John Lincoln

LinkedIn Sales Navigator Review: How to Find Qualified Leads Faster

Management at Infosys faced a challenge. While the company had no problem reaching people among its client base, sales reps often struggled to engage with the right people. Further, the Infosys sales cycle often lasts a long time. That’s because the company provides technology services and consulting to large businesses. As a result of the lengthy sales cycles, the marketing department needed to keep prospects engaged for months. Although there are plenty of marketing tools available, Infosys turned to LinkedIn Sales Navigator to address both of those issues. And it worked. “Before Sales Navigator, there wasn’t an easy way to access the information we needed to understand a target account or prospect,” said Sanjeev Bode, AVP, New Business Development. “But now I can go to one place and quickly find out who are the business leaders and decision-makers that I need to reach.” Further, the tool helped Infosys stay engaged with prospects during the sales cycle. “I’ve found that each phase requires me to connect with a new set of contacts,” said Nitesh Aggarwal, AVP, Sales Effectiveness. “It’s beautiful and compelling how Sales Navigator helps us reach those different individuals at different points in time, depending on our needs.” Bottom line: Infosys saw a 30% lift in win rates and influenced $450 million in the pipeline. That’s what LinkedIn Sales Navigator will do for your business as well. In this LinkedIn Sales Navigator review, I’ll cover all the important features of the tool. I’ll also go over its pricing structure so you can determine if it’s a worthwhile investment for your business.

A Premium Account

At the end of the day, LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a premium LinkedIn account. You probably already have a LinkedIn account (at least i hope so if you’re in the B2B space). So when you sign on with LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you’re gaining access to a whole new set of features within the tool. And what are those features? In this LinkedIn Sales Navigator review, I’ll go over them one by one.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Advanced Search

First up is advanced search.  When you plug criteria into the search bar, LinkedIn will show you up to 1,000 people who matched. The LinkedIn freebie plan, by contrast, limits the number of profiles you can view in a month. It also restricts the filters you can use to find prospects. With LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you can search for people based on criteria such as job function, company size, years of experience, group membership, and more. In other words, you can spend time zeroing in on only the most qualified leads for your business.

Lead Recommendations

There are other tools that will help you find leads, but LinkedIn Sales Navigator will find them for you. And it will find them right there on your favorite B2B social media platform. The tool harvests prospects based on your search history, sales preferences, and interactions. However, you can only use lead recommendations if you’ve saved leads or used search. That’s when you’ll see the “Recommend Leads” or “Related Leads” boxes. You can think of the people in those boxes as a lookalike audience.  If you’ve done online advertising, you’re probably already familiar with the concept of a lookalike audience. The audience consists of people who “look like” (have similar traits) to people you’ve targeted in the past.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator Lead Recommendations

LinkedIn Sales Navigator Lead Recommendations

CRM Integration

This LinkedIn Sales Navigator review will also cover how the tool integrates with customer relationship management (CRM) applications. One of the best ways to keep your sales pipeline stocked full of leads is with the aid of a CRM. I’ve reviewed CRM tools in the past. The cool thing about LinkedIn Sales Navigator is that it integrates with your CRM. You can exchange data between the two tools or view Sales Navigator as a widget within your CRM app. It’s a great feature but unfortunately, it’s only available at the higher price points.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator CRM Integrations

LinkedIn Sales Navigator CRM Integrations

Deals

You’re gathering prospects to make a deal, right? That’s why this LinkedIn Sales Navigator review will cover the Deals feature of the tool as well. A prerequisite, though: before you can use Deals, you have to first integrate your CRM with the tool.  Once that integration is complete, your sales team can manage pipelines with the aid of Sales Navigator. They’ll see a dashboard that shows them all opportunities. They can make edits and update pipeline statuses. Use this feature if you really want to streamline your sales process.

Notes and Tags

LinkedIn Sales Navigator also allows you to add notes to leads. You can use notes to add some details about the lead or create an action item. For example, you might use a note to document a nugget of information you learned at your last meeting with the lead. Something like: “She expressed an interest in Java Enterprise as a solution for a new project.” Then, the next time you reach out to that lead, you can review the note and you can talk about how your company delivers outstanding Java Enterprise solutions. Sales Navigator also lets you add tags to leads. They’re (usually short) phrases or words that sometimes act as categories.  Some people might use “hot” as a tag (meaning the lead is close to conversion), while others will use words like “reluctant,” “stakeholder,” or “large deal.” Notes and tags are only visible to you.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator Notes & Tags
LinkedIn Sales Navigator Notes & Tags

Who’s Viewed Your Profile

Sales Navigator also gives you an expanded list of who’s seen your profile in the past 90 days. That might not seem like very useful info, but it can give you some insight into who’s taking an interest in what you’re offering. Also, the tool allows you to save people who’ve viewed your profile as leads.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator Whose Viewed Your Profile feature
LinkedIn Sales Navigator Whose Viewed Your Profile feature

InMail Messages

This feature is kind of “meh.” Sales Navigator allows you to contact anyone on the platform without an intro. However, you can only do it 20 times per month (at the lowest price point).

You really need a more robust email marketing strategy if you’re serious about reaching prospects.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator InMail Messages
LinkedIn Sales Navigator InMail Messages

TeamLink

The TeamLink feature of Sales Navigator allows you to view and search the connections of other team members. You can use that info to find people who might be able to make an introduction for you to a new prospect. That will increase your chances of landing a deal with that person.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator TeamLink
LinkedIn Sales Navigator TeamLink

Expanded LinkedIn Network Access

When you search for prospects using LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you have a greater search reach than when you use just plain old LinkedIn. Here are some of the features you’ll appreciate with expanded network access:
  • 100-mile search radius from within a postal code
  • Up to 15 saved searches
  • 15 saved search alerts per week
  • Unlimited number of saved accounts
  • Unlimited number of lead recommendations
All of that further helps you find the right prospects.

Pricing

So how much is LinkedIn Sales Navigator? That depends on what you want to get out of it. The lowest price Professional plan starts at $64.99 per month (billed annually). For that, you get access to most of what you’ll need if you’re running a solo shop. However, you won’t get access to centralized billing or CRM integration. For either of those options, you’ll need to select either the Team or Enterprise plans. The Team plan costs $103.33 per month (billed annually). You’ll have to contact LinkedIn for pricing on the Enterprise plan. But remember: when you ask “How much is LinkedIn Sales Navigator?” you should also ask yourself: “How much return can I get from it?” It’s the answer to the second question that determines whether or not it’s worth the investment.

Wrapping It Up

That concludes this LinkedIn Sales Navigator review. Remember: like many other tools on the market, LinkedIn Sales Navigator offers a free trial period. That’s the best way to determine if it’s right for your business. If you’re in the B2B space and looking for ways to increase sales, why not get that free trial started today?

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About the Author

John Lincoln is CEO of Ignite Visibility, one of the top digital marketing agencies in the nation. Ignite Visibility is a 6x  Inc. 5,000 company. Ignite Visibility offers a unique digital marketing program tied directly to ROI with a focus on using SEO, social media, paid media, CRO, email and PR to achieve results. Outside of Ignite Visibility, Lincoln is a frequent speaker and author of the books Advolution, Digital Influencer and The Forecaster Method. Lincoln is consistently named one of the top digital marketers in the industry and was the recipient of the coveted Search Engine Land “Search Marketer of The Year” award. Lincoln has taught digital marketing and Web Analytics at the University of California San Diego since 2010, has been named as one of San Diego’s most admired CEO’s and a top business leader under 40. Lincoln has also made “SEO: The Movie” and “Social Media Marketing: The Movie.” His business mission is to help others through digital marketing.

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