LinkedIn Adds Features to Sales Navigator

Microsoft's LinkedIn has updated Sales Navigator with a number of new features, including Data Validation, which ensures CRM contacts are always up to date; new administrator tools; new alerts, like location from a Bing geography integration; and new list functions.

Using LinkedIn profiles, Data Validation automatically flags contacts who are longer at companies listed in CRM databases. It also highlights opportunities at risk, proactively identifying when a buyer has left an open opportunity; past customers at new companies, identifying contacts at current customers who have joined new companies; and out-of-date contacts that need to be updated.

For Sales Navigator administrators, Usage Reporting is getting a new look and new metrics.These include the following:

• InMail performance stats, displaying reps' InMail send and acceptance rates, how many messages teams send each month, the average number of InMails sent per active user, and the InMail acceptance rate (when a LinkedIn member responds positively);
• Expertise levels, displaying each team member's Coach level with Sales Navigator and who needs to spend more time training;
• New filters by custom date ranges, groups, and users;
• CSV export; and
• Updated functionality for Saved Leads and Saved Accounts to include all save actions.

LinkedIn also integrated geography data from Microsoft's Bing search engine technology and added coverage for 2.4 million more cities and more than 2,000 new states/provinces.

A new Funding Events Spotlight alerts users to companies that have completed funding rounds and brings that information to the top of search results within the Spotlight tab.

For enhanced collaboration, List owners will now be able to designate "View Only" or "Edit" permissions for collaborators.

LinkedIn also added integrations with Salesforce.com's Tableau platform and Microsoft's own PowerBI as part of the Sales Navigator Application Platform (SNAP) program. These new integrations allow users to view and analyze Sales Navigator usage data with new workbook templates.

And finally, LinkedIn also updated its Oracle Sales Cloud integration, which now has embedded profiles on Lead and Account pages (in addition to Contacts, which were previously supported).

Doug Camplejohn, LinkedIn's vice president of product management for sales solutions, said in a blog post earlier today that the changes make Sales Navigator "your CRM's best friend."