Episode #396: Kevin Turner
Meet
Kevin Turner
Kevin D. Turner is the Managing Partner at TNT Brand Strategist, specializing in organizational and personal brand building with a focus on visioneering, communications, culture building, and creating disruptive advantages. With a career marked by five significant evolutions, Kevin has expertise in Fortune 50 sales & marketing management, venture capital, leading public & private turnarounds, managing a non-profit internationally, and transforming a side gig into a decade-long successful business. His achievements include optimizing over 5,000 LinkedIn profiles, training 12,000 individuals in best practices, and a proven track record in talent development and team leadership across global markets. Kevin’s business philosophy emphasizes customer priority, a triple bottom line approach, and a commitment to making a significant impact.
Our Mission Is To Change The Negative Perception Of Sales People
Our Vision Is A World Where Selling Is A Profession To Be Proud Of
LinkedIn is a professional site built for business and networking—why not make it the best you can? Optimizing your profile photo, banner, and headline is a great place to start. But what can you do to make yourself sellable? How can you adjust things so that LinkedIn (and search engines ) prioritize you in search results? Kevin Turner shares some incredible tips in this episode of Sales Reinvented.
Outline of This Episode
- [1:35] Why a compelling LinkedIn profile is important
- [2:27] The elements with the greatest impact on sales
- [4:14] How to tell your professional story on LinkedIn
- [6:20] Balancing professionalism and personality
- [7:21] How often to update your LinkedIn profile
- [10:31] Kevin’s cautionary tale about LinkedIn tools
- [17:14] Kevin’s top LinkedIn profile dos and don’ts
- [23:23] Don’t be afraid to pivot and adjust
- How to tell your professional story on LinkedIn
Show your personality. You don’t have to give away personal information to do that. If you’re fun, humorous, and like certain things, share them because it establishes you as an individual. And people buy from people they know, like, and trust. Build that in the brand you present. If you’re pretending to be someone you’re not, people will figure it out. Your tribe will find you and understand you.
How often to update your LinkedIn profile
If you’re in an ever-changing business like cybersecurity, you might want to edit your profile every 30 days. If you’re in sales, look at it quarterly. Whenever you do look at it, Kevin recommends a complete audit.
Make sure links still work. Make sure you’re still using current terminology. Pay attention to the details. As you evolve in your career, that profile must evolve with you. It isn’t a chronological dump. You can remove things that don’t work toward your goals.
LinkedIn is a $17 billion business. 65% of their revenue comes from selling members to other members (Recruiter and Sales Navigator). We are the product. LinkedIn wants to feel comfortable that we’re a good product. Are you clearing out messages, updating your profile, and commenting? All of these things send signals to LinkedIn that you’re active and “sellable.”
Tools to build a better LinkedIn profile
Kevin’s first tip is a cautionary tale: Don’t use tools that ask for your login information. Those programs are often scraping your data. They use fingerprint blocking so LinkedIn can’t tell what tool is scraping. But LinkedIn knows that it was you who signed in and you’ll end up in LinkedIn “Jail.”
The #1 tool built into LinkedIn is market value filters. If you’re typing and a drop-down box appears, it’s LinkedIn’s hint that those are categories they use to sort, categorize, and rank you. Using one of their filters increases the likelihood that you’ll be found. The categories include things like location, city, title, school, degree, etc. The top suggestion in a dropdown is the most valuable in their eyes. Pick the most accurate.
The #1 filter that people get wrong is their degree. You spent a lot of time and knowledge to earn certifications and degrees. However, 80% of people’s profiles have inaccurate degree or certificate information. Their degree type often isn’t an option in those market value categories.
They update their databases repeatedly, so continue to check back to see if yours is included. Kevin also points out that your profile is re-ranked once every 30 days. If you want to accelerate that, go to “open public profile” and turn it off briefly. When you turn it back on, all of the major search engines will index your profile. That should give you a quick boost.
Kevin’s top LinkedIn profile dos and don’ts
Kevin shares a few tips we haven’t heard before!
- Verify your LinkedIn profile through CLEAR to get the verification badge behind your name.
