Categories
Networking

LinkedIn Profile Secrets – The #1 Reason Why Your LinkedIn Profile Fails to Attract More Prospects

Article Contributed by Kristina Jaramillo

3 Reasons Why Your Profile Should Not Be the Same as Your Position

1. Think of your headline as your first sales pitch to people who want to connect with you. If I am unfamiliar with you or your company, how does mentioning your company name and your position show me what you do and why I need to connect with you? It doesn’t! These headlines are too general, simple and straight forward. They are too vague and too broad.  In order for your headline to be effective, it needs to grab my attention. It needs to make me want to read the rest of your profile. As a potential client or potential referral source, I need to see right away how you can help me or my clients.

2. When I am invited to connect with someone, I view their profile before I choose to accept. The first thing that I look at is their headline to see if there is any possible synergy between the person who wants to connect with me and my business.  By doing this I can see if it is worth my time and energy to view the rest of their profile. Make your headline enticing so I will want to read your profile and connect with you.

3. If someone is going through people search or through the groups to see who they should connect with, they are looking at hundred to thousands of opportunities. You need to make your business stand out to entice others to want to click on your name to read your profile and learn more about you.

Now that you know that you need to drastically improve your LinkedIn profile headline in order to attract more clients, the question is, how do you fix it?

4 Questions You Must Ask Yourself When Creating Your LinkedIn Profile Headline

1)  What can you say in your headline that will give your instant credibility?

One of the easiest ways to gain that instant credibility is to use any media attention.  For example, I was recently called a “Social Media Expert” by the New York Times.  Look how I use this media mention in my new LinkedIn profile headline to give me instant credibility:

“Read my profile now and discover LinkedIn secrets from the woman the New York Times called a social media expert”.

2)  Does your LinkedIn profile headline command action?

The best way to get someone to read your profile further is to tell them to do so. Just look at my example above. Notice I’m giving you a call-to-action. By stating read, view or learn more by reading my profile, you are instructing the reader to do so.  And, guess what – chances are they’ll listen. You just have to tell your prospects what to do – and why they need to take the action.

3) Does your LinkedIn profile headline show why you are different?

Go to people search on LinkedIn and type in your career description. Look at how many people match your description. For example, when I type in “internet marketing consultant” into people search it gives me 139,041 results. The phrase “life coach” gives me 83,847 results. The phrase “business coach returns” 224,274 results.  In your headline if you show how and why you are unique chances are your prospects will explore your business further than that of your competition.

For example Article Marketing Experts Eric Gruber’s profile headline was: See how we can get you published on websites like About.com – instead of just article directories like our competition.

4) Does your LinkedIn profile headline show a benefit to the reader?

By implying there is an advantage to your reader by viewing your profile you are telling them that there is a benefit of using your products or services.  The reader needs a reason to accept a connection with you.  By giving them a benefit you are instilling confidence in your business. For example:

  • Help My Website Sell Founder Adam Hommey’s headline is: Top internet marketing consultant and expert webmaster reveals how to make your website sell more products and services
  • The Global Institute of Visionary Executives Founder Carrie Jacobs has this as her headline: Read my profile and learn from a champion visionary executive coach how you can profit from your own brand of success

About the Author:

Written by Kristina Jaramillo. Just by fixing your LinkedIn profile headline, you will begin to attract more prospects and referral sources. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg. In fact, in my free special report, I reveal 14 mistakes that most internet marketers and small business owners make – and the opportunities they are missing. I invite you to get this free report at http://www.GetLinkedInHelp.com

Kristina Jaramillo

Categories
Entrepreneurship

60 Great Books to Spur Your Entrepreneurial Spirit

Article Contributed by OEDB

The selection of books on business seems limitless, but entrepreneurs can pay special attention to those that offer a spark of entrepreneurial spirit. Inspiration, innovation, management, leadership, and more are all addressed in these books. Read on to find an excellent collection for any entrepreneur’s library.

