How to use LinkedIn Sales Navigator
Sales Navigator adds search filters, saved leads and accounts, alerts, InMail and a set of research tools on top of a regular LinkedIn account. Start by searching with the Company, Role and Personal filters, save what you find into a list of up to 1,000 leads, then use your 50 monthly InMail credits to reach the ones a normal connection request cannot. Checked 28 September 2026.
PortifyLead saves the LinkedIn profile you are viewing, including a Sales Navigator lead or account page, straight to the CRM you already use. So we read every screen a Sales Navigator workflow passes through for what it actually does before that save happens.
| What | The limit |
|---|---|
| Lead search results per search | 2,500 leads (100 pages) |
| Account search results per search | 1,000 accounts (40 pages) |
| Saved searches | 50 lead searches, 50 account searches |
| Leads per list | 1,000, up to 10,000 saved in total |
| Leads saved from one results page | 25 at a time |
| Boolean operators per search | 15 |
| InMail credits a month | 50, up to 150 held |
How do you search for leads and accounts?
Lead search filters are grouped as Company, Role, Personal, Buyer Intent, Best Path In, Recent Updates and Workflow; account search uses Company attributes, Spotlights and Workflow. Company filters cover current and past company, headcount and headquarters; Role covers function, title, seniority and time in the job; Personal covers geography down to postal code, industry, language, experience, Groups and school.
Best Path In narrows to first, second or third-degree connections, TeamLink connections, past colleagues and shared experiences, which turns a broad title search into a shorter list of people you already have a way to reach. Typed keywords get filter suggestions as you type, and results can include related keyword variations, not only exact matches.
How does Boolean search work in Sales Navigator?
Boolean works in the keyword, company and title fields: AND, OR and NOT, typed in uppercase, evaluated in the order quotes, then parentheses, then NOT, then AND, then OR. A search such as “vp sales” AND (fintech OR payments) NOT recruiter narrows a broad title to the accounts that matter. One query can use up to 15 Boolean operators, the wildcard * is not supported, and only straight quotation marks work, not curly ones.
How do you save leads, accounts and searches?
Saving a lead also saves that lead’s company as an account, so you rarely do both separately. A lead list holds up to 1,000 leads, you can hold 10,000 leads across all your lists, and from a page of search results you can save 25 at once. You can also save up to 50 lead searches and 50 account searches for later.
Some lists build themselves: CRM imports, up to 100 recommended leads, new executives at accounts you have saved, and people who recently accepted your connection request. LinkedIn’s custom-list documentation limits sharing to Advanced and Advanced Plus. Checked 30 September 2026.
What do Sales Navigator’s alerts tell you?
A saved search sends new matches as a weekly email and as an alert on the Sales Navigator homepage. Lead alerts cover job changes, role changes, posts and reshares, profile views, accepted connections, engagement with your content and Smart Link views. Account alerts cover shared updates, new job postings in the past 90 days, mergers and acquisitions, accelerated or slowing growth, funding, senior hires and talent moving to another account you track.
How do you message a lead with InMail?
InMail lets you message anyone on LinkedIn without an introduction or their contact details, and LinkedIn’s plan comparison lists 50 monthly credits for each tier. Its credit rules allow up to 150 to accumulate. Both checked 30 September 2026. An InMail that gets accepted, declined or answered within 90 days is credited back, so a reply-heavy month can cost less than 50 sends. Message Assist can draft a first-touch InMail with AI, in English only, for a lead you have not messaged before.
Notes on a saved lead or account are visible only to you, inside Sales Navigator; nothing there reaches the lead. For how credits renew, roll over and get credited back in detail, see our guide to LinkedIn InMail credits.
What do Account IQ, Lead IQ and the other research tools do?
Account IQ puts company insights, buyer priorities and financials on an account page, on all three plans, though not for every company. Lead IQ is an AI summary of a lead and their company, also on all three plans, and needs at least three public insights on the profile to generate one. LinkedIn’s Relationship Explorer documentation lists all editions, with TeamLink and past-customer insights limited to Advanced and Advanced Plus. Checked 30 September 2026.
Relationship Map is on all three plans too: up to 10 maps per account, 30 leads per map, with roles for Decision Maker, Champion, Evaluator, Procurement and Influencer. TeamLink’s help page lists Advanced and Advanced Plus eligibility. Checked 30 September 2026.
How do you use Sales Navigator for lead generation, start to finish?
The four pieces above chain together into one workflow: filter a search down to the accounts and roles you want, save the results into a list, let alerts tell you when something changes, and send an InMail when a normal connection request will not reach the person. Account IQ and Lead IQ sit inside that loop as a shortcut past reading the whole profile and company page yourself before you decide whether to reach out.
None of that puts a contact in your CRM. LinkedIn’s CRM Sync documentation requires Advanced Plus and lists the supported systems. This is a documented eligibility claim, not our observation of a live sync. Checked 30 September 2026.
Can you export leads from Sales Navigator?
No. LinkedIn gives no way to export leads or accounts to CSV or XLS; the alternative it names is CRM sync, and that is Advanced Plus only, limited to HubSpot, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Oracle Sales and Salesforce. If your CRM is one of the other two, or a spreadsheet, Sales Navigator has no built-in route to it at any tier. See what Advanced Plus costs and which CRMs it actually syncs with for the rest of that tier.
What should you know before you install anything to help with this?
LinkedIn’s User Agreement forbids software, including browser plugins, that scrapes or copies the service, and bots or other unauthorized automated methods to add contacts or send messages; using browser plugins can also limit your own search and lead to restrictions. We cover the tradeoff of a browser tool in more depth in our look at whether Sales Navigator is worth it.
What we see in the field: the workflow above ends on a profile, and that is where we start
Everything up to this point happens inside Sales Navigator. PortifyLead picks up from there: on the Sales Navigator lead or account page you land on after a search, or on a regular LinkedIn profile, one action saves the contact to the CRM you already use, checked for a duplicate at that point rather than while you browse. When there is an existing one-to-one conversation, an AI Sales Brief can pull the details worth writing down from it, reviewable before anything saves; with no conversation yet, it saves the profile only and says so.
Questions
Can you try Sales Navigator for free?
LinkedIn’s plan FAQ, checked 30 September 2026, offers qualifying members trials of Core and Advanced. They need a card, and are open only to members with no current paid subscription and no trial in the past year; LinkedIn emails a reminder a week before the trial ends.
Does Sales Navigator work on mobile?
Yes, on iOS 13.0 or later and Android 5.0 or higher, on phones.
How many results does a Sales Navigator search return?
Up to 2,500 leads or 1,000 accounts per search, across 100 or 40 pages. Narrower filters, not more pages, are how you get past that ceiling.
Can Sales Navigator export contacts to a spreadsheet?
No. LinkedIn does not offer a CSV or XLS export; CRM sync on Advanced Plus is the only route it names, and only for four systems.
Do you need Sales Navigator to save LinkedIn contacts to a CRM?
No. PortifyLead saves a contact from a Sales Navigator lead or account page or from a regular LinkedIn profile, on a Free plan with 15 saves a month or Pro at $15 a month. Compare PortifyLead plans.
