How to Get More Clients with LinkedIn with Gary Kissel | Ep 6

Would you like to get notified when someone in your area interested in your service? That’s what LinkedIn does when you are selected for their special section for professionals.

But before you get noticed by LinkedIn and more important by your potential clients you need to make your profile stand out.

In this episode, Gary Kissel shares how to get more clients with LinkedIn.

LinkedIn selected him as a ProFinder in the Marketing Consultant category and recommends him as a highly qualified contact to those who seek help with their business marketing.

As a Realtor, Gary used LinkedIn to find, connect and do deals with investors around the world. And now he helps other professionals to connect to their clients through LinkedIn. He has authored more than 30 articles on LinkedIn.

In this episode, we will cover:

• [00:21] About the episode and Gary Kissel
• [02:16] Gary shares how LinkedIn helped him to find buyers when he was in real estate business
• [02:11] What professionals should use LinkedIn
• [03:19] How to fill your LinkedIn profile
• [06:10] How to make your profile stand out
• [06:44] What are the keywords and how to use them
• [08:10] What to write on your LinkedIn profile if you have two different works: one is your main job and another is your creative business
• [09:58] What mistakes people make using LinkedIn
• [10:40] LinkedIn ProFinder is free special service for professionals
• [11:16] Marina shares her experience with LinkedIn ProFinder
• [12:57] How to find more clients on LinkedIn
• [14:05] Change your profile if you change the area of your expertise
• [15:24] When you have your profile established then work on becoming more visible
• [17:31] How to be seen by more people
• [18:51] Why you need to have at least 500 followers
• [19:42] Do you still need LinkedIn if you don’t live in North America?
• [21:18] Three steps that will help you to start attracting more clients with LinkedIn
• [22:50] Where to find Gary
• [23:40] For the show notes go to marinabarayeva.com and subscribe to the Marketing for Creatives show

3 Steps you can do to get more clients with LinkedIn:

• Step 1: Complete your profile (do it today)
• Step 2: Join some groups and post regularly. Start with 2-3 times a week
• Step 3: Add more media. It will make your profile stand out

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Download podcast transcript [PDF] here:

• How to Get More Clients with LinkedIn with Gary Kissel

Resources from this interview:

• Learn more about Gary Kissel on garykissel.com
• Check the LinkedIn ProFinder section
• Follow Gary Kissel on Twitter and LinkedIn

Connect with Marina Barayeva:

• marinabarayeva.com
• Follow Marina on Instagram
• Follow Marina on Twitter

How to Get More Clients with LinkedIn – Interview Transcription

Marina Barayeva:

To start off, can you tell us a little bit more about your work with LinkedIn and how did you become a LinkedIn coach?

Gary Kissel:

It’s a good question. When I left the corporate world, I wanted to start with real estate business and this was maybe 8 years ago. I know the time when LinkedIn was the best platform for me to use. I was able to connect with the buyers of homes and they call back to me many times.

Once I had been using LinkedIn for a while, successfully I saw that many professionals weren’t using it very well. I always like teaching and coaching and so I thought I better jump in on LinkedIn coaching and helps the people out.

Marina Barayeva:

Do you think everyone is going to use LinkedIn? Is it for every profession? And why should we use it? We have Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, all of these platforms. Why do we need one more?

Gary Kissel:

I think most people are in business should be using LinkedIn. I am more working right now with some clients that are quite artistic. One is a painter here in Ecuador. I also have a woman that is a sound healer. She’s having a seminar with a swimming with dolphins in Hawaii coming up in November. They’re both clients of mine.

I also work with corporations and businesses as well. I think LinkedIn is a very professional and unique platform and it’s growing incredibly, strongly for the last 14 years. There are now or half a billion people on there. I think that it’s a place that people curious about doing business and it’s a marketplace that most people should not avoid.

Marina Barayeva:

What should we write there? How should we fill all the fields there? There are many sections and I even don’t know where to use them.

Gary Kissel:

The first part to start is with here is your personal profile. You really need to spend some time to develop it as full as you can. LinkedIn gives you a lot of different sections that you can use to and enhance your reputation demonstrate your abilities and your skills.

Most people want to rush to connect to many people as they can. That is the mistake in my mind because if you do that with people and they look at our profile that’s incomplete or not very persuasive then you’ve really wasted your time and loss at a potential customer.