Entrepreneurial Passion

In these books, you’ll learn about the passion behind entrepreneurship.

  1. The Fountainhead: Ayn Rand’s book encourages entrepreneurs to work without asking for permission.
  2. Oh, The Places You’ll Go: Dr. Seuss’ book will remind you to stay positive and focused.
  3. The Little Big Things: Tom Peters explains how you can pursue excellence in your business.
  4. Crush It!: Gary Vaynerchuk explains how to cash in on your passion with this book.
  5. Never Get a “Real” Job: In this book from Scott Gerber, you’ll find out how to ditch the idea of getting a real job.
  6. You Need to Be a Little Crazy: Read this book to understand how to be just crazy enough to grow your business.
  7. Impro: Keith Johnstone discusses how to face the unexpected as an entrepreneur.
  8. Ready, Fire, Aim: Serial entrepreneur Michael Masterson offers important business lessons.
  9. A Whole New Mind: Daniel Pink’s book encourages reinvention for entrepreneurs.
  10. Rework: Rework will inspire you to toss out the old rules of business.
  11. How to Own the World: How to Own the World explains habits and attitudes that can make you successful as an entrepreneur.
  12. Go Big or Go Home: Take Wil Schroter’s approach to business and go big.
  13. The Winning Spirit: Build an excellent network with a winning spirit inspired by Lisa Wicker’s book.

Read more about the entire list of 60 books at OEDB.

Categories
Work Life

Healthy Living Is a Prerequisite for Success

Article Contributed by Jeff Beals

Nearly 300 years ago, a British physician, preacher and intellectual by the name of Thomas Fuller said, “Health is not valued till sickness comes.”

Such sage historical wisdom still holds true today. Those who hope to achieve the highest heights in the 21st Century economy need to take care of something as simple as personal health. Making a commitment to healthy living is a prerequisite for success. But it’s not only physical health that matters.

Those who enjoy long-term success realize that their personal lives must be in order. That means you should care for your mental, physical, emotional, spiritual and financial health as much as the health of your career.

It is very difficult to be successful at work when your personal life is a mess. If your marriage is dysfunctional, it’s hard to focus on high-level career achievement. If you lack a set of core beliefs, you may not be able to create philosophy of life that guides you to some great achievement. If you are barely keeping your financial head above water, you don’t have the financial ability to take on entrepreneurial endeavors. Whatever the problem, you will be more successful in all facets of life if you take care of things at home.

A good attitude does wonders for your success. Think positive thoughts and constantly reinforce yourself in your own mind. As Norman Vincent Peale taught us in his famous book, The Power of Positive Thinking, you can cause successful outcomes by forcing yourself to be optimistic.

After you adopt a positive attitude, there are several other things you can do that will make you a healthier person.

If you have a faith, I recommend you practice it. Believing in and answering to a higher power has an amazing affect on career success. Prayer, meditation or whatever you choose to call it, purges the toxins from your mind and gives you strength and confidence.

After faith comes family. No matter how ambitious you are, your family should be one of your highest priorities. Do whatever it takes to protect your familial relationships. If things ever get really tough, you want to be able to depend on those who share your blood. Stick up for your family members and look out for their interests. In the long run you will be far richer if family comes before career.

Close friends are almost as important as family. A long-time friend who truly understands you is worth his or her weight in gold. Put the important people in your life on a pedestal and make them your priority. If you go out of your way to put people first, you will have more business opportunities than you can handle.

Because family and friends are so important, you should adopt an attitude of acceptance. Let them be who they are and enjoy them in spite of all their flaws and weaknesses. Forgive them any time they wrong you. Bite your tongue, when you feel like saying something hurtful to a friend or family member. These relationships are so important, that it’s foolish to put them at risk over some temporary passion.

While relationship-building contributes to career success, so does physical health. You don’t have to be an obsessive gym rat, but being in shape and consuming the right nutrition gives you more energy and stamina.

