LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional networking platform with over 800 million members. As a business, having a presence on LinkedIn is crucial for establishing credibility, generating leads, and driving sales. However, LinkedIn offers several paid subscription plans and products beyond the free version, which can get confusing. Two of the most popular paid offerings are LinkedIn Premium Business and Sales Navigator. But what exactly do they offer and how do they differ?
What is LinkedIn Premium Business?
LinkedIn Premium Business is LinkedIn’s premium subscription plan for businesses. It provides additional features beyond the free version to help businesses get more out of LinkedIn. Here is an overview of what you get with Premium Business:
- Unlimited LinkedIn profile searches – See full profiles regardless of your network.
- Unlimited InMail messages – Directly contact anyone on LinkedIn to generate leads.
- Profile branding – Stand out with a background photo and featured sections.
- Advanced analytics – Gain insights into your page views, followers, and more.
- “Who’s viewed your profile” details – See more information on who has looked at your profile.
- Salary insights – View salary ranges for positions to inform hiring.
- Hiring and advertising credits – Discounted access to LinkedIn’s hiring and advertising solutions.
The Premium Business subscription starts at $59.99 per month when billed annually. Key benefits include being able to expand your reach, strengthen engagement, develop deeper relationships, and reveal more insights through analytics.
What is LinkedIn Sales Navigator?
LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a sales-focused paid product for LinkedIn. It provides tools tailored specifically for sales professionals to help them generate more leads, land deals faster, and increase sales. Here is an overview of the key features:
- Advanced search – Find and filter leads based on industry, location, company size, and more.
- Lead recommendations – Get recommended leads based on saved searches and preference.
- TeamLink – Share saved leads and accounts with colleagues.
- InMail integration – Use InMail messages to engage prospects.
- Alerts on accounts and leads – Get notifications when prospects update profiles or mention your company.
- Sales analytics – Track prospecting efforts and optimize outreach.
Sales Navigator pricing starts at $79.99 per month billed annually for the Professional plan. It offers access to more advanced sales tools tailored to support the sales process at every stage.
Key Differences
While both Premium Business and Sales Navigator aim to enhance the LinkedIn experience, there are some notable differences:
Intended Users
Premium Business is optimized for broader business use by companies, teams, and individuals. Sales Navigator focuses specifically on sales professionals and providing specialized tools to drive sales.
Feature Focus
Premium Business provides a wider range of features for general business needs like recruiting, branding, analytics, and lead generation. Sales Navigator zeroes in on supporting sales workflows and productivity.
Lead and Data Access
Sales Navigator gives more expansive access into lead data like company info, lead recommendations, and team sharing capabilities. Premium Business offers basic lead data to identify new targets.
Search Capabilities
Sales Navigator has more advanced search filters, recommendations, and tracking to pinpoint the right accounts and contacts. Premium Business search is better for general prospecting based on basic parameters.
Insights and Analytics
Premium Business provides higher-level analytics into things like page views, content engagement, and follows. Sales Navigator delivers detailed sales analytics related to prospecting efforts, deal cycles, and productivity.
When Should You Choose Each?
The choice between Premium Business and Sales Navigator depends primarily on your specific needs and role. Here are some guidelines on when to choose each:
Choose Premium Business If:
- You want to establish credibility for your company, position executives as thought leaders, promote your brand to a broader audience.
- You need basic business intelligence like page views, content engagement, follows, and relationship insights.
- You want to source candidates for open positions or gain salary insights to guide hiring.
- You need a minimal level of additional access, messaging, and tools beyond the free account.
Choose Sales Navigator If:
- You want to identify the best accounts, contacts, and leads to add to your sales pipeline.
- You need to track prospecting activities, nurture leads, and monitor deal cycles.
- You want to collaborate and share lead data with colleagues.
- You need advanced messaging and tools to book demos, create personalized outreach, and expand your network.
Can You Use Both Together?
Yes, it’s possible for organizations to leverage both Premium Business and Sales Navigator together based on which capabilities are needed. Here are some ways they can complement each other:
- Use Premium Business for company branding, recruiting, and market research while Sales Navigator focuses directly on supporting sales reps.
- Layer Sales Navigator tools on top of Premium Business for sales teams to drive deals while marketers use Premium Business analytics.
- Gain broad business insights from Premium Business while Sales Navigator provides detailed sales campaign tracking and lead management.
- Let executives showcase thought leadership with Premium Business while account execs prospect and engage buyers through Sales Navigator.
Combining plans creates an end-to-end solution covering both high-level brand building and messaging capabilities through Premium Business as well as tactical lead generation and sales workflows powered by Sales Navigator.
Premium Business vs. Sales Navigator Features
Here is a detailed overview comparing the key features included in LinkedIn Premium Business vs. Sales Navigator:
Feature | Premium Business | Sales Navigator |
---|---|---|
Profile Access | Unlimited profile views each month | Unlimited profile views |
Search | Basic filters like location, company, title | Advanced filters and recommendations |
InMail | 100 InMails per month | Varies by plan from 30-90 InMails monthly |
Lead and Contact Management | Basic saved lead list capabilities | Robust lead lists, tagging, and integration |
Analytics | Page views, followers, content engagement | Sales productivity tracking and pipeline analytics |
Advertising Credit | Up to $50 per month | None included |
Team Access | No team features | TeamLink lead sharing |
As shown above, while there is some overlap in things like profile access and InMail, Sales Navigator is tailored for sales use cases while Premium Business takes a broader approach to business needs overall.
Conclusion
LinkedIn Premium Business and Sales Navigator cater to related but distinct use cases. Premium Business aims to help companies establish their brand, source candidates, gain high-level insights, and generate leads broadly through LinkedIn. Sales Navigator gives sales professionals specialized tools to identify prospects, build relationships, nurture leads, and drive the sales process.
Premium Business offers a wide range of features that can benefit various roles across an organization for recruiting, branding, messaging, and analytics. Sales Navigator focuses squarely on augmenting and enhancing sales workflows like prospecting, managing accounts and leads, and sales analytics.
Organizations can choose to invest in either solution individually based on their needs or use both in tandem to combine high-level brand and relationship building through Premium with tactical sales execution powered by Sales Navigator.