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Hi Community members, 

 

Happy Monday! Hope you had a well-rested weekend and are ready to kick-off a brand new week. To help get you ready, today I want to (re)introduce you to one of our great features: TeamLink. Hope you're ready, there's some interesting stuff coming your way and I'm really looking forward to getting your thoughts on this.

 

1.Learn how to take advantage of TeamLink 

 

What is TeamLink?

If you haven’t heard of it, Team Link is a feature that utilizes the power of your entire team's network to help you find the best path to a lead by showing you Sales Navigator license holders on your team account who are 1st-degree connections to the lead, even if you're not connected to your teammate. With this information, you can easily see who can help you connect with potential leads and make a warm introduction. And, what’s the best part of it? Your teammates will also have the same access to your connections! One quick/important note: this is a feature that it’s only available for customers who have a Sales Navigator Advanced or Advanced Plus plan.

 

How can you leverage TeamLink? 

The Sales Spotlight feature for TeamLink connections allows you to target prospects with the best suggested path. By default, TeamLink is enabled in the Settings menu located below your profile picture dropdown. Learn more about how to manage your TeamLink settings in Sales Navigator.

 

This said, you can secure introductions through TeamLink by finding out common connections and skipping cold calls. Team Link allows you to get a warm introduction to prospects beyond your first-degree network by leveraging mutual connections. If you want to do it, once you’ve found the lead, you just need to visit their SN lead profile, click the (Ask about) button in your TeamLink panel to send a message to a member, and ask for an introduction to a common connection.

 

 

2.Understand how TeamLink Groups allows you to expand your poll of quality leads and warm introductions

 

What are TeamLink Groups?

TeamLink Groups, or cross-contract TeamLink, expands TeamLink by introducing the ability to connect multiple Sales Navigator contracts or multiple dashboards under one or more contracts. By connecting multiple dashboards, you may represent additional regions, subsidiaries, or functions of your organization. 

 

A couple of things to keep in mind as you activate TeamLink Groups:

  • This feature is only available to Advanced and Advanced Plus plans.
  • Dashboards can only be a part of one TeamLink Group.
  • TeamLink Groups cannot be self-activated and must be activated by LSS Support.
  • For TeamLink Groups, the individuals representing each company and signing the Data Sharing Agreement acknowledge that they are authorized to do so.
  • Just like regular TeamLink, if a member opts out of TeamLink then their contribution to the Teamlink network will not be shown for any contract or dashboard.

 

How can you set up TeamLink Groups?

  • Contact our support team and request to have TeamLink Groups activated for your account.
  • A support representative will reach out to you within 48-72 hours to confirm your request. You may be provided with additional documentation that will need to be filled out to process the request. All associated contract owners will need to sign a new data sharing agreement form when adding any new contracts to the Group.
  • Send completed forms back to our support team and TeamLink Groups will be initiated within 48-72 hours.

 

3.Leverage TeamLink Extend by inviting people in your organization that don’t have a Sales Navigator license

 

What is TeamLink Extend? 

TeamLink Extend allows companies to increase the size of their TeamLink networks without giving members full Sales Navigator capabilities. TeamLink is a feature of LinkedIn's Sales Navigator product that allows Sales Navigator users to leverage the power of an entire team's network to find the best paths to leads and accounts. Learn more about the TeamLink feature in Sales Navigator.

 

How can Sales Navigator’s Admins assign and remove a TeamLink Extend seat?

First, please understand that to manage and assign seats for TeamLink Extend, you'll need to be an admin on a Sales Navigator Advanced or Advanced Plus contract. To assign seats for TeamLink Extend, you just need to:

  • Sign in to Sales Navigator.
  • Move your cursor over Admin at the top of the page and select Seat Management from the dropdown.
  • Select the TeamLink Extend Seats tab.
  • Click Assign seats in the top section of the page.
  • Follow the prompts to complete assigning seats.
  • Select Assign.

 

Screenshot 2020-11-02 at 11.20.52 

To remove a member from TeamLink Extend, select Edit to the right of their name on the TeamLink Extend Seats page and then click Remove from the dropdown.

