LinkedIn updates Sales Navigator

Microsoft-owned LinkedIn is out today with its second major update to its Sales Navigator tool, which helps salespeople mine the data-rich professional social network.

There’s now a new Enterprise Edition, complementing the existing Professional Edition for individuals and Team Edition for groups of salespeople. Enterprise increases InMails and introduces Single Sign-On.

InMails are in-network messages, which are unlimited as long as the recipients respond. The Enterprise version increases the monthly allotment of InMails that do not get responses from 30 to 50.

A new TeamLink Extend in Enterprise lets anyone in a subscribing organization offer their LinkedIn network to that organization’s pool, which can help someone who’s looking for an introduction to a possible customer.

PointDrive, acquired last year by LinkedIn, is now integrated into the Team and Enterprise Editions at no extra charge. Instead of adding a series of email attachments like slideshows or PDFs when reaching out to a lead, a salesperson simply sends a link to a customized web page that she has generated in PointDrive. Here’s a sample page created with PointDrive:

And a new CRM Sync allows a salesperson to send Navigator info to an integrated CRM, initially starting with Salesforce.

After writing notes about a phone call in Sales Navigator, for instance, a salesperson can click a switch on the screen and the notes are automatically included with that lead’s record in the CRM:

As I’ve learned from other vendors of sales tools, many salespeople don’t put all of their info on pending deals into their CRM, because it might tempt their supervisor to hound them about getting the deals closed.

There are also new CRM Widgets, which show Sales Navigator info like work history and job titles inside supported CRMs, starting with Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics.

LinkedIn Head of Products Doug Camplejohn told me his company sees itself as one of three essential tabs that salespeople keep open, the other two being email and a CRM.

This is the latest in a series of improvements to Navigator over the last year, including deeper integrations with customer relationship management systems, a new Gmail integration, and a new account and lead discovery feature in the mobile app.

Camplejohn said these updates are part of LinkedIn’s effort, begun last year, to “build connective tissue” between the social network and other platforms used by salespeople and marketers.

About The Author

Barry Levine

Barry Levine covers marketing technology for Third Door Media. Previously, he covered this space as a Senior Writer for VentureBeat, and he has written about these and other tech subjects for such publications as CMSWire and NewsFactor. He founded and led the web site/unit at PBS station Thirteen/WNET; worked as an online Senior Producer/writer for Viacom; created a successful interactive game, PLAY IT BY EAR: The First CD Game; founded and led an independent film showcase, CENTER SCREEN, based at Harvard and M.I.T.; and served over five years as a consultant to the M.I.T. Media Lab. You can find him at LinkedIn, and on Twitter at xBarryLevine.