Episode 1: 7 Powerful Sales Navigator Features for B2B Sales Success

Stan Robinson, Jr  00:00

Welcome to the Sales Navigator Live Show with Stan and Brynne. Join LinkedIn expert and sales professional, Brynne Tillman, and me Stan Robinson, Jr. Chief Coaching Officer here at Social Sales Link as we bring you the best tips and strategies for leveraging Sales Navigator for your sales success. Enjoy the show!

Brynne Tillman  00:37

Hello and welcome to Sales Navigator with Stan and Brynne. We are so excited each week, we will discuss Sales Navigator strategies and tactics to help you and your sales team optimize your Sales Navigator investment. Hi, Stan, I'm so excited for our live debut. 

Stan Robinson, Jr  01:00

Yes, that makes two of us Brynne. Great to be here. I'm looking forward to it. We had a great response. So it seems like everyone is interested in what's happening with Sales Navigator because it keeps changing on us.

Brynne Tillman  01:12

It does but I have to tell you it is a powerful tool that we think all sales professionals, especially in B2B should be using. We're going to talk about a lot today but what's the overall topic?

Stan Robinson, Jr  01:28

The overall topic is Seven Powerful Sales Navigator Features For Business to Business Sales Success. Now there are a lot more than seven but we're going to start with seven because we have a limited amount of time.

Brynne Tillman  01:43

Awesome. I love that. So, you know, ultimately, Sales Navigator is this tool that sits on top of LinkedIn data. It's a very different experience when you're in Sales Navigator. So the first one that we're going to talk about of the seven is the Sales Navigator user interface. Why don't you start us off with that and talk a little bit about that.

Stan Robinson, Jr  02:15

As far as Sales Nav’s user interface, it's specifically designed to help us keep focused on sales opportunities. We've all spent time on LinkedIn, and everyone knows how busy the newsfeed gets. And you see ads and this and that and the other. Sales Nav designed to help you stay keyed in on sales opportunities. So all of the activity on your homepage is driven by accounts that you've saved and set up, leads that you've saved and then based on, and we'll talk a little bit more about this, how you're training the algorithm with your saved leads and accounts and your activity. Those are the things that drive what you see on your homepage. So there's no extraneous information to distract you.

Brynne Tillman  03:07

Yeah, it's like 95% actionable. And I love that, and we're going to talk about that next. But in the Sales Navigator user interface, they are, as Stan mentioned, it is constantly being changed and updated. And as we coach people, we recognize people have actually very different experiences, I think I have some new features but where I save searches is different from where some of our clients save searches, right? So really getting to know the interface is important, but we guarantee you, it'll change soon. So here is really, as we get through, as we get through this, I want you guys to think about the strategy versus the tactic, the tactical things and the areas to click are going to change. But we're going to talk about strategy that really doesn't change too much. So Stan, let's start with alerts on this drive in strategy.

Stan Robinson, Jr  04:14

Yes. So one of the things you'll see towards the top of your homepage is the opportunity to click into alerts. And as Brynne just mentioned, all of this is driven by sales, navigators desire to help us find opportunities for sales conversations, gather business intelligence that can help us have a more effective sales conversation and expand relationships within the accounts that we're trying to get into. So alerts, like most things on sales nav are divided into account alerts, and leave alerts. And the nice thing is when you select now the default is you're going to see all alerts. But what we suggest is pick account alerts, click into the drop down. And you'll see the option to search by news related to accounts, growth, risk, and a number of different filters that you can use to look at very specific information regarding accounts, the same is true for leads career changes, for example, is huge when we're talking about people, when they're starting a new role.

Brynne Tillman  05:38

I love this. So let's dive one step deeper. And let's talk about the strategy around this. So I'm going to start with the leads, and we can move our way back to accounts. But career changes, there are two opportunities that open up when you see someone moved. The first opportunity is their new account, right? So we can go in there but we also know that someone else will be filling their shoes at the old account. So we want to pay attention to both, there are two opportunities with one career change, especially if it's a new company. So there's actually two types of career changes, if you are promoted, or if you go to a new company. So the new company is where those two opportunities open up. 

