What is Sales Navigator on LinkedIn? Everything You Need to Know

Understanding LinkedIn Sales Navigator

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is LinkedIn's premium subscription service specifically designed for sales professionals, recruiters, and marketers who need advanced tools to find and connect with potential customers. Unlike a standard LinkedIn account or even LinkedIn Premium, Sales Navigator provides specialized features built specifically for B2B prospecting and lead generation.

Think of regular LinkedIn as a networking event where you can see who's in the room and strike up conversations. Sales Navigator, on the other hand, gives you a detailed guest list with insights about each attendee—their interests, recent activity, company information, and the best ways to approach them.

Sales Navigator is particularly valuable because it helps you search through LinkedIn's massive database of over 900 million professionals using sophisticated filters that simply aren't available on the free version. Whether you're an SDR building pipeline, an AE working strategic accounts, or a recruiter sourcing candidates, this tool transforms how you identify and engage with your ideal prospects.

Key Features That Make Sales Navigator Worth Considering

Advanced Search Filters

The search functionality in Sales Navigator goes far beyond what's available in regular LinkedIn. You can filter prospects by over 50 different criteria including:

• Job function and seniority level
• Years at current company and total experience
• Company size and revenue
• Industry and technology used
• Geography down to postal code level
• Recent job changes and company growth signals

This granularity allows you to build highly targeted prospect lists rather than casting a wide net and hoping for the best.

Lead and Account Recommendations

Based on your search history and saved leads, Sales Navigator's algorithm suggests new prospects that match your ideal customer profile. This feature can surface opportunities you might have missed through manual searching alone.

InMail Credits

Each Sales Navigator subscription includes monthly InMail credits—messages you can send directly to any LinkedIn member, even if you're not connected. The Core plan includes 50 InMail credits per month, giving you direct access to decision-makers who might otherwise be unreachable.

Real-Time Alerts and Insights

Sales Navigator notifies you when saved leads change jobs, get promoted, share content, or have other relevant updates. These trigger events can be excellent conversation starters and help you time your outreach for maximum relevance.

Account IQ (AI-Powered)

One of the newer features, Account IQ uses generative AI to create company summaries in seconds. This helps you prepare for calls and personalize your outreach without spending hours on manual research.

Sales Navigator Pricing Plans Explained

LinkedIn offers three main Sales Navigator tiers, each designed for different use cases and team sizes:

Sales Navigator Core

The entry-level plan is priced at approximately $99.99 per month, or around $79.99 monthly when billed annually (roughly $960 per year). This plan is ideal for individual sales professionals and includes:

• Advanced lead and company search
• 50 InMail credits monthly
• Custom lead lists and saved searches
• Lead recommendations and alerts
• Unlimited people browsing

Sales Navigator Advanced

The team-oriented plan costs approximately $149.99 per month, or roughly $135 monthly when billed annually (around $1,600 per year). In addition to all Core features, you get:

• TeamLink to leverage your colleagues' networks
• Smart Links for content sharing and engagement tracking
• Shared lists for team collaboration
• Buyer Intent signals
• CSV upload for account lists
• Enterprise tools like SSO integration

Sales Navigator Advanced Plus

The enterprise tier requires custom pricing (typically around $1,600 per seat annually based on research), determined through consultation with LinkedIn. This plan adds:

• Full CRM integration with Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics 365, and HubSpot
• Automated data validation and CRM updates
• Lead and contact creation directly from Sales Navigator
• Custom ROI reporting
• Dedicated account management

All plans offer a free trial, though you'll need to provide payment information. The trial is only available if you haven't used a LinkedIn free trial in the past year.

How to Actually Use Sales Navigator for Prospecting

Having access to Sales Navigator is one thing—using it effectively is another. Here's a practical workflow that top salespeople use:

Step 1: Define Your Ideal Customer Profile

Before you start searching, get crystal clear on who you're targeting. What job titles do your buyers typically hold? What size companies are your best customers? What industries do you serve? The more specific you are, the better your results will be.

Step 2: Build Your Boolean Search

Use Sales Navigator's advanced filters strategically. Don't just search for "VP of Marketing"—combine filters like seniority level (VP), function (Marketing), company headcount (50-200), and industry (Software) to find highly qualified prospects.

Step 3: Save Searches and Create Alerts

Once you've built a search that generates quality results, save it. Sales Navigator will notify you when new people match your criteria, creating a steady stream of fresh prospects without additional effort.

Step 4: Research Before Outreach

Look at each prospect's recent activity, shared content, and profile updates before reaching out. This intelligence helps you craft personalized messages that stand out from generic connection requests.

Step 5: Track Engagement

If you're using the Advanced plan, Smart Links let you share content and see exactly which prospects engaged with it—valuable data for prioritizing follow-ups.

