LinkedIn Sales Navigator: The Tool We Need, Not the One We Have

When I explore a specialized tool in a field where I am new, I expect it to be designed by experts with a deeper understanding than I could ever have. After all, I am an amateur, while experienced professionals must have thought carefully about solving the problem in the best way. These were exactly my expectations for LinkedIn Sales Navigator: I thought that the obvious features I needed were already implemented and of the highest quality.

How wrong I was.

First Task: Finding Explicit Needs

The first and most obvious task is to find those companies or individuals who explicitly state their need for a product or service.

In my case, I provide development services of above-average quality on the global market, with prices lower than 75% of companies worldwide.

Although I’ll use my example, the task remains the same regardless of the product: to find those who need it.

What signals can help identify those who need high-quality development at a relatively low cost? The most obvious way is to find those who directly post about it on LinkedIn. Imagine my disappointment when I discovered that LinkedIn Sales Navigator doesn’t allow users to subscribe to notifications for such posts! Dear LinkedIn team, we have LLMs and countless other tools that can practically identify intents flawlessly in any text.

This is the first feature that LinkedIn Sales Navigator should have implemented, and I believe it’s the feature I and most other users would immediately subscribe to upon purchasing the tool.

Second Task: Analyzing User Behavior

Let’s move forward. Let’s assume we are already subscribed to explicit product or service requests.

What if we tried to find those who have realized their need for development and exhibit it in their behavior—for example, by visiting development team pages, messaging developers privately, etc.? We already have amazing tools like data analytics, LLMs, and others, don’t we, LinkedIn engineers?

So, the second feature I’d subscribe to is the ability to identify those who have realized their need for development services but haven’t yet published an explicit request on LinkedIn.

Third Task: Predicting Unconscious Needs

An even more advanced feature would be identifying users who need development services but haven’t yet realized it. For example, they read and comment on articles about managing developers or implementing Agile methods in their teams. Such users might actively explore automation, discuss hiring challenges, or share issues related to digital transformation.

I understand that implementing such a feature would require more effort than a few students from Computer Science courses could handle, unlike the previous tasks. But we’re talking about the mighty LinkedIn, aren’t we?

Such tools would transform LinkedIn Sales Navigator into a modern and fully-fledged sales tool rather than leaving it as a basic directory of companies and leads with primitive filters, as it is today.

This kind of tool would allow providers of goods and services to deliver their proposals directly to the users who need them at the right time—or even slightly earlier. This would reduce spam in personal messages, expand the options for buyers, and make the world a little better.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the lack of such a tool opens up opportunities for its creation. Of course, LinkedIn has far more data than we mere mortals do, but even with publicly available data, many of these tools can be implemented. The specialists at ForEach Partners are capable of tackling such a task.

If you want to launch such a product, contact us at sales@foreachpartners.com—let’s discuss the terms of cooperation.