Linkedin Sales Navigator for Dummies

The ABCs of sales have changed. It's no longer: A-Always, B-Be, C-Closing. The new way of selling is: A-Always, B-Be, C-Contributing to your buyer's journey. Social selling is an effective way to engage with your customer, and the world's most powerful social selling tool for any B2B sales professional is LinkedIn Sales Navigator. It allows you to gain access to more leads, more InMail, and data to track your efforts.

With the help of LinkedIn Sales Navigator For Dummies, you'll learn how to write effective InMail messages and engage with prospects on the world's most successful professional networking site. Along with utilizing those features, you'll also benefit from access to full profiles outside of your network, guidance on how to best optimize your own profile for sales opportunities, and much more.

• Use lead recommendations to get in front of the right buyer
• Analyze your social selling efforts with real-time data
• Reach more leads with customized InMail messages
• Save 30 - 60 minutes a day previously spent on acquisitions

If you're a B2B sales professional who is new to LinkedIn Sales Navigator, this is the one-stop resource you can't be without.

Perry van Beek is a pioneer in social selling with LinkedIn. He founded Social.ONE and has been assisting companies with LinkedIn marketing, lead generation, and social selling since 2009. Perry conducts training and presents keynotes at sales conferences throughout the world. Connect with him on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/perryvanbeek.

