Vision vs. LinkedIn Sales Navigator — Which Tool Should You Choose?

Quality over quantity is the right approach to high-converting sales outreach. This perspective is a common denominator for the two sales intelligence tools we talk about today: Vision and LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

Despite their shared view on quality outreach, the two tools have differences in how they work and how they’re priced. Let’s dive into Sales Navigator and Vision before comparing the two tools against each other so you can choose the best solution for your sales efforts.

What is LinkedIn Sales Navigator?

Sales Navigator is a sales intelligence tool by LinkedIn. The tool is designed to help salespeople target the right people and make personalized outreach directly on the social media platform. LinkedIn Sales Navigator offers advanced search tools that allow sales teams to filter for characteristics such as seniority, activities, and common experiences.

For example, a salesperson can filter for decision-makers at a particular company that has shown interest in their product and recently secured a funding round. Salespeople can then act on these signals with personalized outreach through InMail.

LinkedIn also allows for existing CRM data to be uploaded to the platform. Sales Navigator can analyze the characteristics of these existing contacts and track their movement or find similar personas that can be surfaced as prospects.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator’s core feature

The core feature of LinkedIn Sales Navigator is the advanced search functionality. This allows sales teams to find and make personalized outreach to specific personas based on the ideal customer profile of their company.

LinkedIn has close to a billion users on their platform. Most sales intelligence tools get their data from LinkedIn, hence the platform is well-regarded for its high-quality data.

Strengths of LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Highly accurate data. LinkedIn has some of the most accurate data in the market. This is due to the nature of the platform — it’s a central hub for professionals in every industry to display their current position, activities, and professional interests. These are valuable insights for sales teams to leverage for highly targeted outreach.

Real-time updates. Sales Navigator keeps sales teams updated on the activities of prospects. If a prospect changes jobs, secures funding, or interacts with your company page, Sales Navigator notifies you so you can act on the signal in real-time.

In-depth data. Sales intelligence tools usually select particular information to show users. Sales Navigator can provide a more in-depth view into the prospect’s history, skills, interests, connections, and activities, allowing sales teams to tailor outreach.

Weaknesses of LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Limited outreach. Sales Navigator offers limited InMails, the credits used for outreach. All plans have a 50 credit allotment a month, while the maximum a user can accumulate is 150. This is to ensure high-quality outreach, but can be a limiting factor for larger outreach efforts. Mass outreach can result in suspension.

Pricing. Sales Navigator is priced per user per month and ranges from $99 to $149. This can be expensive for larger teams, as LinkedIn does not offer options with unlimited seats. This means that every team member needs a subscription to use the platform.

Profile required. You need to have a LinkedIn profile to use Sales Navigator, and the platform only surfaces leads who are on the platform. This can be a limiting factor, as not every prospect has a profile on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator Pricing

Sales Navigator is priced at $99 per user per month, while the Advanced plan for teams is priced at $149 per user per month. Users can get a 25% discount when signing up for a year instead of a monthly subscription. Enterprise is custom priced, starting at $1600 per year.

What is Vision?

Vision is a sales intelligence platform that offers a powerful lead generation tool. Based on your ideal customer profile, Vision identifies the most promising leads and provides you with a list of companies and people that are ready for you to reach out to.

With Vision you can also search and filter millions of positions and companies from The Org's database. With advanced filters not available on the core platform you can take advantage of the world's largest database of org charts.

Vision core feature

Vision uses data from The Org — the world's biggest network of public org charts. Using this data, Vision can track org changes across more than 300,000 companies and stay up to date on talent movement.

Real-time talent movement data from org charts coupled with intelligent lead scoring generates high-quality data that enables your sales team to not only reach out to the right person, but at exactly the right time.

Vision surfaces leads with a higher propensity to buy based on signals like First Functional Hire that equips your sales team with valuable insights, increasing the chances of successful outreach.

Vision strengths

High-quality data. With data from The Org, Vision provides updated, real-time data. Using accurate org chart data improves understanding of the potential customer and allows you to time your outreach efforts based.

Track changes. Vision tracks talent movement, and by leveraging personal and professional connections, you can act on these org changes. Current signals include first functional hire, former customer hire, key executive hire, and team growth.

Convert more. Prioritizing lead quality over quantity in a data-flooded market, Vision surfaces leads with a higher propensity to buy based on signals and org chart tracking, enabling you to close a higher percentage of your prospects.

Pay less. At a price point starting at $29 per month, Vision is one of the most affordable solutions on the market. There is also a free option in Vision.

Comparison — Sales Navigator vs. Vision

Sales Navigator and Vision are similar in their approach to lead generation and outreach. The tools both focus on low-volume, high-quality outreach by limiting the number of surfaced leads and outreach credits salespeople get access to. This excludes mass outreach and ensures that prospects are not bombarded with generic sales pitches.

When comparing Sales Navigator to Vision, differentiating factors can also be highlighted. Sales Navigator has its advantages in providing highly accurate data and a more personal format as outreach is conducted directly through the social media platform.

However, Vision also has its advantages over Sales Navigator. The Vision platform surfaces leads directly to the user that are based on org chart data and signals and curated through a proprietary lead-scoring algorithm. Additionally, Vision offers filters that are not available in Sales Navigator.

Should I choose LinkedIn Sales Navigator or Vision?

Sales Navigator and Vision offer many of the same capabilities. They both rely on highly accurate data, value quality over volume outreach, and track talent movement and other signals that sales teams can act on.

If you’re part of a small sales team that likes to work directly on the LinkedIn platform (and can resist the algorithm-induced temptation of using it for private purposes while at work), Sales Navigator may be a good solution.

For teams larger than five salespeople, Vision’s plan with unlimited seats will often be the best solution in terms of pricing. Vision also gets data from LinkedIn and picks up on the same signals, so you will get a similar product for a smaller price tag.

Sign up for Vision today

If you want to try Vision, you can sign up as a free user at https://vision.theorg.com/. You can also book a demo to get even more insights into the platform.