Once you see that, here's the thing, these folks are getting hundreds and hundreds of congratulations right now. Often I say Be patient, so one of the things that you can do in your alerts is you can bookmark it for later. So instead of, you know reacting when 500 Other people are reacting, consider coming back in a week, when things are settled a little bit, maybe, you know, they have a little more time to engage. Recognize they've been given this new opportunity, because changes probably need to be made inside of that new company. They were hired most likely to improve that company. So what you do can help them improve faster, quicker, better, more efficiently, or bring a better product or service to the new company, there's a good chance that they're open to a conversation now versus someone that has been there 10 years isn't really comfortable position, not really open to lots of new change. 

So the strategy behind that career change is really starting a conversation and becoming a resource for them as they navigate the new company that they're in. What's another alert that we can dive down and let's do one or two more on leads.

Stan Robinson, Jr  08:03

And leads as well a career change been the biggest one as lead mentioned in the news.

Brynne Tillman  08:11

Oh, so that's awesome. Now, there's a caveat to this. I burned myself. Lead mentioned in the news is not always good. Good news. And years ago, I remember going through and I was in my massive engagement, and I congratulate, congratulate. So make sure you're reading what it is that they've done. And again, rather than just simply congratulating them, maybe go out and find an article that mentions this news or mentions or find the original article and send it back to them. Sometimes they don't even know that they were mentioned in the news right away. 

So Stan, I don't know about you but when I started in sales, I was in Philadelphia, but every city has that Philadelphia journal right, all the happenings in Philadelphia. And so I would go through that and when there was an article about a CEO, I cut it out, I fold it up, I put a post it note with a congratulations and my business card and I send it to them. And that was part of my prospecting. Well, we could do this digitally. Absolutely powerful. Let's see. Let's do one more filter for leads in Sales Navigator. That's a really good one.

Stan Robinson, Jr  09:50

If they've engaged with your content,

Brynne Tillman  09:54

Those are triggers actually, right. So I'm gonna I'm going to do two there. I think that is huge, right? If they are engaging with your content. And I actually believe I'm not 100% Sure. So we need to check that if they engage with your company content, they're going to come up as well. But we'll double check on that but that's a trigger. That is a buying… I hate to use it a “buying trigger,” it is an engagement trigger, let's call it that because it's really not a buying trigger. But it's an opportunity, as Stan was saying, to start these conversations. So it's huge. The other one is lead shares, this is the lowest hanging fruit, what do you do with lead shares when they share content?

Stan Robinson, Jr  10:41

When they share content, you can help to amplify their content, which helps them because their content gets viewed by more people. You do want to go ahead and tag them, when you share their content so that they get notified or additional notifications that you've taken the trouble to read. And you notice I said read. So please read it, as Brynne mentioned earlier, read it because it does make a difference in terms of whether or not you want to share it. And so when you share it, it gets their message out to more people. And when you tag them, it also helps to raise your level of visibility with them.

Brynne Tillman  11:23

Yeah, and you can tag their company. And the other I mean, there is some level of mentioning when you share their content. But if you're tagging them and you tag the content, there's a better chance that they're gonna get it in their email, too. There's no guarantees, but when you tag them there is this algorithm play that we can never quite master. But we do know if you tag them again, it's better. So I think that that is awesome. You know, when someone is engaging in the content you share, you matter to them. You really do. They're sharing this content to get engagement. And most people don't get a lot. So if you can do what Stan said is, you know, really read it and comment smartly. You're on their radar at a higher level of credibility than if you just sent them your stuff. 

