🏆 April Competition: What are your green and red flags when prospecting?

I use Sales Navigator to filter for momentum, not just titles.

Here’s how I decide where to dig:

The Green Flags (Double Down)

• The "New Sheriff": Leads who changed jobs in the last 90 days. They have a mandate for change and a budget to prove their impact.

• The "Spotlight" Filter: Anyone who has posted in the last 30 days. If they aren’t active on the platform, your InMail is just shouting into a void.

• Specific Dept. Growth: I check the Insights tab. If the department I sell into is growing while the rest of the company is flat, that’s where the investment is flowing.

The Red Flags (Walk Away)

• The "Ghost" Profile: No photo, minimal connections, zero activity. Great title or not, they aren't social sellers. Don't waste the credit.

• C-Suite Churn: If a company has had three VPs in two years, it’s a sign of internal instability. You’ll never get a signature because the goalposts are always moving.

• Negative Growth: If headcount is shrinking, they aren't looking for solutions; they’re looking for the "exit" button.

The Strategy: I’d rather spend two hours deeply researching five "Green Flag" accounts than two minutes each on fifty "Gray" ones. Prospecting isn't a volume game, it's a relevancy game.

My biggest green flag for LinkedIn prospecting is seeing if someone Posted on LinkedIn in the last 30 days, or Changed Jobs in the last 90 days.

Assuming they fit the rest of my targeting criteria (job title, headcount, etc). This is the one signal I’ve found to be the biggest predictor of reply rates, and ultimately revenue.

Red flags are if people have a low connection count + aren’t active on the platform.

​@harishreddygudi I agree on focusing on the green flags, and this is a great and comprehensive list of signals professionals should look out for.

The department growth is interesting and a great angle to think about. Thank you for sharing this! 

​@christopher-cozzolino I agree! And I found your explanation of how targeting those active profiles boosts responses, meetings, and revenue by 3-6x very helpful 👏

The main criteria I use and recommend for initiating prospecting are, (green flag) first, that the profile matches the ideal customer profile in terms of role and industry, and second, that they show a certain level of activity on LinkedIn, even if it is only engaging with other people’s posts. The profiles I typically disregard are those that are incomplete, lack activity, or have a very small network of connections.( red flag)

​@Anjali Chawla building a strong ICP is really the foundation of a good sales strategy. Looking at your existing and successful clients for comparison is a great way to assess prospects.

I like how you broke the signals down into different categories, and I agree on the fact that prioritizing timing, precision, and quality definitely produces better results than pure volume. Thanks for sharing your approach with us!

​@david19 thanks for your sharing your green and red flags - the LinkedIn activity is one of the best filters and most powerful filters of Sales Navigator! I like your red flags - having an incomplete profile or low number of connections can be an indicator of low engagement and activity in the platform.