 

What happens when users receive a TeamLink Extend seat?

If anyone is given a TeamLink Extend seat, they’ll receive an email invitation that they can accept or decline. They can also manage TeamLink Extend from their Settings & Privacy page on Linkedin.com. Accepting the invitation means Sales Navigator users at their organization can see if they are connected to people they are searching for, and request an introduction from them. No other information is shared with their dashboard.

 

If users received an email invitation to join TeamLink Extend from a Sales Navigator user, they can click Opt in Today on the invitation to join the TeamLink program. Clicking Opt in Today allows individuals at their organization with Sales Navigator licenses to extend their organization's network by viewing who they are connected to on LinkedIn. Once they accept the invitation, there's no further action required from them.

 

How can TeamLink Extend users turn their seat on and off?

Invitations to join TeamLink Extend will be indicated in the TeamLink Extend section of your Settings & Privacy page on LinkedIn.com from where you can accept or decline. Additionally, you can turn TeamLink Extend on or off at any time, even after you accept an email invitation to join the program.

 

To manage your TeamLink Extend settings:

  • Sign in to LinkedIn.com.
  • Click the  Me icon at the top of your LinkedIn homepage.
  • Select Settings & Privacy from the dropdown to go to your Settings & Privacy page.
  • Select the Account tab at the top of the page.
  • Under the Partners and services section of the Account tab, click Change next to TeamLink Extend.
  • Switch the toggle to the left or right to turn TeamLink Extend on or off.

 

Turning TeamLink Extend off will mean that Sales Navigator users at your company won't have access to your LinkedIn connections when trying to find valuable leads and accounts.

 

I really hope you’ve found this Community post helpful and that, in case you’re not leveraging this feature yet, you’ve discovered all the key benefits that TeamLink offers you and your organization. If you’re already leveraging it, please let us know how you’re taking advantage of it and share any win you’ve had with it.

 

I can't wait to hear your feedback and TeamLink success stories! 😊

 

Nádia

Community Pro Tips

  • Don’t repeatedly ask the same person for introductions
  • Always state the reason you want the introduction and the value
  • Give the introducer a comfortable way to decline your request
  • Keep your introducer in the know on the progress of your conversation
  • Create an email template for your introducer to use to make it easier for them to reach out on your behalf
  • Think about giving some of these seats to our leadership team and ask them to help you leverage their senior stakeholder’s relationships and introduce you to key people within the companies you’re trying to engage with. The most senior people on your organization tend to have well established relationships and, leveraging them can be key when it comes to introducing yourself.

I've just discovered this Teamlink features. No one look into that and we had 1000 licences... unused. All of them 😅

 

The only tricky thing is to convince all your business about it and how it is important for the company business.

 

Any tip for those who invited and used their licence? How do you convince your internal business?😎


Wow, so this was a massive discovery, right? 😊 I hope you're planning on how to leverage those licenses already.

 

And, what a great discussion point you've raised, @Lionel L​. It's so important to get the buy-in from your senior stakeholders and help them understand how crucial it's to have their support on this. @Alejandro C​, @Paul L​ and @Isis L​, do you have any experience with TeamLink?

 

Additionally, this thread includes a video sharing some tips on how to leverage TeamLink for warm introductions. It could be a good idea to share it with your key decision makers and make them realize how much it can help their sales teams increase their pipeline.


@Nadia Vieira​ This is an outstanding resource. As well as timely.


@Julianne DeCaro​ Great insight. I will share and push it as stronger I can 😎


Very timely, right @Tamika B​? Are you leveraging this already? 😊

 

@Lionel L​, please do and keep us posted on that's going! Also, any support you need, we're here!


@Nadia Vieira​ we are leveraging TeamLink but need to do a better job. I will be facilitating a training for Team Link in 1Q 2021, so this will be VERY helpful when I prepare.