So, I encourage people to spend some time. Develop your profile. Make it look magnificent and you’d be successful in the long run.

Marina Barayeva:

What do you mean by developing your account, your profile? What should we fill there?

Gary Kissel:

It depends on what skills you have and who you are trying to reach. These are important questions to answer.

• What does your ideal client look like?
• How can you begin with a conversation with them?

Once you decided on that, then you want to go through and you want to go ahead and develop a headline. It’s very exciting. You are triggering to people to read more about you.

And then you want to develop your information, make information boxes. Your experience, your education, all of your different organization involvements and import as much media as you have available to do.

Marina Barayeva:

And your recommendation, how can we write or what can we do to make our profile to stand out? Like our headlines, the information about ourselves.

Gary Kissel:

It requires some thought. I really encourage you to think about what are the keywords that people would be using to find your kind of services.

You can look at other profiles, to get ideas about how similar people to you are using their profile and start to make a list. Then narrow that list down to the five keywords that you want to be using. And, then use those same words throughout your profile because the more you use it, the better you’ll be seen on the platform.

Marina Barayeva:

What do you mean by the keywords? If I am a photographer or you have a friend, an artist or painter. Would you say ‘photographer’ or ‘painter’? Or what else can we use?

Gary Kissel:

I think ‘photographer’ is one that you’d certainly want to use, also what kind of photographer are you?

Are you a wildlife photographer? Are you a wedding photographer?

You know be specific about what kind of areas that you have expertise in and the kind of areas that you want to attract more clients to.

That’s kind of a self-evaluation process but once you become very specific and you’re able to talk to people about how you offer those services in a very extraordinary way.  Then you’re going to be successful, again, on the platform.

Marina Barayeva:

I should mention all the areas I work with? If I talk about photography it’s going to be ‘portrait photographer’, ‘fashion photographer’ or ‘wedding photographer’? Or what about the painter? Like ‘painter’, ‘artist’ and etc.?

Gary Kissel:

You don’t want to confuse a person about by offering too many skills. If you keep it down to four or five main keywords I think that’s going to give you the best results as you speak to other people. Because if you see somebody that does twenty things and they say they do them well, you have to be skeptical, right?

Marina Barayeva:

Yeah. Kind of.  What if people work with two areas? Like, one of my friends is an English teacher and she’s also a Jewelry designer. Should she put all this information there? What is your suggestion to fill her profile?

Gary Kissel:

I think it’s very common for people to have two different skills or two different businesses operating at the same time. You can divide those descriptions quite easily on LinkedIn and I encourage you to do so.

Just be sure that you’re at you know, addressing at the skills to your proper clients. And most of all you’re trying to build a relationship, regardless of what your skills are. Use words that are encouraging of a conversation, something that’s on the mind long term.

Marina Barayeva:

But those are seemed kind of different fields like English and Jewelry or I have another friend, she is a hairstylist and sits with kids. They’re different things. How do you suggest to combine them together in one profile?

Gary Kissel:

If they’re extremely different then you might want to try to decide on which one is the main or you want to demonstrate on LinkedIn or maybe you want to advertise the other one a different platform that has you know maybe is more receptive to photos or the ability to advertise things to a different audience.

But if they are similar then I would not hesitate to put them together on LinkedIn.

Marina Barayeva:

Okay, and what are the common mistakes people make while they are using LinkedIn or filing their profile?

Gary Kissel:

I see very often people when they’re describing themselves, in the headline, which is the main line that people see right below your photo…. They talk more about their title or their position rather than what the service is. Now most people are on LinkedIn to find either a solution to a problem or to find someone that has a service that they’re looking for. So, providing just a generic title is not going to be very beneficial for you.  

Marina Barayeva:

I’ve heard that LinkedIn has the ProFinder section and you’re there too which is kind of serious to people who find professionals? What do you know about it and how to get there?

Gary Kissel:

ProFinder is a very early new service of LinkedIn and it’s actually quite interesting, because people spend a lot of time and energy trying to generate leads and this is a way that if you fill out some basic standards of LinkedIn with your profile being complete, LinkedIn would advertise for you and recommend you to people that are looking for your services.

