General tips for building an effective prospect list
Define your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP): Before building your list, be clear about the characteristics of your ideal customer. This ensures your list is targeted.
Keep your data fresh: Regularly update your prospect lists to remove outdated contacts and add new potential leads.
Focus on quality over quantity: A smaller list of highly relevant prospects will often yield better results than a large list of poorly targeted leads.
Nurture a wider audience: Although you target a specific job title in your outreach (e.g. HR Director or VP Sales), you still might want to Extrovert other people from the organization as well (e.g. CEO), because chances are high that your target roles will read their posts.
1. Export from Sales Navigator
This is the most advanced and professional way to find prospects, offering filters like company size, job title, and more. However, it requires a paid subscription and a separate tool for exporting the leads.
☝️ Pro tip: You can use Posted on LinkedIn filter in Sales Navigator to narrow down your list
Export from Sales Navigator using 3rd party tools
This is the most popular and flexible way to extract lead data directly from Sales Navigator. Here are a few tools to help export lead lists:
☝️ Limitations: LinkedIn limits the number of leads you can extract daily, typically around 500-1,000 leads, depending on account activity. Exceeding these limits can lead to account restrictions, so it's important to stay within LinkedIn's extraction guidelines.
Export from Sales Navigator using native integration with CRMs
Sales Navigator integrates with popular CRM systems such as Salesforce, HubSpot, and Microsoft Dynamics. This allows you to:
Sync lead data between Sales Navigator and your CRM.
You can use your CRM native export function to get the lead list
2. Export from LinkedIn Search
A more affordable option, LinkedIn's basic search allows you to filter leads by common parameters like location and industry. It has lower limits and fewer filters compared to Sales Navigator. A third-party tool is required to export this data, for example:
3. Export from Lead Databases:
These databases provide contact information and prospect data, including phone numbers and emails. The cost varies by provider, and while the data might be older, these databases often provide additional filters compared to LinkedIn. Some popular data providers: Telescope, Apollo, Databar, or Clay
4. Export existing prospects from outreach tools
If you are already using outreach tools, like HeyReach, Lemlist, Waalaxy, Dripify, or Amplemarket, you can export prospects directly from these platforms.
5. Export people who have interacted with you
This includes people who have:
Liked and commented on your posts
Viewed your profile
Followed you or your company page
To use this method:
Add to Prospect List manually: Use LinkedIn's notifications and engagement history to build a list of such prospects.
Use Sales Navigator filters: You can use Following your company and Viewed your profile recently filters built into Sales Navigator
Use 3rd party tools: You can automate tracking and exporting prospects who have interacted with you using tools like Trigify.io
6. Export your current connections on LinkedIn
This method is effective for nurturing existing relationships and turning contacts into leads.