- You can search and find collaborative articles on LinkedIn that allow you to share your input on a particular topic. It will help you build presence, authority, and thought leadership. If you do this consistently, you’ll get a special “Top Voice” badge on your profile.
- Share information and cultivate conversations in the comment section. Move those conversations into messaging and beyond.
- Don’t incite arguments and try to make other people look bad. They will suppress people who do that.
- Don’t give out personal information that you can’t give back (health issues, mental health issues, etc.). It can have positive and negative impacts that you need to keep in mind.
- Don’t leave your profile blank. If someone gets to your profile, make sure every section is complete and compelling. Don’t focus on your job “responsibilities.” Tell them how you go above and beyond.
Listen to the whole episode to learn more ways you can make your LinkedIn profile compelling and sellable.
Connect With Paul Watts
Audio Production and Show notes by
PODCAST FAST TRACK
https://www.podcastfasttrack.com
Learn More About Kevin Turner
Are there any definitive guides or resources you recommend for crafting an effective LinkedIn profile?
Start with my YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/@keeprockinglinkedin, and within hours, you could be miles ahead of 95% of the platform for free.
In the realm of LinkedIn branding and sales, who do you most admire?
- John Espirian (All things In) https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnespirian/
- Jeff Young (Role model) https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffyoungralemoi/
- Gillian Whitney (Video) https://www.linkedin.com/in/gillianwhitney/
- Mic Adam (content) https://www.linkedin.com/in/micadam/
- Sarah Clay (content) https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-clay/
What are your top 5 tips for someone looking to optimize their LinkedIn profile for sales – your golden advice set?
- Avoid Personal Blanding™: the intentional or inadvertent act of demarketing or making oneself appear generic, insipid, unexciting, vapid, unstimulating, undistinctive, limited or no value add that ultimately may negatively impact opportunities or careers and allows others to overlook potential
- Implement Market Value Titles: we spoke about these in the podcast; they are like the Dewey Decimal system to being found on [In]. They are the difference between being just 1 in a Billion or #1. Learn more here: https://youtu.be/oPR08l7zQvQ
- Show me the Proof, don’t tell me; upload the rich media, use real numbers not fluffy words
- Dive [In], get engaged by commenting, posting, speaking & hosting with value-add intelligence focused on your goals to build community, connectivity, and drive traffic to your Profile to become a reliable trusted source for what you do best.
- Create a give back that builds community: Mine is my published #NEWLinkedInFeature list, 2024 is its 5th year running, and all Captures in the Wild are credited to the original knowledge sharer.
- New LinkedIn Feature(s) 2024 https://lnkd.in/gen97H-2
- 200+ NEW LinkedIn Feature(s) 2023 https://lnkd.in/gXiA4aCF
- 100+ NEW LinkedIn Feature(s) 2022: https://llnkd.in/eYhzjFjE
- 40+ NEW LinkedIn Feature(s) 2021: https://llnkd.in/dsW-Zan
- 50+ NEW LinkedIn Feature(s) 2020: https://llnkd.in/gP5xGb6
What are the primary considerations that companies should be aware of regarding their employees’ representation on LinkedIn?
- Create a social media policy and make sure all employees are aware of it
- Train, support, and nurture their social selling prowess
- Use LinkedIn Marketing Boost to amplify your employee’s posts’ reach
Do you believe companies should provide specific training for employees to utilize LinkedIn effectively? Should this be a standard part of a salesperson’s induction/onboarding process?
Companies should provide ongoing LinkedIn training to their employees because it is the most trusted, efficient, and effective source for networking, lead sourcing, knowledge sharing, and business growth. People prefer to buy from People, not Companies.
Companies that continuously neglect to train their employees to use LinkedIn are losing a substantial competitive advantage.
For listeners eager to learn more, what’s the best way to connect with you on LinkedIn or other platforms?
Follow 1st, Engage, Build a Relationship & then perhaps we’ll Connect
- Follow Me & Ring my 🔔 https://lnkd.in/eHcc5GXX
- Get the Rock[In] Newsletter lnkd.in/dNpAqTRV
- Subscribe on YouTube https://lnkd.in/g6xV4CEN
- Check Out the Merch https://lnkd.in/ghQzFnc8
Share This Episode, Choose Your Platform!