That said, one of the things I love is what if they had curated a piece of content, right, so they curated a piece of Stan Robinson content, and that's what they shared. And I thought it was an awesome piece of content. I'm gonna go find another piece of content that Stan shared. So if they've curated content, and even if he or she, if they're not my connection, I can still see their activity. I can go to listennotes.com  and see if they've been a podcast guest. I can Google, you know, any blogs or articles that they've been in. And so now I can take this to the next level and this is starting conversations. 

I might say, so we have Yvonne Romero here, so I'll say maybe Yvonne shares Stan's content. I go find another piece and I say, Yvonne it looks like we're both big fans of Stan Robinson. Have you read this post? Or this ebook that he put out? Let me know if you're interested. I'm happy to send the link and that could be a message or a connection request. And now we're standing starting a conversation around Stan, around an influencer? So some of and one of the things I love is when we save leads on Sales Navigator they don't have to be first degree connections. So you can start saving leads of influencers and engage through there as well. I know I just talk and talk. I love this stuff. Anything else in alerts around accounts raining before we move to the next one?

Stan Robinson, Jr  14:15

Yeah, I think the time is flying. So yeah, we should probably move to the next one. I did want to give a shout out to Judy cuz she was the first one in the room.

Brynne Tillman  14:24

Alright, let's look forward a little. Whoo. Love you, Judy. Love you, Yvonne. We've got some wonderful people here today. Hi, Dan. And we're going and Mike. Yeah, we love Mike.

Stan Robinson, Jr  14:42

Yep. got old and new friends on the call. Thank you.

Brynne Tillman  14:45

Awesome. All right. So what's number two?

Stan Robinson, Jr  14:50

So we've got filters. I know we wanted to talk a little bit about the many filters and then the ability to save them.

Brynne Tillman  15:00

Yeah, tell me your top three, what are your favorite filters that it's not available in the free LinkedIn?

Stan Robinson, Jr  15:07

Who has basically posted in the last 30 days, one of the spotlights.

Brynne Tillman  15:16

Oh, so now my spotlights move. So this is one of the things that's interesting. It's been in spotlights forever. And a client I've worked with today still has spotlights for some of us, it's under best tab in, I think,

Stan Robinson, Jr  15:30

Ah, yes, it keep changing the updates

Brynne Tillman  15:35

in recent updates posted on LinkedIn, so I don't have spotlights anymore. But I do have recent updates. So it's one of these two but why do you love that so much? I love it, too. What do you love about it?

Stan Robinson, Jr  15:48

Because it indicates especially when you're doing a search, and you've got 300 search results, and the filters are all good but you're trying to figure out where do I start, in terms of engaging with these people? Well, ideal people to start engaging with are people who are already active on LinkedIn. And those who've posted in the past 30 days are by definition, active on LinkedIn. So you're more likely to get a response, they're more likely to see your engagement. So that's why I love that filter.

Brynne Tillman  16:21

I agree. It's a phenomenal filter, I'm going to do a yes and. Not only do I use that filter, but they look in the list. And there are lots of other filters that Stan is going to talk about. And I look to see if they have the green circle or the green circle with the white dot. If they have a green circle, they are currently on desktop, this is a fabulous time to message them. Because they're there, they're gonna see a pop up. And not only are they active on LinkedIn, because we know that from that filter, but we're there right now. And so we've had huge success. Now you can't filter by the green button, which would be nice. But you do see it when you grow that list. But I agree, I think that that might be my absolute favorite of all the filters, give me two more that you love.

Stan Robinson, Jr  17:16

Well, another one, just when you're trying to filter by company size, the free version of LinkedIn doesn't give you a whole lot of company headcount, you can do that. And that helps depending on whether you're looking at small to medium sized businesses if you're going after enterprise accounts. So that's just something else you can do with a Sales Navigator that unfortunately can't do with the free version of LinkedIn.

