Sales Navigator: How to Find Suitable Leads Through Interests in a Targeted Way

Sales Navigator is a powerful tool if you want to build your lead search in a more structured and targeted way. Sales Navigator becomes especially interesting when you do not only search by classic criteria such as position, industry, or company size, but also filter bypossible interests of your target group.

A particularly helpful function in Sales Navigator is the “Interest in Category” filter. With this filter, you can find people who may have a thematic interest in a specific product or service category.

Why Sales Navigator Is Important for Lead Search

Sales Navigator helps you narrow down potential contacts more effectively. Instead of addressing a very broad target group, you can use Sales Navigator to search specifically for people who could be a good fit for your offer.

Many users mainly use Sales Navigator for classic search filters. These include, for example:

Positions, industries, regions, company sizes, or career levels.

These filters are important, but they are not always enough. Sales Navigator also offers additional ways to improve the quality of your search. One of them is the “Interest in Category” filter.

What Does “Interest in Category” Mean in Sales Navigator?

In Sales Navigator, you will find the “Interest in Category” option under the lead filters. This filter shows you people who may be interested in a specific product category based on various signals.

These may include, for example, group memberships, profile data, or other indicators. Sales Navigator uses these signals to assign people to a possible interest category.

Important: The filter does not show guaranteed purchase intent. However, it can help you find people for whom a thematic connection to your offer is more likely.

When Is the Filter Available in Sales Navigator?

The “Interest in Category” filter is available to you if you use a suitable Sales Navigator license. These include, for example, Sales Navigator Teams or Sales Navigator Advanced.

You can recognize a corresponding license, among other things, by the fact that the “Smartlinks” item is visible in the top menu.

If this requirement is met, you can search for the “Interest in Category” filter under the lead filters in Sales Navigator and use it for your lead research.

How to Use the “Interest in Category” Filter

To use the filter in Sales Navigator, first open the lead search. There, select the “Interest in Category” option under the lead filters.

Then click the plus symbol and enter a suitable category. Possible categories can be, for example:

Marketing

Software

Consulting

Recruiting

or another product or service category that matches your offer.

Via the “Show all product categories” option, you can view additional available categories and make the appropriate selection.

Sales Navigator will then show you people who may potentially be interested in this category.

Why This Filter Can Improve Your Lead Search

The major advantage of the filter is that you do not build your search only based on external characteristics. You also take into account a possible interest in a topic, a solution, or a category.

This can be especially helpful if your offer can clearly be assigned to a specific product or service category.

For example, if you offer software, a corresponding category in Sales Navigator can help you find people who may already have touchpoints with software topics.

If you offer consulting services, you can search for suitable categories that are closer to your service area.

This makes your search in Sales Navigator more relevant and better aligned with your target group.

Additional Filter: People Who Are Active on LinkedIn

In addition to the “Interest in Category” filter, another filter can be very helpful: “Have posted something on LinkedIn”.

This filter shows you people who are active on LinkedIn and publish their own posts. This can be especially interesting for your lead search in Sales Navigator because active users often respond more readily to connection requests or messages.

Especially with very large search results, this filter can be useful. For example, if you have several thousand results in Sales Navigator, you can narrow down your target group further with this additional filter.

With small search volumes, you should use the filter carefully. If you already have only a few results, the activity filter can reduce your target group too much.

Using Second- and Third-Degree Contacts Correctly

If you want to build new contacts, you should pay particular attention to second- and third-degree contacts in Sales Navigator.

Direct contacts are already connected with you. Therefore, they are not relevant for new connection requests.

Second- and third-degree contacts are better suited if you want to reach new people. Sales Navigator helps you find and narrow down these contacts in a targeted way.

Direct contacts can still be useful if you want to approach existing contacts again or follow up with them. So the decisive factor is what goal you are pursuing with your search.

A Useful Search Logic in Sales Navigator

A structured search in Sales Navigator can be built as follows:

First, define your target group using classic filters such as position, industry, location, and company size.

Then add the “Interest in Category” filter to find people with a possible thematic connection to your offer.

If the search volume is very large, you can also use the “Have posted something on LinkedIn” filter.

For new connections, select second- or third-degree contacts.

For follow-up actions, you can use direct contacts.

This approach helps you use Sales Navigator more specifically and structure your lead list better.

Common Mistakes When Using Sales Navigator

A common mistake is setting up the search too broadly. If you use filters that are too general or categories that are too broad, you may get many results, but not necessarily suitable leads.

Another mistake is selecting direct contacts even though the goal is actually to gain new contacts. Direct contacts are already part of your network and are more suitable for follow-up activities.

The “Have posted something on LinkedIn” filter should also be used deliberately. With large search volumes, it can be very helpful. With small target groups, it can unnecessarily reduce the number of results too much.

Sales Navigator works best when you combine the filters strategically and clearly define your target group.

Conclusion: Find More Relevant Leads With Sales Navigator

Sales Navigator offers many possibilities to build your lead search in a more targeted way. Especially the “Interest in Category” filter can help you find people who may already have a thematic connection to your offer.

In combination with active users and second- or third-degree contacts, you can further improve your search in Sales Navigator. This way, you do not simply find more contacts, but above all more suitable contacts for your outreach.

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