Export Sales Navigator Leads: A Step-by-Step Guide

Utilize Sales Navigator's lead search filters

Take advantage of Sales Navigator's extensive lead search filters to find your target buyers. Enter relevant keywords, such as skills or specialties, in the search bar. Specify the job titles, geographic locations, industries, and company sizes you want to target. For example, if you sell marketing software, you could search for leads with "Digital Marketing Manager" titles at companies with 50-200 employees in the technology industry located in New York City.

Experiment with different filter combinations to see which yield the best results. You can include or exclude specific companies and use Boolean modifiers like AND, OR, and NOT to refine your search further. The more targeted your search, the more relevant your exported leads will be.

Find warm leads following your company or engaging with content

Look for warm leads who are already familiar with your brand. Go to your Sales Navigator Lists and select "Leads following your company" to see everyone who follows your LinkedIn Company Page. These leads are likely interested in your products or services.

You can also find leads who have engaged with your company's LinkedIn content, such as posts, articles, or videos. Filter your saved leads by "Posted on LinkedIn in past 30 days" to identify active users, then check if they interacted with any of your content. Leads who have commented on or liked your posts are great candidates for outreach. Learn more about the differences between cold and warm leads.

Save filtered searches for ongoing lead generation

Once you've dialed in your search filters, save that search to automatically add new matching leads over time and automate your lead generation. Give your saved search a descriptive name, choose how often you want to receive lead alerts, and select the option to automatically save new leads to a list.

Saving targeted searches ensures a steady stream of fresh, relevant leads to export and prospect. For instance, if you sell CRM software, set up saved searches for common buyer job titles like Sales Operations Manager or VP of Sales. Each week, you'll get an alert with new leads matching those titles to add to your outreach campaigns.

Get granular with boolean search modifiers

Boolean search modifiers give you even more control over your Sales Navigator searches. Use quotation marks for exact-match phrases, such as "account executive". Use the AND modifier to include multiple terms, like sales AND manager. The OR modifier expands your search to include any of the terms, such as manager OR director. Exclude terms with the NOT modifier, as in VP NOT assistant.

Combine Boolean modifiers to build highly specific searches. For example, "sales operations" AND (manager OR director) AND "software" NOT "medical" would find Sales Operations Managers and Directors with software experience outside of the medical industry. Getting this granular helps you export the most qualified leads for your offering.

By leveraging Sales Navigator's search filters, finding warm leads, saving searches, and using Boolean modifiers, you can build hyper-targeted lists of exportable leads. Invest time upfront to set up your searches, and you'll have a pipeline of quality leads to fuel your sales efforts.

With your exportable leads identified, you're ready to extract them from Sales Navigator. The next section will walk you through the process of exporting lead lists step-by-step so you can seamlessly transition those leads to your CRM or outreach tools.

Step 1: Choose a LinkedIn Sales Navigator extractor

There are plenty of third-party tools available to help you export Sales Navigator lists to Excel. Some of my favorites are:

• Bardeen
• Prospeo
• Evaboot
• Wiza

Once you’ve picked a tool that you like, simply sign up and create your account.

Step 2: Install the Chrome extension

Next, you’ll want to install the Chrome extension:

1. Visit the Chrome webstore
2. Click “Add to Chrome” to install the extension

That’s all it takes! You will be automatically directed to LinkedIn Sales Navigator once the installation is complete.

Step 3: Identify the leads you wish to export 

You’ll need to create a leads list if you haven’t already. You can use the Advanced Search filters to narrow down your search results. 

1. Sign in to your LinkedIn account and click on the “Sales Navigator” icon to access Sales Navigator
2. Locate the search bar and click on “Advanced Search” to access the search filters
3. Use “Lead Filters” to search for professionals and “Account Filters” to search for companies.

