By Orlaith TraynorAn overview of Sales Navigator
Social selling platforms like Sales Navigator allow sales teams to thrive in a digital world.
But how does Sales Navigator work? Plus, how can it help you to clinch a deal?
Essentially, Sales Navigator is a paid sales solution created by LinkedIn to tap into its 700+ million-strong network. It is a sales management tool that combines a host of features that can help sales reps and teams find leads, create prospect relationships, and meet their objectives.
Let's examine some frequently asked questions about Sales Navigator to get a complete overview of this tool's capabilities.
What are the main features of Sales Navigator?
Contact database
Contact management
Lead capture
Lead management
Customer database
Lead nurturing
Lead segmentation
InMail messaging
Company data
Reporting + Dashboards
Data filtering
News and/or People alerts
CRM integration
Advanced Search
Why use Sales Navigator?
Sales Navigator is a tool that allows you to achieve more than a standard or premium business LinkedIn account.
It is a cold-hard fact that LinkedIn has limited the functionality of its standard and premium account options to encourage sales teams to purchase Sales Navigator.
Yet, what sets these account tiers apart?
In terms of pure individual lead generation, Sales Navigator users benefit from real-time lead recommendations and have access to the "Advanced Search" feature which creates the most comprehensive lead lists for your prospecting strategy.
Individual users automatically have 20 InMail messages each month for reaching out to leads who are not connected.
Sales Navigator subscribers can also save a maximum of 1,500 leads, providing plenty of options for future action plans.
Regarding sales teams, a LinkedIn Sales Navigator Enterprise account subscription has a supple "TeamLink" feature to share networks within teams.
This can allow teams to expand their pool of qualified leads and fully leverage the connections of their team. Team users enjoy 30 InMails a month and can save 5,000 leads in total as part of their team perks.
Why do we like using Sales Navigator at PhantomBuster?
Its 700+ million database of decision-makers
Granular search capabilities
The ability to create and share targeted lead lists within your team
How it integrates with PhantomBuster to automate lead generation
How to find leads with Sales Navigator
First, finding ultra-qualified leads isn’t easy for any sales rep, especially when you want to drive sales.
Here are 4 proven approaches for finding quality leads via Sales Navigator.
1. Content Interactions
Content interactions mirror how your audience feels about a certain topic. You can immediately access the content your saved leads are posting and sharing through Sales Navigator. This helps you interact purposefully- speaking directly with your buyers.
You can create content yourself or dive into a thread related to your industry. Either way, be prepared and proactive about engaging with your audience.
2. LinkedIn Groups
You can easily explore and generate leads by searching groups that discuss pain points that align with your companies' solutions. Follow key groups in your industry to get a deeper sense of what will interest your followers.
3: Target New Managers
New managers who have recently entered companies want to leave their mark with new working methods. There is an opportunity to present your products and take advantage of the wiggle room within their budget.
All you need to do:
Filter accounts by headcount growth and department headcount growth
Filter leads by decision-makers that changed jobs in the last 90 days
Apply any additional filters to narrow your client profile
Export the list of profiles to prepare for outreach
4. Online Events
Digital events have replaced in-person events for now. However, they remain a viable source of leads for sales reps, especially when combined with PhantomBuster (see a specific use case to add these leads into your CRM in section 4 of this blog).
You can find LinkedIn events, join relevant ones, and scour the attendee list for potential leads.
What are the differences between a premium LinkedIn and Sales Navigator account?
We've touched on this before but essentially Sales Navigator users benefit from shiner features for lead generation.
With Sales Navigator you can:
Review your Social Selling Index metrics
Save notes on prospect profiles
Review Sales Spotlights highlights in your network e.g. news highlights, professional achievements, follower activities
Use Smart Links to share relevant content
How much does Sales Navigator cost?
As of 2021 a professional account will set you back $64.99 per month when billed annually or $79.00 per month on a rolling basis. There is a 25% discount for users who purchase an annual subscription, which costs $779.88.
For teams, a monthly package will cost $103.33 per user/month or $1240.00 when billed annually.
To test the waters, individual users and teams can avail of a 30-day free trial. Compare Sales Navigator pricing plans for all users for yourself.
Is Sales Navigator worth the price?
