LinkedIn Sales Solutions has begun rolling out its Q4 release to Sales Navigator subscribers.  New features include a data validation flag for contacts, improved geographic filters, a funding events spotlight, two new alerts, additional SNAP partners, and extended administrative tools.

A new data validation flag warns users that a contact is no longer at a company listed in the CRM.  If the company differs between LinkedIn and the CRM a “Not at Company Flag” is written to the CRM.  The flag is both displayed to the rep and available as a trigger for contact clean-ups and removal from marketing campaigns.

LinkedIn added three new reports which leverage the field:

• Opportunities at Risk: Proactively identifying when a buyer has left an open opportunity
• Past Customers at New Companies: Identifying contacts at current customers (potential champions) who have joined new companies
• Out-of-Date Contacts: All potential contacts that need to be updated

LinkedIn is hemmed in by commitments to its members’ data privacy.  Thus, it cannot append or sync full contact information like other vendors.  The data validation flag simply alerts sales and marketing that a contact is no longer at a firm.  It does not upload information on the member’s new company to the CRM.

The Data Validation flag is available to Enterprise Edition licensors with CRM sync enabled in Salesforce and MS Dynamics 365.

LinkedIn redesigned its usage reporting with time-series charts for messaging effectiveness.  Expanded analytics include InMail messages sent, InMail acceptance rates, messages sent, and total unique connections.  The report also includes the top five reps for each category.

Other new administrative tools include

• Coaching/training levels
• Chart filtering by custom date ranges, groups, and users.
• Data Updates – Saved Leads and Accounts

LinkedIn has integrated Bing location data, making prospecting more precise.  The service covers 2.4 million more cities and over 2,000 new states/provinces.

Users may also filter by a new funding events spotlight.  The new filter “brings these updates to the top of your search results within the Spotlight tab, giving you a helpful cue that it’s the right time to check-in,” blogged Doug Camplejohn, VP of Product Management, LinkedIn Sales Solutions.

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Continue to Part II