Social media and the global digitalization process have forever changed how products and services are brought and sold. We live in a time where social selling trumps traditional methods, and you appeal to your prospective buyer long before the deal is closed.
In this space, LinkedIn has opened a door full of possibilities for sales teams dealing with B2B buyers. But to take lead generation with LinkedIn seriously, you need something more than just the networking platform.
That’s where LinkedIn’s own offering, LinkedIn Sales Navigator comes in. Designed with sales professionals in mind, Sales Navigator combines LinkedIn’s extensive network, relevant news sources, and your accounts, leads, and preferences to help you better connect, and build relationships with the buyers you need to engage.
The result? Well, the average Sales Navigator user made 3.6x more connections with decision-makers than the average non-user and are 16% more likely to close a deal.
Read on to learn how to use LinkedIn Sales Navigator, for lead generation and prospecting.
What is LinkedIn Sales Navigator
LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a premium tool designed for sales professionals and businesses to find, connect, and build relationships with potential leads and customers on LinkedIn. It offers advanced search filters, lead recommendations, and insights unavailable in the standard LinkedIn platform. The tool is particularly useful for B2B sales, allowing users to:
- Target specific prospects by using filters like industry, company size, job title, geography, and more
- Save leads and accounts to get real-time updates on their activities
- Engage with leads more effectively, by sending InMail messages (even if you're not connected)
- Gain deeper insights into prospects' behaviors and organizational changes
Why Use Sales Navigator to Generate Leads on LinkedIn
Sales Navigator is arguably the best tool out there for LinkedIn lead generation, especially because it makes precise targeting easy. A unique benefit of this tool is that it lets you filter the leads that fit into your ideal customer profile.
A Forrester study concluded that using LinkedIn Sales Navigator increased return on investment by up to 312% over three years and brought in $6.3 million in benefits for the 250 users interviewed.
Using this tool allows you to target the right decision-makers and influencers within organizations. You can search and filter through LinkedIn's massive network using parameters like industry, company size, role, location, seniority level, and more.
How to Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator to Generate Leads
LinkedIn Sales Navigator is your best bet to tap into LinkedIn's massive network to find and generate leads. Let’s break down how to use Sales Navigator effectively for lead generation:
1. Take advantage of advanced search and boolean logic
One of the standout features of Sales Navigator is its advanced search, which offers over 30 criteria to fine-tune your prospecting. You can also use Boolean logic to further refine your results. Boolean search uses operators like AND, OR, NOT, parentheses, and quotes to tailor your search. Here’s how to use them:
- AND: Combines keywords to find profiles with all terms. E.g., “Sales AND Marketing” shows profiles with both terms
- OR: Includes profiles with at least one keyword. E.g., “Sales OR Marketing” shows profiles with either term
- NOT: Excludes specific terms. E.g., “Sales NOT Marketing” shows profiles mentioning sales but not marketing
- Parentheses: Structures complex searches. E.g., “(Sales OR Marketing) AND (Manager OR Director)” finds profiles with either sales or marketing plus manager or director roles
- Quotes: Searches for exact phrases. E.g., “Sales Director” finds profiles with that exact title
Boolean search saves you countless hours from creating hundreds of separate searches. It also keeps you from reaching out to the leads who don’t fit into your ideal type.
2. Create and manage lead lists
Once you’ve run a search, you can start creating lead lists by saving the profiles that match your criteria.
To create lead lists, click “Save as Lead” to add them to a lead list as you find relevant profiles. You can create different lists based on criteria such as industry, geography, or lead stage (e.g., “Prospects to Follow Up” or “Top Leads”).
Review and update your lists frequently to ensure they reflect your current prospecting needs. Remove outdated profiles and add new ones as necessary. You can also use tags or notes to categorize leads or record important details about them and make your outreach more personalized.
3. Engage with the captured leads
Sales Navigator also has plenty of features to help you connect directly with leads, like the ability to InMails, which are premium messages that don’t require a prior connection.
InMails are great for reaching leads directly, and you’ll also receive alerts for key activities—like when someone changes jobs or makes a big announcement—which can trigger custom follow-ups.
Remember that you only get 50 Sales Navigator InMail Credits every month, so use them carefully.
How to Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator for Prospecting
Here are some tried and tested ways in which you can use LinkedIn Sales Navigator for prospecting
1. Use TeamLink for warm introductions
TeamLink is a feature within Sales Navigator that uses your company's network to find connections between your team members and potential prospects. By identifying mutual connections, you can request warm introductions through colleagues.
Doing this significantly improves your chances of engaging with prospects. This approach also builds trust and credibility, as introductions from mutual connections are often more effective than cold outreach.
2. Analyze your engagement with PointDrive
PointDrive is a tool within Sales Navigator that lets you create and share personalized content presentations with your prospects. Use PointDrive to track how prospects interact with your content, such as which documents they view and for how long.
PointDrive brings you valuable insights into the interests and engagement levels of your prospects. With this data, refine your follow-up communications for higher chances of building connections. The logic is simple: when you understand prospects’ engagement with your content, you can prioritize leads and focus on those showing the most interest.
Take advantage of account insights for strategic outreach
If you really want to make your outreach efforts count, Sales Navigator gives you the inside scoop on your target accounts, including company updates, growth trends, and employee changes.
Dig into these insights to find the perfect opportunities to reach out, like when a company is expanding or launching something new.
When you tailor your messaging to match these insights, you show that you genuinely understand the prospect's business, which makes your outreach way more relevant and compelling.
3. Integrate Sales Navigator with CRM systems
Sales Navigator easily integrates with popular CRM systems like Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics. This means you can sync your lead and account data across both platforms so that your prospecting efforts are perfectly aligned with your overall sales strategy.
With a unified view of all your interactions and data, it becomes noticeably easier to manage your pipeline, track progress, and make sure no prospect slips through the cracks. Plus, you'll have accurate records and can follow up with ease.
The Future of Lead Generation
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Lost at Sea? Find Your Leads with Sales Navigator
People in sales waste a ton of time finding just the right people to talk to. Well, how can you then start talking with the right person without backtracking? Sales Navigator solves exactly this.
Micheal Russ, major accounts manager at ADP says:
“In sales, it is extremely difficult to find the right contacts to have those key conversations with. Since I started using LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator, I’ve been able to identify the key players on an account, and that has allowed me to be more strategic in my territory planning. It has not only increased my number of executive meetings, but because I’m having conversations with the right people, I’ve decreased the amount of time it typically takes to close on a deal.”
The bottom line is: Sales Navigator helps you find the right people, faster.
If you’re relying on LinkedIn for lead gen, you also need to make sure that your own profile is upto the mark and your publish high value content regularly. With so much on your plate, it can be tough. Luckily, Highperformr takes care of all your content creation and publishing tool.
Highperformr is an all-in-one social media management suite that deals with all aspects of social media–from content ideation and creation to engagement and analytics–all from a single platform.