Step 4: Create and manage your lists

Now, you’ll want to save and organize your leads by adding them to a list. You can create as many lists as you want and organize them by campaign, industry, persona, etc. Here’s how:

1. Click the "Save" button next to a lead’s profile and 
2. Select “Create a new list” or choose an existing one.

If you want to make changes a list, you can do so by taking the following steps:

1. Click "Lists" in the Sales Navigator top menu.
2. Select "Lead Lists" from the dropdown.
3. Click on a list to view saved leads.
4. Use filters to sort, update, or remove leads from your list.

Once you are satisfied with your leads list, you can prepare it for export.

Step 5: Choose the format for data export

Remember that LinkedIn does not offer a direct "Export" button. You need a third-party Chrome extension to extract leads into a CSV file. 

Here’s how to do it:

1. Access Your Lead List in Sales Navigator
2. Activate the Chrome extension you installed in step 2
3. You will notice an “export” button. Click on the button and choose the format you want to save the file as.

It's important to note that exporting lead lists from Sales Navigator requires careful consideration of LinkedIn's data usage policies and the potential time investment for manual processes. For those looking to streamline their lead management process further, exploring CRM integrations or advanced Sales Navigator plans may offer additional benefits.

Export leads or saved search results to CSV

To export a lead list from Sales Navigator, navigate to Lists from the menu and open the list you want to export. Click the Export button above the list of leads. You'll have the option to export all leads in the list or just selected ones.

If you want to export the results of a saved search, go to your saved searches, run the one you want to export, and hit the Export button above the results. Again, choose to export all leads or specific ones.

Sales Navigator will generate a CSV file that you can save to your computer. This file contains all the lead information visible in Sales Navigator, such as name, title, company, location, etc.

Import exported leads to your CRM or outreach tools

Now that you have your leads in a CSV file, you can import that data into your CRM (like Salesforce or HubSpot) or outreach tools (such as Outreach or SalesLoft). This allows you to manage your leads in a centralized location, enrich the data with additional information, and use it for email or phone outreach.

To import the CSV file, go to the import or lead upload section of your CRM or outreach tool. Select the CSV file from your computer and map the fields to the corresponding ones in the tool. Once the import is complete, you'll have your Sales Navigator leads synced with the rest of your sales tech stack.

Be mindful of Sales Navigator export limits

Keep in mind that Sales Navigator has a limit of 2,500 exported leads at a time. If your lead list or saved search has more than 2,500 people, you'll need to export them in batches.

To get around this, use Sales Navigator's filters to create smaller segments of your list or search that fall under the 2,500 limit. For example, if you're exporting a saved search for sales directors, filter it by location to create multiple lists under 2,500 leads each. Then export those smaller batches one at a time until you have all the leads.

Regularly export new leads from saved searches

Saved searches in Sales Navigator are dynamic, meaning new leads get added automatically when they match your search criteria. To ensure you have the most up-to-date data, export your saved searches regularly, such as once a week or month.

You can even automate this process with tools like Zapier, which can automatically export new leads from a saved search and import them into your CRM or outreach tool. This saves you the manual work of exporting and importing leads on an ongoing basis.

By exporting your Sales Navigator leads to CSV and importing them into your sales tools, you can automate your sales prospecting workflow and get more value out of the leads you find. Just be aware of export limits and regularly export saved searches to keep your data fresh.

With your exported Sales Navigator leads in hand, the next step is to enrich that data and verify key information like email addresses.

Automate email extraction with web scraping tools

Web scraping tools make it possible to automate email extraction from LinkedIn Sales Navigator. But be aware that using them excessively can get your account restricted or banned.

Make sure to use third-party web scraping tools that comply with GDPR and CCPA regulations. Some of my favorites include: 

• Bardeen
• Apollo.io
• Hunter.io
• Evaboot Chrome extension
• PhantomBuster

You should always follow best practices when using a LinkedIn Sales Navigator extractor. Make sure to validate extracted emails, follow GDPR & CCPA rules, and respect LinkedIn’s Terms of Service. You can learn more in this blog post I wrote about LinkedIn data scraping.