Is your LinkedIn profile getting recruiters and hiring managers to call you about sales opportunities? It can and should be supporting your resume and helping you get job leads, and it doesn’t take a huge amount of work to get it ready for a successful search.
Today’s hiring managers will check out your LinkedIn before they decide to contact you. Make sure you have a killer profile so you get a shot at interviewing for top sales jobs.
7 Tips for a Killer LinkedIn Profile
1. Complete your profile. Completing your profile is essential for getting discovered, because LinkedIn’s algorithm rewards completed profiles by ranking them higher in search. Fill out every section.
The most important are your name, headline, title, and the About section, where you should tell people what you sell and which verticals you sell into.
2. Keep your picture current and professional. Your photo should be current, professional, and conservative. Keep in mind, you’re looking for a new job, not a hot date. Recruiters and employers will be viewing your profile, so make sure it’s serving your professional interests.
3. Use a boring job title. Creative job titles won’t help you show up in a search. When recruiters search LinkedIn, they search for titles that match their openings, and anything nonstandard keeps your profile out of the results.
Titles include Inside Sales Representative, Account Executive, Commercial Account Executive, Enterprise Account Executive, Strategic Account Executive, Regional Sales Director, Director of Sales, Vice President of Sales, and Business Development Director.
4. Make your resume and profile mirror images. Your resume and profile need to match. Double-check dates, job titles, companies, and skills for consistency. Mismatches between the two are one of the top reasons qualified salespeople don’t get interviews.
5. Get recommendations. Hiring managers like to see proof that you’re good at your job. Peer and manager recommendations legitimize your work history and provide social proof that you did what your profile says. There’s no better way to solidify your credibility than several strong ones.
6. Give your profile daily boosts. Visit your profile and stay active on LinkedIn. The more active you are, the higher the algorithm places you in searches and recommendations. Like other people’s posts. Post something yourself. Show the platform that when someone sends you an InMail, you’ll notice, because you’re on the site daily.
LinkedIn lets you put yourself out there and selectively answer the people you want to. But the platform won’t offer you up if you look like you never visit.
Think of LinkedIn as a waiter bringing drinks: job leads, clients, opportunities. Your profile is your reserved seat. But if you never show up, the drinks don’t get served. They’re still made. They just go to someone else.
7. Use keywords, without stuffing. The rule of thumb: use the same keywords hiring managers would use to find you, vary them, and keep them in natural context. The last thing you need is a profile that reads as spammy.
Create Sales Job Opportunities for Yourself
Never underestimate your LinkedIn profile.
Nearly every hiring manager will view it before contacting you, and recruiters can often see more of your history there than you realize.
Make sure your profile is complete, current, and active, matches a resume built on specifics, and uses keywords that describe what you sell and the verticals you sell into.
These seven steps are practical and quick, and you’ll be surprised how fast they put your profile to work for you.
Your profile and your resume work together; both are covered in the complete guide to sales resumes, LinkedIn, and job applications.
