LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a sales tool provided by LinkedIn to help sales professionals find and connect with prospects. One of the key things salespeople need is a prospect’s email address in order to initiate outreach. So a common question is whether LinkedIn Sales Navigator provides email addresses.
The short answer is no, LinkedIn Sales Navigator does not provide direct access to email addresses. However, there are some workarounds and techniques that salespeople can use to try to obtain a prospect’s email address through LinkedIn Sales Navigator.
What data does LinkedIn Sales Navigator provide?
LinkedIn Sales Navigator provides detailed profile data on LinkedIn members to help identify good sales prospects. Some of the key data points it provides include:
– Full name
– Job title and company
– Location
– Industry
– Profile summary and experience
– Skills and interests
– Groups and content contributions
– Connections
So it provides a robust view into a prospect’s background and professional credentials. However, direct contact data like email addresses, phone numbers and mailing addresses are not included.
Why doesn’t LinkedIn Sales Navigator provide email addresses?
LinkedIn has a strict data privacy policy and limits the personal contact information that can be accessed through their platform and tools like Sales Navigator. There are a few key reasons why email addresses are not provided:
– **User consent** – LinkedIn members can choose to keep their email address private and opt out of sharing it through tools like Sales Navigator. LinkedIn respects user consent and control over contact data.
– **Prevent spam and abuse** – Keeping email addresses off the platform helps prevent scraping and spam targeting members. This helps maintain a professional, useful platform.
– **Drive upgrade revenue** – One of the incentives for users to upgrade to premium account levels is the ability to view limited contact details like email addresses. So limiting free access helps drive subscription revenue.
– **Legal and data compliance** – LinkedIn needs to comply with data protection laws in different geographies. Limiting contact data access enables compliance.
So for a variety of reasons, LinkedIn avoids sharing direct email access via Sales Navigator. But it still provides powerful data to identify and learn about prospects.
How to get email addresses through LinkedIn Sales Navigator
While Sales Navigator does not provide direct access to email addresses, sales professionals can still leverage the tool and LinkedIn platform to obtain prospect email addresses in some cases. Here are some techniques to try:
Check personal website links
Many LinkedIn profiles include links to members’ personal websites and blogs. If you view the prospect’s personal site, sometimes an email address or contact form will be listed there which you can use.
Use LinkedIn InMail
Upgraded Sales Navigator accounts include a certain number of InMail messages which can be sent directly to prospects through LinkedIn. This will reach their inbox and they can respond with their email if interested.
Export data to spreadsheet
You can export prospect data from Sales Navigator to a spreadsheet. Combining this data with tools like Hunter.io can sometimes surface matching email addresses.
View recent activity
Looking at a prospect’s recent LinkedIn activity may show them posting content with an email address attached. For example, in their post text or in an embedded PDF download.
Ask for an introduction
If you see you are connected on LinkedIn to someone who is also connected to your target prospect, you can ask your mutual connection for an email introduction.
Connect on LinkedIn
You can send prospects LinkedIn connect requests. If they accept, you can then message them directly via InMail to request their email address.
Guess email patterns
For prospects at large companies, you may be able to guess or deduce email patterns like [email protected]. Testing educated guesses can sometimes yield valid addresses.
Premium account options
Upgraded Sales Navigator accounts provide some additional options for getting prospect email addresses, including:
InMail footers
Paid InMail messages allow you to add an email footer or personal message that encourages prospects to respond to you directly via email.
Expanded profiles
Upgraded accounts provide more extended LinkedIn profile views in some cases showing additional contact details.
Advanced search filters
Paid filters allow querying for members who have shared their email addresses publicly.
Custom lists
Adding external email lists to a custom list enables matching with LinkedIn profiles.
So while even paid Sales Navigator accounts don’t provide direct email access, they do offer more tools and options for obtaining email addresses.
Ethical considerations
When trying to obtain prospect contact details through LinkedIn, it’s important to do so in an ethical manner. Here are some guidelines:
– Only use public information or direct communication. Don’t scraper or buy email lists.
– Be transparent in your outreach by identifying yourself and intent clearly.
– Respect prospects’ preferences – if they don’t respond or decline outreach, move on.
– Use accurate, individualized messages instead of spammy templates.
– Don’t abuse tools like InMail or automated searching/exporting.
– If prospect asks you not to contact them again, honor that request right away.
With a combination of Sales Navigator data and ethical, respectful outreach, you can build meaningful connections and pipeline from LinkedIn. Just avoid anything perceived as spammy, invasive or aggressive.
Other tools and options
In addition to Sales Navigator, here are some other options for finding prospect contact information:
– **Clearbit Connect** – Browser plugin associates web traffic with LinkedIn profiles and surfaces contact details.
– **RocketReach** – Paid tool searches the web to associate prospects with contact info like emails.
– **BuiltWith** – Shows what tech and tools a company uses, helping identify email patterns.
– **Voila Norbert** – Browser extension finds emails associated with websites.
– **Email Hunter** – Chrome extension identifies emails mentioned on websites.
– **AnyMailFinder** – Free tool searches web sources to find business emails.
– **Whois domain searches** – View public domains records for company sites to find contacts.
– **ZoomInfo** – Paid contact data platform with 220+ million business contacts.
So there are many alternatives beyond LinkedIn for finding prospect contact data needed for sales outreach.
Conclusion
LinkedIn Sales Navigator does not directly provide access to prospect email addresses. However, the robust profile data it includes can help sales teams identify and research prospects. With ethical scraping techniques, workarounds, premium features, and alternative contact lookup tools, it’s often possible to ultimately obtain the email addresses needed for qualified outreach. The key is using Sales Navigator strategically as part of a tech stack and process to set up successful engagement with prospects.
