LinkedIn Sales Navigator (2026): What It Is, Key Features and How to Use It Step by Step
LinkedIn Sales Navigator explained: what it is, its key features and plans, how to use it step by step, its limits, and every Sales Navigator guide we have.
TL;DR: LinkedIn Sales Navigator is LinkedIn's paid prospecting tool for B2B sellers. It adds 50+ sales-specific search filters, saved lead and account lists with alerts, lead and account recommendations, and 50 InMail credits a month on top of a regular LinkedIn account. It comes in three plans: Core, Advanced and Advanced Plus. This guide explains what Sales Navigator is, its key features, how to use it step by step, its limits, and links to every Sales Navigator guide we've published.
What Is LinkedIn Sales Navigator?
LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a separate subscription, built on top of your LinkedIn profile, that helps sales teams find, track and contact the right people at the right companies. Where regular LinkedIn search is built for networking and recruiting, Sales Navigator is built for prospecting: it lets you search by company size, seniority, function, recent job changes and activity, then save the people and accounts you care about and get alerted when something changes.
LinkedIn sells it in three plans, which replaced the old Professional, Team and Enterprise plans in 2022:
Plan | Built for | What it adds |
|---|---|---|
Core | Individual sellers and founders | Advanced search, lead and account lists, alerts, recommendations, 50 InMail credits a month |
Advanced | Sales teams | Everything in Core plus TeamLink, Smart Links, Buyer Intent on saved accounts and team admin |
Advanced Plus | Teams that live in their CRM | Everything in Advanced plus deep CRM sync and embedded Sales Navigator views |
Prices, annual discounts, team costs and free trial rules are covered in our LinkedIn Sales Navigator pricing guide.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator Features
Advanced lead and account search
The core of Sales Navigator is its search. Lead filters cover role, seniority, function, years in role, geography and activity; account filters cover industry, headcount, headcount growth, revenue, technologies and more. Spotlight filters surface timing signals such as people who changed jobs recently or posted on LinkedIn in the last 30 days. Our guide to the Sales Navigator filters that find ready-to-buy leads covers the ten that matter most.
Lead and account lists
Save people as leads and companies as accounts, then organize them into lists by territory, campaign or priority. Lists are where most reps spend their day: they show recent activity, job changes and shared connections for everyone you're tracking.
Saved searches and alerts
Save any search and Sales Navigator will alert you when new people match it. Alerts on saved leads and accounts flag job changes, company news and when a saved lead posts on LinkedIn.
Lead and account recommendations
Sales Navigator suggests people and companies similar to the ones you've saved, based on your sales preferences (the industries, geographies and roles you sell to).
InMail
Every plan includes 50 LinkedIn InMail credits a month, so you can message people outside your network without a connection request.
Team features (Advanced)
TeamLink shows which colleagues are connected to a prospect so you can ask for an introduction. Smart Links let you share content and see who viewed it. Buyer Intent highlights saved accounts showing interest in your company.
CRM integration (Advanced Plus)
Advanced Plus syncs activity with CRMs such as Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics and HubSpot, and shows Sales Navigator data inside CRM records. Our Sales Navigator HubSpot integration guide walks through how that works and where it stops.
How to Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator: Step by Step
Set your sales preferences. Tell Sales Navigator your geographies, industries, company sizes and target functions so recommendations and alerts match your market.
Build an account list first. Search for companies that fit your ideal customer profile and save them as accounts. Starting with accounts keeps your lead search focused.
Find the right people at each account. Filter by function and seniority within your saved accounts, and save the buying committee (the user, the manager and the budget owner) as leads.
Add timing filters. Layer Spotlights such as "changed jobs in the past 90 days" and "posted on LinkedIn in the past 30 days" to find people with a reason to talk now.
Save searches and turn on alerts. Let new matches and job changes come to you instead of re-running the same searches every week.
Engage before you message. Follow saved leads, react to and comment on their posts, then connect with a short note. Our LinkedIn prospecting guide covers the message side.
Use InMail for people outside your network. Keep it short and specific, and save credits for high-fit leads who aren't connected to you.