So, you’re also a ProFinder, so I know you had some experience with it, maybe you can share a little bit about your success there.

Marina Barayeva:

Ok. That was actually cool.

When you helped me a little bit with my LinkedIn profile, I was wondering that LinkedIn would send me a message and they invited me to join their ProFinder’s section.  The best thing about it, that you can check there what’s your area the expertise as I am a photographer, I do portraits, I do fashion, I do hotshots.  But I don’t do pets, I don’t do events or all of these things.

When someone is looking for particular photographer for example a hotshot photographer, I guess they look somewhere in ProFinder and I just get the email with: Okay, in this area they need a photographer, they need the headshot for social media, the need digital, prints and they leave some notes there. So, I think this is a cool thing. I just wonder how well it works for other professionals too, not just photographers.

Gary Kissel:

Well, again it can work for anyone. It takes the time to build their profile and they’re in a competitive field so it gives you… if LinkedIn is endorsing you I don’t know what better endorsement you can have. Because LinkedIn itself is promoting you. So, I highly encourage you to try to become a recognized as a ProFinder on LinkedIn.

Marina Barayeva:

We filled our profile. How can we find more clients there? What other opportunities can we get?

Gary Kissel:

Clients are all over the place on LinkedIn like I said there’s a half a billion people there but you just don’t want any client, you want clients that fit your description of an ideal client.

I encourage people to write down five characteristics of the client that they seek. Then write down maybe five skills that the individual that has a profile has, in order to service that client. This way you’re becoming more targeted in your search and your communication is going to be a lot more effective.

I was in real estate so I was targeting out people that would buy real estate. I was quite successful because I was very specific about the way that I wrote my profile.

When I became a coach, I changed my profile and then I attracted a different client. And I continued to consult people like I mentioned with the two people have had just recently this past week or so. You know a little bit of planning will go a long way of making your profile really stand out and be effective for you.

Marina Barayeva:

How does it affect your profile that you had one the specialization and then you change it to another one? You were in real estate and then you changed it to coaching.

Gary Kissel:

I started by changing my headline. Then I started by changing the description about my services. And then I just added my new experience to my old experience.

I was able to change the focus of the profile pretty easily. You could only have one profile at LinkedIn so you want to adapt it as you know improve your own skills and abilities as you reach out for new and bigger clients.

Marina Barayeva:

So, you kind of kept some of your previous information and just updated the main sections like summary and some working skills, right?

Gary Kissel:

Sure. As you learn new things and you want to add them. We were talking before we start recording about the fact that you became a ProFinder, so that’s something that could be added in as part of your experience on your own profile. It enhances your reputation.

Marina Barayeva:

Cool. Do you have any tips on how to better organize the work on LinkedIn? Any tools or tricks?

Gary Kissel:

I think, you want to become visible. Once you have your profile established then you want to become more visible. Couple of tips and suggestions are to post between say Sunday night and Friday morning that seems to be the time when the most attention is paid.

You also, I think, want to take advantage of a feature of LinkedIn, that’s the ability to write an article. Once you have written several articles then you become seen as more of an expert in your field.

So, as you mentioned I have some thirty articles and tips about LinkedIn, so I encourage that your listeners to go to my LinkedIn profile and look at some of the articles that you’ll find a lot of tips about ranging everything from ranging from your picture to a posting, to becoming more of an influencer and creating more business for yourself.

Marina Barayeva:

But not everyone wants to write articles. What else can we do besides of that?  Some people not really into that.

Gary Kissel:

That’s a good point. But most people make a one-minute video and describe their services. If you can do that you can add that to your profile.

Or if you can get a testimonial from a client even in written form or on a video you can post that. This way you can be seen as being affective with your skills. There’s nothing better than a client recommendation to help promote your business.

Marina Barayeva:

What else should we share on LinkedIn?

Gary Kissel:

That it’s a very dynamic platform. They recently bought a company that has over four thousand videos.

You can enhance your own skills by watching some of these videos and then your profile can reflect the fact that you take it these classes on LinkedIn. Some of them are our credit driven as well.

You can really improve yourself by taking advantage of that but I encourage people to visit the platform frequently and to like and comment on another people’s post. This way, you can also be seen in the greater, reader you will have a greater ability to be seen just by simply not creating your own post but liking others.

