Should I get Sales Navigator?
If you are contemplating the upgrade to Sales Navigator, it only makes sense if you can use it the right way (most people don't).
First of all, I'll say that I am not a Sales Navigator customer. Maybe that biases my analysis. I use LinkedIn Premium which gives me 15 inmail credits a month that I use selectively. It has benefited my business tremendously. I usually do not end the month wishing I had more.
If you are considering LinkedIn Premium by the way here is a video I made about my experience as a user.
Quality vs. Quantity?
Consider this if you're an entrepreneur like me. I don't need to get 300 new clients a day. So why do I need to message the whole world? I can't be sincere if I'm mass messaging people. I can't be intelligent, funny, or say anything meaningful. I'm glad my inmails are limited because it forces me to make the messages count.
I plan out and research who I want to reach, message them carefully, and once they connect I try to engage them in a dialogue - a human one on one conversation in which I actually strive to understand them as people and as professionals. My goal is to figure out what they are about and then if it makes sense, to gradually move in the direction of how I can help. This has rewarded me in numerous ways the most beneficial being new client relationships.
Most People are Using Sales Navigator Wrong
Sales Navigator gives people the very powerful capability to search for, find, and message a high volume of people in a short amount of time. If you use this intelligently it can really work out well for your business. However do it thoughtlessly (which it's human nature to do sometimes) and you become part of the noise that people hate about LinkedIn. Like these garbage messages that I rag down in this podcast.
The way most people use Sales Navigator is to blast out a high number of generic connection requests that are not customized to anyone with a certain title. And then if the poor person on the receiving end is unlucky enough to accept, the next message is a straight up solicitation, product pitch, or invitation to "get coffee."
Just like that they're supposed to sign up with you? What about long term relationship building?
Sometimes it doesn't even make sense to connect with the person in the first place. I have a friend who helps financial advisors transition their books of business to a new firm. Her title has the word "advisor" in it and she falls into the industry category of financial services. Well, since nobody bothers to actually read her profile before they ask her to connect, she is constantly barraged with a slew of people trying to sell her financial advisor support services. This is a waste of time and money on the part of the sender. In these instances, having Sales Navigator is of no use to the buyer.
So should you buy Sales Navigator or not?
The (wishy washy) answer to the question of whether or not you should use Sales Navigator really depends more upon you than upon the features of the product itself. Intelligent and well thought out usage of Sales Navigator could allow it to be a powerful tool to build your business. However, this takes time and a commitment to being patient and accepting that it's not just going to be a one shot deal. For most people this is too much to ask but for the rare few who can take a strategic approach, it could be very rewarding.
Hope this helps!
Do you use Sales Navigator? Drop a comment below and tell me how it's working out.
And if you want to know the right way to approach people on LinkedIn, you may want to consider my monthly membership. It was designed for financial advisors who want to reach COIs and qualified prospects in a no BS way. Messaging isn't the only thing we cover, we also discuss content creation, YouTube, Facebook, and other tools you could use.