Have you ever heard of Sales Navigator? Our guess is probably not. Most people are unfamiliar with this LinkedIn tool and how it helps generate leads. Whether you haven’t considered LinkedIn to reach out to new customers or use it to cold message prospects, we strongly recommend you use Sales Navigator. It is a premium sales tool that makes it easier to develop meaningful connections with the 800 million plus users on LinkedIn.
It enables your sales team to reach out to qualified B2B leads, create lists, and integrate them with your sales/CRM software. The robust search capabilities provide improved visibility to the most relevant targets, creating personalized algorithms that fine-tune your lead lists. Here we explain why and how we use Sales Navigator to generate thousands of bookings for our clients.
What LinkedIn Sales Navigator IS and is NOT Good For
Sales Navigator is good for:
- Bulk lists: You can create highly targeted long lists of prospects you can use in your CRM outreach software.
- Targeting: Sales Navigator search allows you to target active LinkedIn users to improve lead quality based on job titles, industry, and other relevant criteria.
- Algorithms: You can create personalized algorithms to further your audience targeting.
- Private outreach automation: While you can’t use Google outreach software with Sales Navigator, you can use private software to automate outreach to save time.
Sales Navigator is NOT good for:
- Automation: As the name implies, it is a sales navigation tool, not an outreach automation tool.
- CRM: You’ll still need a CRM, as Sales Navigator does not offer CRM functions.
How Does LinkedIn Sales Navigator Work?
Sales Navigator helps sales teams reach their full potential. Using LinkedIn’s global network, you can generate targeted contact lists using their robust search engine. The advanced searching tools allow you to customize your settings and use search filters and sales preferences to zero in on ideal leads.
Highly individualized search criteria, including regions, industries, level of seniority, and job function, easily and quickly produces a list of suitable prospects. You can then further qualify leads using Sales Spotlights that make it easier to make meaningful connections. You can find good conversation starters like fellow graduates, people who worked for the same employer, new hires you can introduce your services to, or reaching out to discuss a user’s recent post. LinkedIn’s InMail is a great reach-out tool, but you can also create a bulk list to upload into your CRM or outreach software.
Training on Boolean Search
Boolean Search enhances keywords using Boolean “operators” to produce more relevant results. By including the terms AND, OR and NOT, you create what is called a “Boolean string.” Each string allows you to tell the search engines where to focus to either narrow down or expand candidate lists. You can also instruct search engines to disregard specific information that can spoil your results.
Creating Boolean Strings
Boolean search creates extremely deep searches using the following five elements of syntax for effective filtering:
1. AND: The AND operator allows you to link keyword terms to fine-tune the search. For example, instead of just using the keyword recruitment, you can create a Boolean string using AND. Recruitment AND HR, for example, is specific to people who are in HR and whose jobs involve recruitment. You can use AND as many times as you like to narrow down your search even further.
2. OR: The OR operator ensures you encompass all versions of a search term. For example, with recruit, you have recruiter, recruitment, and recruiting, that all produce separate results. By changing the query to request Recruitment OR Recruiting for example, the search engines provide a longer “either/or” list. It’s all about search semantics. You can also use a string of industry terms such as health OR healthcare OR health center OR health facility.
3. NOT: NOT is an important operator as it allows you to really narrow down your search. In the Boolean string you might change your AND search to recruitment NOT HR, for example, or your OR search to recruitment, NOT recruiting. This is the best way to eliminate results you don’t need.
4. (Brackets): Using brackets in a Boolean search string prioritizes search criteria, with the most relevant keywords appearing in parentheses. While it might seem it should be the other way around, the parentheses stress words as opposed to being an afterthought in brackets. They are the most effective when used for OR strings.
5. “Quotations”: Quotations are even more specific than brackets, with quoted words indicating that exact term must be in the results. A good example is searching marketing research jobs where you want a “Marketing Research Analyst.” Without the quotes, the results will likely also show Marketing Research Managers and Marketing Research Consultants that muddy up the list. Using quotes ensures the search results show the one, exact term you requested.
When using operators, be sure they appear in ALL CAPS, or else they won’t be identified as part of a Boolean string.
Title vs Seniority Level Search
Seniority Level is a premium filter that isn’t as helpful as you might think. Although it can make a search easier, it can also be limited due to the internal titles a company might use or because the list is missing certain levels altogether. Instead of depending on the seniority level checklist, using your new-found Boolean search skills is a far more specific approach that allows you to get the results you desire.
If your business depends on B2B connections to generate leads, access to a tool like Sales Navigator can really up your game. However, not only does it take time to learn how to use the tool effectively, but you have to pay for the premium service. You can choose a monthly plan and renew your subscription as your leads become depleted or work with a marketing team who knows how to use Sales Navigator to see immediate results.
Sales Navigator is definitely a learned art. With the right marketing partner, you can be owning this network and generating leads like never before! If you need a little help with this, we’re happy to chat.
