Profile visits usually arrive before clients do. Someone reads your comment, taps your name and finds a headline like "Founder | Coach | Speaker | Passionate about growth," followed by a work history written for a recruiter. They leave without knowing who you help or what you'd do for them.
The fix is 3 pieces of writing: a headline that names your buyer and what changes for them, an About section that explains the offer and its evidence, and a next step that takes a visitor from the profile to a resource or a conversation.
By the end of this guide you'll have drafted all 3 for your own profile, checked against a completed example and a 10-point audit.
Jump to the free LinkedIn Profile Rewrite Kit
LinkedIn profile for consultants and coaches: name your buyer and contribution in the headline
A headline on a LinkedIn profile for consultants or coaches should answer 2 questions in 1 line: who do you help, and what changes for them? Lead with the buyer and the outcome, then add how you do it or a proof marker you can back up. Job titles can go last, since your Experience section already lists them.
The headline does the heaviest lifting because strangers often meet it away from your profile. LinkedIn's headline help page says it's displayed in search results, and when your profile viewing setting is "Your name and headline," the people whose profiles you visit see it in Who's viewed your profile. The headline is also where your authority position gets its shortest test: if the line can't name the problem you own, the rest of the profile won't either.
The headline formula
[Who you help] + [what changes for them] + [how, or a proof marker]
Describe the buyer as a group a stranger would recognize, with a situation attached. Write the change as something the buyer would say out loud. Keep the "how" short: a method, a format or a number you can stand behind.
3 drafts for 1 coach
The example in this guide is Marcus Bell (illustrative), a sales coach who ran sales at 2 software startups and now works with technical founders who do their own selling.
| Draft | Headline | What it gets right or wrong |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Founder, Bell Sales Coaching | Sales Coach | Speaker | Lists roles. A founder can't tell if it's for them. |
| 2 | Sales coach for startup founders | Helping you close more deals | The buyer is too broad, and "close more deals" is every sales coach's promise. |
| 3 | I help technical founders run their first 50 sales calls before they hire a salesperson | Former head of sales at 2 software startups | Names the buyer, the situation, the change and a proof marker. |
For a consultant, the same formula reads like this: "Pricing for B2B software companies with 20 to 150 staff | I find where discounts leak and write the rules that stop it."
To change yours, open your profile, select the Edit icon in the introduction section and edit the Headline field in the Edit intro window, as LinkedIn's Edit your headline page describes. That page doesn't state a character limit, so paste your draft into the field and check that the whole line fits.
Then test it where buyers see it. Search LinkedIn for your own name on your phone and look at how much of the headline shows in the results; if the buyer is cut off, move them to the front.
Build an About section around the offer and evidence
An About section that turns visits into inquiries has 4 short blocks: the buyer's situation in their words, the offer and how it works, evidence that you've done it, and the next step. LinkedIn's own profile guidance suggests limiting About to 1 or 2 paragraphs, so keep each block to 2 or 3 sentences and the whole section near that length. Marcus's below runs to about 190 words, split into 4 short paragraphs so it reads easily on a phone.
| Block | What it says | Length |
|---|---|---|
| Situation | The buyer's problem in words they'd use | 2 sentences |
| Offer | Who it's for, what you do together, how long, what they leave with | 3 sentences |
| Evidence | Background, work you can describe, and how you handle permission | 2 or 3 sentences |
| Next step | The resource and the inquiry route, and where to find each | 1 or 2 sentences |
To edit it, go to the Me icon, then View Profile, scroll to About and select its Edit icon (LinkedIn Help).
The completed About section
Here's Marcus's, with each block labeled in brackets (the labels are for you, so leave them out of yours):
[Situation] You built the product, and now you're the one on the sales calls. Most technical founders I meet have run 5 or 10 calls, felt them wobble around pricing, and started wondering whether to hire a salesperson before they know what customers will pay.
