A LinkedIn profile that a buyer reads in thirty seconds

A buyer gives your LinkedIn profile about thirty seconds, usually on a phone, usually just after someone mentioned your name. In that time they read the photo, the headline, the first three lines of About, and whatever the Featured section shows. Everything else is for the few who stay. So write those four places as if they were the entire profile, and decide in each what the buyer should know before they scroll. Below is a before and after on a hypothetical consultant.

The profile before

Take Lakshmi, an invented export documentation consultant in Tiruppur. The profile reads:

• Headline: Director at LK Global Services
• About: "A dynamic professional with over a decade of experience in the export industry. Passionate about helping businesses grow. Open to opportunities."
• Featured: Nothing.
• Experience: Four lines of duties from each of three jobs.

A knitwear unit owner who was told "ask Lakshmi about your shipping bills" learns nothing in thirty seconds. They cannot tell what Lakshmi does, for whom, or whether the goods are ones Lakshmi handles.

The headline: say who and what, not where you sit

The headline usually shows under your name in search, comments and messages. It does most of the work.

After: "Export documentation and drawback claims for knitwear units in Tiruppur and Erode"

It has the work, the buyer and the place. A recruiter might prefer a title, but your buyer is not a recruiter. Keep the firm name for the Experience section.

A rule: if your headline could sit under anyone else's photo in your trade, rewrite it.

The first three lines of About

On a phone the About section may show only its first few lines before a "see more" link. Those lines must hold the reader. Open with the buyer's situation, not your history.

After:

A knitwear shipment can miss its date over one wrong description on a shipping bill. I help exporters in Tiruppur get invoices, shipping bills and drawback claims in order before they are filed. I have prepared shipping bills and drawback files for knitwear units in Tiruppur and Erode, and I work with the owner or the merchandiser directly.

The first line names the problem in the owner's terms. The second names the service. The next sentence gives the buyer something checkable: the kind of files Lakshmi has handled and who they will deal with. Everything after this fold can be as plain and detailed as you like.

What goes below the fold

Four short paragraphs are enough.

1. Who you work with. Size, trade and the role you usually speak to. Be narrow. Narrower than feels safe.
2. What you do, in the order a job runs. Start at the first call. Say what happens next.
3. Proof. A type of client and what changed, with permission and without confidences. A line such as "A twenty-machine unit stopped having drawback claims returned for mismatched descriptions" (an invented example) is better than "improved efficiency".
4. How to start. One sentence and one way: a phone number or a booking link. Not both.

Say only what your licence or registration lets you do, because customs filing has its own rules. Do not write in the third person. Do not use "passionate". Both make a buyer feel they are reading a brochure.

The Featured section: three items, not ten

Pick three.

• An explainer that answers a question your best clients asked. For Lakshmi: "Why drawback claims bounce and what to check before filing".
• One client story, anonymised or permissioned.
• One way to book a conversation.

Order them with the explainer first. A visitor who is not ready to call can still leave knowing you understand their problem.

Proof that fits in thirty seconds

Recommendations work when they name a task. Ask a former client for two sentences on one particular piece of work: what was wrong, what you did, what changed. Send them a draft they can edit if they find writing hard.

Skills endorsements, badges and long lists of courses may not register with a buyer. Leave them or move them down.

The Experience section: one line of use, not four of duties

Under each job, the buyer wants one sentence about what you did that resembles their problem. "Prepared shipping bills and drawback files for knitwear and garment exporters" helps them. "Responsible for liaison with customs and banks" is a duty, and they cannot tell if you did it well. Keep older jobs to a line each. If an old job has nothing to do with what you sell now, collapse it to one line and move on.

Hand it to someone else

You cannot read your own profile as a stranger. Give your phone to a person who does not know your trade, ask them to look at it for thirty seconds, then take the phone back. Ask three questions: what does this person do, for whom, and would you ring? If they get the first two wrong, the first screen is still carrying your job title and not your buyer.

Mistake and fix: the profile that tried to serve everyone

Lakshmi first rewrote the headline as "Trade, compliance, logistics and export consulting for businesses of all sizes". It sounded broader, on the theory that it would catch more. Knitwear owners reading it could not tell whether the author knew their goods, and two of them said they assumed a generalist.

Lakshmi went back to the narrow version. The calls became fewer and more suited. If you worry that narrowing loses work, remember that a referred buyer outside your niche may still ring if the person who referred them said you were good. The narrow headline is for strangers.

When this profile is not the right place to put effort

If your buyers do not use LinkedIn, such as shopkeepers or small tradespeople, a good profile still helps with trust but should not get your main effort. Spend it where they look.

The personal branding hub covers the other places. For what to say once the profile is ready, LinkedIn marketing for consultants goes further on posting.

Rewrite the four places first

Open your profile on your phone, read only the photo, headline and first three lines, and ask if a stranger would know what to do. Fix those, then stop. If you want help with the wording, see personal branding or tell us what you need.