Introduction: Why Sales Navigator Still Matters in 2025

LinkedIn Sales Navigator remains one of the most powerful tools for modern sales and marketing professionals. It gives users access to the world’s largest network of verified professionals, helping B2B teams discover decision-makers, follow company updates, and identify warm introduction paths.

Even in an era of AI-driven prospecting, Sales Navigator continues to play a foundational role — offering visibility into who you should talk to and when they might be ready to engage.

However, as sales workflows become more automated, tools like Boomerang AI are emerging to complement Sales Navigator by turning those insights into actionable, relationship-driven workflows right inside your CRM or Slack.

This guide walks you through how to use LinkedIn Sales Navigator step by step — and where tools like Boomerang fit into a modern GTM stack.

Step 1: Set Up Your Sales Navigator Account

Before diving into searches or lists, make sure your Sales Navigator account is properly configured.

1. Choose the Right Plan:
   • Core: For individual sellers who prospect manually.
   • Advanced: Adds CRM integration and TeamLink features.
   • Advanced Plus: Designed for enterprise teams with Salesforce sync and reporting.
2. Connect Your CRM (If Supported):
   Syncing with Salesforce helps you log InMails and track lead status — though the integration is limited to basic data fields.

💡 Pro Tip: Sales Navigator’s Salesforce sync updates basic fields, but not automatically. For continuous CRM hygiene, relationship intelligence tools like Boomerang AI automate this process in real time — detecting job changes and enriching contacts automatically.

Step 2: Build Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

Before searching, define who you’re trying to reach.

• What industries or company sizes fit your product?
• Who are the decision-makers — CMOs, CTOs, or procurement leads?
• Are you targeting companies in a specific growth stage or funding category?

Once you know your ICP, create saved searches inside Sales Navigator. This allows LinkedIn’s algorithm to refine recommendations and send you alerts as new matching prospects appear.

🧭 ICP Example:

🧩 Advanced Tip: Boomerang AI can complement this step by automatically syncing your ICP filters with live CRM data — ensuring your lists stay accurate even as contacts move jobs.

Step 3: Use Advanced Search Filters Effectively

Sales Navigator’s Advanced Search is its most powerful feature.
Here’s how to use it like a pro:

1. Start Broad, Then Narrow:
   Begin with company-level filters, then layer in seniority and role.
2. Use Keywords Strategically:
   Focus on intent-related terms like “pipeline,” “GTM,” or “digital transformation.”
3. Filter by Spotlights:
   These highlight leads who recently posted, changed jobs, or follow your company.

Example Filter Stack:

• Geography: United States
• Industry: Internet or Software
• Title: “VP of Sales”
• Company Headcount: 500–2,000
• Spotlights: “Changed job in past 90 days”

This combination surfaces warm, active leads who are more likely to engage.

💡 AI Enhancement: Boomerang AI uses this same logic automatically — but extends it beyond LinkedIn data, analyzing meeting histories and CRM overlaps to surface even warmer paths that aren’t visible on Sales Navigator.

Step 4: Save Leads and Accounts for Tracking

When you find relevant prospects, click Save as Lead or Save as Account.

This activates alerts for:

• Job changes
• Shared connections
• Company funding announcements
• New hires in key roles

You’ll receive regular email digests summarizing these activities, helping you stay in the loop.

However, remember that Sales Navigator alerts require manual review. You’ll still need to take action — adding new leads to your CRM, creating follow-up tasks, or sending outreach messages.

🔄 Pro Tip: This is where Boomerang AI complements Sales Navigator beautifully. Instead of static alerts, Boomerang’s AI Relationship Agents automatically update CRM records and trigger follow-up workflows when a champion moves or a new decision-maker enters the buying group.

Step 5: Use TeamLink for Warm Introductions

One of Sales Navigator’s most underused features is TeamLink — a view that shows whether anyone in your organization is connected to a target prospect.

For example, if a colleague previously worked with a lead or shares a mutual connection, TeamLink displays that relationship. You can then request an introduction directly through LinkedIn or internally through email.

This feature boosts response rates significantly, but it’s limited to connections visible within LinkedIn.

🌐 Extended Intelligence: Tools like Boomerang AI go beyond LinkedIn visibility by mapping relationships from internal calendars, past meeting data, and shared deals — helping your team uncover hidden warm paths that Sales Navigator can’t see.

Step 6: Craft Personalized Outreach Using InMail

InMail is your direct line to prospects outside your immediate network.

Best Practices:

• Keep messages under 100 words.
• Start with a shared connection or relevant insight.
• Avoid pitching in the first message — focus on conversation.
• Use context (e.g., “I noticed you just joined X as Head of Sales…”).

Personalized, relevant InMails can achieve response rates up to 40%, compared to under 10% for cold emails.

💬 Pro Tip: When paired with AI tools like Boomerang, you can automate follow-ups and personalize messages based on relationship context (meeting history, shared accounts, etc.) — turning outreach into a warmer, more human experience.

Step 7: Analyze and Refine Your Results

Sales Navigator includes a dashboard that shows:

• InMail response rates
• Saved lead engagement
• Connection growth
• Team activity metrics

Use these insights to refine your ICP or adjust search filters.

If you’re managing a sales team, consider integrating Sales Navigator reports with CRM dashboards (available in Advanced Plus) to track how your LinkedIn efforts translate into pipeline activity.

📊 AI Bonus Insight: Boomerang AI adds predictive intelligence here — highlighting which relationships are “warming up” based on multi-channel signals, and where your team might be losing touch with key accounts.

Step 8: Combine LinkedIn Sales Navigator with Relationship Intelligence

The future of prospecting isn’t about choosing one tool over another — it’s about integration.

Sales Navigator is unmatched for discovering who to reach.
Relationship Intelligence tools like Boomerang AI make it easy to know how and when to reach them.

When used together, you get a complete sales system:

• Sales Navigator: Identifies potential buyers.
• Boomerang AI: Automates follow-up, CRM updates, and warm-intro detection.

That’s the evolution from data → to action → to revenue.

Conclusion: Modern Selling Starts with Relationships

LinkedIn Sales Navigator remains a cornerstone for modern B2B prospecting — and when combined with the power of Relationship Intelligence, it becomes even more effective.

By mastering Sales Navigator’s search, lead tracking, and outreach capabilities, and pairing them with automation tools like Boomerang AI, your team can spend less time managing data and more time building meaningful connections that drive results.

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