The Complete Guide To Lead Generation With Sales Navigator

Welcome to your most important step towards generating leads and acquiring new clients: using Sales Navigator. Whether you’re looking to increase sales, reach new audiences, better manage your clients, or gain market insights, you’re in the right place.

This article will provide you with all the tools you need for success and give you a quick and comprehensive overview to manage and operate Sales Navigator to achieve maximum results.

About the Article

This article is written by Barak Finkelshtein, the founder of KaizIn, an agency that specializes in LinkedIn marketing. The inspiration for this guide comes from the Sales Navigator management tools provided in LinkedIn’s official digital guide, which you can view here.

This article is structured progressively, moving from basic topics to more complex ones. If you already have knowledge on certain subjects, feel free to skip ahead.

The guide is interactive and includes tasks, exercises, video links, and additional resources to help you become more proficient. You can use them as needed.

Topics Covered in This Guide:

1. What is LinkedIn Sales Navigator and why do we use it?

2. Activating your account

3. LinkedIn Customizations and settings

4. Navigating the platform

5. Tips for using Sales Navigator

6. Conclusion

Before we dive in, let’s review some key terms we’ll be using in this guide:

Glossary:

• Lead: A person you are doing or wish to do business with.

• Account: A company you are doing or wish to do business with.

• InMail: A private message that allows you to contact people on LinkedIn. You receive 50 credits per month, and for every response, you get a credit back. The credits reset monthly.

• Team link: A feature that allows you to view your team’s connections and network to find the best introduction path to someone you want to contact.

• Smart link: A feature that lets you manage smart links, like adding links to your outgoing messages and receiving detailed statistics on who viewed them, how long they spent, which pages they focused on, and more.

• CRM Sync: A feature that allows you to instantly import sales activity from your CRM and export lead lists from SN to your CRM (available only in premium SN packages).

• 1st-degree connection: Someone you’re directly connected with on LinkedIn.

• 2nd-degree connection: Someone connected to one of your 1st-degree connections.

• 3rd-degree connection: Someone connected to your 2nd-degree connections.

What Is LinkedIn Sales Navigator?

Sales Navigator (SN) is a premium feature of LinkedIn designed for businesses and professionals looking to enhance their lead generation efforts. It’s not a free tool, but LinkedIn offers a free trial period for users to explore its features before committing to a paid subscription.

How To Purchase LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Here’s how you can purchase Sales Navigator and get started:

1. Go to your profile and click on “For Business,” then select “Find Leads.”

2. If you’re new to Sales Navigator (SN), you can start with a free 1-month trial. Click on “Try 1 month for $0” and follow the prompts.

3. Follow the steps as directed by LinkedIn and then enter your card details to activate the trial. 

4. You can cancel your trial anytime if you don’t want LinkedIn to automatically start your paid subscription when the free month ends.

5. Now you’re all set to get started.

How To Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator?

You will now be prompted to save lists relevant to you. These lists consist of potential leads and business accounts. Saving these will help SN provide you with important alerts on your homepage. You can always create more lists later after learning how to do so effectively.

After setting your preferences, proceed to the search results.

Based on your saved preferences, SN will identify additional decision-makers and present them as potential contacts for generating leads. This will help you start building your lead lists and expand your new client base. 

As you continue using SN and saving relevant searches, the platform will automatically generate similar searches for you over time.

✏️A Quick Task For You:

Create and save two starter lists: one for leads (people you want to do business with) and another for accounts (companies you’re interested in).

LinkedIn Sales Navigator’s Settings and Customizations

It’s important to note that the settings in SN differ from those on LinkedIn. Even if your LinkedIn privacy settings are open to everyone, you still need to adjust SN settings to ensure potential clients can view your profile as needed.

Go to the top of the screen and click on Settings. 

And then onto the left click on privacy and data and turn on the toggle to select the first option to allow relevant leads you’ve viewed to see who you are.

Next, adjust your email alerts to fit your needs, so you only receive the notifications that matter most to you.

Understanding LinkedIn Sales Navigator

a. Search Window – Here, you can conduct free searches based on keywords.

b. Accounts – In SN, “Accounts” refers to companies (see Glossary above).

c. Leads – In SN, “Leads” refers to people (see Glossary above).

d. Lead and Account Lists – Build your own lists of leads and accounts.

e. Search Filters – Filter searches based on leads or accounts.

f. Smart Links – Send smart links in messages and get information on who viewed the link, how long they spent, and which pages they focused on.

g. Messages – View conversations you’ve had through SN (separate from LinkedIn messages).

h. Personal Settings – Manage your personal SN settings.

Let’s Talk About Search Filters

As you can see above, Sales Navigator has two main search filter types:

1. Lead filters – Lead filter helps you narrow down specific individuals who fit your target audience,focusing on actions or characteristics like recent job changes or profile views. 

2. Account filters- Account filter focuses on identifying entire companies that match your ideal customer profile.

Together, these filters make it easier to find both the right people and the right businesses to connect with.

a. Filtering by accounts – This option allows you to filter leads by the type of company.

b. Filter by position – Search for leads by job title and their role within the company.

c. Personal characteristics – You can search for leads based on detailed personal attributes, allowing for more specific targeting. For example: the degree of connection, whether you’re members of the same group, if they are connected to someone you know (enabling you to find clients of your colleagues), their location, and much more.

d. Buyer Intent– Sales Navigator’s new intent filters identify leads showing interest in your brand by actions like following your page or viewing your profile, helping prioritize outreach to engaged prospects.

e. Best Path – The “Best Path” filters offer a way to connect with leads through mutual connections or shared groups, making it easier to find warm introductions and improve response rates.

f. Recent Updates – Filters like “Job Changes” and “Recent Posts” allow you to target leads based on recent activities, making it easier to engage when they’re likely open to new solutions.

g. Workflow processes – This option lets you search within lists you’ve imported, such as from your CRM or lead lists.

Account Filter

a. Company characteristics – You can filter companies based on various attributes such as demographics, size, staff, turnover, etc.

b. Spotlights – Search for companies based on special characteristics.

c. Workflow processes – Import companies from your CRM (available for premium users only) or use saved lists in Sales Navigator.

After performing searches for clients (under the “Leads” tab) or companies, save the search and the search URL in your Chrome “Favorites” bar. There are two reasons to save the URL:

1. It serves as an extra backup if your lead lists are deleted for any reason, or if you fail to renew your SN subscription.

2. Some third-party tools, such as full-automation messaging services, use the search URL without needing to save the lead list in a CSV file.

From here, managing lead lists is similar to how you handle LinkedIn. You can send connection requests with a personal note, connect without a note, or reach out via InMail (see the Glossary).

The core idea behind SN is to crack the code for efficient lead generation!

Conclusion

By following the steps in this article, you’re now equipped to make the most of LinkedIn Sales Navigator, from setting up your account to utilizing advanced lead generation strategies. With consistent practice, you’ll not only sharpen your skills but also drive meaningful results for your business by leveraging Sales Navigator’s full potential. 

Now, it’s time to put these tools into action and watch your lead generation efforts soar!

Looking for a LinkedIn Marketing Team?

Building a strong LinkedIn presence takes time, dedication, and expertise. If you’re looking to boost your follower growth and achieve significant results, consider partnering with KaizIn. 

We specialize in helping businesses use the power of LinkedIn. By partnering with Kaizin, you can free up your time to focus on what you do best, while we help you take your LinkedIn presence to the next level. 

Contact us today to learn more about our LinkedIn marketing services.