If you were to ask a typical B2B sales reps which social network they find the most valuable, I’m guessing most would be pretty quickly answer, “LinkedIn.”

You can filter your updates

Like your normal LinkedIn news feed, the Navigator home page presents updates from the accounts and contacts in your network. Reps have the option to filter these quickly by company updates, content shares and general contact updates (role changes, work anniversaries, etc.) to narrow their focus and more easily stay in touch with what their contacts are up to.

It comes with “premium profile” options

I’m calling this one out because successful social selling really should start here. Yet while I noted the comfort level many reps have with LinkedIn (when compared to Twitter or Facebook, at least), it’s amazing how many struggle with creating a decent profile for themselves. (Or maybe they simply lack the interest in doing so).

Messaging

Sales professionals are becoming cognizant that buyers are completing much more of the purchase process before they even speak with a sales person. In response to this trend, Sales Professionals need to be much more informed and knowledgeable about their accounts and the business issues before they ever pick up the phone or have the first meeting. Gone are the days when a sales rep has the liberty to “go to school” on the prospect in the first meeting and interrogate them without adding value.

Using LinkedIn Sales Navigator, we can follow the company and capture the key decision makers as Leads, which will allow us to get individual “Lead Updates” and “Lead Shares” from these prospects. Our goal is to learn about what they are interested in and what they care about, before we connect.