How do you open LinkedIn Sales Navigator?
Sign in at linkedin.com/sales, or open it from LinkedIn itself. LinkedIn's Access Sales Navigator help page, checked 4 November 2026, gives these desktop steps:
- In the upper-right corner of LinkedIn, click the For Business icon and select Sales Navigator, or click the Me icon and select Sales Navigator account.
- If you aren't signed in yet, enter the email address and password of your personal LinkedIn account. If you're assigned to more than one Sales Navigator account, pick one.
- Click Sign In. The Sales Navigator homepage opens in a separate window.
- To go back, click the Me icon in the upper-right corner and click Go to LinkedIn.com.
You need your own subscription or a licence from your employer. Your first sign-in starts onboarding, which may ask a few quick questions to personalise recommendations. Link the LinkedIn account you use most for your network, as the account linking page advises; LinkedIn allows one account per member.
On a phone, use the separate Sales Navigator app, which needs iOS 13.0 or Android 5.0 or later. LinkedIn says you can't reach admin functions such as email notification settings from the app, so set those on desktop. If you're still deciding whether Core is worth the US$119.99 a month LinkedIn lists, read our post on whether Sales Navigator is worth it for a solo founder first.
What should you set up before your first search?
Two things: personas, and the settings that switch on job-change alerts.
Personas. Sales Navigator starts you with two default personas, Director + and CXO, and lets you create three more, for a maximum of five. You can run a lead search by persona, and Relationship Explorer uses your persona to pick up to eight suggested leads on each account. To create one on desktop (LinkedIn's steps):
- Click Personas near the top right of the page, then Create a new persona + at the bottom.
- Enter a name of up to 35 characters.
- Choose Functions, Seniority level, Current job title and Geography. For Geography you can add regions or postal codes, not both at once.
- Click Save in the lower-right corner.
Job-change alerts. LinkedIn says you must save leads and accounts to get alerts, and job-change alerts need settings switched on. Open Settings from your photo in the upper-right corner, then, per LinkedIn's alerts page, turn on Top Weekly Notifications on the Email notifications tab, and A lead started a position at a new company and A lead started a position at the same company on the In-product notifications tab.
How do you search for leads and accounts?
From the homepage: click Lead filters or Account filters, or type a name or keyword in the search bar and press Enter. Results refresh as you add filters, and each filter has Include and Exclude options. The search steps page adds two things that explain odd results: matches can include related keyword variations, and if a lead search finds nothing, Sales Navigator may adjust one filter to show the closest matching leads. Select Edit filters to return to your exact criteria.
Which filter for which job. Definitions are from LinkedIn's filter definitions page, updated two weeks before 4 November 2026.
| What you want | Filter to use | How LinkedIn defines it |
|---|---|---|
| People at a likely moment to buy | Changed jobs | Leads who changed jobs in the last 90 days |
| People active enough to see a message | Posted on LinkedIn | Leads who created a post in the last 30 days |
| A warm way in | Past colleague; Shared experiences | Leads who once worked at your company; leads who share groups, schools or companies with you |
| People who already know you | Following your company; Viewed your profile recently | Followers of your company's LinkedIn Page; leads who recently viewed your profile |
| People new in their seat | Years in current position | Years since the lead started the current role |
| Companies hiring or growing | Job opportunities; Company headcount growth (account filters) | Accounts with open jobs posted on LinkedIn; employee growth over the last 12 months |
| Leaving out people you've contacted | People you interacted with, set to Exclude | Leads you have saved, viewed or contacted |
| Accounts showing interest in you (Advanced and Advanced Plus only) | Account has buyer intent | Leads at accounts showing high or moderate interest in your company in the past 30 days, from InMail and ad engagement, Page views and profile views |
Boolean. LinkedIn's Boolean search page says operators work in the Company, title and keyword fields, up to about 15 of them. Type AND, OR and NOT in capitals and use straight quotation marks; curly quotes and the * wildcard aren't supported. Quotes are read first, then parentheses, then NOT, AND and OR. A sample title string: ("head of finance" OR "finance director") NOT (interim OR assistant). Our guide to finding leads on LinkedIn without Sales Navigator has more strings by role.
LinkedIn's Search in Sales Navigator page warns that browser plugins and extensions may limit searching and may lead to restrictions; its usage and restrictions page says temporary restrictions are generally lifted after 24 hours.