Keep your home life organized. Make sure your house is generally clean and tidy. Have a good system for organizing your bills and other important papers. Develop systems and routines for the simple, daily things. If you run a tight ship at home, you will have time for important things. After all, it’s awfully hard to conquer the world if you’re constantly misplacing your car keys.

Hobbies and recreation are also parts of a healthy life. Having enjoyable stimulation outside work recharges your battery and contributes to creative thinking. Just don’t go too hog wild with your hobbies. Some people get so deeply involved in hobbies that they hurt their job performance and drain their bank accounts.

Speaking of bank accounts, personal financial discipline is part of a healthy lifestyle. Just as you need to get your body in shape, you need to shape up your financial condition as well. A long time ago, philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Few people have any next, they live from hand to mouth without a plan, and are always at the end of their line.”

There has always been a portion of the population that has chosen to live on the edge of the financial abyss, recklessly spending all they have, investing little or nothing. Unfortunately, that portion of the population has been growing rapidly, and it’s becoming quite a problem.

Living a financially reckless life will eventually catch up with you and hurt your career. If you have no savings, you have no “go-to-hell-money,” the power to walk away from a job or a client when you’re not happy. A lot of financial debt can prevent you from taking some lower paying job that might actually make you happier. For every minute you spend worrying and fretting about how you will make ends meet, you are taking away time from your grander goals.

It sounds so elementary, but it’s worth a reminder. Live a balanced and healthful life in order to reach the top.

That said, let’s end with one disclaimer: don’t be obsessive-compulsive in your quest for a healthy lifestyle, because as comedian Redd Foxx said, “Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing.”

About the Author:

Jeff Beals is an award-winning author, who helps professionals do more business and have a greater impact on the world through effective sales, marketing and personal branding techniques.  As a professional speaker, he delivers energetic and humorous keynote speeches and workshops to audiences worldwide.   You can learn more and follow his “Business Motivation Blog” at http://www.JeffBeals.com.

Categories
Customer Service

Your Customer’s PIR: Price Investment Ratio

Article Contributed By Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter”

Have you ever really considered how price affects your customer with regard to their perceived benefit? Too often, we use a simplistic approach to determining a price – figure the cost to produce a product or service, tack on some arbitrary percentage, and call it good, right?

Price, though, is consequential in ways we may not initially consider. The price a person pays for something goes a long way in determining the perceived benefit they expect to get from it. The perceived benefit cuts two ways. First, the expectation of service goes up the more a person pays for something. Second, the perception of what they’re gaining also goes up with the amount they pay. The two are not opposites; they work in tandem and in nearly all businesses, this tandem relationship can and does work to your advantage.

Many companies, hopefully including yours, are known for delivering incredible service. This quality service may be what your customers comment upon and why they are willing to refer you to other customers. This level of service comes at a price. One of the things you always should be doing is explaining to and showing your customers how your level of service helps them.

The more you share this type of information with your customers, the more comfortable you become in seeing the value of what you offer. Having confidence in your service allows you to increase your “Price Investment Ratio” (PIR). This all has to do with what you expect customers to pay.

For the customer, the PIR is revealed when you help frame their expectations. To help explain this best, let me refer to what I call the “IBM paradox.” This is the belief people have that although you will pay more for anything you buy from IBM, you will never be fired for using IBM. What this means is there are plenty of companies that sell the exact same items and services as IBM, but at a less expensive price. Although other vendors will be less money, there is a level of safety and confidence in using IBM – so much so that it translates to a premium price that customers will pay.

The “Price Investment Ratio” (PIR) is the amount over the minimum amount a person would have to pay for something. They are willing to pay it to feel confident in what they are buying. You might say the PIR should really be the CP – the “Confidence Premium.”

There are no two ways about it – when you have great service but do not reflect it in your PIR, then you are underselling. If you are underselling, you are not making the profits you could be making.

