
Build a B2B Sales Process on LinkedIn in 7 Steps
Learn how to build a B2B sales process on LinkedIn that will help you efficientlyscale your business.
Finding the right prospects is hard. And reaching out to them is another story altogether.
If you’re stuck scaling your business through old-school networking or among those bitten by Meta’s and Google’s ever rising ad prices, you’ve got to check out LinkedIn Sales Navigator.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a game-changer for sales specialists, marketers, and business development professionals. It packs a punch with its unique insights, advanced search capabilities, and personalized recommendations.
Apart from helping you identify outreach targets, Sales Navigator also helps you with social selling.
Social selling focuses on building genuine relationships, providing value, and fostering trust with potential customers.
Sales Navigator is purpose-built to support this approach, offering features that allow you to engage with prospects in a targeted and personalized manner.
Let’s explore how you can harness the full potential of LinkedIn Sales Navigator.
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Social selling has transformed the sales landscape, revolutionizing how businesses connect with potential customers.
What exactly is social selling?
Social selling is the practice of using social media platforms to identify, engage, and nurture prospects.
It’s a powerful approach that combines the art of building relationships with the science of leveraging social media platforms to drive sales success.
It goes beyond the transactional nature of traditional sales, focusing on establishing meaningful connections and delivering value to potential customers.
Instead of bombarding prospects with generic sales pitches, social selling aims to build trust and credibility by providing relevant insights and personalized interactions.
According to LinkedIn, salespeople who use social selling get better sales results and are 51% more likely to reach their quota. Almost 80% of social sellers outperform their peers who don’t use social media in the sales process.
So, how does LinkedIn Sales Navigator fit into the art of social selling?
Sales Navigator leverages its suite of tools to empower professionals to identify, target, and engage with high-value leads within their specific industries and target markets.
Here are some key features of LinkedIn Sales Navigator and instructions on using them for maximum impact.
Sales Navigator allows you to discover and target the right leads and accounts based on specific criteria.
You can apply filters for industry, company size, function, seniority level, geography, and keywords to discover the right prospects.
To use this feature, go to the ‘Search’ tab and select either "Lead" or "Account."
Put in your preferences and hit the ‘Search’ button. The results will list potential leads or accounts that match your search parameters.
In the above case, we chose the Lead option and applied the relevant inputs in the Company, Role, and Geography filter.
This generated a shortlist of leads catered to our specific requirements.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator gives you the ability to create buyer personas.
They are detailed descriptions of your ideal customers that can help your sales team understand and connect with potential leads on a deeper level.
Personas in Sales Navigator are built based on factors like job function, seniority, company size, and industry.
Each persona can be saved, making tailoring your searches and engagement efforts easier.
To create a persona, go to ‘Lead Lists’ and click ‘Create lead list.’
Name your list and then click on ‘Define.’ Here, you can input the characteristics of your buyer persona.
For instance, if your target customer is a senior marketing professional in the real estate industry, you might set the job function as ‘real estate,’ the seniority level as ‘director’ or experienced manager,’ and the current job title as ‘head of marketing.’
Click ‘Save’ once you’ve set your characteristics. Your persona is now ready to use in your lead searches.
Select this persona from your saved lead lists whenever you need a fresh search. Sales Navigator will show you leads that match your persona's exact characteristics.
This feature allows you to communicate directly with prospects. You can send InMails and messages and reach anyone on LinkedIn regardless of your network connection status.
That makes it easier to break the ice and start meaningful conversations with potential leads.
To send an InMail, navigate to the profile of the lead you want to contact. Click on ‘Message’ and write your InMail in the provided space.
Remember to personalize the message to increase the chances of a response.
Sales Navigator also provides recommendations based on your saved leads, accounts, and search history. This feature helps you discover opportunities that you may not have considered.
Recommendations are located in the ‘Discover new accounts’ tab. To save the recommended accounts, click the save icon on their profiles.