Marina Barayeva:

How will we be seen? For example, if I create a post, people see my content but if I like someone’s post, what’s the point of this?

Or I ‘liked’, I know, it’s interesting for me and how other people will know about it?

Gary Kissel:

Because they’ll see that you liked. It’ll show up on your home page is affected to Marina liked it this post by so and so and if she commented, your comment will show up as well.

It’s another way just to engaged conversation with other people and attract attention to yourself.

Marina Barayeva:

So, even my followers didn’t see that post and I commented someone’s post it’s just appearing on my home feed?

Gary Kissel:

The people that you built up as connections will see your response to the post that you’d like to comment on.

That brings up another tip. People should just try to have at least 500 followers. In this way, you’re seeing to be a more professional LinkedIn user. People that have less than 500 shows exactly how many people you’ve connected to but if you have connected with the least 500, all the way up to thirty thousand it will show 500+ connections.

You want to reach that level to be seen as more of a serious LinkedIn user to other users.

Marina Barayeva:

So, we need to find five hundred people, connect to them and people think that we are super professional.

Gary Kissel:

Yes, as just a subconscious way of being seen as a little more significant on the platform.

Marina Barayeva:

I see. Awesome.

Now a little tricky question to you. LinkedIn seems more popular in North America, but what about those people who live in other countries?

Let’s say you’re in Ecuador. I’m in China and there are some people in Europe, and we are not the big corporations. We are just single person professional or a small business owner. How LinkedIn can help us to market out business there?

Gary Kissel:

Not many people know that LinkedIn is still in the early stages of its growth.

For example, we’re now have a half a billion people. That’s what, it’s taking fourteen years from LinkedIn to get to that level. But LinkedIn’s long-term mission is to reach some three billion people on the planet. So, you see it’s still able to grow some six times beyond what its current size is.

This is a reason why we should get involved now and begin to use the platform as this growth continues and their businesses can grow along with LinkedIn as its exposure becomes greater and greater.

Marina Barayeva:

Wow. Everyone should go to LinkedIn. There is a lot of information. If you would put that into the strategy, what are the three steps our listeners could begin with to start attracting more clients with LinkedIn, and which one they can do already today?  Maybe not right after they finish the podcast, but probably in the evening.

Gary Kissel:

The first step is to complete your profile, so people can begin doing that right away. You can take a little short period of time or a week or a month to complete that project. Because if you’ll notice some profiles are very lengthy and they contain many many different organizations and aspects of their credibility.

In terms of education, for example, I list not only my formal education but also the seminars that I go to. So, I imagine that you’ve gone to many many seminars over the years and if you list all of those that will take you a little bit of time to do so. But it does enhance your reputation that you attended so many different training classes. That would be the first step.

Then this is the second step is to become more visible. Join some groups and post regularly maybe two to three times a week.

Then lastly incorporate some video or some articles into your profile and more media. Because more media will help your profile stand out it’s a lot more interesting to read, a lot more dynamic to look at and that can be done over a longer period of time.

Marina Barayeva:

Amazing. Thank you so much, Gary. Now, why wouldn’t you tell everybody where they can find one more about you? How they can connect to you and know all of those things you are working on now?

Gary Kissel:

Sure. I’m happy to. The best place is my LinkedIn profile. It’s GaryKissel K-I-S-S-E-L. I also have a website garykissel.com. If you go there, I have an offer for a complimentary gift for you. The value of that gift is one hundred forty-seven dollars. I’m not going to tell you what it is, you have to go there to find out. But those are two ways to connect with me.

Marina Barayeva:

Fantastic. Thank you so much for joining us today and sharing your insights Gary. Wish you to have a great day.

Gary Kissel:

I’ve enjoyed it and I wish all of your listeners a great success as they build themselves their profiles out on LinkedIn. 

Marina Barayeva:

Thank you. Bye bye.

Gary Kissel:

Bye bye. Thank you so much.

Marina Barayeva

Marina Barayeva is an international speaker and coach who helps women entrepreneurs become recognized experts and confidently sell their services. She is also a TEDx speaker, has presented to audiences in Asia and North America, and has been featured in such media as ArtPeople, CCTV, China Radio International, and others.