Integrating Social Selling into a CRM solution: the case of SugarCRM and LinkedIn Sales Navigator

The introduction of CRM software has led to a revolution in the way these professionals work: it industrialised knowledge about prospects and customers, it automated many processes (management of opportunities, campaigns, etc.) and, ultimately, it increased profitability, effectiveness, and sales.  However, the market has also developed towards new digital sales tools, such as those that focus on Social Selling, among which we can highlight the LinkedIn Sales Navigator in the professional environment.

At Intelligence Partner, we are aware of the importance of combining both fields. This is why we work with SugarCRM, one of the most popular CRM solutions on the market that, in its latest version, has consolidated its commitment to Social Selling by enhancing its capacity to integrate with LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

Would you like to know a little more about these tools?

What is LinkedIn Sales Navigator?

Within the panorama of today’s social media, LinkedIn stands out from the rest by its eminently professional nature: it encourages global business, professional, and commercial relationships. In recent years, it has been working on the LinkedIn Sales Navigator, a tool that enables Sales professionals to reach out to leads and customers and to provide a personalised follow-up of each one of them regarding any sales actions performed within this social network (known as Social Selling).

The benefit of using tools like the LinkedIn Sales Navigator lies in the fact that it is closely linked to the purchasing capacity of the users: a recent survey by Hubspot found that customers who use social media to purchase goods have more money (84%) than those who do not. And that is not all: the professionals that use this tool achieve 66% higher sales than those who trust in traditional sales methods.

This LinkedIn tool is being deployed successfully in Spain and it is expected that by 2020 it will have been implemented in most businesses.

How does SugarCRM integrate into LinkedIn Sales Navigator?

SugarCRM belongs to the LinkedIn Sales Navigator partner programme, which facilitates the development of this platform and its connection to the main CRM solutions on the market. As a result of this, it has designed an advanced connector for Sales Navigator that allows you to make the most of the functions of this social network without having to exit SugarCRM.

This connector is available as a dashboard on the smart panel in the account, leads, or contact views. The following actions are available:

• Consult basic employee information (employment history)
• Save the account directly on Sales Navigator
• Find aspects in common between the sales agent and the lead (shared contacts, having worked in the same company, etc.)
• Use the existing network (first-degree contacts) to be introduced via InMail.
• Find similar or exact leads that meet the criteria specified in Lead Builder
• Consult basic information on the contact company
• Prioritise key people you wish to contact in the company and save those leads in Sales Navigator
• Find first and second level contacts
• Keep up-to-date on the latest news on each account, which will encourage and enhance interactions

As we have seen, social sales are becoming an important aspect when closing important deals, to the point that more than 60% of marketing professionals consider them essential. Natively coupled to a CRM tool like SugarCRM, it allows companies’ sales departments to improve their efficiency, success rate regarding operations and billing thanks to personal and close relationships.

At Intelligence Partner, we have the expertise to achieve this for your business. Contact us and we shall be happy to show you how!