If you’ve wanted to up your game on LinkedIn, Here’s a review of LinkedIn Sales Navigator along with a simple how-to guide on getting the most out of this untapped lead-generating resource for a sales organization that is looking to reach managers and middle managers.
LinkedIn has changed the game for salespeople and marketers alike. Check out some of these features as well as the free trial of LinkedIn Sales Navigator and see if it helps you reach that elusive decision maker.
You can now find hundreds of leads in a matter of minutes. Then you can easily contact them directly.
All of this is possible because of Sales Navigator. In this post, I’ll go over exactly how to effectively grow your business using LinkedIn Sales Navigator.
WHAT IS LINKEDIN SALES NAVIGATOR?
LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a premium account that gives you access to some features that help with outreach. Chief among them is advanced search.
You can filter your searches by industry, job title, and length of time someone has been at a company. This way, you can target the exact people you want to talk to. And this gives you a promising target audience.
Note: one big downside is that you only get 20 InMail credits per month with a Sales Navigator Professional account. So it’s pretty limited if you go with Sales Nav for actual outreach.
How do you use Sales Navigator to generate these leads? Let’s go through the process step-by-step.
GENERATING LEADS WITH LINKEDIN SALES NAVIGATOR
Although these steps are a bit tedious, people have found success with this process.
MAKE A LEAD LIST
The first step is to create a lead list on LinkedIn. This is where you’ll save all the people you want to contact.
From your Sales Navigator, go to Lists → Lead Lists. Click the “Create Lead List” button in the middle of the page (if this is your first list) or at the top-right corner (if you already have a list).
Title your Lead List. Make it something that will be easy to distinguish from any other lists you may create.
Now it’s time to search for your leads.
USE THE SEARCH FILTERS
First, click on “Search For Leads.” This is where the Sales Navigator comes in handy.
You can use the advanced search filters depending on what type of person you’re looking for.
You can filter your searches by:
- Industry
- Location
- Professional background
- Your company’s products and services
- Keywords
- How closely you’re connected on LinkedIn
- And many more…
Because you have a specific target audience, you can use as many of the filters as you need to find the right leads. With Sales Navigator, you can easily find hundreds of leads in no time.
ADD LEADS TO YOUR LIST
After you get your search results, you can start adding people to your Leads list. You can either do this one by one or in bulk by importing the entire search page.
It may be better to add them one at a time so you can review each profile. That way, you can make sure each lead meets your requirements.
The filter does this for you, but it’s probably a good idea just in case. Plus, you can get to know each person a little better.
WRITE A TEMPLATE FOR EMAIL OR INMAIL
Now it’s time to contact your leads, which you can do through email or through InMail messages.
The best thing to do is write a template that you will send to every lead, adding the person’s name at the beginning and any other personal info you want to include.
Heads-up: InMail messages have a limit of 300 characters, so if you’re going to use it, make your pitch short and sweet. Although it might make more sense to use email so you have a little more room to write.
To create your template, open up a Word file or Google Doc and craft your pitch. You may also want to write a few drafts and ask your team which one would work best.
Just make sure there’s a clear call to action at the end. The best CTA to start with would be something like, “Do you want to hear more about how A can do B for you?”
We don’t recommend you include links in your initial email because it can get snagged by spam filters and can be too salesy. This is your first interaction. You don’t want to scare people away.
High-performing words you can use in your CTA include “try,” “free,” “download,” and “reserve.”
After you’ve decided on a final version of your template, run it through Grammarly. It will catch grammar mistakes, punctuation errors, and phrases that don’t sound natural.
Make sure the headline is catchy and tells the recipient what they can expect inside. LinkedIn suggests you use certain titles, such as:
- Join Us
- Exclusive Invitation
- Connect
- Thanks
- Job Opportunities
You can also do A/B tests to see which subject lines work the best, then use those going forward.
REACH OUT TO YOUR LEADS
It’s time to start contacting your leads using this template.
The person emailing or messaging these leads should be a credible and relevant sender. So if you’re contacting people in the marketing industry, the messages should be coming from your Marketing Specialist or CMO.
Triple-check your template to make sure that:
- You’ve run it through Grammarly and there aren’t any typos
- You’ve left space to personalize the email as needed
- Your signature is how you want it (should have your name, position, company, and maybe your email address or phone number)
The next question is: do you want to use InMail or email?
You can get high response rates through InMail — but you’re limited to just 20 messages a month (or 30 for a team account) and only 300 characters per message. You can also add InMail credits, but those run $10 apiece.
Yes, InMail can work if you’re contacting a handful of people. But the costs can quickly add up if you’re trying to reach thousands of leads.
If you want to contact a large batch of leads, it makes much more sense to use email. You can export those leads’ email addresses and start using your favorite cold email tool (there are plenty out there).
THE SHORT SKIPPY
LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a great tool for finding and collecting leads. But the big hiccup happens when you deal with large quantities of leads.
Sales Navigator is an effective tool to get you started with generating leads. Use it as the foundation for your next prospecting endeavor.
