How To Position Yourself On LinkedIn

A few days ago, our founder Alex Pirouz delivered a presentation to a room full of entrepreneurs in and around LinkedIn. Half way through the talk, he paused and asked them one simple question: What is the purpose of all marketing? Whilst there were a lot of different responses, most people said:

1)   Generate interest and convert leads into sales
2)   To get our message in front of our target market
3)   Build our brand in the industry

Whilst these are all correct in their own right, the responses are more focused on “THEM” and not the end user/client who will ultimately be buying the service or product. And look, we don’t blame them, truth be told when we first started in the business, that’s how we used to think as well until Alex lost a lot of money and time learning all the reasons why it doesn’t work. Nowadays, anytime we market our business we make sure we have the end consumer in mind, a process we like to call:

“The Outside Inside Approach”

We put ourselves in the shoes of potential clients, think about their potential challenges, problems and even objections and build around that rather than what we think would look and feel good. This is the exact same process we used when building Alex’s LinkedIn profile and one we recommend to all our clients. Any time he enters a new industry, he sits down and asks himself three powerful questions:

1)   What are the top 3 main challenges my clients face?
2)   What would stop them from buying my product or service?
3)   How does my service or product provide a solution to my client’s challenges?

He then updates all the various sections of his profile so that it includes key messages from his research above. Doing this enables him to position himself as someone who not only understands the industry but more specifically the issues his clients face on a day-to-day basis.

This, in turn, builds a greater level of trust and credibility with those who look at his profile, which results in more leads for our business. Whilst there are many different sections to update your profile, below we have listed the main areas:

1)   Summary
2)   Job Experiences
3)   Skills & Expertise
4)   Recommendations
5)   Groups

Every week, we go through hundreds of profiles and we think it would be fair to say that over 90% of them have not properly identified and tailored their profile in a way that solves the challenges and problems of their clients. Initially, it will take a bit of time for you to sit down and answer these questions but trust us the reward is much greater than the 1 or 2 hours you invest short term. That’s a wrap for today; join us next week when we will be sharing with you a powerful way to build your credibility within LinkedIn and stand out from your competitors.