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Picture of The PhantomBuster TeamBy The PhantomBuster Team
June 17, 20246 min read

How to Use Sales Navigator to Generate Leads

Learn how to use Sales Navigator to generate leads. This guide offers the best practices plus detailed examples.

How can you use LinkedIn Sales Navigator to generate leads?

LinkedIn is a great tool for sales prospecting and lead generation, packed with features to help you zero in on the right prospects and turn cold leads into warm opportunities.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to make the most of LinkedIn Sales Navigator, cover what it’s not great at, and show you how automation tools like PhantomBuster can make your life much easier.

TL;DR

  • LinkedIn Sales Navigator is powerful for finding leads but isn't great for outreach automation, data extraction, or as a CRM tool.

  • For lead generation with LinkedIn Sales Navigator, use advanced search filters and Boolean searches to find the best prospects, save your search results, and create relevant lead lists.

  • To scale your efforts, combine LinkedIn Sales Navigator with PhantomBuster to automate outreach actions, enrich lead lists using AI, extract search results or lists, and keep your CRM up to date.

  • Follow best practices: use keyword filters wisely, clean your lead lists before outreach, and leverage both Sales Navigator and automation tools for the best results.

What LinkedIn Sales Navigator is NOT good at

Let's break down a few things where LinkedIn Sales Navigator falls short:

  • Not an automation tool: Sales Navigator is great for finding and targeting leads, but it’s not built for automation. You still have to handle most tasks manually, which can be pretty time-consuming.

  • Lacks CRM features: Using Sales Navigator as a CRM isn't ideal. It doesn’t offer the robust features that dedicated CRM software provides, so it's hard to manage and track interactions effectively.

  • Inefficient lead and company tracking: The "Save Leads" and "Tracking Companies" features sound useful, but many Sales Navigator users find them less effective for ongoing follow-up and management.

  • Time-consuming tasks: Manually searching for open profiles, sending individual messages, and tracking responses can eat up a lot of your time.

  • Limited data extraction: While you get access to a lot of data, extracting and analyzing it efficiently without additional tools is challenging.

This is where automation tools come in handy. They can save you time and effort by handling repetitive tasks, allowing you to focus on what really matters.

We’ll talk later about how these tools can complement Sales Navigator and boost your lead-generation efforts. So, stay tuned!

Sales Navigator for lead generation

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is like having a detailed map of a big city. You can find the best spots quickly without wandering aimlessly.

Now, let's see how to use LinkedIn Sales Navigator to generate leads:

Leverage advanced search filters

LinkedIn Sales Navigator has 30+ search filters to find the best prospects. You can filter by criteria like job changes, mentions in the news, recent LinkedIn activity, and shared experiences.

linkedin sales navigator search options

It's a big step up from LinkedIn's basic search, which has 18 filters!

When searching for new leads in Sales Navigator, some filters can be more useful than others:

  • "Posted on LinkedIn in 30 days" helps you find active users who are more likely to respond. It lets you engage with their recent content and better understand your customers.

  • "Viewed your profile recently" signals it's a great time to reach out.

  • "Seniority level" combined with "Current job title" helps you zero in on the right personas for your leads.

  • "Executive TeamLink" gives you a list of leads connected to the executives on your team, making your outreach warmer.

Use boolean searches to identify your target audience

Boolean search in LinkedIn Sales Navigator is like using a magnifying glass to zero in on exactly who you want to connect with.

Basically, there are five logical operators:

  • AND

  • OR

  • NOT

  • Quotation marks (" ")

  • Parentheses ( )

You can use them to search for keywords in two main areas on LinkedIn Sales Navigator:

  • The global keyword search

  • The current job title search

sales navigator boolean search

Here's an example from LinkedIn consultant Vendy Steinberga: If you’re looking for creator program managers, you might search for:

(partnerships OR creator OR influencer OR affiliate) AND (marketing OR brand)

For even more precision, you could add a blacklist with the NOT operator to remove early-entry-level candidates:

(partnerships OR creator OR influencer OR affiliate) AND (marketing OR brand) NOT (Junior OR Intern)

So, why bother with Boolean searches?