Limitations of Sales Navigator (And What to Do About Them)

Despite its power, Sales Navigator has some notable limitations that can impact your prospecting workflow:

No Email Export

Sales Navigator doesn't provide email addresses for your prospects, and you can't export your lead lists directly. You're essentially stuck using InMail (which has limits) or finding contact information elsewhere.

This is where tools like our free Email Finder become essential. Once you've identified prospects in Sales Navigator, you can use their name and company to find verified email addresses for direct outreach—no InMail credits required.

Search Result Limits

Even with a paid subscription, you can only view up to 2,500 lead results per search. For broad market research, this can be restrictive.

Data Accuracy Issues

LinkedIn data relies on users keeping their profiles updated. People change jobs, get promoted, or move companies—and their profiles don't always reflect these changes immediately. B2B data decays by approximately 2% per month, meaning roughly 25% of your data could be outdated within a year.

Before launching any outreach campaign, it's wise to run your email lists through an Email Verifier to eliminate invalid addresses that could hurt your sender reputation.

Cost at Scale

For teams, Sales Navigator costs can add up quickly. At $1,600+ per seat annually for the Advanced plan, a 10-person sales team is looking at $16,000 per year just for LinkedIn prospecting.

Free and Lower-Cost Alternatives for B2B Targeting

If Sales Navigator's pricing doesn't fit your budget, or if you want to supplement it with additional tools, there are alternatives worth exploring:

Use LinkedIn's Free Search Strategically

The free version of LinkedIn does have search limits, but you can still conduct meaningful prospecting with basic filters. The key is being more strategic about your searches and connection requests.

Build Target Lists Using AI

Our B2B Targeting Generator uses AI to help you define and discover ideal customer profiles without the monthly subscription cost. Simply input what you sell, and the tool analyzes market data to suggest company types, industries, and buyer personas most likely to need your solution. It's particularly useful for early-stage companies still refining their target market.

Combine Multiple Data Sources

The most effective prospectors rarely rely on a single tool. Consider combining LinkedIn research with company databases, industry publications, and technology lookup tools to build comprehensive prospect lists.

For example, if you want to find companies using specific software (which can indicate buying signals or compatibility with your product), a Tech Stack Scraper can identify prospects based on their technology choices—something Sales Navigator can't do.

Is Sales Navigator Worth It for Your Business?

The answer depends on several factors:

Sales Navigator is likely worth it if:

• You rely heavily on outbound prospecting to generate pipeline
• Your average deal size justifies the subscription cost
• You need to reach decision-makers who are otherwise hard to contact
• You have a well-defined ideal customer profile to target
• Your sales cycle benefits from personalized, research-driven outreach

Sales Navigator might not be necessary if:

• Most of your business comes from inbound leads or referrals
• Your target market is small enough to work manually
• You're just starting out and still validating your product-market fit
• Your budget is tight and the ROI isn't clear

For those in the latter category, starting with free tools to validate your approach makes sense. Use our B2B Targeting Generator to identify your ideal customer profile, then test your outreach on a smaller scale before committing to a premium subscription.

Maximizing Your Sales Navigator ROI

If you do invest in Sales Navigator, here are tactics to ensure you get your money's worth:

1. Use Boolean Searches Aggressively

Don't settle for basic searches. Learn to combine AND, OR, and NOT operators to create precise prospect lists. A search for "(VP OR Director) AND Marketing NOT Agency" will yield much better results than just searching "Marketing Director."

2. Leverage TeamLink (Advanced/Plus)

If someone on your team is already connected to a prospect, use that relationship for a warm introduction rather than cold InMail. TeamLink makes these connections visible.

3. Set Up Persistent Alerts

Create alerts for trigger events like job changes, company growth, and funding announcements. These signals often indicate buying readiness and give you a natural reason to reach out.

4. Export and Enrich Your Data

While Sales Navigator won't give you email addresses, third-party tools like Findymail can help you export and enrich your lead lists with verified contact information, making your outreach more direct and scalable.

5. Track Your Metrics

Monitor your connection acceptance rate, InMail response rate, and ultimately, how many opportunities are sourced from Sales Navigator activity. If the numbers don't justify the cost, adjust your approach or reconsider the investment.

Getting Started with B2B Prospecting

Whether you choose Sales Navigator or start with free alternatives, successful B2B prospecting comes down to the fundamentals: knowing exactly who you're targeting, crafting relevant messages, and following up consistently.

If you're new to outbound sales or refining your approach, start by clearly defining your ideal customer profile. Our B2B Targeting Generator can help you think through this systematically, identifying the company characteristics and buyer personas most likely to convert.

From there, build your prospect lists (using Sales Navigator, free LinkedIn, or other tools), verify your contact data, and begin testing your outreach. The tools matter, but they're only as good as the strategy behind them.