LinkedIn Sales Navigator for Marketers and SDRs: Setup Guide

#01Which plan do you need?

Source: LinkedIn Help, "Sales Navigator account types and features". Prices vary by market and contract; check LinkedIn's plan page.

Decision rule (our view): a founder or single seller starts on Core. A team of three or more doing account-based selling needs Advanced for shared lists and Buyer Intent. Choose Advanced Plus only when CRM sync will be used daily.

#02How do you set up Sales Navigator for account-based work?

1. Sales preferences: set geography, industries, company sizes and functions so recommendations are relevant.
2. Upload or build your account list: on Advanced, upload your target account CSV (book of business). On Core, search accounts with filters and save them.
3. Create account lists by tier: Tier 1 (30 to 50 accounts), Tier 2 (100 to 200), Tier 3 (the rest).
4. Map buying committees: for each Tier 1 account, use the Relationship Map to save the economic buyer, champions, users and blockers.
5. Save searches: for example "Finance directors at Tier 1 accounts who posted in the last 30 days".
6. Turn on alerts: job changes, company news, hiring and lead activity.
7. Connect your CRM (Advanced Plus): sync accounts, contacts and activity.

#03Which filters matter for marketers?

#04How do the AI features help?

Always check AI summaries against the source before quoting them to a prospect.

#05How do marketers and SDRs work together in Sales Navigator?

What are Smart Links?

On Advanced and above, Smart Links package content (for example a case study and a one-pager) into a single tracked link. You see who viewed it and for how long. Use them for follow-ups, not cold first messages.

#06What is off-limits?

• Scraping Sales Navigator results into spreadsheets with extensions.
• Automating InMails or connection requests.
• Sharing login seats between people.

These break LinkedIn's User Agreement section 8.2 and its prohibited software rules. Use CSV upload, shared lists and official CRM sync instead.

#07How do you measure Sales Navigator?

#08Worked example: Ledgerline

Ledgerline is a fictional accounts-payable software company. Competitors A to D and all figures are illustrative.

Ledgerline has two SDRs on Premium Business and a separate ads list built by marketing. They rarely target the same companies. Competitor A runs coordinated ABM.

Walkthrough

1. Plan: Sales Navigator Advanced for three seats (two SDRs and the founder).
2. List: 180 target accounts uploaded by CSV; 40 Tier 1.
3. Committees: an average of four saved leads per Tier 1 account.
4. Ads alignment: the same CSV used as a company-list audience for Thought Leader Ads.
5. Weekly ritual: Monday Buyer Intent review and Smart Links for follow-ups.
6. Results after one quarter (illustrative): InMail reply rate 21%, 28 meetings from Tier 1 versus 9 from untargeted outreach in the previous quarter.

#09Common mistakes

• Buying Advanced Plus without a CRM owner.
• Separate lists for sales and ads.
• Saving thousands of leads with no tiering.
• Treating AI summaries as fact.
• Scraping exports.

#10Try it yourself

Build a Tier 1 list of 30 accounts. For five of them, use the Relationship Map to save four people each and note one signal per person from alerts or recent posts.

#11Quick quiz

1. Which plan adds Buyer Intent signals? Answer: Advanced (and Advanced Plus).

2. How many InMail credits does each plan include per user per month? Answer: 50.

3. Is Lead IQ on by default? Answer: Yes, according to LinkedIn Help, and it is English only.

4. What should replace scraping exports? Answer: CSV upload, shared lists and official CRM sync.

#12What should you check before the next lesson?

• A plan chosen with a clear reason.
• One tiered account list shared by sales and marketing.
• Alerts and saved searches set.
• No scraping tools in use.

Previous: Social selling and compliant outreach · Next: LinkedIn Ads objectives and formats

Or return to the LinkedIn Marketing for Marketers track.

Related: Social selling and compliant outreach · Targeting, matched audiences and ABM · n8n CRM and HubSpot workflows

#13Common questions

What is the difference between Sales Navigator Core, Advanced and Advanced Plus? Core is a single-user plan with Advanced Search, 50 InMail credits a month, lists, alerts and the Relationship Map. Advanced adds team features such as shared lists, CSV book-of-business upload, Smart Links, Buyer Intent and TeamLink. Advanced Plus adds two-way CRM sync, embedded profiles and ROI reporting.

Does Sales Navigator integrate with HubSpot or Salesforce? Yes, on Advanced Plus. LinkedIn lists CRM sync for supported CRMs including Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics 365, HubSpot and Oracle Sales. Use these official integrations rather than scraping or third-party export tools.

What are Account IQ and Lead IQ? They are AI summaries in Sales Navigator. Account IQ summarises a company from LinkedIn and public data and can be turned on or off by admins. Lead IQ summarises a lead's profile and activity; LinkedIn says it is on by default and available in English.

Should marketers use Sales Navigator? Often yes in account-based marketing. Marketers use it to build and check target account lists, see Buyer Intent signals, share content with Smart Links and keep SDR prospecting aligned with ad targeting.