Sales Navigator Personas vs Advanced Search Filters: The Pros and Cons

Sales Navigator offers many powerful tools to streamline sales and marketing activities on LinkedIn.

Today, I’m going to review two of these key features that many users don’t use as effectively as they could.

The two features are Personas and Advanced Search Filters. Let's explore what they are, their pros and cons, and when to use them.

What Are Personas?

The Personas feature enables you to set up a Persona (up to 5 Personas) based on who your target buyer is.

Personas give you the choice of 4 filters: Function, Seniority Level, Current Job Title and Geography.

Creating Personas enables you to quickly identify the best leads at accounts to focus on developing relationships within many areas on Sales Navigator.

Personas can be added to a lead search. They filter into your homepage, your account pages (multiple places), and dynamic recommendations, ensuring you receive relevant insights in many areas of Sales Navigator and saving you time.

There is no doubt they are a fantastic time-saver. However, they are limited e.g. no boolean search for 'Current job title' is currently supported.

Lastly, when you create personas, you are essentially programming Sales Navigator with information, telling it the leads you are targeting. This information is used by Sales Navigator for your benefit in other features like lead suggestions.?

What Are Advanced Search Filters?

The advanced search filters consist of Account filters and Lead filters, which can be used together within the Lead filters search.

The Accounts filters search is used to find companies. Use the filters to help you find the best companies to target. Think about which of the 15 or 16 filters (depending on the Sales Navigator account type) is best to almost pre-qualify the companies as opportunities.

Whereas the Lead filters search is used to find the best people to focus on within your existing network (1st connections) and finding your best future network (2nd and 3rd+ connections). Think about which of the 33 or 37 filters (depending on the Sales Navigator account type) are best to almost pre-qualify the people as an opportunity.

The more time and effort you put into targeting the best companies and people at these companies will pay dividends over time because you will be adding a greater percentage of people into your funnel. ??

Personas: Pros & Cons

Pros

Easy Setup: Quick to create, making it simple to get started.

Simplified Filtering:?There are only four filters, so users can quickly identify likely prospects without being overwhelmed by the number of filters. You can set up to five buyer personas, making it easy to tailor your searches to different buyer profiles.

Accessibility: Included in many areas of Sales Navigator, making it convenient to apply and use.

Cons

Limited Filters:?Only four filters are available, which may not be sufficient to find your best audience.

Basic Functionality: Does not support advanced filtering options like Boolean searches.

Not for Accounts: Personas only applies to lead searches only, limiting its use for account-level targeting.

Advanced-Search Filters: Pros & Cons

Pros

Precision targeting: The Account filters search has 15 or 16 filters and the Leads filter search has 33 or 37 filters, which results in precise lead targeting.

Flexibility: Supports Boolean searches for complex queries, allowing for highly customised searches. In addition, the ability to add in account and lead lists into the Leads filter search opens this up even further.

Comprehensive:?It covers both lead and account searches, providing a broad range of filtering options so you can identify the best companies and best contacts within the company to add to your funnel.

Cons

Complexity: The advanced search filters require a much steeper learning curve than Personas due to the variety of filters and options available.

Overwhelming Options: The sheer number of filters can be overwhelming for new users.

Dependence on User Expertise: Effective use requires a good understanding of the available filters and how to apply them.

When to Use Each

Personas

Personas are ideal for quick targeting and account insights. They are incredibly useful when you are on an account page looking for potential prospects or for routine checks and monitoring. Using them will save you lots of time rather than jumping into the search.

Advanced Search Filters

Advanced Search Filters are best for precise, complex searches where you need to apply multiple filters or use Boolean logic to identify your best audience. They should be used for in-depth prospecting activities so you are filling the top of the funnel with those who are most likely to want to buy from you.

Conclusion

Both Personas and Advanced Search Filters are valuable features in Sales Navigator and have their place.

Personas make it easy and efficient to identify targeted leads, while Advanced Search Filters provide precision and flexibility for complex searches, which are necessary for effective results.

Knowing when to use the strengths of both will enhance your sales and marketing strategy, give you the best results, and optimise your time.

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