What was the best part about using LinkedIn Sales Navigator?
LinkedIn Sales Navigator is the premium upgraded version of their social media platform. This is a way to get enhanced searching and profiling. As well as a way to save leads and use the inbox feature which gives you a greater opportunity to connect with your leads. I've upgraded in the past to use this service and I'm currently evaluating options for a new startup which has just launched. There are some interesting options available now such as IkoSystem, Data.com, GoodData, Lead411, InfoFree and a bunch more ways to connect. It is nice to have the enhanced set of search capabilities which helps get you closer to the decision maker so that's good. There are some real time analytics too and they help to an extent but aren't mind blowing or anything.
For the money it costs to invest in LinkedIn Sales Navigator; if you put it to use there's certainly qualified information to leverage in their database, of course. To me, it's a matter of the ability to connect with this prospect via the LinkedIn platform itself, and whether it's the best way to make the first contact, as the conversions in the past on it I recall weren't good. But I was a new entrepreneur then and there wasn't a complete funnel in place, while there also wasn't following up happening to create the multiple impressions it takes to build trust and educate prospects.
I like the idea of using this platform to find a job actually. It would be a good way to make an impression beyond your cover letter and resume. A way to stand out a bit from the competition. I believe this may be the best overall use of the LinkedIn upgrade. It would obviously be great for headhunters as well but I'm not sure how accurate a lot of their recruits current profile job statuses are. As a job seeker at least you can ensure there is a targeted, common reason you are contacting someone via this network. But it would still be mostly accurate I assume so it still has a lot of value to them.
What would you change about your experience with LinkedIn Sales Navigator?
The InMail messages are appealing because you can reach outside your network and make contact but only fifteen at a time so you're essentially paying almost five dollars per month to nurture each lead using a manual system. In one sense fifteen is about how many is practical to handle practically including follow ups perhaps but on the other hand for almost nine hundred bucks USD per year is that the best placement for my marketing budget?
Overall Feedback
LinkedIn Navigator is perhaps one of the best ways to directly contact C Level executives I grant it that for sure. Platforms like IkoSystem are fifty times the cost but that's the level of lead you can connect with using their platform. LinkedIn is like that but perhaps there may be even more inherent trust in the LinkedIn brand than by reaching them via regular email, it's certainly best to use IkoSystem and LinkedIn together. But that's not an option so I believe I will test it again with their new free trail month because why not, but this time our sales funnel is launched and I will follow up appropriately until there are responses at least. And this will go a long way as to whether that thousand buck per year goes into the upgrade or another service. LinkedIn navigator is certainly a great approach to include in any sort of integrative approach, but if I had to choose my core method it may better to procure leads from other sources that reach them in multiple ways in terms of reaching multiple social networks, and the ability to follow up with an autoresponder and automate a series of impressions made.