As B2B SaaS founders, you and I know the value of well-targeted outreach. It can make the difference between a campaign that fizzles out and one that fires on all cylinders.
Sales Navigator can be extremely useful in refining your email list, which can feel like a treasure hunt. You’ve to look for high-quality leads that will respond and are likely to convert to turn your outreach into meaningful conversations. Using the right account filters can streamline your lead-generation efforts. These leads will be invaluable as you can hone in on industries that benefit most from your solutions.
I will explore the 4 key account filters in Sales Navigators in detail in this article to give you a better idea about them.
Account filters in Sales Navigator are tools that refine and target your search for prospective business accounts on LinkedIn. These filters help you narrow down your search to the most relevant companies based on specific criteria.
Account filters help you –
We will now move on to how you can use account filters to access better, higher-quality leads and add ideal prospects to your email list.
You can find the keyword filter by promptly going to the top of your account search results. This filter will go through the companies’ Overview and Specialties fields. It will then go on to list the LinkedIn accounts that have an exact or partial match of the keyword you’ve typed in their profile.
Keyword Filter
Before you start, identify keywords that are relevant to your product or service to get more relevant results from the filter. For example, if your SaaS platform specializes in AI-driven marketing solutions, keywords might include “artificial intelligence,” “digital marketing,” and “automation.”
There are 10 company attribute filters to help you target companies more precisely and enhance your prospecting efficiency.
The Annual Revenue filter in Sales Navigator allows you to narrow down companies based on their estimated yearly earnings, as per LinkedIn. They gather this estimation from –
Annual revenue filter
It makes targeting businesses within a specific revenue range easier to ensure that the prospects are within the range of your service’s pricing level. However, you need to be cautious as this annual revenue data might not always be accurate or up to date.
These filters allow you to search for companies based on the number of employees and their growth in headcount over the last year. Simply select your criteria, such as companies with 50-200 employees to see your possible leads having headcount of that range.
Company headcount filter
It helps you target companies that have shown significant growth in employee numbers, indicating organizational health and expansion. You can set the percentage of company headcount growth to look for companies that are growing, for example, let’s say, at least 10% over the last year.
Company headcount growth filter
You should keep in mind that this growth is based on the company’s headcount growth, not revenue growth.
This filter lets you target companies based on the geographical location of their headquarters. It can be particularly useful for segmenting your market according to regional needs or regulatory environments.
Headquarters location filter
If your company provides localized services, such as a tax compliance software tailored for specific regions, using the Headquarter Location filter can help in targeting businesses that can benefit from regional specificity in your service.
Industry filter lets you filter based on the industry they operate in, as indicated on their LinkedIn company page. It is indispensable for products designed for niche markets. For instance, a SaaS tool developed for the real estate industry can be marketed directly to companies identified under the real estate category and have better prospects of having qualified leads from there.
Industry filter
It allows you to filter companies by the number of followers on their LinkedIn page, which can indicate market presence and brand activity. A higher follower count may suggest a more established company that values brand and possibly has a larger budget for your solution.
You can filter the companies by at least 100 followers to actually find some legitimate businesses as your prospects. But again, this isn’t a fool-proof approach since folks might manage LinkedIn company pages with more than 100 followers (or even more) without the budget to take your solution.
Number of followers filter
This filter lets you look at specific departments’ headcounts within companies. It is particularly beneficial if you are providing services targeting particular functional areas like sales, finance, IT, or any other field. For example, if you’re providing a SaaS solution to enhance sales for companies, you can use this filter to find companies with at least 5 people working on the Sales team.
You can use this filter to identify departments within companies that are experiencing rapid growth. This filter helps you pinpoint where new tools might be needed the most, such as a new CRM system for a quickly expanding sales department or any scrum for a growing engineering team.
Department headcount growth filter
It lets you filter companies based on their Fortune ranking with various specific ranges. This ranking represents some of the biggest companies with established market stature and financial stability. Targeting Fortune 500 companies could be advantageous for high-end SaaS products designed for large, global enterprises.
Fortune filter
Although this filter aims to identify the technologies companies use, its effectiveness is extremely limited. The limitation comes from a lack of transparency in data sourcing, as there is no proper documentation on how LinkedIn finds out the technologies that companies use.
Technologies used filter
Sales Navigator’s spotlight filters help you refine your prospecting efforts by focusing on specific, actionable indicators of a company’s engagement and health. It has 4 filters – job opportunities, recent activities, connections, and buyer intent.
The job opportunities filter is a useful tool for detecting companies that are in a growth phase. When a company posts job opportunities on LinkedIn, it signals good health and financial stability, suggesting that they may have the budget to invest in new solutions.
Job opportunities filter
You can use this filter to target companies that are expanding and might need your SaaS solutions to support their growth.
This filter focuses on companies that have had significant recent changes, such as the appointment of new executives or recent funding rounds. Such changes often bring a willingness to innovate and try new products or services to further streamline and enhance their processes.
Recent activities filter
Companies that have recently raised funds are likely to have budgets allocated for new projects – your services could be among them. LinkedIn basically finds out companies raising funds by going through the web. Every time they find an article about any company’s fundraising, they add it to the list and give you the link to the article. Then, this news of recent funding can show you the leads that you should pursue, and the news can be a conversation starter to build rapport as well.
The Connections filter allows you to leverage your existing LinkedIn network to find companies where you have first-degree connections. This can significantly warm up your approach, increasing the likelihood of a successful engagement.
Connection filters
You can use this filter for warm introductions to enhance trust and credibility, as first-degree connections can provide insider insights and facilitate easier access to decision-makers.
The Buyer Intent filter identifies companies that have shown a moderate to high level of engagement with your company’s content, ads, or LinkedIn page. It includes metrics like employee interactions, InMail acceptances, ad engagements, and company page engagement.
This filter lets you prioritize companies that are already familiar with your brand, which may shorten the sales cycle. You can then engage with leads who have demonstrated interest to increase the efficiency of your outreach efforts.
Workflow filters are designed to streamline and enhance the prospecting process for companies to find out better leads.
Workflow Filters
The Companies in CRM filter is exclusively available to Sales Navigator Advanced Plus (Enterprise) users. This filter integrates your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system with Sales Navigator. You can then use it to access and manage your CRM leads and contacts directly within the platform.
To leverage this filter, you must first ensure your CRM is connected to Sales Navigator. Once integrated, you can filter and view all leads or contacts from your CRM that are also on LinkedIn.
The Saved Accounts filter collects all LinkedIn Company Pages you have saved within Sales Navigator. This includes companies you’ve manually bookmarked and those automatically added when you save a lead.
You can access the “All Saved Accounts” section to see a consolidated list of your saved accounts. This feature also allows you to apply additional filters to refine and categorize these accounts based on your specific criteria, such as industry, company size, or location.
With the account lists filter, you can create and manage custom lists of accounts based on defined parameters. This tool is incredibly versatile, allowing for the filtering of companies across any custom list you’ve created or all account lists simultaneously.
Account lists filter
You can utilize this filter to segment your prospects into different lists based on various strategic factors like engagement level, sales readiness, or market segment. You can also apply other account filters to refine these lists for more targeted outreach further.
The right tools and a strategic approach can transform your lead generation from a hit-or-miss to a precision-driven process. These filters can narrow down your lists, while helping you with a focused outreach that resonates with the exact needs of your ideal customer profile (ICP).
Remember, the goal is not to collect as many leads as possible, but to collect the right leads. High-quality leads that are tailored to your value proposition will do the magic for you. It’s about making each connection count, turning cold outreach into warm conversations and potential partnerships.