How do saved searches, lists and alerts work together?
A saved search finds new people each week, a list holds the people you've chosen, and alerts tell you when something changes. LinkedIn's B2B Institute says its research shows 95% of your potential buyers aren't ready to buy today, and advises lead generation aimed at the 5% who are, alongside far more brand advertising that reaches the whole category. In our view, a weekly feed of new matches is one way to spot people as they become ready.
Save a search. On desktop, run your search, then turn on the Save search to get notified of new results toggle near the top of the filters pane, and rename it with the Edit icon. In the iOS or Android app, tap the search box, enter a name or phrase, tap Lead or Account, tap the Filter icon in the upper-left corner, then turn on Be first to know when new leads match at the bottom of the screen.
New matches arrive by weekly email and in the homepage's All alerts tab, and you can keep 50 lead searches and 50 account searches. Editing a saved search saves your changes as a copy, and you can then delete the original.
Save people to lists. Click Save next to a person in the results. LinkedIn's saving leads page says you can hold up to 1,000 leads in each list and 10,000 in total, save 25 at a time, and that saving a lead also saves the company as an account. To start a list, click Lists, choose Lead Lists or Account Lists, click Create lead/account list, and enter a name and description. Sharing a list with colleagues needs Advanced or Advanced Plus.
Sales Navigator also builds lists for you:
| List | Who is on it | Refreshes |
|---|---|---|
| Recommended Leads | Up to 100 suggestions from your activity and buyer intent signals | Every Monday |
| New Executives at Saved Accounts | CXO and VP hires at your saved accounts in the past 3 months | Weekly |
| Recently Accepted Connections and InMails | People who accepted your connection request, or accepted or answered your InMail, in the last 30 days | Daily |
| My CRM Leads and Contacts; My CRM Accounts | Records imported from a connected CRM | Needs a CRM connection |
LinkedIn limits CRM integration to Advanced Plus; our guide to the Sales Navigator and Salesforce integration covers what it syncs.
Alerts worth acting on, from the alerts page: a saved account raised money, posted more jobs on LinkedIn in the past 90 days, or hired someone at director level or above; a saved lead changed jobs or roles. LinkedIn sends at most one shared-post alert per account per day.
How do you research a lead and send InMail?
Research with three built-in tools, then write. Account IQ gives an AI summary of a company on every plan, though not on every account page, and an admin can switch it off. Lead IQ does the same for a person, and Relationship Explorer suggests up to eight people at the account who match your persona and whom you haven't saved yet. LinkedIn's own generative AI FAQ says the output "can be factually wrong, misguided and/or not useful", so confirm a fact before you put it in a message.
To send InMail on desktop (LinkedIn's steps):
- Click Messaging in the top menu, then the Edit icon in the top left. Or open the lead's page and click Message.
- Add a subject of up to 200 characters and a message of up to 1,900. Your signature, up to 150 characters, counts towards the total.
- Attach a file of up to 200 MB if needed, then click Send.
In the iOS or Android app, tap Messages at the bottom, then the Edit icon in the upper-right corner, and choose the person in the To: box. Three rules to know: once you have Sales Navigator, InMail can only be sent from Sales Navigator; its inbox is separate from your LinkedIn inbox; and InMail can't be sent in bulk.
Every plan gets 50 InMail credits on the first day of each month (UTC), banks up to 150 (unused credits must be used within 90 days), and gets a credit back for each InMail answered within 90 days. A second InMail to the same person before they reply uses another credit. Before spending one, see our post on when to send InMail or a connection request.
A weekly Sales Navigator routine for a small team
Fifty credits over a 30-day month is about 12 InMails a week (50 ÷ 30 × 7 = 11.7). This routine fits that budget; the days and times are our suggestion.
Monday: clear the new names
Recommended Leads refreshes on Mondays. Open it, then the new results on your saved searches, and save the people who fit to a list, 25 at a time.
Tuesday: read account alerts
Look for funding, more job posts and senior hires at saved accounts. Each one is a reason to write this week.
Wednesday: research your top 12
Open Account IQ and Lead IQ, note one fact per person that you've checked yourself, and find a second contact in Relationship Explorer.
Thursday: send about 12 messages
InMail for people you can't otherwise reach, a connection request with a note for the rest. Exclude anyone you contacted recently with the People you interacted with filter.