Another big question can arise after you've reviewed price plans- 'Is this a good investment for my sales stack'?
There is no denying that Sales Navigator can seem like a steep investment if you are a small business owner.
The good thing is that pricing plans are flexible via a subscription which can be canceled at any time.
There are some major upsides to this tool so your best bet is to try the tool and see for yourself if it is worth retaining for your stack.
How to learn how to use Sales Navigator
Our tip-top recommendation for starting with Sales Navigator is to head over to LinkedIn Learning (free for premium LinkedIn account holders) and check out their dedicated course for new users. This course is broken down into short video tutorials and provides a complete rundown of how to use the tool.
You can learn how to use Sales Navigator within the tool if you prefer an on-the-go method.
Sales Navigator Coach is a built-in feature that helps all sales professionals leverage social selling better.
It can be found by clicking your profile picture icon to the right of the main interface.
There you will find a drop-down menu with this feature.
Within this section, you can check out mini video tutorials that condense key actions into bite-sized chunks. Here, you can learn how to quickly master the main features of Sales Navigator, such as conducting an advanced account search and sending an InMail message.
6 Best practices for new Sales Navigator users
Land smoothly with these pointers.
Ensure your InMail messages are short and sweet: Aim to pique their interest without giving the game away ahead of a follow-up call.
Give your headline a makeover: You've got 120 characters to make an impression. Skip a generic title for a value proposition title instead, e.g. "I help X achieve Y and Z."
Integrate your CRM with Sales Navigator: Automatically link your activities on LinkedIn — InMail, notes, messages — into your CRM, and pull your CRM records into Sales Navigator.
Save your InMail quota: If you want to reach more users you can message anyone with an "Open Profile" without touching your 20 InMail messages.
Master using advanced filters: One of the most impressive features of Sales Navigator is how granular your searches can get. Don't believe us? Check out the entire list.
Download the app: Our final tip for new users is to use the app to create on-the-go custom lead lists and notes about prospects away from your desk.
How to automate Sales Navigator for lead generation
Sales Navigator is, without a doubt, a great tool to have in your sales stack.
However, it cannot automate certain tasks.
Automating certain parts of your prospecting is incredibly helpful when scaling your strategy.
In this section, we will show you 4 genius use cases that do just that.
Enrich your CRM with your Sales Navigator scraped lead lists
Goal: See your sales productivity and CRM data integrity soar by enriching your CRM on autopilot with accurate data.
Setup:
1: First, use the Sales Navigator List Export Phantom to scrape your custom leads list.
2: Secondly, use the Sales Navigator Profile Scraper Phantom to scrape Sales Navigator further. It will extract valuable insights for each lead.
3: Enrich your CRM with these insights about your targeted lead lists to inform your next move.
Result:
Your custom lead list from Sales Navigator with key data is now in your CRM.
Source purchasing decision-makers in seconds
Goal: Find the decision-makers involved in a purchasing decision by leveraging this use case.
Setup:
1: Use the Sales Navigator Account Employees Export Phantom to extract a list of employees from the company you wish to target.
2: Scrape your results using the Sales Navigator Profile Scraper Phantom to refine your prospect list and source key decision makers.
3: Send your selected decision-makers a custom connection request using the Sales Navigator Auto Connect.
Result:
You now have interacted with key prospects who hold the power over purchasing decisions.
Analyze your Sales Navigator Inbox to set up advanced workflows
Goal: Use this Phantom to sift through your inbox and find key metrics to inform your prospecting strategy.
Setup:
1: Scrape your Inbox using the Sales Navigator Inbox Scraper Phantom.
2: Review the extracted data excel to pinpoint your warm contacts and send each prospect a customized follow up message with the Sales Navigator Message Sender Phantom.
Result:
You have now retargeted prospects with a custom follow-up message.
Extract professional emails in seconds
Goal: Feed fresh leads to your sales teams with accurate email addresses.
Setup:
1: Extract leads from a Sales Navigator search using the Sales Navigator Search Export Phantom.
2: Search for the work emails of each lead using the Professional Email Finder Phantom.
Result:
You have enriched prospect information with accurate professional emails for your sales team and CRM.
Conclusion
Interested in optimizing how you can drive your sales performance and convert more leads?