[Offer] I coach technical founders through their first 50 sales calls. Over 8 weeks we write your call outline, review recordings of your calls together each week, and build the pricing and follow-up steps you'll hand to your first sales hire. You run the calls; I help you hear what's happening in them.
[Evidence] I ran sales at 2 B2B software startups from their first customer to about $4M in annual revenue, and I've coached 30 founders since 2022. I share client stories only with permission, and the Featured section holds 1 a founder agreed to let me publish.
[Next step] If you're running your own sales calls, start with the free First 50 Calls Tracker in Featured. If you're 10 or more calls in and want a second pair of ears, book a 20-minute fit call from the same section.
Why each block is built that way:
- Situation: names a moment (5 or 10 calls in, pricing going wobbly) that the right founder recognizes at once.
- Offer: gives a length, the activities and a handover, which answers "what would we do together?"
- Evidence: stays checkable, with 2 companies, a revenue figure, a count and a permission note.
- Next step: splits by readiness, so an early founder and a ready founder each get something to do.
The 10-point profile audit
Score 1 for each yes. Marcus's "before" profile, with draft 1 as the headline and a 2-line About, scored 2.
| # | Check | Before | After |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Headline names a buyer group a stranger would recognize | 0 | 1 |
| 2 | The change for that buyer appears in the headline | 0 | 1 |
| 3 | A proof marker you can back up sits in the headline | 0 | 1 |
| 4 | About opens with the buyer's situation | 0 | 1 |
| 5 | Offer length, activities and result are stated | 0 | 1 |
| 6 | Evidence is specific and checkable | 1 | 1 |
| 7 | Every client claim has permission or uses your own data | 1 | 1 |
| 8 | About ends with a next step and where to find it | 0 | 1 |
| 9 | Featured holds the resource and the inquiry route | 0 | 1 |
| 10 | Headline still reads clearly on a phone | 0 | 1 |
Anything scoring 0 on your own profile is this week's edit list, in the order above.
The LinkedIn Profile Rewrite Kit has Marcus's before and after profile, this audit as a scoring sheet, and blank worksheets for your headline and About.
Connect the profile to a resource and an inquiry route
Give visitors 2 next steps matched to how ready they are: a useful resource for people still working on the problem, and an inquiry route for people who want help now. On a free account, the Featured section carries both. Premium Business, Sales Navigator and Recruiter Lite add options, listed below with what each one does.
| Route | Who can use it | What to put there |
|---|---|---|
| Featured section | All personal profiles | Links to the resource and booking page, plus 1 proof item |
| Contact info websites | Anyone | Up to 3 links, shown in Contact info |
| Service Page | Free to set up; more features with Premium Business, Sales Navigator or Recruiter Lite | Your services, an optional description, and a setting that lets buyers message you whatever your connection degree |
| Custom button | A select group of Premium Business, Sales Navigator and Recruiter Lite subscribers | A preset label such as "Book an appointment" or "View my services," linked to your page |
2 details trip people up. The custom button and services are either-or: LinkedIn says adding or editing the button replaces the services on your profile. And the clickable link that used to sit in the intro is gone, since LinkedIn has removed that option and routes website links through the custom button.
Marcus's route
Marcus is on a free account, so Featured does the work. It holds 3 items: the written-up founder engagement, the First 50 Calls Tracker and the fit-call booking page. The last block of his About names both destinations and says where they are.
His Contact info carries the same 2 links, for visitors who look there first. The Featured section guide shows how to label those items and test the whole path on desktop and mobile.
When the headline keeps coming out vague
If you've written 5 headlines and none of them names a buyer, the problem sits upstream of LinkedIn. Settle the message first with the personal brand statement guide, then come back and the headline usually takes 10 minutes.
Rewrite the headline today, then the 4 About blocks, and run the audit before you touch anything else. Ask 1 person in your buyer group to read the profile cold and tell you who it's for; if their answer matches your buyer line, the rewrite is done.