You will be able to write a headline and about section that tell a buyer who you help and how.
Wei Ling sells booking and reminder software to clinics in Singapore. For three years her LinkedIn headline read: Account manager at a health tech company. It was accurate. It also told a clinic manager nothing about why they should accept her connection request, and most of them didn't.
In lesson 1.1, Buyers look you up before they reply, you read your profile as a buyer would. This lesson fixes the two parts that buyer reads first: the headline under your name and the about section below it. Most people stop at the headline. If it holds them, some read the opening lines of the about section. Very few scroll further unless those two parts gave them a reason.
Your headline shows up everywhere your name does: in search results, beside every comment you leave, at the top of every message you send. So it has to work in the few seconds someone spends glancing at it. A strong headline names who you help and the problem you help with. Your job title and employer can come after that, or not at all.
Compare Wei Ling's old headline with three new versions she drafted:
Account manager at a health tech company I help clinics in Singapore cut no-shows with booking and reminder software Helping GP and dental clinics fill the slots that no-shows leave empty Clinic booking software, for practice managers tired of chasing patients by phone
The first describes Wei Ling. The other three describe a clinic's problem, and a practice manager reading any of them knows straight away whether this person is relevant. Notice that none of them claims a result. "Cut no-shows" says what she works on. It does not promise a percentage she can't prove.
LinkedIn limits how long a headline can be, and the limit has changed over the years, so check it in your own settings rather than trusting a number from a blog. Whatever the limit, the front of the headline does the work, because that's the part that survives when it is cut short beside a comment.
The hardest part is choosing. Most salespeople can serve many kinds of client, and they want the headline to say so. A headline that reads "helping individuals, families, SMEs and corporates with their financial needs" is trying to talk to everyone, and none of those readers recognises themselves in it.
Arjun, a financial adviser representative, had exactly that problem. When he looked at who actually became his clients, most were couples in their late twenties and thirties who had just bought a BTO flat and were starting to think about children. So he wrote for them: "I help young couples in Singapore plan their money around a new home and a growing family." Older clients and business owners still come to him through referrals. The headline doesn't turn them away. It just makes him the obvious choice for the group he serves best.
One clear buyer beats a list, because a buyer decides in seconds whether you are for them. You can always write for a second buyer in a post or a featured item later. The headline gets one.
The about section gives you room to talk to that buyer directly. A useful shape has three parts.
Start with the problems you see in their world, in the words they use. Wei Ling opens with: "Most clinic managers I speak to lose a few appointment slots every day to patients who forget or don't turn up, and the front desk spends its mornings on reminder calls." A practice manager reading that recognises their own morning.
Then say how you help, in plain terms. What do you do, and what does working with you involve? This is where your product or service appears, but as a way of dealing with the problem you just described, with no list of features attached.
Then say what a first conversation looks like. Buyers hesitate to contact a salesperson because they fear a pitch they can't escape. Tell them what actually happens: "A first call takes about 20 minutes. I ask how your bookings work today and tell you honestly whether our system would help." Arjun writes that his first meeting is about understanding the couple's plans, and that he doesn't bring product brochures to it.
Write it the way you speak. Read it aloud. If a sentence sounds like a brochure, rewrite it until it sounds like you across a table.
The last lines of the about section should tell the buyer exactly how to start. "Send me a message here" works. So does a work email or a line saying you reply to connection requests that mention a clinic. Keep it to one or two options. A buyer who has read this far is interested, and you don't want them wondering what to do next.
If you work for a regulated firm, check what contact details and wording your employer allows on a personal profile before you add them. Financial advisers in Singapore in particular should ask their compliance team, and lesson 1.3, Proof: recommendations, featured posts and examples, comes back to this.
Drafting three headlines is easy. Picking one is where people stall, usually because each version has something they like. Use the test from lesson 1.1: imagine one specific buyer, a real person if you can, glancing at it beside a comment. Which version would tell them fastest that you work on their problem? That one wins, even if another sounds cleverer.
Wei Ling chose the second version on her list. "Fill the slots that no-shows leave empty" was the one she liked best, but when she pictured a busy practice manager scrolling, "cut no-shows" registered faster. In the activity below you will write your own three versions and make the same choice.
Write three versions of your headline and pick the one a target buyer would understand fastest.
Junxiong-WFG Organisation is an authorised representative of AIA Financial Advisers Private Limited (Reg. No. 201715016G).