Brynne Tillman  17:44

Yeah, and what's really kind of cool, and you can do this by department, too, is you can see who's growing. You mentioned in the beginning, you know, if you've saved these accounts, and you can, LinkedIn will tell you, if they're hiring, at risk typically means that they're laying off or their employees are reducing. But what you sell, or what you do falls into that. It's a pretty cool thing. So when Stan and I and Bob, when the three of us were looking for, you know, a good list for a new product launch that we have, we looked at people that have sat 10, or more salespeople, but that their marketing is shrinking. and that peak that all of a sudden we have a list where you know, there may be an opportunity there. So you know that, it's not just, hey, these are the perfect size, but the movement inside the company is really awesome, too. Okay, give me one more. I love this.

Stan Robinson, Jr  18:55

And there's a new filter around buyer intent that I'm still trying to figure out exactly how Sales Nav collects all this data. But it goes beyond just people who are following your company or who've engaged with your company page content. LinkedIn’s algorithms, they're pulling in a lot of activity and it includes in there things that you can't even see yourself but that the software can find like if someone in a prospect account engages with one of your colleagues. They'll pull that in and use that as an indicator of buyer intent. That one's relatively new but it's powerful.

Brynne Tillman  19:44

It is and and I love what I'm looking at while you're talking at this at what I'm seeing pop up and you know, I'm seeing some really cool stuff. It will show if they follow your company page, if they've engaged in any of the content there. I mean, this is pretty cool.It's also showing you, it looks like recent posts, but I don't know why that would be buyer intent, but it's there. But there's such good data, really, and I'm hoping, and it might even be here already, that it's capturing content that they share or comments that they make, or people that they follow. So we're not getting hot leads from this, but we are getting people that are interested in surrounding topics and, and teammates. So it is pretty cool. I haven't played in that a whole lot. 

There's a new category of interest. And I haven't played in that either. So we have our work cut out for us as these things are growing. I'm going to tell you a trifecta that I love. And it depends on what you do. But we work with lots of financial professionals that are often rolling over 401 case. So they really want the people that have recently left. So in a search, you can actually find that company. That they have [inaudible] in their current position. So if they've, and you can, I'm looking at all change jobs, right, so under recent updates or spotlights, change jobs in the last 90 days. And then you can have years in company. So you'll pull out people that have been there a long time, right, like that position change versus new job. And then you could do shared experiences. So now we have changed jobs, new in this position in this company, and shared experiences. So shared experiences could be groups that you share. It could be shared connections, lots of things that can happen inside of that shared experiences that really can be quite powerful. In the search. So I love it. What's next? I know I'm ranting and ranting and ranting.

Stan Robinson, Jr  22:41

Yes, and a couple things, save searches next now be new to this, I have to ask I know that we're talking through things, we've got a couple folks asking if we can share the screen. Let me know how that works.

Brynne Tillman  22:57

Yeah, so we're not we don't because this is for a podcast. So we live but reach out to us, Stan or myself and we're happy to take you through some of this. Maybe we'll do a pop up webinar and invite you guys in for this. But this is our debut podcast that we're doing live. So sharing screens will confuse our listener but reach out to us, we will make sure you are served. The other thing is join our community. If you go to socialsaleslink.com/library Let me see if I have it here. socialsaleslink.com/library You can sign up for. There is a community where you can ask your questions. And we'll get back to you and answer those too. And there's lots of great content. So go ahead and join that for free. And that's a good way to stay engaged with us but we still have more. Let's keep going.

Stan Robinson, Jr  24:15

Save searches. One of the wonderful things about sales nav is you have these filters that can narrow your search results down because as you've probably already seen, the challenge with Sales Navigator with over 900 million members is not getting enough search results. The challenge is when you have 5000 search results, how do you narrow it down to a list that you can actually work with? And once you do have filters that give you back ideal search results. Well, you're going to want to use those same filters again and Sales Navigator allows you to save up to 50 lead searches all the filters and up to 50 account out searches as well. And you can also, if you like, be notified when new results come in based on the filters that you've set up. You can be notified via email if you like. Okay, or of course, you can just hop into a Sales Nav anytime and look at it.

