Your LinkedIn profile should explain why a buyer should care

A buyer opens your LinkedIn profile after seeing a comment, reading a post or receiving a message. They find “Founder | Entrepreneur | Helping businesses grow.” Below it sits a banner with a logo and a slogan. The profile looks active, but the buyer still has to work out what you actually do.

That is the first problem to fix. Before adding another credential, make the profile answer three questions: who do you help, what do you help them do, and what should they do if the work sounds relevant?

Harry Long's profile advice uses a useful comparison: treat the page as a landing page. The parts have different jobs. The headline establishes relevance. The About section explains the work. Featured supplies evidence. A clear next step turns interest into a possible conversation. None of those jobs is completed by a large follower count.

Choose the buyer and the next step first

A profile trying to attract employers, sell consulting, recruit contractors and promote a course will struggle to give each visitor a clear route. You may do all those things. Decide which one matters most right now, then make that route easiest to understand.

For a service business, write a private sentence before editing:

I want [a specific kind of buyer] to recognize that I help with [a defined problem or deliverable], inspect [relevant evidence], and [take one next step].

Here is an illustrative example for a fictional consultant:

I want operations leaders at growing software companies to see that I help repair unreliable customer onboarding, inspect a worked process example, and message me about a review.

That sentence gives you an editing rule. A generic “passionate about transformation” line adds little. A short explanation of what the onboarding review covers adds something a buyer can use.

Keep the audience specific enough to recognize themselves without turning the profile into a list of filters. You do not need every company-size constraint in the headline. You do need a more useful description than “ambitious businesses.”

Make the first screen coherent

Your photograph, banner and headline appear together. They should support the same explanation.

Use a recognizable, current photograph with enough light to see your face. An ordinary, well-taken photo can do the job. You do not need a photographer before you can start, and a costly headshot cannot compensate for vague positioning. Check how the crop looks at the small size used beside comments and messages.

The banner gives you room to explain the work visually. Use a short buyer-centered statement, a recognizable brand and, where appropriate, a modest indication of the next step. Avoid filling it with a paragraph or several competing offers. Inspect the result on mobile as well as desktop, because the profile photo and different crops can obscure text.

A Canva LinkedIn banner template can provide a starting layout. Replace its generic text and colors, then check the actual profile crop before calling it finished.

For the fictional onboarding consultant, a banner could read:

Clearer onboarding handoffs for growing software teams

That is more informative than “Better outcomes, together.” If the consultant offers something narrower, such as mapping the handoff from sales to implementation, say that instead. The banner should reflect the service you can actually deliver.

In his starting-from-zero walkthrough, Harry suggests a quick profile scan. Use that as an exercise: show the first screen to someone who resembles your intended reader and ask what they think you sell. Do not explain it first. Their answer exposes ambiguity faster than another hour rearranging the design.

Give the headline a job beyond naming your role

“Founder” tells the reader your position in a business. It does not explain whether the business could help them.

Keep a role or professional identity when it helps recognition, then add the audience and the work. You can use a result if you have grounds to claim it. Otherwise, name the deliverable or the problem you address.

The rewrite is not finished just because it follows a formula. “Consistent referral process” still needs an explanation elsewhere. The point is that a relevant reader now has a reason to continue.

Be careful with “I help X achieve Y” when Y is an outcome you cannot substantiate. A new consultant can credibly describe a review, implementation or research service. They should not borrow a large revenue result from somebody else's case study to sound established.

Use real market language without stuffing keywords

Harry's profile video suggests collecting ten relevant profiles or job descriptions and asking AI to identify recurring skills and terms. The useful part is the language research. It can reveal that buyers describe a problem differently from the way you describe your service.

For a service profile, collect material from the market you actually serve: relevant buyer posts, public role descriptions, appropriate service searches and representative competitor explanations. Keep a note of the source and why it belongs in the sample. Ten examples is a manageable exercise, not a required number or a statistically reliable study.

Ask a narrow question:

Identify the recurring terms these buyers use for onboarding problems and responsibilities. Separate exact phrases from your interpretation. Suggest where truthful, relevant terms could make my headline and About clearer. Do not add skills or results I have not supplied.

