How updating Abe's LinkedIn profile got him three discovery calls in one week

If I told you that making a handful of tweaks to your LinkedIn profile could take you from busywork on LinkedIn to leads coming in left and right, you'd probably think I'm crazy.

However, that's what happened to Abe Braha, a Sales Development Consultant, who wanted to use LinkedIn to connect with startup founders. Abe and I met at an in-person networking event in Tel Aviv, Israel, where we both live.

He was frustrated because although he was posting several times a week on LinkedIn and had a large network of more than 7,000 followers, he wasn't generating discovery calls for his business as a sales consultant.

Abe was eager for his efforts on LinkedIn to benefit his business, so he approached me for my advice. 

Abe had already filled out his LinkedIn profile, but it wasn't optimized.

His profile checked the typical boxes of what should be included in a profile. From the outside, you'd probably think his profile was doing what it should.

However, I quickly noticed that it wasn't properly optimized for his role as a business owner and consultant. In other words, many of the sections were missing critical details that would help Abe's potential clients know, like, and trust him.

I told Abe we have to start by fixing his LinkedIn profile.

As a business owner, your LinkedIn profile is the foundation of your presence on the platform.

Without an updated profile, you can have the best content out there, but you will still struggle to generate leads. Your prospects won't fully understand what you do and what next steps to take.

When I told Abe we need to start with his profile, he was skeptical. So, I told him about the main opportunities I saw. Here are a few highlights of what I shared:

• Headline: despite talking about the results he was achieving for clients, it wasn't clear how he was getting these results, leaving his audience confused about what he actually does.

• About section: in his about section, he shared a broad overview of his work and relevant background and experience. However, he wasn't speaking directly to his ideal clients' pain points.

• Cover image: his cover image was more clever than clear, and it lacked a professional design. As a result, it wasn't clearly explaining to his audience what he does and how he helped. Plus, it wasn't doing anything to build critical credibility and earn startup founders' trust.

(In this related blog post, I shared 3 ways your LinkedIn profile isn't optimized, even though you think it is.)

Once I shared my vision for how we could improve his profile, Abe was sold. So, we started working together.

Before he even implemented the changes I proposed, Abe felt more clarity on who his business serves.

The first step in my LinkedIn Profile Optimization Service is to fill out a short questionnaire about your business. Through this questionnaire, Abe realized that he needed to hone in on his positioning to focus on startups at a particular revenue level, with a specific type of sales issue.

(I've honed these questions after working with 100+ consultants. They collect just enough information so I can create an all-star profile for you, but not so much that you feel overwhelmed.)

Thanks to this realization, he understood that the content he was writing wasn't appealing directly to these right-fit clients. So, he started writing content more tailored toward them.

Abe's not the only one, by the way. I've heard this same feedback from more than a dozen other clients. They say that the process of filling out the questionnaire transforms how they think about who they serve and provides clarity that extends far beyond the realm of their LinkedIn profile. Abe later remarked that the questions alone were worth the cost of the service!

In addition to the obvious benefits of now having an optimized LinkedIn profile, going through my done-for-you Profile Optimization Service helps my clients do things like:

• Feel more confident introducing themselves at networking events

• Pitch themselves more successfully on sales calls

• More easily generate content ideas

• Polish their website copy

In addition to updating his profile, Abe drastically reduced his number of connections.

During our chat at the networking event, Abe told me that something was off with his engagement metrics. Despite high-quality posts, he told me, he wasn't getting nearly the engagement he thought he should be getting.

I noticed that he had 7,000+ connections, and asked him how we had acquired so many. He explained that he had added random people over the year in pursuit of reaching 10,000 connections.

I told Abe I had a theory about what was happening: because his network was filled with irrelevant people, the LinkedIn algorithm was thinking that his content was unengaging, even though it was, in fact, engaging.

In other words, the people seeing his content didn't perceive the content as relevant, because they weren't his target audience. If the right people had seen his content, they would have loved it!

I told him I'd consider removing the "bulk" from his network so that he would focus specifically on these audiences:

• Folks he personally knows (e.g. friends, family, past coworkers)

• Potential clients

• Those who influence his potential clients (i.e. industry experts, referral partners)

Abe acted on this advice and cut his network in half over the following week!

If your network is bloated with irrelevant connections like Abe's was, and you're wondering what it looks like to trim your network, you'll enjoy my ultimate guide to removing LinkedIn connections.

Abe finally started booking discovery calls—and a lot of them!

As a result of working together, three changes occurred for Abe simultaneously:

1. He optimized his profile and clarified his positioning

2. He improved his content strategy, so that it would serve his ideal clients

3. He cut his number of connections in half to focus on those most relevant to him

   
   

Within a week of making these changes, Abe experienced several meaningful changes. Here's how he described it:

"So first off, all of a sudden, [my content] started to reach the right people. And then I think I booked like maybe three or four calls in the first week, even like the day after there was like a call that came in and I was like, this is so crazy.

It is evident that I did something right because things just like flipped.... And then in terms of the actual posts themselves, engagements, impressions, those started going up also pretty much instantly. The algorithm started to actually see that the ratio from the impressions to engagements was healthier."

Updating Abe's LinkedIn profile upleveled Abe's lead generation quickly.

Through my profile optimization process, Abe clarified his positioning, improved his content strategy, and booked discovery calls.

His updated positioning allowed him to feel confident saying he is a Sales Development Consultant, and inspired him to refine his offers and more clearly explain to prospects the value he offers.

Further, his optimized profile meant he could book calls, several of which resulted in signed contracts. And now he knows that whenever he posts, his content is reaching the right people, and generating lots of demand for his services.

You can get results from LinkedIn, just like Abe did.

Like you saw with Abe's story, optimizing your profile is the foundation for generating leads on LinkedIn, and will result in more sales call bookings.

Here's how I will help you get clients on LinkedIn:

Step 1: When I start working with a consultant, we always start with my Done-For-You Profile Optimization so that you clearly explain your credibility, who you serve, how you serve them, and what action the profile viewer should take.

This process takes about 3 weeks from start to finish, and provides you a profile that captures the attention of your ideal clients and gets them to take action.

Step 2: Once your profile is optimized, we then create your LinkedIn strategy so you can get visible to the right audience and attract more interest in your offerings through my coaching program Leads on LinkedIn.

This program takes two months. We focus on two main skills - LinkedIn posting and direct messaging. These skills bring the right clients into your orbit so you can consistently grow your business without relying on time-consuming strategies like video and expensive strategies like ads. 

Within just a month, you'll have identified and contacted 30 prospects for your business. You'll have the skills and systems to do it again whenever you want an influx of leads. And, this rinse-and-repeat process gets more effective every time you do it!

Step 3: After, we create a habit of LinkedIn marketing through my coaching program so that you can count on ongoing leads for your business. We integrate LinkedIn with your other marketing strategies (e.g. email and in-person networking) to prevent duplicate work and create a marketing ecosystem that gets you leads and clients.

Learn more and get started here.