Running a Sales Navigator Search

What it does: turns the ICP into a filter set that returns the right few thousand people, then into a lead list.

Run it when: the ICP is defined by role, seniority, company shape, or a LinkedIn-native signal.

Time: 20 minutes to build the search, then scrape time at roughly 2,500 profiles an hour.

Depends on: SOP 02 for the ICP, SOP 04 for the decision to come here.

Before you start

A connected account with a Sales Navigator or Recruiter seat. Without one, run a standard LinkedIn search instead, which works from any account

The ICP one-liner and its trigger

A target result size, 500 to 2,000 for a targeted campaign

The steps

1. Layer filters in priority order.

Keyword search, then function, then job titles, then seniority, then company headcount, then geography, then industry, then company type. Adding filters in this order means you narrow from the broadest cut down, and you can watch the result count fall as you go. Every filter you add cuts results, so only add the ones that define the ICP.

2. Write keywords as boolean strings, never single words.

(sales enablement OR revenue operations OR RevOps) with parentheses around the whole expression. One generic word returns noise; a boolean OR-string returns the language your buyers actually use about themselves.

3. List job titles with every variation.

LinkedIn matches strings, not meaning. "CTO", "Chief Technology Officer" and "Chief Tech Officer" are three different searches. Write all three. This is the single most defining filter, and the one most often left half-finished.

4. Use the exact predefined values where they exist.

Seniority, function, headcount, company type and connection degree come from fixed lists. Industry names are LinkedIn's, not yours: "Computer Software" not "SaaS", "Hospital & Health Care" not "Healthcare". Anything else silently matches nothing.

5. Separate the person's location from the company's.

Person geography and company HQ geography are different filters. A remote employee in Austin working for a San Francisco company matches one and not the other. Using both at once only makes sense when you genuinely mean both.

6. Turn on posted in the last 30 days.

This is the strongest narrowing filter available and it cuts results by 80 to 90 percent. The people it keeps are the ones active enough to see a connection request and reply to it. Default it on, and only drop it when it starves the list below your target.

7. Add an intent signal if there is one.

Changed jobs in the last 90 days is the highest-value one: new in role means new budget, new tools and a mandate to change something. Also available: follows your company page, viewed your profile, shares a group or a school, worked with you previously. Small audiences, unusually warm.

8. Check the count against the target.

Under 500, remove a filter or broaden the title list. Over 5,000, add the posted-recently filter or narrow headcount. Between 500 and 5,000, stop fiddling and scrape it.

9. Paste the search URL into Reachium and run it.

The scrape runs from the account holding the Sales Navigator seat, at roughly 2,500 profiles an hour and up to 10,000 a day. It cannot be cancelled once started, so read the filters one more time first. Poll the job for progress rather than watching the list.

Do this / Not this

Done when

Every filter in the set can be justified against the ICP line

Job titles include variations

Predefined values used exactly as LinkedIn writes them

Result count sits between 500 and 5,000

The search URL is scraping into a correctly named list

The expected finish time is known

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