Your Ultimate Guide to Sales Navigator - Part Two
Which version is right for you and best practices you need to know.
Thank you for waiting for Part 2! If you haven’t read Part 1 yet please click here.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a natural next step if you want to go further with your outreach campaign. As LinkedIn continues to expand and roll out new valuable features for its users, professionals can always stay current, maximizing their LinkedIn experience.
Here are a few features you’ll want to be aware of in order to make the best decision for you or your Team.
Filters:
Sales Navigator is the Holy Grail to target, track, and engage your ideal audience and prospective customer. This is due in large part to the platform’s superior filtering service.
Why is it so superior? Let’s take a look.
To begin a search, you go to the search bar and type in a specific name, a company, or a keyword. Once you have done this, several tabs pop up that allow you to narrow your search results further.
Some of the advanced filters you will notice include:
Company Size and Type
Industry
Seniority Level
Information Related to Time
Company Revenue
Department/Company Size
Location
Fortune Company
Leads with Recent Job Changes
Shared Experiences
Recent LinkedIn Activity
These advanced filters allow Sales Navigator users to target a particular audience. You will spend less time weeding through unwanted prospects and more time accomplishing your goals.
How do you sort through these filters?
Begin by clicking on All filters and choose lead filters to find specific employees or account filters to find companies.
You will then be able to choose the qualities you’re looking for in your company or individual prospects. Highlighted in blue, you will be able to narrow your search by Geography, School, Industry, Seniority Level, and more. Decide what is most important to you, and then click “apply your sales preferences” once you’re finished so that you can save your preferences for future searches.
* Pro-Tip: Check the box that says, “Active within the last 30 days”, as these prospects are more likely to view and respond to your inquiry.
You’ve applied the filters that will best suit your needs. Now what?
Go through the listed companies or individuals and view the profiles of those that look promising.
Save and/or organize the leads you would like to learn more about. You can do this by company, job position, geographical location, or any other organizational method that makes sense to you. You set yourself up to receive notifications when these leads are mentioned in the news, change jobs, receive a promotion, etc. This will also make it easier for you to reference back to these leads at a later date.
For example: If you’re looking to hire in both Colorado and Idaho, you can save your CO leads to one list, and your ID leads to the other.
3. A recent bonus feature for Sales Navigator users is the option to add “Notes” to your prospective clients to keep track of conversations, specific information about the person or company, etc.
* Note: If you are subscribed to the Sales Navigator team membership, you will additionally be able to collaborate with your team here.
InMail:
InMail is a credible and adaptable premium feature offered to Sales Navigator users, allowing you to directly message a targeted audience that is not on your 1st-degree list.
Why does this matter? Compared to LinkedIn’s free messaging service that only allows you to message those in your 1st-degree connections, InMail messaging, particularly those short and sweet and personalized messages, receives above-average response rates amongst users.
On average, personalized InMail receives a 20% better response rate
InMails sent any day between Monday and Thursday get the best response rate.
Coming up with an InMail message between 201 and 400 characters is 16% more likely to receive a response.
Here is an example of a personalized message that is under 400 characters:
✅ Why it Works: This message is short and to the point, without sounding cold and spam-like. We mentioned that the work atmosphere is “family-like,” creating a positive work culture in this particular message. We added that this person appears to be a great fit, which shows that we notice what they offer.
* Pro-tip: If they hold a doctorate, address them as Dr. and then use their last name instead of their first name.
* Hook them by relating to them in the first sentence. For example, did you go to the same college? Do you share similar interests? Do they use a quote you love?
Note: Unlike messages, you can generate through a connection, InMail messages are limited, so use them wisely. You instantly receive 50 InMail credits per month when you subscribe to Sales Navigator. These credits do roll over if they go unused, but there is a cap. You can easily see how many credits you have by clicking on the Me icon at the top of the page - Select Access My Premium - Go to InMail Section.
Getting the most of your Sales Navigator subscription:
Of course, one of the best ways to achieve success and generate business on LinkedIn is through consistency. To see the results you desire, you must put in the work and the time.
This work entails engaging your targeted contacts and leads, leveraging the power of InMail, and staying on top of your lead lists.
Compared to other databases, LinkedIn’s nearly 1 billion users provide professionals with quality, real-time data, even on the go, so no matter where you’re at, you can stay on top of your business goals, meet deadlines, and network with the right professionals. By choosing Sales Navigator, you set yourself and your team up to save time, money and gain valuable information not available anywhere else.
* Pro-Tip: Download the LinkedIn Sales App (not confused with the standard LinkedIn app). No matter where you are, you will have access to real-time updates and be able to discover, reach out, and connect to new leads and accounts.
Contact us today to discuss how Linkability can get you seen, set you above the crowd, and deliver a solid ROI. Our Done For You service or Team Training may be the thing you have been looking for.
The Moving Forward Newsletter is a bi-weekly advice column by Kim Peterson Stone, the CEO of Linkability.us where we give you a peek behind the curtains into what it takes to put together campaigns that help you grow your business and career on LinkedIn and in Real Life.
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