How To Create a Lead List With LinkedIn Sales Navigator

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is built for sales professionals who need to generate targeted leads and accounts that actually matter.

The key is knowing how to use it well. If you’re just adding names to a lead list without purpose, you’re missing the point.

This guide presents six essential steps for creating effective lead lists on LinkedIn Sales Navigator that yield tangible results.

As a bonus, once you’ve mastered creating and saving leads, I’ll show you how to extract all those leads with emails and phone numbers, in just one click.

Let’s get straight to it.

Here’s What You’ll Learn:

1. What are lead lists?
2. How to create lead lists?
3. How to identify the key characteristics of your ideal leads, including job titles, industries, and locations relevant to your business?
4. How to use LinkedIn Sales Navigator to find the best possible leads that fit your search criteria.
5. How to build and manage lead lists for better tracking and monitoring of their activities to maximize engagement opportunities?
6. How to find reasons to engage with these leads in a way that generates better responses than your competitors?

What are lead lists?

Lead lists in LinkedIn Sales Navigator are organized collections of potential prospects that you’ve identified for your sales outreach.

They help you track, manage, and engage with leads in one place. By saving profiles to a lead list, you can monitor updates, view shared content, and receive real-time alerts on changes such as job moves or promotions.

Lead lists allow you to keep your sales pipeline organized and focus on the most relevant contacts for your outreach efforts.

How to create a lead list?

To create a lead list in LinkedIn Sales Navigator, follow these 6 steps:

1. Set Up Your Search Criteria

Setting up your search criteria is crucial for narrowing down the most relevant leads. Here’s how to do it:

a. Define Your Target Audience

Before generating leads, you need to define your target audience clearly.

1. Job Titles: Identify the job titles relevant to your business. For example, if you are targeting technology companies, you might look for CTOs, Heads of IT, or Software Development Managers. This helps you focus on decision-makers who have the authority to consider your product or service.
   
   
2. Industries: Choose the industries that align with your product or service. For instance, if you provide software solutions, target industries like software development, IT services, or financial technology.
   
   
3. Locations: Focus on specific locations where your potential clients are based. This can be as broad as a country (e.g., the United States) or as specific as a city (e.g., New York, London).

Engaging with the right individuals reduces the time spent on convincing lower-seniority employees who may not have the budget or authority to make purchasing decisions. 

Moreover, senior executives are typically more strategic in their thinking and can appreciate long-term benefits and ROI, making them ideal candidates for initial pitches.

b. Use Advanced Search Filters

LinkedIn Sales Navigator offers a variety of advanced search filters to refine your search further:

Filter Type	Search Criteria
Company	Current company, company headcount, company type, headquarters location
Role-Based	Job function, current job title, seniority level, past job title, years at current company, years in current position
Personal	Lead geography, industry, profile language, years of experience, groups, schools
Buyer Intent	Following your company, viewed your profile recently

Example: 

Suppose your company sells enterprise-level marketing software. By leveraging LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you can use the “Company” filter to target businesses with a headcount of over 1000 employees, ensuring you reach organizations that have the budget for your software. 

PRO TIP: The “Function” filter can be a great way to identify job titles you have not thought about, which you can then search in the “Job title” filter for more precise results.

2. Save Searches for Automatic Updates

TLDR: Here’s one of my LinkedIn posts that summarises this as well: 

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/youssefelkaddioui_how-i-find-leads-on-linkedin-sales-navigator-activity-7193859720254787584-6ZO1?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

a. Save Your Searches

Once you’ve set up your search criteria, saving your searches can help you stay updated on new leads that match your criteria. Here’s how: 

• Use the Save Search Button: Click the save search button to be notified of new leads that fit your search parameters.
  
  
• Manage Saved Searches: Access and manage all your saved searches under the “Saved Searches” tab for easy tracking.

b. Get Notified of New Leads

Stay informed about new potential leads by setting up notifications. Here’s what you can do:

• Email Notifications: Opt to receive email notifications when new leads match your saved searches.
• Sales Navigator Notifications: Regularly check Sales Navigator for updates on new leads to ensure you don’t miss any opportunities.

Here’s where you can find the alerts tab:

3. Build Lead Lists

a. Save Leads to Lists

Organizing your leads into lists is essential for managing and tracking them effectively. This step sets the foundation for a structured lead management process:

1. Select Leads: Start by checking the box next to each lead you want to save. This allows you to filter and focus on the most promising prospects.
2. Create a List: Click “Save to list,” name the list (e.g., “CEO Singapore”), and add comments if needed. Naming lists clearly helps in quickly identifying the purpose and content of each list.

3. Organize Leads: Use tags and notes to categorize leads based on stages in your sales process (e.g., “Contacted,” “Follow-Up Needed”). This categorization streamlines your follow-up strategy and ensures you don’t miss any important steps.