Advanced search filters are great, but they can sometimes miss important leads because not everyone lists their job title the same way.

Boolean searches help you catch those variations so you don’t miss out on potential leads.

Save your search results

So, you've nailed down your search criteria in LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

What's next? Save that search!

It’s a real time-saver and keeps you updated with new profiles that fit your criteria.

sales navigator save list search

Imagine it as setting up a search for “marketing managers in tech companies in San Francisco” and being notified every time someone new pops up.

It keeps your leads fresh without you lifting a finger. Just click the "Saved searches" button near the search bar.

And here's a pro tip: automate scraping your search results. This way, you constantly get new leads without manual effort. Don't worry, we'll talk about automation soon.

Create relevant lead lists from your Sales Navigator search results

Once you've sorted your search criteria, it's time to organize those leads and carefully select groups of potential clients.

That way, you can segment your outreach strategy and better manage your follow-ups. It makes sure you’re hitting the right people with the right message.

Here's how you can create your lead lists in Sales Navigator:

  1. Run your search: Head to your Sales Navigator homepage and use the search bar to find leads by name or keyword.

  2. Save leads: When the search results pop up, click the blue 'Save' button next to the search bar in the top right corner of each lead's panel. You can save the lead to an existing list or create a new one.

sales navigator create lead list

If you’ve got lead lists from other software or in CSV format, Sales Navigator makes it easy to import them, enhancing your new lead list.

Engage with relevant leads before selling

Before you start selling, it's important to engage with your leads genuinely. This means personalizing your messages and interacting with their profiles.

Spend a bit of time liking and commenting on their posts.

It shows you're not just another random sales pitch but someone interested in what they say.

For example, if a lead recently posted about a project or achievement, comment on their post or send a message congratulating them. This makes your approach more personal and can lead to better results.

Send LinkedIn InMail messages to open profiles

InMail messages on LinkedIn are a great way to skip the usual connection requests and get to your pitch.

But finding Open Profiles isn’t as easy as it used to be.

LinkedIn removed the clear “OPEN” sign, so now you need to click “Message” and see if “Free to Open Profiles” pops up.

linkedin open profile example

Doing this manually for each profile is a hassle. That’s where automation tools come in handy—they can spot Open Profiles for you, saving you time.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator and outreach automation tools

Now that we know how LinkedIn Sales Navigator works for your sales team, let's talk about automation and tools.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator alone is like having a map to find leads. However, you need to automate repetitive tasks to scale your outreach.

Finding leads with Sales Navigator and automating actions like endorsing, following, and sending connection requests and messages can save time and effort.

This is where tools like PhantomBuster come in handy.

phantombuster sales navigator phantoms store

They let you automate these actions so you can focus on building relationships and closing deals instead of spending hours on manual tasks.

In the next sections, we’ll use PhantomBuster to get the most out of your Sales Navigator searches.

Extract your Sales Navigator search results or lists

So, the thing is that you can’t export lead lists directly from LinkedIn Sales Navigator. The only way to do that is to use a LinkedIn scraping tool like PhantomBuster.

With the Sales Navigator Search Export, you can effortlessly scrape and download any search results list. Then, you can export those leads from any Sales Navigator search into a CSV file.

And because it's all cloud-based, you can build your LinkedIn strategy without keeping your browser open: scrape data, send connection requests, send messages, or whatever else you may need.

So what does that mean for you? It means you get your new leads on autopilot.

sales navigator search export phantom

Enrich your lead lists using AI

Using AI to enrich your lead lists can up your game. Sure, you can scrape basic data, but with tools like PhantomBuster AI LinkedIn Profile Enricher, you can dig deeper and get insights that make your outreach more personalized.

linkedin ai profile enricher phantom

Imagine knowing a lead just switched jobs — perfect for a congratulatory message to kick off the conversation.

