal to experience these challenges. But now I know, I know there is something I can do about it and I am going to hire David immediately.”

Why was this client going to hire David immediately when previously he had been indifferent? Because David had outlined the problems most businesses face when trading with Asia and the consequences of getting it wrong. While previously his audience couldn’t understand why deals fail to come together, suddenly lightbulbs were going off. The audience could recognise themselves in what he was saying and exactly the value he could provide them.

I advised David to update his opening paragraph, letting his audience know the potential of trading with Asia and exactly how they’ll miss out on the benefits if they don’t know what he knows. He created a punchy paragraph that outlined the key points of his talk to achieve the same response as his talk got.

The truth is people don’t really read LinkedIn profiles and are, for the majority, indifferent. We simply don’t have time to read everything in this ‘information overload’ era we live in. So to get someone’s attention, you must speak to your audience and make it about them. Provide them a fact or something they didn’t know that adds value to their world and gets them talking to colleagues. This will create curiosity and before you know it, even those who aren’t your ideal prospect will become loyal fans telling people all about you.

How does your profile help or hinder your business? If you’d like a free profile review, click here.