The Key Sales Navigator Feature You Need to Use

 Sales Navigator is a paid subscription service provided by LinkedIn. Their tagline is ‘More Leads. Bigger Deals’, which summarises what it’s all about: a prospecting and sales insights tool. Prospecting means finding the right customers for you, and sales insights helps you know what you’re doing well so that you can do more of it.  

With options for both individuals and businesses, Sales Navigator supports you to make the most of your connections, while amplifying your visibility and creating opportunities to link with new customers.  

How do you use it? Well, it’s success all comes down to filters. 

Search filters will help you: 
·       Find new leads that work for your book. 
·       Make relevant connections to help promote your book to the right audience. 
·       Drive the right conversations to turn connections into visibility and avenues for sales. 

How best to use the filters? For the technicalities there’s a step-by-step guide provided here.

For maximum efficiency, we recommend the following steps: 

1.     Boolean search - named after the man of the same name, this is a search function which allows you to narrow or broaden your searches using the search parameters ‘AND’, ‘OR’ and ‘NOT’. For example, if you want to connect with booksellers in London with less than 20 staff, the Boolean search enables you to do that. Tailored searches equal relevant results and time saved. 

2.      Save your searches – tweaking your search criteria to maximise output can take time, so make sure you save all your searches. This way you can return to them at any time, and easily dip back into to your desired prospect pool. 

3.     Post midweek - between 5- 6pm. Studies have shown this to be the best time to post for maximum visibility. 
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Of course, no function is perfect. There are a couple of things to be aware of: 

1.     Paid subscription service – Sales Navigator isn’t free, which could be off-putting for some. However, it does offer a month’s free trial, so have a go first to see if it’s the right fit for you. 

2.     Book sales – realistically, this isn’t the best platform for quick sales. The service is great for increasing visibility, which in turn should eventually help you market your book more successfully and therefore promote sales. However, if you’re looking for short-term and speedy sales, then you might be better off putting your money elsewhere (our blog which looks at maximising sales on Amazon could be a good place to start). 

We recommend you give the trial a go (who doesn’t love something for free?) and see how you can make the best of this tool by prioritising the search filter. As an independent self-published author, you need to think of yourself as a small business. Tailored connections and visibility are key. 

If you’re still not sure what the right first step is for you, we can support you post-publication. Or, if you’re willing to go it alone, we offer more tailored author services to help you secure more publicity for your work. Take a look at our marketing blog here, or contact us for an initial chat—we’d love to hear from you.