Seven steps to a better personal profile

Promoting your business can be daunting enough, but promoting yourself can seem like even harder work. It’s a very British trait to be self-effacing, but in business it’s increasingly important to have an up-to-date personal profile that can be used on your web pages or social media sites liked LinkedIn, in fact anywhere where you’re called upon to say something about who you are, and what you do. If you have a profile, but it’s been a while since you reviewed it, then this could be a good time to dust it off and give it a makeover.

Make sure your picture is a good likeness

If you’ve changed your hairstyle or got new glasses, then you might want to update your picture. When getting your photograph taken, wear what you’d wear to meet a client, and make sure you look business-like, and aim for a natural welcoming smile.

Create a powerful opening statement

Make the text compelling and authentic. Try to create a short opening paragraph that’s as powerful as possible. Make sure it encapsulates what you do, and the skills you offer clients in an engaging and meaningful way. This can then become your ‘elevator pitch’, your opening statement at any new business meeting, speaking engagement or presentation.

Make your areas of expertise clear and concise

Whilst it can be tempting to cover every aspect of your experience and knowledge, a long list of services can come across as a little overwhelming to the reader. So, you may want to clearly signpost the services you offer to each market segment, or even think about having a separate version of your profile for personal clients, and another directed at the corporate market.

Tell readers what you’re doing right now

Readers will readily spot a profile that hasn’t been reviewed for some time, especially if it refers to legislation that’s been around for a while, or worse still, has been superseded. Readers appreciate a degree of immediacy, so being able to reference current industry issues will make them take note.

What areas of work are you particularly keen to be involved in? Make sure these are highlighted. Update your achievements on behalf of your clients. By making sure that these statements are in a format that’s ready to export into other documents, you can save yourself valuable time when it comes to preparing other sales materials such as pitches or new business proposals.

Beware of pedestrian detail

It’s all too easy to make your profile a series of sentences that take readers through every step of your career, line by line, as in “Richard began his career with a major bank. He then went to work for an insurance company. He then decided to branch out on his own. He’s been operating as an IFA for 20 years”. Instead, this can be tightened up by re-arranging the information to make it more client-focused: “Richard’s clients can draw on his in-depth financial knowledge gained in both the banking and insurance industries, and from the 20 years he’s subsequently spent running his own successful independent financial advice business”.

Too many sentences that start with ‘he’ or ‘Richard’ makes for repetitive and slightly dull reading, so varying your sentence structure helps encourage the reader to stay on your page.

The other issue to consider is whether to write your profile in the first or third person. Increasingly, there are occasions when it’s appropriate to use the first person, for instance under the summary heading on LinkedIn. However, if your profile sits alongside those of your colleagues on your website, you need to agree collectively which style you’re going to choose for consistency. Writing in the third person doesn’t preclude the addition of a personalised quote, and this can be a good opportunity to make a compelling statement about, say, your approach to customer care, or to underline your expertise in a particular aspect of your work.

Reference your personal values

If offering exemplary service is high on your agenda, then make that clear. Readers will welcome any insight you can give as to how you might work on their behalf. Mentioning any aspect of your service that clients have particularly remarked upon can be a useful addition too.

Don’t add too much (personal) information

Whilst everyone wants to come across as friendly and approachable, as ever, it’s a question of balance. Don’t be afraid to include some personal or unique information about yourself in your profile, but in most cases limiting it to brief details about your family and pastimes will serve the purpose.

Regularly reviewing your profile makes good sense, so spending a little time making it work harder for you shouldn’t be viewed as a chore, but rather as a great way to attract profitable new business.

By Margaret Emmens