LinkedIn Updates Sales Navigator with Virtual Selling Capabilities

LinkedIn this week introduced a set of features for LinkedIn Sales Navigator to help sellers build and maintain relationships online.

The new features include Real-Time Insights, with Smart Links enhancements that arm sellers with immediate insights into what content matters most to their buyers based on what they read and share with colleagues.

Lindsey Edwards, senior director of product management for sales solutions and enterprise platform at LinkedIn, notes that understanding which information is resonating with buyers can be especially challenging when you are unable to meet in-person and read body language.

The additions help users package and share content without leaving the Sales Navigator workflow, while also tracking engagement.

The Smart Link enhancements further allow users to do the following:

• Create a Smart Link from within InMail;
• Access created Smart Links from messaging on mobile devices;
• Receive alerts when someone is engaging with content; and
• Log activity directly back to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales or Salesforce CRMs to track how buyers engaged with content.

Sales Navigator administrators can now track Smart Link usage to better understand how often reps are sending content and which reps are getting the most views.

Also new to the app is Notes in Sales Navigator enhancements to drive deeper collaboration. LinkedIn consolidated Notes and Comments into Notes shared in Sales Navigator Lists, Lead Pages, and Account Pages to help users find information across the Sales Navigator platform.

"In this new world of sales, collaboration is even more critical, and this new singular notes view allows you to decide whether you want to make your notes private or public, which allows your colleagues to see your notes on relevant accounts and leads," Edwards explained.

The Sales app also now features Contact Creation for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales to ensure the entire sales organization is collaborating on leads and ensuring the CRM is up to date with the most accurate information.

This, Edwards said, lets users create contact records in their CRM systems directly from a Sales Navigator Lead Page or Lead Lists.

And finally, a new Alerts Panel allows interactions to be saved with leads directly from the Sales Navigator homepage.

"Our new Alerts panel is designed to help you easily interact with buyers from within the Sales Navigator homepage. The new panel allows you to like, comment, and share any time a saved lead posts or shares on LinkedIn without leaving Sales Navigator.Small gestures, like this, can go a long way in building and nurturing relationships," Edwards said.

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