Watch this clip on how to save leads to lists:

b. Monitor Lead Activity

Once you have organized your leads into lists, the next step is to monitor their activity. This helps you identify engagement opportunities and tailor your outreach:

• Recent Updates: Check for recent job changes, posts, and shared experiences. These updates provide valuable context for initiating contact or following up.
• Shared Experiences: Look for shared connections or similar career paths. This common ground can make your outreach more personal and effective.

4. Engage with Leads

a. Use InMail for Direct Outreach

Direct outreach via LinkedIn InMail allows you to engage leads in a personalized manner. Here’s how to make the most of it:

• Personalize Messages: Write InMail messages that address the lead’s background and interests. Mention specific details from their profile to show that your message is tailored to them. For example, if you notice the lead recently attended a specific industry conference, mention it and relate how your product or service can build on what they learned there.

• Include a Call to Action: Ask for a meeting, demo, or further conversation. A clear call to action encourages the lead to take the next step.
• Highlight Mutual Connections: Reference any mutual connections or shared affiliations in your InMail. For example, “I noticed we both know John Smith, who spoke highly of your expertise in digital marketing. I’d love to discuss how our tool can complement your work.” This creates an instant sense of familiarity and trust, increasing the likelihood of a positive response.

b. Engage on LinkedIn

Beyond direct messages, engaging with your leads’ content helps build rapport and keeps you on their radar:

• Comment on Posts: Engage with leads by commenting on their posts. Providing thoughtful insights or asking questions can start meaningful conversations. 

• Congratulate on Job Changes: Send congratulations on recent promotions, new roles or completing X number of years at their company. Acknowledging their achievements helps you stay top of mind and build positive relationships. A simple message like, “Congratulations on completing two years at the company! How do you feel about the journey so far?” can open the door to a more in-depth conversation.
  
  
• Share Relevant Content: Proactively share articles, research, or resources that might be of interest to your leads. For example, if you come across a new report on digital marketing trends that aligns with their interests or industry, share it with a personalized note like, “I thought you might find this report on the latest marketing trends useful. It has some great insights on strategies we discussed last time.”
  
  

5. Export Leads for Further Use

a. Use Tools to Export Leads

Sending connection requests and message on LinkedIn and LinkedIn Sales Navigator can be a tedious and manual process. Most top-performing salespeople typically use automation for connect messages or even cold emails.

To achieve that, you need to be able to have all your leads on a spreadsheet with their contact details, LinkedIn URL and email address.

Being able to export your lists without having to copy paste the information manually can be very helpful.  

One such tool is Scalelist, which allows you to export searches and verify professional emails. This step helps in leveraging the collected data effectively. 

1. Scalelist Extension: Use the Scalelist extension to export leads from Sales Navigator to a CSV file. This tool makes data transfer easy and efficient.
   1. Go to Scalelist.com and add the Chrome extension.
   2. Click on “Export Leads” in Sales Navigator.

Scalelist will:

1. Export your LinkedIn Sales Navigator search (with up to 2500 results per search)
2. Gather all relevant details of your leads (LinkedIn URL, name, title, company, location etc…) then start searching for the professional emails of your leads.
3. When found, it will proceed with an email verification to label your emails as “valid” (safe to use) or “risky” (email is not verifiable)

You can export the data into a CSV or Excel file for easy access.

Here’s a video walkthrough of this process:

b. Organize Exported Data

Keep your exported leads data organized for effective management. Example of how to organize it

Data to Export	Criteria (Details)
Lead Information	Names, company names, industry, location, company size, company website, LinkedIn URLs, verified email addresses.
File Format	CSV file
CRM Integration	Import the CSV files into your CRM system for further management and follow-up

6. Stay Updated With Leads’ Recent Activities

Monitoring your leads’ recent activities helps you identify the right moments to engage with them.

a. Activity Alerts

Set up notifications for updates like when a lead posts content, changes jobs or is mentioned in the news. This will alert you to significant changes or achievements in your professional life.

b. Timely Engagement

Use these updates as opportunities to connect. For example, congratulate them on a new job or comment on their recent post. Reaching out when a lead is active increases the likelihood of a response.

If you want a full masterclass on generating leads using LinkedIn Sales Navigator, please watch this video: 

Bonus Takeaway:

You’ve created your ideal lead list in LinkedIn Sales Navigator, carefully targeting the right prospects using advanced filters and criteria. But what’s the next step?

To make your outreach even more effective, you can easily export these leads with just one click and instantly get verified emails and phone numbers with Scalelist.

This saves you time, ensures accuracy, and allows you to start reaching out to your prospects right away.

Want to know how? Check out our article on how to export leads from LinkedIn Sales Navigator with verified contact details using ScaleList. Streamline your sales process and maximize your outreach potential without manual data entry.