Track it in your CRM. Log conversations and meetings so you can see which lists and filters produce pipeline.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator Tips
Keep lists small and current. A list of 100 well-chosen leads you actually work beats 2,000 saved leads you never open.
Use Boolean in keyword searches. Combine titles with OR and exclude noise with NOT, for example
"head of sales" OR "VP sales" NOT assistant.Check shared connections first. A warm introduction beats any InMail.
Review alerts daily. Job changes and recent posts lose value quickly.
Measure by list. Compare meetings booked per list to learn which segments are worth more seats and time.
What Sales Navigator Doesn't Do
Sales Navigator is excellent at finding people who fit your criteria. It is weaker at telling you who is interested right now:
It shows who fits, not who is engaging with your market. You won't see the people commenting on your competitors' posts or on posts from the creators your buyers follow.
Buyer Intent is account-level and limited to Advanced and above. It tells you a company is showing interest in yours, not which person.
It doesn't give you email addresses or phone numbers. You'll need an enrichment tool for that.
Deep CRM sync is reserved for Advanced Plus.
That is why many teams pair Sales Navigator with a signal tool. We compare the two approaches in traxy vs Sales Navigator and cover the main options in Sales Navigator alternatives for B2B prospecting.
All Our LinkedIn Sales Navigator Guides
Use this page as the starting point; each guide below goes deeper on one part of Sales Navigator.
Guide | What it covers |
|---|---|
Core, Advanced and Advanced Plus prices, team costs, the free trial and Premium vs Sales Navigator | |
The ten filters that surface leads with timing and intent, and how to stack them | |
How the HubSpot sync works, what it requires and its gaps | |
What a LinkedIn CRM is and when you need one instead of, or alongside, Sales Navigator | |
Prospecting search vs. engagement signals, and when to use each | |
Other prospecting and data tools for B2B teams | |
How InMail credits work and how to write InMails that get replies |
Frequently Asked Questions
What is LinkedIn Sales Navigator?
LinkedIn Sales Navigator is LinkedIn's paid prospecting tool for B2B sales. It adds 50+ sales-specific search filters, saved lead and account lists with alerts, lead and account recommendations and 50 InMail credits a month to a regular LinkedIn account. It comes in three plans: Core for individual sellers, Advanced for teams and Advanced Plus for CRM-integrated organizations.
How do you use LinkedIn Sales Navigator?
Set your sales preferences, build an account list of companies that fit your ideal customer profile, find the buying committee at each account, add timing filters like recent job changes, save searches with alerts, engage with leads' posts before messaging, use InMail for people outside your network and track the results in your CRM.
What are the main LinkedIn Sales Navigator features?
The main features are advanced lead and account search with 50+ filters, saved lead and account lists, saved searches with alerts, lead and account recommendations and 50 InMail credits a month. Advanced adds TeamLink, Smart Links and Buyer Intent; Advanced Plus adds deep CRM integration with tools such as Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics and HubSpot.
Is LinkedIn Sales Navigator worth it?
It's usually worth it if you prospect on LinkedIn every day and need advanced filters, lists and alerts. It's harder to justify for occasional prospecting, where regular LinkedIn search may be enough. Sales Navigator shows who fits your criteria but not who is engaging with your market right now, so many teams pair it with a signal tool.
What is the difference between LinkedIn Premium and Sales Navigator?
LinkedIn Premium Business is built for networking and personal branding, with fewer InMail credits and no sales-specific search. Sales Navigator is built for prospecting, with 50+ sales filters, lead and account lists, alerts and CRM integrations. Our Sales Navigator pricing guide compares the two plan by plan.
The Bottom Line
LinkedIn Sales Navigator is the standard tool for finding the right people on LinkedIn: better search, organized lists and alerts that keep you on top of your accounts. Its gap is timing. It tells you who fits, not who is paying attention today. traxy fills that gap by tracking who engages with your posts, your competitors' posts and the creators your buyers follow, matching them against your ICP and sending them to Slack or your CRM, so your Sales Navigator lists start with the people already showing interest.
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