Welcome back and here’s hoping you had a great new year! As we start the new year of 2019, I’ll be sharing a new up-leveled version of LinkedIn with you.  Specifically, I’ll be showing you around LinkedIn’s premium level of services, Sales Navigator and all the benefits, ins, outs, and tips surrounding this up-leveling tool! And, coming up this month also a few other updates that are kicking in for LinkedIn this new year including voice messaging (more ways to have conversations!), a relaunch of LinkedIn pages with new business features…

WHAT IS SALES NAVIGATOR? Sales Navigator is basically LinkedIn on steroids giving you a much more in depth ability for prospecting, and insights to build and nurture meaningful business relationships.

WHY SHOULD LAWYERS CONSIDER THIS TOOL? 

This LinkedIn level gives you advanced lead and company search capabilities to find the right people and companies with a very targeted and unique search experience.

It also intelligently gives you lead recommendations that allows you to quickly discovery the right people at your target accounts or relationships with intelligent spot on suggestions that are customized for you based on your searches and interactions.

Through Sales Navigator you’ll receive real-time insights and updates on your accounts and leads including job changes, recognition, and plenty of other updates so you can reach out if you like.

And, you can also see who has been stalking you lately. You get an expanded view of who’s viewed your profile and reach out to them while they’re warm to start up or continue a well time engagement.

Notes and Tags are a feature that gives someone like me who is juggling a full schedule a way to easily recall my last interaction or conversation with someone by adding Notes and Tags. This way I can organize my leads and feed them back into my CRM to better track.

One of the tools I’ve found the most beneficial is the Inmail feature. Inmails are messages sent directly to another LinkedIn member you’re not yet connected to. In the professional version you are given 20 credits/messages. Use this feature judiciously! Do not send a direct message unless there is a very good reason. Be sure to understand what your potential connection is whether through mutual connections, shared groups, or shared business opportunities. My personal preference is to send only if I believe I can offer something of unique and relevant value to this particular person in some way.

Finally, you can integrate Sales Navigator with a number of CRMs (Client Relations Management) options in a variety of ways so you can automatically save the leads and accounts you are engaging with and log your activity to a CRM in one click. Very sleek.

Sales Navigator comes in three flavors, Professional, Team and Enterprise, priced at $79/mo, $129/mo, and negotiated at the Enterprise level, with a free trial at each level.

How to most efficiently set up and use Sales Navigator is another conversation, and one I’d be happy to have with you if you are at all intrigued by the possibilities of extending your network of prospective clients and / or referral network.

Reach out for complimentary (and no pitch) chat and I’ll share how you can incorporate into your own practice to generate high quality leads daily! (I’ve got a few LI Sales Navigator secrets and hacks I’ve developed over time that will accelerate your engagement if you are looking to expand your clientele).  Best way to reach me is via – wait for it – LinkedIn! Viveca Hess, and if you mention you heard about this on this blog post, I’ll share a 10 point Sales Navigator set up document that walks you through an easy step by step process to integrate this great tool into your marketing plan.

Out for now, and next week I’ll explore some of the most relevant updates and new LinkedIn features for lawyers and their growth!