LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a powerful tool that can supercharge your sales and prospecting efforts. Whether you’re a sales professional, a business owner, or a marketer, understanding how to leverage this platform can be a game-changer for your success.
What is LinkedIn Sales Navigator?
LinkedIn Sales Navigator, often referred to simply as “Sales Navigator,” is a premium subscription service offered by LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional networking platform. It is designed to help you find and connect with the right people, build relationships, and ultimately grow your business.
Key Features of LinkedIn Sales Navigator
Before we dive into the details, let’s explore the key features that make LinkedIn Sales Navigator an indispensable tool for sales and prospecting:
- Access to LinkedIn Subscriptions: Sales Navigator provides access to additional features like “Job Seeker” and “LinkedIn Learning Access.” The Job Seeker feature helps you stand out when searching for new opportunities, while LinkedIn Learning Access offers a vast library of courses to enhance your skills.
- Extended Network Access: With Sales Navigator, you can perform unlimited searches, save your search criteria for future use, and see who has viewed your profile in the last 90 days. This extended access allows you to explore a broader network of potential leads and connections.
- Reach out with InMail: InMail is a feature that enables you to send direct messages to LinkedIn users, even if you’re not connected. Depending on your subscription level, you can send a certain number of InMails each month, ranging from 20 to 50. This feature is invaluable for personalized outreach.
- Find the Right People: Advanced search capabilities and “Sales Spotlights” help you pinpoint your ideal prospects. Use filters like keywords, geography, industry, and more to create prospecting lists tailored to your needs. Sales Spotlights identify prospects with a higher likelihood of engaging with your messages based on LinkedIn’s data.
- Prioritize and Qualify: LinkedIn suggests leads and key accounts based on your saved preferences. You can also specify your preferred leads based on various criteria to focus your efforts on the most promising opportunities.
- Integrate with Your Sales Tools: Sales Navigator seamlessly integrates with tools like SNAP (Sales Navigator Application Platform), Outlook for web, and the Sales Navigator mobile app. These integrations enhance your productivity and help you stay connected on the go.
- Keep Track of People and Companies: You can save leads and accounts, create custom lists to organize your prospects, set up alerts for real-time updates, and add notes to keep track of your interactions and action items.
- Engage with Your Prospects Using Your Team’s Network: If you have a Sales Navigator Team or Enterprise subscription, you can access features like TeamLink and TeamLink Extend. TeamLink allows you to tap into your team’s connections, while TeamLink Extend helps you expand your network without granting full access to LinkedIn Sales Navigator.
- Advanced Outreach – Package Content and Track Engagement: The “Smart Links” feature lets you share content with prospects and track their engagement, providing valuable insights into your outreach efforts.
- Administrative Tools/Reporting: Administrators can use tools like “Usage Reporting” to track usage and engagement on the platform. The “Account Center” streamlines user license and group management for organizations.
- Centralized Billing for Contracts Sold Through LinkedIn Corporate Sales: Businesses can take advantage of volume and multi-year discounts, invoicing options, and dedicated relationship managers to tailor their enterprise sales experience.
- CRM Sync: If you use Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics 365, Sales Navigator offers features like “Auto-Save,” “Activity Writeback,” and “ROI Reporting” to seamlessly integrate your prospecting data with your CRM.
- Enterprise Tools: Enterprise-level subscriptions provide Single Sign-On (SSO) for secure access and Employee Data Integration to manage licenses and permissions effectively.
Benefits of LinkedIn Sales Navigator
Now that we’ve explored its features, let’s dive into the benefits of using LinkedIn Sales Navigator:
- Access to the Biggest B2B Network: LinkedIn boasts a vast network of over 740 million professionals. This extensive reach makes it an ideal platform for B2B networking and prospecting.
- Advanced Updates: Sales Navigator provides real-time updates on significant LinkedIn activities, such as job changes, company mentions, and posts. These updates offer valuable opportunities for engagement, allowing you to connect with prospects at the right moment.
- Excellent Search Features, List Creation, Saved Searches, and View Similar: The platform’s advanced search filters and list creation capabilities make it easy to identify and connect with your ideal prospects. You can save your search criteria for future use and discover similar leads to expand your network.
- Enhanced Outreach: With InMail, you can reach out to prospects directly, even if you’re not connected. This feature is a powerful way to initiate conversations and build relationships with potential clients.
- Time and Efficiency Savings: Sales Navigator streamlines your prospecting efforts. You can organize and prioritize leads, track their activity, and seamlessly integrate prospect data with your CRM, saving you time and increasing your efficiency.
- Advanced Analytics: Sales Navigator provides valuable insights into your prospecting efforts. You can track engagement, measure the effectiveness of your outreach, and adjust your strategy based on data-driven decisions.
Pitfalls of the Platform
While LinkedIn Sales Navigator offers a wide range of benefits, it’s essential to be aware of its limitations:
- Limited InMails: Depending on your subscription, you have a restricted number of InMails to use each month (ranging from 20 to 50). This limit can be a challenge for extensive outreach efforts.
- InMail Response Rate: The response rate for InMails is approximately 18%. This means that not all of your messages will receive a response, which can impact the effectiveness of your prospecting. Crafting compelling and personalized InMails is crucial to improve your response rate.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator and Bruxt Extension for LinkedIn
To maximize the value of LinkedIn Sales Navigator, consider pairing it with the Bruxt Extension for LinkedIn, a Google Chrome extension that enhances your prospecting efforts by providing direct contact information.
Bruxt enables you to find direct dials and email addresses of your prospects, streamlining your outreach efforts. When combined with LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Bruxt offers a powerful solution for creating prospect lists, updating your CRM, and accelerating your sales cycle.
Bruxt is free to sign up for, and it provides 5 free contact leads every month, making it a cost-effective addition to your prospecting toolkit.
Sales Navigator Professional vs. Sales Navigator Teams vs. Sales Navigator Enterprise
LinkedIn Sales Navigator offers three subscription plans, each tailored to different needs. Here’s a quick comparison of these plans:
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator Professional: This plan includes basic features such as advanced prospect searches, custom lists, and 20 InMails per month. It’s suitable for individual sales professionals looking to enhance their prospecting efforts.
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator Team: The Team plan offers all the features of the Professional plan, along with additional benefits like content sharing, warm introductions, and 30 InMails per month. It’s ideal for teams and small businesses looking to collaborate and grow their network.
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator Enterprise: The Enterprise plan includes all the features of Professional and Team plans, plus advanced functionalities like CRM updates, data validation, Single Sign-On (SSO), and comprehensive enterprise integrations. It also provides 50 InMails per month. Pricing is customized based on the number of licenses and contract duration, making it a perfect choice for large organizations.
It’s important to choose the right plan based on your specific requirements and the size of your team or organization. Each plan offers distinct advantages, so assess your needs and budget to make an informed decision.
Conclusion: Is Sales Navigator Worth It?
In conclusion, LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a robust prospecting tool that leverages LinkedIn’s extensive network for business connections. It offers advanced search capabilities, list creation, and real-time updates on prospect and account activities, making it a valuable resource for sales professionals and businesses.
However, it’s crucial to keep in mind the limitations, primarily the restricted number of InMails and the response rate. To overcome these challenges, consider crafting personalized and compelling messages, and pairing LinkedIn Sales Navigator with the Bruxt Extension for LinkedIn to access direct contact information for your prospects.
Ultimately, the decision of whether Sales Navigator is worth it depends on your specific goals and the value it brings to your sales and prospecting efforts. Many users find that the benefits far outweigh the limitations, making it a valuable investment in their professional success.