Brynne Tillman  25:17

I love the email and you can set it. I think I haven't done this in a long time but I think you could set it up once a week.

Stan Robinson, Jr  25:25

Yeah, I think it's just weekly now that I think they've narrowed down. Yeah, it used to be more choices.

Brynne Tillman  25:32

Well, unfortunately the one choice is the one I like

Stan Robinson, Jr 25:39

Yeah. Okay, hold on, cuz you're on, you're on mute.

Brynne Tillman  25:49

Sorry, I had a little dog bark in the back.

Stan Robinson, Jr  25:53

We're all working from home. So we were babies, dogs… you name it?

Brynne Tillman  25:59

Yep. Yep. Yep, yep. So save searches are great. And they are dynamic. So as you mentioned, if you do a search, and you drill it down with all these great filters, and you've got your 1,001st degree connections, and then tomorrow, you connect with another person that meets that criteria, it'll get added to that list. The other, this is great for second degree, right? If we're leveraging our second degree, and so we do that perfect list. That means if one of our connections connects with the ideal person, we're alerted in that safe search. So those are the two that I love. Those are dynamic. We're going to talk about lists next, those are static. So talk about the value of saving leads to a list

Stan Robinson, Jr  26:52

Yes, so there, it just helps you keep things organized within Sales Navigator. And Brynne, you can let me know about thi but one of the things we talked to people about is your existing accounts, your decision makers within your existing accounts, go ahead and add those to Sales Navigator. In part just as a signal to the algorithm. This is the type of people that we and company that we want to connect with in the future. And it helps you stay organized within Sales Navigator. So the other thing is, when you're doing searches, you can exclude or include, you can use your existing list as a filter when you're doing searches as well.

Brynne Tillman  27:39

Yeah, and you know what's really cool, and there's a couple of ways I use them. And then tell me a couple of ways you use them. But my favorite way of say one of my favorites, I have a lot of top 10 things. So I have a lot of favorites. But let's say so I'm networking with Jack Hubbard, who's on Hi, Jack, and  before I meet with him, I want to identify the 15 or 20 people that he knows that I might want to meet. So I can search with all our great filters, and we just name some of them. And then I can search connections up. So I can put in one person. And now I see he knows, you know, 23 people that meet that criteria. I'll go through the 23 and save maybe 7,8,9, the really great ones. And I'll save them under his name. So when I go to my lead lists, I pull up my jack cupboard and all of them are saved. And I can run through them pretty quickly. That is one of my favorite ways to use lead lists.

Stan Robinson, Jr  28:49

That is so cool. I'm taking notes here but I’m glad this is being recorded. Yep, this is good. So and yes and for me, it's just more mundane. When I do a search, I start to get good search results. I'm starting to save these people to lists. So what Brynne is talking about all along is the next level, there are a lot of things that everyone does but to set yourself apart in terms of more visibility, some of the things she talked about earlier, and drilling down and using your network effectively. That's what she's talking about here.

Brynne Tillman  29:30

Yeah, and it's a game changer. And you do this with your clients, your networking partners, you name it. And if you're in a bigger organization you met and you let's say you have Sales Navigator for your whole team. There's team links available and you could see who people in your organization know that you want to meet as well. So I mean, we will drop we'll dive deeper down In these in an upcoming webinar, we already have people asking for it. So I think that's our next step. We did, we just promised seven and we've only done five.

Stan Robinson, Jr  30:13

Got two more relationship Explorer is one. So dive into an account. So go into an account that you're looking at. And as you scroll down the page, or now they've set up these tabs where you can just click into people and insights and so forth. And it'll just, it basically scrolls down the page for you faster. But relationship explorer, yeah, yeah, that's all it's doing. Its relationship explorer just helps you map decision makers within an account. Again, they're trying to make our lives easier in terms of finding the people that we want to connect with.

