How to do a Boolean search on LinkedIn Sales Navigator: tutorial, tips, tricks

As you probably know, LinkedIn is the world’s leading social network for professionals. Did you know that to facilitate your search for prospects, using the LinkedIn Boolean search can make your life easier? Discover in this article how to use it, tips and advice to be efficient.

What is the LinkedIn Boolean search?

Boolean search is a form of query sent to a search engine. By integrating Boolean operators, which are specific signs or words, it allows you to refine your search. You can combine, exclude or put together several keywords

As you may have noticed, LinkedIn has its own internal search engine. Many people think that it works in the simplest way by only filling in certain keywords. But it goes far beyond that! LinkedIn is a fast-growing social network that continues to evolve. Today, there are many filters, which, combined with keywords and Boolean operators, offer a surprisingly fine search.

Boolean search is now used by many professionals. It simplifies the search for a profile or an account, while saving time

Where is the Boolean search used?

There are two areas where you can write your Boolean search:

• Directly in the main search bar of LinkedIn Sales Navigator: the filter searches for the keyword directly in all profile items.

• In the title filter: you fill in the keywords and it searches only the professional experiences of the prospects.

How to do the Boolean search in Linkedin Sales Navigator?

To get relevant results in LinkedIn Sales Navigator, it is possible to combine filters and Boolean operators. There are seven Boolean operators:

• Searching with quotes ” “: put the keyword or phrase in quotes. They tell the search engine that you want a list of results for this query.

For example, if you indicate E-commerce manager without quotation marks, the tool will understand that you are looking for both the term manager and e-commerce, and not for an “e-commerce manager”. Your list of prospects will not be relevant. That’s why it’s important to put the quotation marks to have a perfect match.

• Search with NOT: This operator is used to exclude certain keywords, expressions or job titles. If you are looking for a writer but do not want to work with a freelancer, you indicate in the search engine “writer” NOT freelancer. This function is very useful to filter your contacts before a prospecting campaign for example.

• The search with AND: it has the function to refine your search. AND allows you to include different criteria. Let’s take the example of the writer. You want to find one who is specialized in SEO. AND will refine the results to find only SEO writers. This operator is used to find specific roles.

• Searching with OR: It increases the profile search in the search engine. It may happen that a prospect has several hats. Your search will therefore focus on several job titles to avoid missing a prospect. Looking for copywriters and graphic designers? Expand your search by indicating “writer” OR “graphic designer”.

• Searching with parentheses ( ): These parentheses allow you to combine several keywords to refine your search for prospects. For example, you are looking for a writer or a graphic designer, but you do not want a freelancer. You indicate in the search: (“writer” OR “graphic designer”) NOT freelance.

• Searching with firstname:, lastname:, company: and school:: these operators are used to find specific people, jobs or companies.
• Searching with title:: you have to enter a keyword or a phrase after the colon so that the search engine finds profiles containing the indicated data.

Memorize the Boolean search

Do you want to save your searches to save time? This feature is available in Sales Navigator, and you can even have it sent to your email address! Isn’t that nice? This way, you are always up to date with your searches.

Once you have entered your search, click on the “Save Search” button, name your search and save.

Export your Boolean search with Derrick?

You have completed your search for prospects? It’s time to build your list using our Derrick tool. The list will be created directly on a Google Sheet document:

Your list is ok, let’s start prospecting to boost your sales.