Sales Navigator allows you to save and track leads and accounts.
When you save a lead or account, you receive updates on their LinkedIn activity, including job changes, shared content, and company updates.
To save a lead or account, navigate to their profile and click the save icon.
To track their updates, go to your ‘Homepage’ or ‘List’ page, where you will see a feed of updates from your saved leads and accounts.
Sales Navigator can be integrated with various CRM systems such as Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics 365.
This allows for a transfer of information between the platforms, making it easier to track and manage leads and accounts.
To integrate your CRM, go to your ‘Settings’ and select ‘Partner Integrations’. From there, you can choose your CRM system and follow the prompts to complete the integration.
If you're already familiar with LinkedIn Premium, you might wonder why you should consider upgrading to LinkedIn Sales Navigator.
While LinkedIn Premium offers some valuable features for professionals seeking enhanced networking capabilities, Sales Navigator takes LinkedIn lead generation and social selling to a whole new level.
Let's explore the key differences between the two to help you understand which is right for you:
LinkedIn Sales Navigator offers three plans to cater to varying user needs. These are:
Let’s look at the features of Sales Navigator plans in detail.
Sales Navigator Core provides several essential features for smarter prospecting. It enables users to locate new buyers within existing customer accounts, communicate directly with leads through InMail, and receive notifications when accounts reduce hiring.
With a Sales Navigator Core account, users can access the following features:
Sales Navigator Advanced is designed for teams who want to enhance their collaboration and gain deeper insights into buyer intent but do not require CRM integration.
With Sales Navigator Advanced, you get access to all the features of Sales Navigator Core, plus the following additional functionalities:
Sales Navigator Advanced Plus is LinkedIn's highest subscription tier, designed specifically for customers intending to integrate Sales Navigator with their CRM systems.
It supports enterprise-grade functionality and offers an integrated experience across Sales Navigator, your CRM, and other sales tools.
This can help increase sales effectiveness, improve workflow efficiency, and enhance CRM data hygiene.
With a Sales Navigator Advanced Plus account, users can access all the features offered in the Sales Navigator Advanced plan, along with several CRM-specific features.
Features pushing CRM information into Sales Navigator:
Features pushing Sales Navigator information into your CRM:
Sales Navigator Administrators on the Advanced Plus plan also gain access to the following capabilities:
When it comes to B2B software sales, building a powerful prospecting list can make the difference between a stellar sales quarter and a mediocre one.
Here are the steps to creating a robust, targeted prospecting list using LinkedIn Sales Navigator.
Log into your Sales Navigator account and click the 'Search' button at the top of your screen. We will focus on' Lead' search as we are looking for individuals interested in our software.
Once you're in 'Lead' search, input the basic parameters of your target audience. For instance, if we're targeting IT Managers in mid-sized tech companies, we might set the 'Seniority Level' to 'Manager' and 'Function' to 'Information Technology.' Additionally, we'll set 'Company Size' to '201-500 employees' to target mid-sized tech companies.
Once you have set your parameters, click 'Search' to see a list of potential leads. These are individuals who match the specific criteria you've set. Review the list and save promising leads by clicking the save icon on their profiles.
With your list of saved leads, you can begin reaching out and engaging these prospects. LinkedIn offers several outreach tools to facilitate this, such as InMail and Connection Requests.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a powerful social selling tool, offering a rich suite of features that can significantly boost your sales success. Paired with a strong LinkedIn profile and an active presence, it's your passport to effective, targeted prospecting.
But the secret to truly unlocking Sales Navigator’s potential is the integration with CoPilot AI.
CoPilot AI enhances your prospecting strategy by leveraging the intelligence derived from over 5 million LinkedIn interactions.
This massive data pool informs and optimizes your outreach, streamlines your workflow, and provides valuable performance insights. This leaves you more time to focus on what matters – building relationships and closing deals.
Sales Navigator and CoPilot AI make a formidable team, revolutionizing your sales process and propelling your business to new heights.