If you are SERIOUS about sales, LinkedIn Sales Navigator feature is for you. If you need to generate new leads, manage accounts and increase your revenue, you will need LinkedIn Sales Navigator. This advanced sales tool comes with the hefty price of $80 per month (you save 20% by switching to the annual plan). With all of this potential, many professionals just want to know if “the juice is worth the squeeze.”

LinkedIn Made Me $1.4 million

Alumni Search, Tagging and Notes used to be free features people could use to prospect, qualify and use LinkedIn as a CRM (client relationship management) tool. When Microsoft bought them in 2016, many of the features were disseminated to only the Premium users. LinkedIn Sales Navigator remains the premium space for people who want to find new clients and manage accounts.

What can you do with it? Here are the best reasons to upgrade to this premium feature:

Lead Generation: LinkedIn has more than 500 million users worldwide. That is a goldmine of possible leads! Click on “Lead Builder” at the top of the screen to filter according to location, keyword, title, school, company and more. Financial advisors use this to find cardiologist and the wealthy part of town, and use common connections to request an introduction. Save effective searches for future reference. Effective sales professionals will save people as leads and tag them for future communications and searches.

Organization / CRM: When you add new leads and connections, tag them as Financial, Healthcare, Law, etc. The user creates the tags. Tags can also track clients as they moves through the sales pipeline: Prospect, Qualified, Demo, Customer, Fan. Disclaimer: if you choose to not use LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you loose the tags for your connections and leads. This is not a replacement for your CRM (e.g. – SalesForce, Nimble, Insightly, etc.), but it is a powerful tracking feature.

Improve Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn

Account Management – The Accounts feature helps manage large groups, corporations and the employees therein. When setting up the account, choose 3 – 5 Accounts to manage (e.g. – Apple, BP or Merck). This is a great way to stay on top of news and information the company posts. Salespeople can also discover suggested leads and accounts. LinkedIn has become inundated with extra posts and pictures. These filters show only the relevant Likes, Shares and Comments.

InMail – Cold emails are rejected most of the time. InMails (LinkedIn emails) can be just as ineffective. The key is the subject line and the length of the letter. As with any emails, don’t try to close or sell too soon. LinkedIn Sales Navigator gives 20 InMails per month. Depending on your activity level, that may be enough. If you want more, you can buy more from LinkedIn. Use these as a method to start a conversation with a targeted lead.

Who’s Watching Me? – If you publish great content, people will watch your profile. When someone views your profile or Likes an article you publish, this is an opportunity to engage with them. I used to hate it when LinkedIn told me my views had gone up 231%, but I didn’t know who the people are. This tool is especially effective after job interviews or meetings with prospects.

There are three levels to LinkedIn Sales Navigator: Professional, Team and Enterprise. The Professional should be great for most sales people. Dedicate some time every week to sales success, and your investment will be worth it. Looking for a way to get an edge on your competition? We can help with Profile Reviews and Executive Coaching. Contact us for a FREE 3 point evaluation.

Scientifically Speaking, of course…