Looking forward to finding more about it in Q1 2021, @Tamika B​! 😊


TeamLink is one of the most powerful features Sales Navigator offers; I'd highly recommend all users take advantage of this. Remember, you're always looking for the warmest pathway through to a prospect and what better way than to leverage someone in your own organization who is connected to that individual.


I couldn't say it better, @Paul L​! 👏


I'll play devil's advocate here 🙂 I've always thought Teamlink is a great feature as long as you're aware it's there and I've had conversations with the development team on how to make it more and more obvious. This is one of those amazing "do it better" opportunities that I haven't seen really taken advantage of.

 

A good sales rep will look for those avenues of introductions without TL...so the minute they see how it works (after you point it out), they get it. I still think the first part is not as obvious yet.

 

As for TL Extend, we have 1000 seats and deployed most, then got them back, then deployed again. Without a proper networking / crosspollination strategy it's not enough I'm afraid. This is an area where I lack enough experience though so I'm more than happy to find out from people really leveraring it! Would love to hear from you @Lionel L​ !


As always, thank you for sharing such helpful feedback, @Alejandro C​. You know how much I appreciate getting honest and constructive feedback from you and all our members. I'm happy to know that you've shared this with our teams before (btw, I've just shared it with the Product Manager responsible for this feature as well) and I'm sure they were also thankful for that. I agree that this feature needs to be highly visible, so that users can easily find and take advantage of it. I'll let you know when I hear back from the product team on what are their plans to improve it.

 

On Team Link Extend, first just so that I can get more details, why did you get the seats back? Was it because the users didn't accept the Team Link Extend invitation? Second, I completely agree with you on your recommendation to set up a strategy to assign, manage and leverage them. Just like many other SN features, it's important to understand what this can do for you and your reps, as well as identify collaboration opportunities to best leverage these seats.

 

@Lionel L​, is StarLeaf already leveraging these seats internally? @Tamika B​, I know this is still something you're working on, but once you build your Team Link Extend strategy, I'm sure, @Alejandro C​  and I would love to hear more about it.


Question for you @Nadia Vieira​  - does Teamlink Extend cost ? It looks brilliant but want to know if we can use it across my new company and at what cost if any thanks R


Hi @Rebecca P​! This is a great questions. At the moment, as you can see here Team Link Extend (Team Link for your Company network) is only available for Sales Navigator Enterprise license holders. I would recommend reaching out to your internal Admin and trying to understand what license you have and, hopefully, if it's the one mentioned above, then you can start using it! 😊

Thank you,

Nádia


Hi, I am interested in seeing more about how TeamLink Groups work. For example, can someone be a part of more than 1 TeamLink Extend license? I.e. can they accept 2 TeamLink licenses from different dashboards/accounts?


Hello, @Richard H​.

First, welcome to the LinkedIn Sales Navigator Community. 😊

To start, I'd recommend you to visit this Help Center article that explains what TeamLink Groups are and the most important things to keep in mind as you activate them.

Answering your question on having more than one TeamLink Extend license,  if you've received multiple invitations from different Sales Navigator dashboards, each dashboard setting will be shown separately. This means that you can choose to opt-in to sharing your network with one team that has invited you, but decline to share it with another.

Hope this is helpful but please let me know in case you have any further questions.

Thank you,

Nadia

 


Does anyone know what happens if we add company employees using the work email address to Team Link Extend, and their LinkedIn accounts are setup using the personal email, if this feature will still work?


Hi, @David H​.

If Sales Navigator users are given a TeamLink Extend seat, they'll receive an email invitation that they can accept or decline. Additionally, they can also manage TeamLink Extend from your Settings & Privacy page on LinkedIn.com.

In this case, if you add their work email address, I believe they will receive an email asking them to activate their TeamLink Extend license, even if their LinkedIn account is connected to their own personal email. Nonetheless, just to confirm, the email invitation will go to the email address you added to TeamLink Extend.

If you have already added the employee's work email to TeamLink Extend, can you please ask them to confirm they have received the email invitation on that inbox?

Let us know how that goes and we are happy to take it from there.

Thank you,

Nádia


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