Friday: answer everyone who replied
Open Recently Accepted Connections and InMails, which refreshes daily, and follow up with everyone on it.
If the weekly searching is the part you won't keep up, Siela's Lead Finder looks for a reason to reach out now, such as someone asking how to solve the problem you solve, hiring for the work you automate or changing role, scores each lead hot, warm or cold with a one-line reason, and sends within the daily goals you set.
Where can you get Sales Navigator training?
From LinkedIn itself. Its training page lists three places to learn, and a fourth sits inside the product:
- Sales Navigator Learning Center: self-guided videos, guides and courses, including certificate courses you can record on your LinkedIn profile.
- Webinars: live and recorded, in several languages, with a separate series for Core users. LinkedIn says you don't need a subscription to attend or watch.
- Club Navigator's Community Hub: tips from other users, monthly live events and groups for non-English speakers.
- Sales Navigator Coach: under your profile picture, a dashboard of suggested actions with short learning videos, according to the homepage guide.
Frequently asked questions
Do you have to pay for Sales Navigator on LinkedIn?
Yes, after any free trial. LinkedIn's plan page, updated 27 September 2026, lists Core from US$119.99 a month or US$1,079.88 a year per licence and calls its prices estimates that may exclude tax. Trials are open to members who aren't on any paid LinkedIn plan and haven't used a LinkedIn free trial in the past 365 days, and LinkedIn asks for payment details to start one.
What is the 95-5 rule on LinkedIn?
It comes from LinkedIn's B2B Institute, which says its research shows 95% of your potential buyers aren't ready to buy today and will be later. The article, by Ty Heath, Director, Market Engagement, recommends lead generation aimed at the 5% who are ready, and far more spending on brand advertising that reaches the whole category. In our view, saved searches and alerts are how a seller spots people moving into that 5%.
Can you use Sales Navigator on your phone?
Yes. The Sales Navigator app is a separate download for iOS 13.0 or later and Android 5.0 or later, in seven languages. You can browse leads and accounts, read alerts, save searches and send InMail from it. Admin functions, email notification settings and usage reports stay on desktop, and LinkedIn says the app hasn't been modified for tablets or iPads.
How many leads can you save in Sales Navigator?
Up to 10,000 leads in total, with at most 1,000 in any one list, according to LinkedIn's help page on saving leads. From search results you can save 25 at a time, and saving a person also saves their company as an account. Saved searches have their own cap: 50 for leads and 50 for accounts.
What is LinkedIn Sales Navigator?
It is LinkedIn's paid prospecting tool: advanced search filters, saved leads and accounts, custom lists, alerts and 50 InMail credits a month. LinkedIn sells three plans. Core is for one seller, Advanced adds shared lists, Buyer Intent and TeamLink for teams, and Advanced Plus adds CRM sync and embedded profiles for teams that run a supported CRM.
Sources
- LinkedIn Help: Access LinkedIn Sales Navigator (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Sales Navigator onboarding for new users (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Considerations for connecting your Sales Navigator account with your LinkedIn account (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Download the Sales Navigator mobile app (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Sales Navigator mobile app (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator: compare plans and pricing (updated 27 Sep 2026; checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Personas in Sales Navigator (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Create a persona in Sales Navigator (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Sales Navigator alerts (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Search for leads and accounts in Sales Navigator (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Sales Navigator lead and account search filter definitions (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Sales Navigator account types and features (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Using Boolean search on Sales Navigator (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Search results limit in Sales Navigator (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Search in Sales Navigator (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Sales Navigator usage, limitations, and restrictions (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn B2B Institute: 95-5 Rule (Ty Heath) (undated; checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Save lead and account searches in Sales Navigator (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Save leads in Sales Navigator (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: View and manage custom lists (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Sales Navigator Lists overview (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Recommended Leads list in Sales Navigator (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Integration between Sales Navigator and your CRM (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Get company insights with Account IQ in Sales Navigator (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: LinkedIn Sales Navigator features (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Relationship Explorer in Sales Navigator (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Generative AI in Sales Navigator (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Send an InMail message in Sales Navigator (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Understand InMail credits in Sales Navigator (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Tips, tricks, and training for Sales Navigator (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Sales Navigator homepage and navigation (checked 4 Nov 2026)