How to Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator to Make It Worthwhile

What is LinkedIn Sales Navigator

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a tool that helps salespeople find and reach out to new qualified leads more easily. It’s one of LinkedIn’s paid features, available in premium accounts under Sales Solutions in the Work tab.

With advanced filters, extended search options, and easier ways to contact people, you can quickly and efficiently find exactly who you’re looking for.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator and Its Benefits

While LinkedIn itself is a great tool for social selling, LinkedIn Sales Navigator unlocks new opportunities for more efficient lead generation.

With the paid version, for example, you can:

• see who has viewed your profile in the last 90 days,
• use advanced filtering to better find the people you need,
• perform searches without character limits in queries or restrictions on the number of results displayed,
• add contacts to lists and save notes or tags for them, making it easier to categorize leads,
• start conversations with leads more easily, since you can send messages without needing a connection.

How to Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator for Lead Generation

While filters and keywords are available in the free version, they’re not as powerful as those in a professional account. LinkedIn Sales Navigator allows you to enter multiple parameters along with an unlimited number of keywords to refine your search. You can also save your search queries for future use.

At the time of writing, LinkedIn Sales Navigator allows you to filter users using dozens of filters, such as:

• company size,
• city or region where the company is based,
• industry type,
• personnel changes in the company (e.g. staff growth or a change in a specific position),
• recent activity (e.g. interaction with a particular type of content).
  
  

This means you won’t have to dig through irrelevant results. Targeting qualified leads increases your success rate and your chances of closing a deal.

You can also use Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) known from programming to refine your lead searches even further. For instance, you can search for contacts who are sales managers but do not work at companies with fewer than 50 employees (using the NOT operator).

Filters can also help you craft better icebreakers for first contact with a potential client. For example, you can search only for leads with whom you:

• have mutual connections,
• attended the same course or event,
• share a common topic they recently posted about,
• know they’ve recently changed jobs.
  
  

A lesser-known feature in LinkedIn Sales Navigator is View Similar. If you find a particularly interesting lead in your results, click the View Similar button and LinkedIn will show you users with similar positions in similarly sized companies in the same industry.

By the way, if you’re looking for more ways to find leads, we cover them in a separate article.

How to Reach Out to Leads Using LinkedIn Sales Navigator

While in the free version you must first connect with a contact to send a message, with Sales Navigator you can send what's called InMails. These are messages you can send to anyone outside your network. They also appear at the top of the recipient’s inbox, and you can customize the subject line.

The number of InMails you can send depends on your plan—it typically ranges from 20 to 50 InMails per month. This encourages users to avoid mass spamming. We recommend thoroughly personalizing your InMails and preparing them carefully so they capture the lead’s attention and don’t get dismissed like just another generic sales pitch.

Lead Lists and Activity Tracking

All searched and contacted leads can be saved directly into lists so you can work with them later. These lists help you keep track of whom you’ve already contacted, who has responded, and who is worth following up with.

Through these lists, LinkedIn also notifies you of important lead activity—especially job changes and posts they’ve shared. You can bookmark any activity on a lead to easily return to it later.

In this way, LinkedIn Sales Navigator also functions as a simple CRM. However, if you’re expecting more from a CRM, try a professional tool. For example, you can try Raynet CRM with all features free and without commitment for 30 days.

Is LinkedIn Sales Navigator Worth It?

LinkedIn itself offers a lot of useful features. However, LinkedIn Sales Navigator costs nearly CZK 2,000 per month with an annual subscription (and CZK 2,355 with a monthly one).

So, the investment may not be worthwhile for everyone. Consider purchasing it only if:

• you want to save time and search for relevant leads efficiently,
• you need to find specific people or companies that meet multiple criteria,
• you search for a lot of contacts and don’t want to be limited by search result caps,
• you want to keep track of both searched and contacted leads.
  
  

Before subscribing, also reflect on how you currently use LinkedIn. A paid account won’t bring you new deals on its own. You’ll need to already:

• have a polished and up-to-date profile,
• have a built and growing network of contacts you actively engage with,
• be active—regularly creating content and interacting with others’ posts.
  
  

Also, check out our article where we describe other smart tools that make sales easier.