Sales Navigator is a great database to identify potential prospects, but as with many great tools, it requires some training to be able to use it to its full potential.
Use the wrong filters, and you may end up with up to 40% of bad results on a Lead search.
To prevent this from happening, you must start doing account searches, to implement real Account-Based strategies
Want to master Account-Based strategies with Sales Navigator? Read-on
Table of contents :
Why should you never start searches at the lead level, but at the account level?
What’s the difference between a lead search and an account search
There are two types of research you can do on LinkedIn :
Finding Leads: this is great for identifying a persona within a set of companies.
Finding Accounts: to identify which companies you want to find people in!
If you have an account-based strategy, you should ALWAYS start at the account level, not at the lead level.
Why should I use account search first?
If you’re attempting to do ABM, you’re probably doing research using LinkedIn’s Industry classification. This allows you to target companies working in the Computer Software Industry for example.
However, this information is wrong if used at the lead level! Why?
Because there are two types of industry in Sales Navigator
The industry self-declared by the contact
The industry the company states on its company profile
And 40% of the time, both don’t match for two main reasons :
Industry at the lead level is self-declared and not automatically updated whenever somebody changes the company.
There is a high probability that the information is outdated
Many people understand it as the department they work in instead of the industry of their company.
For example, somebody working in the marketing department of a construction company might identify itself as working in the Marketing & Advertising industry, resulting in your search results useless
Data indicates that it can affect up to 40% of the search results, leading to almost half of your leads being wrong!
Now if you use the Industry filter at the account level, it solves everything!
The goal is to build a list of accounts within Sales Navigator to turn into a lead search. And you can do just that.
How to build a list of accounts and turn it into a lead search?
Better than text, a quick video :
How to do advanced account targeting using Sales Navigator?
Now that you know how to build a list of companies and turn it into a well-targeted lead search, let’s look into the type of Account-based strategies you can do :
Filter companies based on the number of people working in a specific department
Selling a SaaS that scales per sale, target per number of sales?
Selling a SaaS helps Finance team do their work, target companies with a minimum of people in the accounting department
Are you a recruiting agency? Target companies that have high headcount company
Or currently recruiting
Selling software that integrates with specific technology? Target based on the identified tech
Or even better, learn how to do Boolean Searches on LinkedIn.
Targeting marketing agency? Try "growth agency" OR "marketing agency" OR "SEO" OR "SEA" OR "lead generation" OR "growth hacking" OR "digital performance"
As you train, you’ll become more creative as to how to use these filters!
How to upload a CSV of companies and turn them into a list of accounts in Sales Navigator?
We’ve seen how to identify companies from LinkedIn. But you might already have identified these targeted companies from other sources such as :
And any other data provider
Do you have company names, and company websites, and want to turn them into a list of companies on LinkedIn?
You’re in luck. Sales Navigator Teams & Enterprise allows you to upload a list of companies, and LinkedIn will automatically match it in its database and create the list for you to use
Upload, and match the columns and you’re set to succeed :
It’s up to you now!
We’ve shared with you the basics and your brain must be driving crazy with the limitless possibilities. Here’s some more reading for you :