Introduction to LinkedIn Sales Navigator
LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a valuable tool that can increase leads, create engaging interactions with prospects, and help your sales team grow their reach.
But you may have noticed it doesn’t come free! Sales Navigator is only available at a cost, so how can you know if it’s worth it for you or your business to invest?
To help you out, we created an introduction to Sales Navigator that we discussed at a live Lunch & Learn. The video for this presentation can be found here, but we’ve summed it up for you below to give you a little taste of what SalesNav has to offer.
What is Sales Navigator?
LinkedIn Sales Navigator is an advanced tool that aid sales teams, organizations, individuals, to create and build customer relationships directly on the professional social network. It is a feature of LinkedIn premium.
Any good Sales Navigator session starts with a search. You can use the provided search box to look for users who match almost any criteria you can think of. Search for:
- Schools
- Geographic location
- Industries
- Job seniority
- Clubs and organizations
- Hashtags
- Job title
- And more!
Whatever keywords you put into the search box, users who match your criteria will appear on an aggregated list. Once you have this list, you can select people to target with your efforts and add them to a leads list.
How to choose leads
Here are some things to consider when choosing leads from the search results.
- How closely that user is connected to you. You can even narrow your search to second degree connections or closer. This is important because you are four times more likely to connect with somebody on LinkedIn when they see that you have already connected with somebody that they know.
- People who have changed jobs in the past 90 days. Take note of this, because when a new director of a department enters a job, there’s a good chance that business is looking to grow and expand and that the user is still in the learning phase of their new role.
- If they’ve posted on LinkedIn in the past 30 days. If they aren’t using LinkedIn, they’re less likely to receive your messages and requests to connect.
- Shared experiences. These help you find common ground when connecting with someone so you aren’t just cold calling.
When you’re searching people’s profiles on Sales Navigator, it’s important to note that they cannot see you have checked their profile. If you vet this person and decide they might be a good lead, you can add him to a list through Sales Navigator.
You can have multiple lists in Sales Navigator as well. We like to sort our leads by city, but you can organize your selected leads however you prefer. From there, your sales department can work their magic, connecting and reaching out to leads.
Some tips to remember
- Start small. Pick one city or industry to search and start targeting individuals. Create one list to start as well.
- Quality over quantity. Get specific with your searches to find the best possible leads to add, rather than just adding people who fit some of your lead criteria.
- Find common ground. Know what you share with your leads before reaching out!
Sales Navigator is a valuable sales tool that allows you to access features a standard LinkedIn presence cannot offer. It’s extremely helpful when you’re looking to branch out your company, especially beyond your current region.
We especially recommend this tool for B2B businesses as it allows you to target professionals in an environment where they’re already in “work mode.”
Remember to watch our LinkedIn Lunch & Learn Live for more information on Sales Navigator and some helpful visuals. Click here to watch and learn now!
