The Sales Navigator Edition

Is Sales Navigator worth it?

100% yes.

However, it does require you to think about LinkedIn differently.

LinkedIn is the 1 to many, you are only as strong as your network and at the mercy of the nefarious algorithm.

Sales Navigator needs to be treated like a CRM for LinkedIn. It can give you access to all 950mn (as of Aug 2023) members on LinkedIn.

It allows you to take a 1 2 1 approach on LinkedIn to a particular target audience, which you have defined.

Furthermore, it also allows you to unlock the referral network of your organisation via TeamLink and TeamLink Extend. This can significantly shorten the time to a first meeting or call at an enterprise level.

The final piece is that it can sync with CRM, giving you rich data and the ability to turn on LinkedIn's proprietary ROI model (only available in Dynamics and SFDC).

With the above in mind, I wanted to share some "How to videos" to get you going on your Sales Navigator journey. I am using Sales Navigator Core and cannot highlight TeamLink, although I will reference it and where you would find it. Teamlink & Teamlink Extend are available with Advanced and Advanced Plus licenses.

An Introduction to Sales Navigator

In this 20min video, I give a high-level overview of Sales Navigator, some of the features you can use, and some of the workflow I employ. Every one of you will be different. In short, you need to feed it data through leads and accounts, which surfaced in the Home Feed - this is where you should spend most of your time once it is set up.

How to Map Accounts

In this 6 min video, I highlight how you can map a single account to find your ideal target. As you will see, with the number of filters you have keyword searching, the varying search permutations are enormous. I always start high level and narrow the search, typically using keywords over and above job titles.

How to Map Accounts by Territory

In this 3 min video, I share how you can map your desired target accounts by territory or geography.

How to create Lead & Account Lists

In this 3 min video, I show you how to create lead lists and account lists. If you have Advanced or Advanced Plus, you can then share these lists with colleagues who are also on a Sales Navigator licence. Account lists are handy because they mean you can search multiple accounts simultaneously.

How to search Account Lists

Once you have set up your Account lists, in this video, I show you how you can search them.

How to use Spotlights Filter

This will be your go-to filter when you are happy with your search criteria. It highlights :

Those who have changed roles in the last 90 days. Why is this relevant? If someone is new in the role, they will likely have been hired to bring change, and change presents opportunity.

Those who have posted in the last 30 days. Because there is no algorithm in LinkedIn Ales Navigator, you can now see all activity. So, if one of your targets is posting on LinkedIn, you can now engage with that content and make yourself known to them. This can be followed up by a referral intro, connection request, or email call - they may even send you a connection request.

Those who are following your company page. It's all very well having 1000s, if not 100s of thousands, of followers on a company page if you have yet to learn who they are or even if they are relevant. Sales Navigator will show everyone who is following your company page, and a recent update will show you when someone started following your company page in the last 30 days. If you see an ideal target who is following your company page, send them a connection request, thanking them and inviting them to be part of your network.

TeamLink. Whilst I cannot show you Teamlink in this video, this is the virtual network Sales Navigator creates with Teamlink & Teamlink Extend. This can help you find a colleague who may be able to make an introduction to a target client.

TeamLink & TeamLink Extend

Not a video, but I hope to explain what it is and how it works.

Let's imagine you and I work for the same company, but we are not connected on Linkedin. I may have a connection to one of your target accounts, so I can introduce you. You will never see this as we are not connected. We both are given a Sales Navigator (Advanced or Advanced Plus) Licence. We are now "virtually" connected through TeamLink. When searching, TeamLink will show you where your colleagues are connected - even if you are not connected on LinkedIn. The more Sales Navigator licences you have, your TeamLink network becomes bigger.

However, you only buy Sales Navigator for all of your sales team. This means you are only ever searching their networks, but you might be in a business of 200, 500, 1000s of employees. All of whom have networks on LinkedIn and may be able to help with an introduction to target accounts. This is where TeamLink Extend comes in. They start at 1000 tokens and can go into multiples of 1000s. You can roll these out into the wider business and encourage your colleagues in Finance, Marketing, HR, IT, and the C Suite to opt their networks into TeamLink. So even if you only have 50 Sales Navigator licenses, you can search up 1050 networks or more.

An example below is from an admin dashboard, where they are sitting on 1000 unused Teamlink Extend licenses. I guarantee they, and you are leaving money on the table if you have yet to roll these out.

There you have it, an introduction to LinkedIn Sales Navigator. The most powerful sales & business development tool you can use with LinkedIn.

Do you need Sales Navigator to execute social selling effectively? Five years ago, I would have said no, but it helps. Today, in my view, it is imperative to be successful. Other my disagree.

This is a case study on a recent 12-month programme I rolled out, which was fully synced with Microsoft Dynamics :

If you want help or advice on how to get the best out of Sales Navigator or are considering it, or maybe you are considering how social selling more broadly can support your go-to-market, please feel free to reach out to me here on LinkedIn or at [email protected] - I would be more than happy to share my thoughts further over a call.

Thank you for taking to the time to read and watch. I do hope you have found this helpful. I will continue adding videos to my YouTube as Sales Navigator updates.

Alex.

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