Review the output yourself. A term can recur because a competitor is using fashionable language, or because a job description combines several responsibilities. Keep words that accurately describe your work and that your buyer would understand.

Use them naturally in the headline, About, relevant experience and skills. Repeating a phrase in every field makes the profile harder to read. This exercise improves clarity; it does not guarantee a position in LinkedIn search.

Write the About section in the order a buyer needs

A chronological biography can be useful for employment. A service buyer usually needs a different order.

Start with the situation you help address. Explain what the work involves, who it suits and the evidence you can provide. Then give the next step. Your background belongs where it helps the buyer judge your ability to do that work.

Here is an illustrative outline for the fictional consultant:

When sales, implementation and customer success each hold a different version of the onboarding plan, new customers spend too long waiting for a clear owner.

I help B2B software teams map that handoff, identify missing decisions and put a usable onboarding checklist in place.

A review covers the current journey, ownership at each stage and the information teams need to exchange. The output is a documented process and a prioritized set of changes your team can inspect.

My Featured section includes an anonymized example of the mapping format. Message me with “onboarding review” if you want to check whether this fits your situation.

This example describes a process, not an invented client success. A real consultant should replace it with accurate scope and evidence, including limits. If the service needs access to internal systems or participation from several teams, make that clear before somebody assumes it is a quick solo fix.

Avoid leading with a catalogue of services. Buyers need to understand the central offer before they can judge the extras. If you genuinely serve two distinct audiences, give each a clear explanation rather than blend them into “businesses of all sizes.”

Make Featured answer a buyer's next question

Featured is a place to make useful evidence easy to find. It does not need to showcase the post with the most reactions.

Choose a small set of assets that answer different questions. A case study can show the problem, what you did and the result. A worked example can show how you think. A service explanation can show what a buyer would receive. A testimonial can support a specific claim about the working relationship.

Give each item a descriptive title. “Client success” makes someone click to discover what is inside. “How the sales-to-onboarding handoff review works” gives them a reason to open it.

Use real evidence with appropriate permission. If a result belongs to a client, explain the relevant period, scope and your contribution. If you cannot disclose the client, anonymize with care. Do not expose private documents just to make the profile seem substantial.

A new business can use a clearly labeled sample, a useful teardown of public material or a practical explanation of its process. Those assets demonstrate reasoning. They should never be presented as work commissioned by a client who does not exist.

Remove friction from the next step

Pick the action that matches the level of commitment the visitor is likely to have. A person evaluating an unfamiliar service may prefer a question by DM to a booking form that immediately demands thirty minutes.

If you use a booking page, say what the conversation is for. If you offer a resource, name what it helps somebody do. If you prefer email, keep the address current. Repeat the same route where it is helpful, rather than sending the headline, About and Featured to three unrelated destinations.

Customize your public profile URL when a suitable one is available. A clear linkedin.com/in/your-name style address is easier to share and recognize than an untidy suffix. It is an administrative improvement, not evidence that buyers will contact you or that LinkedIn will rank you higher.

Then test the route while signed out where practical. Does the link open? Is the destination readable on a phone? Does the booking page describe the offer the profile just explained? A broken or contradictory destination wastes the clarity you created upstream.

Keep follower settings separate from proof

Some of Harry's videos recommend making Follow the primary profile action and describe the displayed count as an authority shortcut. Changing a setting does not create a new audience. Connections and followers overlap, but they are different relationships, and people can change their follow preferences.

Choose the primary action based on what you want the profile to support. Follow can suit a publishing-led profile. Connect can suit relationships where mutual access matters. Check LinkedIn's current settings and the effect before changing them.

Either way, the count cannot establish whether you understand a buyer's problem, deliver the promised work or have relevant experience. A clear explanation and inspectable evidence do more useful work than a display trick.

After editing, ask a relevant person to review the profile again. Have them describe the offer, identify the evidence they would inspect and find the next step. If they still cannot do those things without your explanation, edit the unclear part before adding more content. For a wider acquisition process, connect that profile to buyer research and messages that are easy to answer.