14 LinkedIn Sales Secrets

Want to become a prospecting superstar? LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a fantastic resource. It simplifies the process of finding, contacting, and staying up-to-date with prospects, referrals, and customers. Rather than spending hours manually tracking prospect activity on the platform, you can get instant insights. That means more time for high-value activities like calling people or giving demos.

Whether you’re new to Sales Navigator or a veteran of the tool, these tips will help you take your social selling game to the next level.

Basic

1) Message Prospects Without Using Your InMail Quota

Sales Navigator users can send up to 30 InMail messages per month depending on their package. If you want to send more than that, target users with “Open Profiles,” who won’t count toward your InMail quota.

As a bonus, “Open Profile” users are generally pretty receptive to being contacted.

2) Integrate Sales Navigator with your CRM

LinkedIn is partnering with several CRM providers --- Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce, and HubSpot --- to bring profile details and shared connections from Sales Navigator experience into your CRM.

That means as you’re doing your day-to-day in the CRM, you won't have to open a new tab (or three) to track down the lead or account in Sales Navigator.

Already using one of the CRMs that integrates with Sales Navigator? Set up the sync now. Using another CRM, or not using one at all? Fear not: LinkedIn will be expanding the universe of CRM integrations in the near future, so stay tuned. 

3) Apply the TeamLink Filter

According to LinkedIn, you’re almost five times more likely to schedule the first meeting with someone if you have a mutual personal connection. With the TeamLink Connections filter, you can easily find the prospects who meet your search criteria and share an acquaintance with you, whether it’s a first or second-degree connection.

This filter taps the networks of the other members of your sales team and your first-degree connections.

(Note: You must have a team or enterprise license to use TeamLink.)

4) Access the network of every person at your company

TeamLink lets you tap into the connections of every Sales Navigator seat holder at your company. But that mostly limits you to salespeople, recruiters, and maybe your executives -- after all, the average marketer, customer support rep, or finance associate isn't going to need an account. With TeamLink Extend, these people can now opt in to the Sales Navigator network. That means your pool of available contacts becomes much bigger.

"If you’re trying to reach a prospect, you can quickly see if anyone in your company has a connection with that person and reach out to your colleague to ask for a warm introduction," explains LinkedIn Sales Solutions head of product Doug Camplejohn. 

The first 1,000 seats of TeamLink Extend come bundled free with every Enterprise Edition contract.

5) Save a TeamLink Search

Just because you don’t have a mutual connection with a prospect now doesn’t mean you never will. Your contacts form new connections every week. But it’s inefficient to manually run the same searches again and again in the hopes something has changed. Fortunately, the “save search” feature lets you automate this step. Once you’ve defined your search parameters and applied the TeamLink filter, check the “Save Search” box.

Now, if one of your coworkers connects with one of your leads, you’ll be instantly notified.

6) Check out the TeamLink Section

You can also check out the TeamLink section of an accounts page, which helps you build strategic relationships at an organization you’re targeting.

Let’s say you want to work with Blue Leaf. When you check out the TeamLink section of the Blue Leaf account page, TeamLink will display the current employees who are connected to members of your network. You can now ask those mutual connections for introductions.

7) Download the Mobile App

Salespeople who spend lots of time away from their desk will appreciate the Sales Navigator app (available for iOS and Android.)

The app delivers real-time updates about saved accounts and leads, so reps can quickly reach out after a prospect has written a new post, showed up in the press, or shared company news. Users can also see their daily account and lead recommendations and browse buyer profiles.

The ability to save leads and accounts is also handy. With this feature, field sales reps can instantly save the connections they’ve made after a meeting or call rather than waiting till they’re in front of a computer.

Lastly, the Sales Navigator app lets reps send InMail and messages on the go. Contacting a prospect quickly after a compelling event can mean the difference between winning and losing a deal, so this is a powerful feature.

8) Upgrade Your Profile

It’s easier to stand out with a Sales Navigator or Premium account since these come with a larger profile picture and background photo.

In addition, Sales Navigator and Premium users are displayed more prominently in search results. If a prospect searches for someone matching a rep’s description, that rep has a greater chance of catching her eye.

Intermediate

1) Tag Your Prospects to Keep Track of Their Status

According to research from CEB, an average of 5.4 different people are now involved in every B2B purchasing decision. 

To effectively work an account, you need to keep track of who’s involved in the buying process, form connections with them, and identify their unique objectives and priorities. It’s no small feat.

Add tags and leave notes for each lead in Sales Navigator helps streamline this information. Once you’ve identified a relevant contact, you can tag them by their role (decision maker, influencer, and so on) and leave notes for yourself (“Has only been in position three months; commented on group discussion about changing furniture vendors.”)

Read the full article and graphs at:

You can also create custom tags to match your company’s sales process and terminology.

2) Use the “Interested In” Filter to Find Ways of Providing Value

Finding ways to add value to your prospects’ lives isn’t always easy. Thanks to the “Interested In” filter, you can instantly figure out which buyers need your help -- which’ll give you a major advantage when reaching out.

For example, you can run a search for “mid-level marketing managers” and further narrow down the pool with the “Interested In: Industry experts” filter. Every prospect the search returns has self-indicated they’d like to meet industry experts. You can volunteer your own expertise, offer to connect them with a specialist inside your company, or introduce them to an external contact.

3) Use Advanced Filters to Identify Your Ideal Customers

Thanks to Sales Navigator’s advanced filters, salespeople can hone in on specific prospect types. These include:

• Company type: Public, private, or nonprofit (Also available in LinkedIn Premium)
• Groups (Also available in LinkedIn Premium)
• Years in current position
• Years at current company
• Years of experience (Also available in LinkedIn Premium)
• Member since (Also available in LinkedIn Premium)
• Headquarter
• Seniority level (Also available in LinkedIn Premium)
• Posted content keywords

Advanced

1) Build Rapport With “Shared Experiences”

Sales Navigator already allows users to save leads, but the “Share experiences with you” filter makes it easier to surface opportunities within that database. The filter gives you a strong foundation for building rapport by pulling together all the prospects who have at least one thing in common with you: Maybe you both lived in Manhattan at one point, worked for the same company, volunteered with the same nonprofit, or have another point of commonality.

Mentioning this point of similarity when you reach out (either in your email subject line, the message body, or in your voicemail) will boost your chances of getting a response.

2) Unlock Out-of-Network User Profiles

The unlock feature, which is available with Sales Navigator Team, lets reps view the full profile of a user outside of their network. Once they’ve unlocked a profile, everyone on their Sales Navigator team can see it.

Every team member can unlock up to 25 profiles per month. To do so, click the blue “Unlock member profile” button in the top section of a member’s profile.

3) Refine Your Lead and Account Recommendations

Sales Navigator can help reps keep their pipeline full with automatic lead and account recommendations. To make sure their recommendations align as closely as possible with their buyer personas, salespeople should take advantage of the tool’s Sales Preferences. These criteria include region, industry, function, and seniority level.

To add or modify these settings, click your profile picture in the top right corner and choose “Settings.”

Then scroll down to the Sales Preferences section, type your choices, and click “Done.”

Sales Preferences only apply to lead and account recommendations, meaning regular searches include results that fall outside of a user’s saved choices. For instance, a rep might ask for recommendations for executive assistants in California, but simply searching “executive assistant” could generate prospects that live elsewhere.

What's your favorite feature of LinkedIn Sales Navigator?