Brynne Tillman  30:47

So I really love this. And if you're in an account, and you go into search, and you find all the people that you want that might be involved in the sale, pre-sale during the sale, even users after the sale, we want to socially surround an account. So we can go through and save them. And once we've saved them, you can move them into three tiers. So they're like little cards that you can move over, I don't know how else to explain it, really. But what's great is you can build that out. And there's different ways that you can do this. I have one client that we build it out with their first degree connections in the company are the first tier, their second degree connections in the company are the second tier. And then the third tier is typically post sale people not pre sale or during the sale. 

So their post sales people, right, so they're not top tier people, but we want to touch on them. And once we've got maybe a deal signed, we're immediately sharing value with them right and getting them bought in early on. So there are three tiers. The other thing that you know, probably what I do, more often than not, although I do like what my clients doing that we're working with, is I have the the people with the wallet on tier one, the influx, so the actual buyers, maybe the C suite in tier one, tier two is more of the influencers and tier three are the other stakeholders that might be involved. So there's lots of different ways to leverage the buyer mapping but that relationship explorer can be your very good friend.

Stan Robinson, Jr  32:39

Yeah, it's a great, great starting point. And then we have Smart Links, number seven. And yes, and Brynn loves this tool. This is a super tool, because all of us have had the challenge of wanting to send information to someone but the files are too big for email. And we've got this great content, but how do you get it to him? Smart Links does that among other things.

Brynne Tillman  33:07

Yeah, well, so and it's like a hub of content. So if you want to send three things that are too big, right, and it's awesome and it is fabulous. And it has a great user experience, which I really love, and I should have set up a Smart Link to put into the program. Well, we'll all learn from that next time, maybe I'll see if I could get puts if I could find an already created one that would be worth it. But like if I do a summit, I'll upload the resources and then when you share those resources with folks, you get to see who's clicking who's downloading, how long are they there, and it's pretty darn powerful. So I'm actually going just so you guys can see. I am going to share. I'm just it's a Smart Link, oh, I can't share. You'll have to connect with Stan or me or send us a quick message. And we'll get you a Smart Link. I don't feel very smart for not having been prepared for this. But it really is in my mind one of the most amazing tools because if you want to talk about buyer intent, or buyer triggers, this is a great way to know I send almost all of my proposals this way now. I'm going to tell you a quick story so I sent a proposal out to accompany maybe last September, October. They were very excited and then they had some kind of small merger and got off their radar. And I reached out to them and they had ghosted a little bit. But in the last two weeks, and I've, you know, I'm on it, but I see that they're clicking through it again. And they're sharing it. So it's back on the radar. And new people in the organization are clicking through. So that's amazing intel that we never would have had any other way. So I absolutely love it. Wow, we have been through a lot. This was so much fun. The good news, we get to do this again next week.

Stan Robinson, Jr  35:38

Exactly. And some of you are asking for webinars. So we'll, you know, connect with us, let us know we will do it.

Brynne Tillman  35:46

We will, we're really good at following what you guys want and need, which is very, very exciting. So, you know, we're gonna be here every single week, sharing these Sales Navigator insights, put us on your calendar, we'd love to have you and don't forget to join the LinkedInlibrary.com or socialsaleslinkedin.com/library you'll be alerted at more things. And you can also find, although not necessarily this event, when we have a webinar, it will be on socialsalelink.com/events. So let me see if I have that but guys, we're so excited.  Stan, this is just been a blast with you. And we have a good long journey ahead of us partnering together. 

Stan Robinson, Jr  36:38

Same here. Yes, thank you, Brynne. Thank you for the insights everyone. Thanks for joining!

Brynne Tillman  36:45

And we'll see you next week.

Stan Robinson, Jr  36:57

Thanks for listening and join us again for more insights on Sales Navigator and social selling strategies that will differentiate you from your competitors and accelerate your sales success. In the meantime, you can go to socialsaleslink.com/library for free content on LinkedIn Sales Navigator and social selling.