This intel helps you connect more personally, making your outreach feel less spam and more like genuine engagement.

Plus, AI does all the heavy lifting, so sales professionals can focus on building relationships instead of sifting through data. Use AI to enrich your lead list and filter it to create different ones based on common criteria.

ai lead list enrichment filtered data phantombuster

Automate lead engagement

Keeping up with leads manually can be a real-time drain, so why not automate some of it?

Using tools like PhantomBuster', you can automatically follow, like, and endorse your leads' profiles. This kind of engagement keeps you on their radar without you having to lift a finger every time.

Screenshot_2025 01 02_102550

Automate LinkedIn lead nurturing with PhantomBuster. Try it free for 14 days!

Think about it.

Instead of spending hours each week trying to stay engaged with your leads, you can set up these actions to run automatically. This keeps your name in their notifications and shows genuine interest, which builds rapport.

Plus, consistent engagement often leads to higher response rates when you do reach out with a message or connection request. So, it's a win-win!

Automate social selling

Using LinkedIn Sales Navigator alone for social selling can be a real-time sink. Sending connection requests and follow-ups manually gets old fast. That’s where automating your social selling with tools like PhantomBuster comes in handy.

You can automate the whole process with a LinkedIn Outreach Flow.

Here's how:

  • Sends connection requests.

  • Add an intro message with each request.

  • Automatically follows up with up to three messages if needed.

sales navigator outreach flow phantom

This saves you loads of time and keeps your outreach consistent.

So, instead of slogging through repetitive tasks, you can focus on more strategic work, knowing your lead engagement is on autopilot.

Keep your CRM up to date

To keep your CRM up to date, you can use PhantomBuster's LinkedIn Sales Navigator profile scraper on repeat.

Automatically scrape profiles to grab key data like names, job titles, and emails, then update your CRM.

linkedin profile scraper phantombuster hubspot

Enrich your HubSpot data with PhantomBuster.

Just set it up, and it fetches fresh LinkedIn data daily, so you can focus on connecting with leads instead of managing data.

Plus, unlike many tools, PhantomBuster integrates directly with HubSpot CRM, so there is no need for Zapier or other connectors. This ensures that your CRM is always accurate and ready to go!

hubspot phantombuster integration list

Best practices when using LinkedIn Sales Navigator

LinkedIn Sales Navigator can be a powerful addition to your lead generation process but is also a complex tool to master.

Here are some best practices to help you get the most from it.

Use the keyword filter for niche keywords only

When using the keyword filter on LinkedIn Sales Navigator, stick to niche terms. If you search for something broad like "marketing," you'll get loads of irrelevant profiles.

Use the title filter for job titles and save the keyword filter for specific terms that show up in job descriptions.

This way, you avoid wading through unnecessary profiles.

Clean your lead lists before sending any sales messages or connection request

Before sending out sales messages or connection requests, ensure your lead list is clean. This means verifying that the leads are relevant and up-to-date.

Tools like PhantomBuster can help with this, making it easier to manage large lists and ensure you're targeting the right people. Cleaning your list helps you avoid wasting time on leads that aren't a good fit.

Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator and automation tools

Combining LinkedIn Sales Navigator with automation tools like PhantomBuster can make your outreach more efficient.

Sales Navigator helps you find leads, while PhantomBuster pre-build automations let you extract LinkedIn users from a search or group, auto-connect with them, and keep track of who accepts your request.

This frees up your time for more strategic activities and keeps your communication consistent. Just remember to use automation responsibly.

Conclusion

Voilà! You're now set with the best LinkedIn Sales Navigator strategies for lead generation. You've got the know-how to automate your outreach, keep your CRM up to date, and engage leads without breaking a sweat.

Remember, it's all about balancing your manual efforts with smart automation.

This way, you ensure genuine connections and efficient scaling. Start using PhantomBuster today and watch your LinkedIn game reach new heights.

Written by
Picture of The PhantomBuster Team
The PhantomBuster TeamJune 17, 2024

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