What is LinkedIn Sales Navigator and how do you use it?

LinkedIn's own guide describes these main tools:

• Advanced Lead Search. LinkedIn's how-to guide says it has more than 40 filters; the plans page says 50+. Start with function or seniority, then narrow by company, headcount or region.
• Saved leads and accounts, with alerts when a saved lead changes jobs.
• Lead Pages and Account Pages that gather a person's or company's recent posts, job changes, headcount and hiring trends.
• TeamLink, which shows leads connected to your colleagues so you can ask for an introduction.
• Personas: saved descriptions of your ideal customer that you can reuse as a search filter.
• InMail credits: 50 a month on Core, building up to a maximum of 150. They refresh on the 1st of each month.

Sources: LinkedIn Sales Solutions: How to use LinkedIn Sales Navigator, checked 15 October 2026; LinkedIn Sales Navigator: Compare pricing and plans, checked 15 October 2026; LinkedIn Help: InMail message credits and renewal process, checked 15 October 2026

LinkedIn's plans page listed these starting prices per licence on 15 October 2026:

• In the UK, Core was listed from £94.99 a month and Advanced from £130.00. LinkedIn says prices are estimates, may exclude VAT, GST or discounts, and can change.
• Free trials are offered on Core and Advanced. You qualify if you aren't on a paid LinkedIn subscription (including Premium) and haven't used a LinkedIn free trial in the past 365 days. Availability varies by plan and region, and the page doesn't state the trial length.
• If your employer gave you a seat, use the link in your activation email instead.
• Only Advanced and Advanced Plus can share lists with colleagues.

Sources: LinkedIn Sales Navigator: Compare pricing and plans, checked 15 October 2026; LinkedIn Sales Solutions: How to use LinkedIn Sales Navigator, checked 15 October 2026; LinkedIn Help: View and manage custom lists in Sales Navigator, checked 15 October 2026

From a search:

1. On the Sales Navigator homepage, click All filters next to the search bar, then Lead filters, and enter your criteria.
2. Click Search.
3. Click Save next to each profile you want.
4. To save several at once, tick the checkbox above the results and click Save to list.

• You can save up to 1,000 leads per list and 10,000 leads in total, and 25 at a time from search results.
• Saving a lead also saves their company as an account.
• After you save a lead, Sales Navigator suggests similar leads based on their title and seniority.

Source: LinkedIn Help: View and save leads in Sales Navigator, checked 15 October 2026

To create a list:

1. From the Sales Navigator homepage, open Lists and choose Lead Lists or Account Lists.
2. Select the option to create a list, add a name and description, and confirm.
3. To get alerts, run a lead or account search, adjust the filters, and turn on the save toggle at the top of the left-hand filter panel.

• Each saved search sends a weekly email to your Sales Navigator address when there are new matches, and they also show under the All alerts tab on the homepage.
• You can save up to 50 lead searches and 50 account searches.
• System lists such as Recommended Leads can't be deleted.
• Account lists can also be built by importing a CSV file.

Sources: LinkedIn Help: View and manage custom lists in Sales Navigator, checked 15 October 2026; LinkedIn Help: Save lead and account searches in Sales Navigator, checked 15 October 2026

Sales Navigator has its own inbox and its own InMail rules:

• Each InMail uses a credit. Your remaining count shows in the compose window.
• Subject lines can be 200 characters and the message 1,900, including a signature of up to 150. Attachments can be up to 200 MB.
• You can't bulk send; each InMail goes individually. The help page says message templates aren't available, although LinkedIn's how-to guide suggests personalising messages with templates, so check what your plan shows.
• Sales Navigator messages don't appear in your normal LinkedIn inbox.
• Premium InMail credits can't be used in Sales Navigator.

Sources: LinkedIn Help: Send an InMail message in Sales Navigator, checked 15 October 2026; LinkedIn Help: InMail message credits and renewal process, checked 15 October 2026; LinkedIn Sales Solutions: How to use LinkedIn Sales Navigator, checked 15 October 2026

Common problems:

Sources: LinkedIn Sales Navigator: Compare pricing and plans, checked 15 October 2026; LinkedIn Help: View and save leads in Sales Navigator, checked 15 October 2026; LinkedIn Help: View and manage custom lists in Sales Navigator, checked 15 October 2026; LinkedIn Help: Save lead and account searches in Sales Navigator, checked 15 October 2026; LinkedIn Help: Send an InMail message in Sales Navigator, checked 15 October 2026; LinkedIn Help: InMail message credits and renewal process, checked 15 October 2026

Zolyp, which publishes this guide, is our own product, so weigh this section with that in mind. Sales Navigator is for finding and messaging prospects one by one, which Zolyp doesn't do. Zolyp writes and schedules your LinkedIn posts, so a prospect who looks you up after your message finds recent posts on your profile or company Page. LinkedIn is one of the 9 platforms it publishes to (Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Business, X, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, and Threads), and you approve the week before anything goes live. Plans that create the posts start at $29 a month, with a 3-day free trial.