Introduction 1

About This Book 2

How This Book Is Organized 2

Part 1: Getting Ready to Generate Leads 2

Part 2: Building a Database of Leads 2

Part 3: Engaging with Leads 2

Part 4: Turning Leads into Valuable Relationships 3

Part 5: The Part of Tens 3

Foolish Assumptions 3

Icons Used in This Book 4

Where to Go from Here 4

Part 1: Getting Ready to Generate Leads 5

Chapter 1: Selling Is a Social Business 7

Defining Social Selling 7

Looking at the Four Pillars of Social Selling 8

Collecting, Connecting, Converting: The Formula for Success 9

Exploring the Sales Navigator Plans 10

Activating Your Sales Navigator Account 12

Measuring Efforts with the Social Selling Index 15

Opening Access with TeamLink 16

Planning Your Roadmap for Social-Selling Success 17

Chapter 2: Determining Your Target Audience 19

Defining the Buying Personas 20

Identifying Customers’ Pain Points 22

Practice active listening 22

Ask customers what their pain points are 23

Find out what motivates them 23

Find common ground 23

Identify the most pressing issue 24

Who Are the Stakeholders and What Are Their Dreams? 24

Chapter 3: Mapping the Buyer’s Journey 27

Understanding Where Customers Do Their Research 28

Meeting the Customer: How Accessible Are You? 29

Conducting the Transaction: What Motivates Your Customers? 31

Creating Fans: Will Your Customers Recommend You? 32

Up-selling or Cross-selling: Achieving the Customer’s Dream 35

Part 2: Building a Database of Leads 37

Chapter 4: Setting Up for Success 39

Navigating the Home Page 39

Main navigation bar 40

Search bar 41

Update feed 42

Filtering Your Updates 42

Sharing Updates on LinkedIn 44

Tracking Your Social Selling Index 45

Tracking Who’s Viewed Your Profile 47

Monitoring Your Recent Views and Searches 49

Chapter 5: Identifying Leads 51

Setting Key Preferences 51

Performing a Quick Database Search 54

Searching the LinkedIn Database Using Advanced Search 57

Using Boolean Operators in Sales Navigator Searches 59

Customizing Your Search Results 61

Saving Your Searches 64

Receiving daily, weekly, or monthly email alerts 65

Modifying a saved search 66

Running a saved search again 66

Zeroing in on the Best Results with Sales Spotlights 67

Changed jobs 68

TeamLink leads 69

Mentioned in the news 70

Posted on LinkedIn within the past 30 days 71

Shared experiences 72

Leads that follow your company page 73

Chapter 6: Saving Leads and Accounts 75

Saving a Lead 75

From a company’s account page 76

From a search results page 77

Adding Tags and Notes to Your Leads 79

Viewing Similar and Suggested Leads 82

Saving an Account 84

Adding Tags and Notes to Your Accounts 85

Viewing Similar and Suggested Accounts 87

Part 3: Engaging with Leads 91

Chapter 7: Becoming Top of Mind with Your Leads 93

Engaging with Leads 93

Interacting with top updates 94

Interacting with recent updates 96

Sorting Updates by Type 97

Sales alerts 97

Job changes 98

Suggested leads 99

Lead news 100

Lead shares 101

Account news 101

Account shares 102

Top accounts 103

Creating and Managing Content with PointDrive 104

Creating presentations 104

Viewing team members’ presentations 107

Tracking customer interactions 108

Chapter 8: Connecting with Leads 111

Identifying Common Ground 112

Checking mutual interests 112

Pinpointing mutual connections 113

Determining mutual groups 116

Reaching Out with Connection Requests 118

Approaching with InMail Messages 120

Part 4: Turning Leads into Valuable Relationships 123

Chapter 9: Developing a Daily Routine 125

Achieving Social-Selling Success in 30 Minutes 126

Advertising in history 126

The social media game changer 127

Tracking Your Saved Leads and Accounts 128

Monitoring Recommended Leads and Accounts 130

Managing Your Sales Navigator Inbox 132

Engaging with Leads Using PointDrive 135

Chapter 10: Using the Mobile App 139

Accessing the Sales Navigator App 139

Monitoring Activity on Your Home Screen 142

Staying up to date on your leads’ activities 143

Filtering your updates 145

Engaging with your leads 145

Identifying potential new leads 146

Perusing Recommendations in Today’s Discovery 147

Searching with the Sales Navigator App 149

Using Boolean operators 150

Filtering leads with Sales Spotlights 151

Filtering accounts with Sales Spotlights 155

Applying additional filters 155

Managing Saved Leads 158

Adding and editing tags and notes 158

Sending and checking messages 161

Accessing Your Account Settings 162

Selecting your sales preferences 163

Determining your settings 163

Part 5: The Part of Tens 165

Chapter 11: Ten Tips for Advanced Lead Generation 167

Quantity versus Quality 167

Saving Connections as Leads 168

Increasing Response Rates and Engagement with Your Profile 169

Best Practices for Requesting an Introduction 170

Conversation Starters 171

Managing Your Sales Navigator Inbox 172

InMail Do’s and Don’ts 173

Adding and Saving Your Default Signature 174

Adding Attachments to Your InMail Messages 175

LinkedIn Sales Navigator for Gmail 177

Chapter 12: Ten Tips for Account Management 179

Accessing Administrator Settings 179

Viewing Account Types and Billing Information 180

Connecting Sales Navigator to Your Company’s CRM System 181

Managing Access to InMail and Messaging 182

Enabling TeamLink 183

Activating New Users 183

Checking Activation Status and Sending Reminders 186

Removing Users 186

Viewing Usage Reports 187

Exporting or Printing Usage Reports 190

Chapter 13: Ten Social-Selling Leaders to Follow 191

Melonie Dodaro 191

Jan Willem Alphenaar 192

Koka Sexton 193

Neal Schaffer 194

Mic Adam 195

Richard van der Blom 196

Alex Kroon 197

Mark Williams 198

Wendy van Gilst 199

Gabe Villamizar 200

Chapter 14: Ten More Social-Selling Resources 203

LinkedIn Profile Cheat Sheet 203

LinkedIn Unlocked 204

LinkedIn Sales Blog 205

Social Selling LinkedIn Search 205

#Social Selling Twitter Search 206

Anders Pink 207

Top Dog Social Media 207

Venture Harbour 208

HubSpot Sales Blog 209

Harvard Business Review 209

Index 211

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.