I can hear some of you at this point thinking, “What if we don’t have a solid sense of how good our customer service really is?” In other words, maybe your company receives very few complaints, but at the same time, you are not sure if your service is at a higher caliber than what your competitors bring to the table.

In order to find out your “Price Investment Ratio” (PIR), you must do a deep dive with your existing customers to get them to tell you what your service means to them. Once you do this, you can then match up what existing customers are telling you with what prospective customers are asking you to do. When you grasp this, you begin to understand what the PIR really should be. How much “investment” is the customer willing to make in going with you instead of your competitor?

As I have often said, in the B2B arena, companies don’t buy anything, they only invest. If your customer can’t see the return on investment, they won’t invest – they won’t pay the price you want to get. When they do see the value, though, then you can feel very confident in charging a price above what your competitors charge. Don’t settle for a lower price when doing so is detrimental to your bottom line.

About the Author
Mark Hunter, “The Sales Hunter,” is a sales expert who speaks to thousands each year on how to increase their sales profitability. For more information, to receive a free weekly email sales tip, or to read his Sales Motivation Blog, visit http://www.TheSalesHunter.com. You can also follow him on Twitter, on LinkedIn, and on Facebook

Categories
Planning & Management

Top 10 Tips for Managing Down

Article Contributed by Roberta Chinsky Matuson

Management looks really easy, doesn’t it? You’re awarded a title, and, if you are lucky, an office, and away you go. You bark some orders here and there and then you sit back until it’s time to give another directive. Of course, everyone does exactly what you ask of them, because you are the person in charge. If this were really the case, everyone would want to be a manager!

Here are ten tips to help you become the type of manager that everyone wants to work with.

1.  Be credible – It is difficult, if not impossible to get others to follow you if you aren’t perceived as being credible. Credibility is not something you earn overnight, although it is certainly something you can destroy in one day. Be mindful of how your words and actions have a direct impact on how others perceive you on a daily basis.

2.  Lead by example – Behave, as you would want your employees to behave, but also understand that your role is different from that of your employees.

3.  Surround yourself with the right people – Hire for fit, train for skill and if the opportunity presents itself, hire people who are better than you. Prepare for the arrival of new hires so they immediately feel connected to the organization.

4.  Build on strengths – Weaknesses may be more visible, but strengths are where you will receive a greater return. Find one or two strengths in each of your people and help them become the type of employees you know they can be.

5.  Cut your losses early – Mismatches happen, no matter how good you are at interviewing. Take action quickly to avoid having the rest of the team distracted by a poor hire.

6.  Cultivate the success of others – To succeed as a manager, you will need to shift your focus from “me” to “we.” Going forward, your success will no longer be measured by your individual contribution. Instead, you will be evaluated on your ability to create and maintain a highly engaged team that is willing to give it their all.

7.  Manage performance – People want and need feedback in order to improve their performance. Don’t be the manager everyone complains about. Give your people continuous feedback and provide them with timely performance reviews.

8.  Be respectful – One of the quickest ways to lose credibility and trust is by being disrespectful. Regardless of the situation at hand, treat your people the way you would like to be treated.

9.  Master the art of influencing – As the boss, many times you will be asking people to do things on your behalf. Be specific in your request and let them know why it’s in their best interest to comply, and you will be well on your way to getting what you need.

10.  Get respect – As human beings, we have a natural tendency to want to be loved. But what happens when your desire to be loved interferes with your ability to lead? Effective leaders recognize it is more important to be respected by their people than adored. They make the tough decisions that are needed to secure the future of those around them, including their direct reports.

About the Author:

Roberta Chinsky Matuson is the President of Human Resource Solutions (http://www.yourhrexperts.com)  and author of the highly acclaimed book, Suddenly in Charge: Managing Up, Managing Down, Succeeding All Around (Nicholas Brealey, January 2011). Her firm helps organizations create exceptional workplaces that deliver extraordinary results. Sign up to receive a complimentary subscription to Roberta’s monthly newsletter, HR Matters.