Integrating LinkedIn Sales Navigator to Dynamics 365 - What are the benefits?
The LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a great tool for sales teams as it provides them access to new opportunities to find and engage with more, and usually higher quality, prospects and leads from LinkedIn. Most companies are not limited to just LinkedIn for lead generation, so LinkedIn Sales Navigator can be integrated with Dynamics 365 Sales. Integrating the LinkedIn Sales Navigator with Dynamics 365 Sales helps to bring together LinkedIn contacts and leads with the Dynamics 365 Sales interface. In addition, it gives access to some of the other features available in the LinkedIn Sales Navigator.
The integration allows for sales teams to place custom controls for Sales Navigator on forms and other entities within Dynamics 365 Sales. There are controls for viewing specific lead or contact profiles, profiles of contacts related to a record, company profiles, and a control for viewing and sending LinkedIn InMail messages. Multiple accounts can also be linked in order to allow multiple users to send messages and connect with a wider variety of leads.
Lead and contact controls display the person’s name, and basic profile information. Also shown are highlights that can be used for conversation starters, some mutual connections, and related leads such as stakeholders. This can help to nail down who the important decision makers are within a company and how to best connect and sell to them.
Leads and contacts are synced between Dynamics 365 and Sales Navigator and have direct links to quick transition between the two platforms if needed. Automatic matching can also be used to associate contacts and accounts with Sales Navigator to save time. As people’s positions change or new people come into a company, they will be automatically pulled in to keep the sales team informed and speaking with the proper contacts.
The integration with CRM applications like Dynamics 365 Sales is only available for those with at least the Team level license for LinkedIn Sales Navigator. There are a few differences in the functionality provided between Team and Enterprise level licenses. The Team license provides the ability to add the Sales Navigator controls to CRM pages to view profiles and showcase LinkedIn activities like messages in the activities feed of the CRM record. The data validation capabilities that check for updates to organizational structures of contacts requires Sales Navigator Enterprise which has a 10 license minimum. Creating contacts in the CRM software from Sales Navigator also requires the Enterprise license.
Getting started
The LinkedIn Sales Navigator and Dynamics 365 Sales integration allows for a custom interface to be created to better identify key contacts for a lead and helps to reach them. If you’re interested in learning more about Dynamics 365 Sales and the LinkedIn Sales Navigator integration, get in touch with our consulting team.