LinkedIn is now owned by Microsoft. However, the company’s direction of operation seems to have remained much the same. It has now come up with a couple of brand new services in a bid to give more power to enterprises and allow them to leverage its huge network of almost half a billion working professionals. The company today introduced a new “enterprise” tier to Sales Navigator, which will let salespeople use LinkedIn to indulge in some serious social selling.
Okay, so Sales Navigator needed an overhaul. That much was pretty much given after LinkedIn’s last earnings report before its Microsoft acquisition when it was revealed that while Sales Navigator was the company’s most important premium subscription product, premium subscriptions accounted for merely $162 million of LinkedIn’s net $960 million generated in that particular quarter.
However, right around the time Microsoft was busy acquiring LinkedIn, it was said that the Sales Navigator was an important part of the deal. Indeed, it was also said that the product could with the right direction, be used to take upon Salesforce. Of course, it took an acquisition before that direction could fully be realized however, it seems like the service has finally received it now.
However, the company has continued stressing that it isn’t about competing with Salesforce. No sir. Instead, it said that it would prefer to remain in and strengthen the position it was already in. The company said that it will prefer to be a complement to CRM systems such as Salesforce.
This latest integration, along with bringing the ability to write stuff right back into the CRM database, also packs a slew of CRM tools such as LinkedIn Sales Navigator profile details, work history, job titles and so on. You can also view things like TeamLink shared connections within different CRMs like Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics. The company is also planning a bunch of other widget integrations like Oracle, SAP Hybris, SugarCRM NetSuite and Zoho.
The new enterprise tier that has been launched today is pretty pricey. A seat on the tier costs somewhere around $1,600 per annum and the company is aiming the service at some of the larger businesses that can afford it and for whom, the professional and team editions just don’t cut it anymore.
If taken up, the service has the potential to generate some serious revenue and bring the Sales Navigator right back upon the map. Let’s see how things work out.
