LinkedIn Sales Navigator: What It Is & Using It to Grow Your Business

With the rise of social platforms, it’s become easier than ever for sales professionals to use their social networks to organically find leads. LinkedIn is one of the most popular global platforms for professional networking, and it can be a highly effective place to discover new connections. You can use LinkedIn to manage your leads and drive sales.

To leverage the platform even further, there is a LinkedIn account type that was created specifically for sales professionals: the LinkedIn Sales Navigator. With Sales Navigator, you’ll get exclusive access to features such as being able to reach out to people to who you don’t have a direct connection and adding notes to your leads as you save them. Here’s a breakdown of the major benefits to Sales Navigator and how you can use it to grow your business.

What Is LinkedIn Sales Navigator?

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is essentially a version of LinkedIn that was made for sales. It goes beyond the benefits that LinkedIn Premium offers and includes features that sales professionals specifically can benefit from as they pursue and manage leads. For example, Sales Navigator users have expanded search capabilities, can access extended networks, and have algorithms that are personalized to help them reach the right people.

Whether Sales Navigator is used by a team of sales representatives or a sales individual, the account provides even more ways to find leads and manage connections effectively. Millions of professionals already use LinkedIn to drive sales or find connections – Sales Navigator simply maximizes what LinkedIn is able to do.

Sales Navigator Pricing Tiers

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is offered in three subscription tiers: Enterprise, Team, and Professional. You can sign up for a free trial and then pay annually or monthly, although the monthly plan costs a little bit more. It may help to try out Sales Navigator on a monthly basis, then move on to an annual subscription if the account is helping you reach your sales goals.

The Enterprise plan:

• Is recommended for larger sales teams of 10 people or more.
• Requires a custom quote for cost per month or per year.
• Allows access to 50 InMail messages each month and 10,000 saved leads.

The Team plan:

• Is recommended for smaller sales teams.
• Costs $103.33/month or $1,240.00 annually.
• Allows access to 30 InMail messages each month and 5,000 saved leads.

The Professional plan:

• Is recommended for individual sales professionals.
• Costs $64.99/month or $799.88 annually.
• Allows access to 20 InMail messages each month and 1,500 saved leads.

The best way to determine which subscription is right for your business is to consider your team’s size and professional sales goals. If you have a smaller team and don’t need thousands and thousands of leads, the Team or Professional tiers may be a better fit for you.

How Does LinkedIn Sales Navigator Work?

Sales Navigator provides users with features that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to access. For example, if you have the basic version of LinkedIn, you won’t be able to send direct messages to people with who you are not connected with. Sales Navigator allows sales representatives past this barrier by providing the ability to contact people who are outside of their network.

This allows sales reps to build relationships with a more expanded reach. The key to Sales Navigator is getting this expanded reach, as well as being able to come into contact with the most relevant leads. Sales Navigator helps sales professionals save time and also boosts efficiency.

InMail

InMail is one of Sales Navigator’s key features. With InMail, users can send a certain number of messages each month to out-of-network professionals.

On top of that, users can save these leads so nothing is lost, and add notes. Not only are more leads discovered, but it’s easier to manage and keep track of them. 

TeamLink and TeamLink Extend

Another key feature to Sales Navigator is TeamLink. With TeamLink, your entire team will be able to collaborate on prospective leads by: 

• Being able to search and view first-degree connections that team members have. 
• Representatives can then ask the team member for an introduction, which makes a sale more likely to be successful. 
• By sharing prospective leads, the entire team’s network expands to encompass even more prospects than one individual sales rep would be able to access on their own. 

TeamLink Extend, which is available to Enterprise users, allows businesses to expand their TeamLink networks even more. You’ll be able to utilize your entire team’s LinkedIn network without having to give each individual a Sales Navigator license.

Advanced Searches

Sales Navigator provides users the ability to conduct targeted searches that have more filters than LinkedIn’s typical search function. This helps sales professionals narrow down their leads and pursue connections that are truly relevant.

Filters can be used for individuals or for companies. They include: 

• Keywords
• Company type (non-profit, public, private)
• Company name 
• Size of an Company (0-10) (10-50) etc. 
• Job opportunities 
• Location (by state or region) 
• Job title 
• Years of experience 
• Industry 
• School 
• Number of followers

This saves sales professionals a lot of time by targeting the best, most relevant leads. Professionals will be able to focus their energy on other tasks such as closing deals and managing relationships.

The Advantages of Using LinkedIn Sales Navigator 

There are a wide variety of benefits to Sales Navigator. This is why more and more sales professionals are subscribing and using the LinkedIn tool to their advantage. The biggest advantages are connecting out-of-network, being able to integrate with CRM, and the sales insights that Sales Navigator provides. 

Access to Connections That Are Out-Of-Network 

This is one of the major benefits to Sales Navigator: being able to establish a network outside the reach of your direct connections. There are more than half a billion people on LinkedIn. With Sales Navigator, you’ll have the ability to connect with more people and drive more leads. 

Sales Navigator ensures that people are not simply restricted to who they already know. With features such as InMail and Team Link, sales professionals gain access to a variety of leads that they otherwise would be closed off to. 

Integration with CRM Platforms 

Sales Navigator can be integrated with frequently used customer relationship management (CRM) platforms and other sales applications, such as: 

• HubSpot 
• Outreach 
• Salesforce 
• Oracle Sales Cloud 
• Microsoft Dynamics

Sales Navigator users will be able to simply import their data into their CRM, making it easy to keep track of leads and manage pipelines all in a single location. The accounts you’re selling to and the leads you’ve saved can be automatically logged, so there’s no need to worry about lost data. 

Sales Insights 

The more you use Sales Navigator, the more data you’ll be able to gather. The platform provides valuable insights on updates within your network that might otherwise be easily missed. These updates include changes within companies, job changes for individuals, and warm leads. 

For example, you can get a heads-up that someone is about to leave or has just left their current company. Or, receive information that a company is moving locations. You can sign up for email alerts so you aren’t constantly plugged into Sales Navigator and can receive updates automatically. 

Using LinkedIn Sales Navigator to Grow Your Business

Millions of professionals around the world use LinkedIn to grow connections and find leads. Sales Navigator allows sales professionals to leverage LinkedIn for all it has to offer; it provides the opportunity to contact people outside of your direct network and conduct targeted searches that result in the most relevant leads. 

The Sales Navigator tool can help you grow your business by not only increasing your client connections but also enhancing engagement.

Sales Navigator is a social selling platform connected to LinkedIn. It is used to create customized, targeted lists of potential LinkedIn connections. This gives clients the opportunity to build relationships with the right kind of prospects without the usual geographical restrictions.

Need help developing your company’s LinkedIn marketing strategy? Contact the experts at Infinity Marketing Group.

J.C. Granger is the CEO of Infinity Marketing Group.  Infinity Marketing Group is an inbound marketing agency headquartered in Denver, Colorado that specializes in helping SaaS companies achieve their lead generation goals.

Connect with J.C. on LinkedIn and download this free eBook, "The 3 Essentials of Inbound Marketing"