How to Use the Sales Navigator Search to Lead Outreach

*For a workflow targeting 10–20 LinkedIn leads, the full process typically takes around 5–15 minutes total, including exporting search results, sending connection requests, and follow-up messages, plus a few extra seconds for the workflow to process.

Before you start

• If you’re working with LinkedIn people search URLs, use our dedicated LinkedIn Search to Lead Outreach instead.

Step 1: Connect your Sales Navigator account

To let the automation act on your behalf:

1. Install the PhantomBuster browser extension and connect your Sales Navigator session in one click.
2. If you’re not using Chrome or Firefox, you can retrieve your session cookie manually (see our cookie guide).

Check your browser user agent
Make sure your browser is up to date before connecting your account. 
→ If your Chrome or Firefox version is outdated, your session cookie may expire much more quickly, and you’ll need to reconnect often.

Step 2: Choose which profiles to invite

Tell the Workflow which Sales Navigator lead search or list results you’d like it to extract.

1. Provide the profiles you want to target in one of the following formats:

   • Paste a single Sales Navigator lead search or list URL.
   • Provide a Google Sheet with Sales Navigator lead search or list URLs (make sure it’s shared with “Anyone with the link”).
     → If you’re using a spreadsheet, the Workflow defaults to the first column (A). To use a different column, enter the column’s header name in the field “Name of column containing searches or lists.”
   • Upload a CSV file with Sales Navigator lead search or list URLs (CSV upload is only available on paid plans)

   

2. Advanced settings (optional):
   • Specify the Number of profiles to extract per search or list: 
     - Default = empty which means it will extract all available. 
     - You can only set this value when configuring the Workflow for the first time. Once your Workflow has finished retrieving results and shows the status "Search successfully processed", increasing this number won't extract additional profiles. The search has been treated as complete. To pull more profiles, create a new Workflow with the same search input and set the desired number (or leave it blank to capture all available).
   • Specify the Number of invites to send per day:
     - Default = capped at 20.
     - LinkedIn limits you to 100 invitations per week.
     - To stay within this limit, the Workflow defaults to sending 20 invites per working day (Monday–Friday). You can lower this number if you’re just starting with automation or want to be extra cautious.
   • Select the Times at which to send invites and messages:
     • Weekdays during working hours → Sends steadily Monday–Friday in standard office hours.
     • Randomly throughout the day and week → Spreads invites unpredictably.
   • Use your second Sales Navigator team instead of the first: 
     - Enable if you’re on multiple Sales Navigator teams and want to select a different one.

This Workflow does not include customizable Launch settings. You can’t change the frequency beyond these two options or set a different launch schedule.

Step 3: Customize your connection request

If you skip this step, invites will be sent without a message.

To add a personal message to your invite:

• Enter your message:
  • Write your message. 
    – Premium accounts allow the full 300 characters with unlimited personalized invites.

Watch the character counter in the bottom-right corner of the message box to track your usage. This helps you stay within limits and avoid your message being cut off. Keep in mind that placeholder tags also count toward the limit, so leave room for both the tag itself and the replaced text.

• Placeholder tags:
  • All available tags appear at the bottom of the message box.
  • Click on a tag to insert it, or use the + icon to see the full list.
• Formatting restrictions:
  • Emojis are not supported.
  • Hyperlinks are not supported: any pasted link will appear as plain text.

Step 4: Write and schedule follow-up messages

Follow-up messages are mandatory in this Workflow.

To send follow-up messages after your connection requests are accepted:

1. Enter your message:

   • Write your message in the “Your message” field (up to 8,000 characters).
   • Click on the tags listed below the message box to insert them automatically.
   • Click the + icon to see all available tags.

   Watch the character counter in the bottom-right corner of the message box to track your usage. This helps you stay within limits and avoid your message being cut off. Keep in mind that placeholder tags also count toward the limit, so leave room for both the tag itself and the replaced text.

2. Attach files (optional)

   Add documents or images to your message:

   • Maximum combined file size = 20 MB.
   • Hyperlinks are not supported → if you paste a link, it will appear as plain text.
3. Define when to send it:
   • Choose the delay, between 0 and 15 days (e.g. “Send 1st follow-up after at least 2 days”).
   • Messages are only sent if the person accepts your connection and hasn’t replied.
4. Add more follow-ups:
   • You can schedule up to 3 follow-ups in total.
   • Each one is sent only if the previous message didn’t get a reply.

Replies after your follow-ups: 
This automation only checks for replies right before sending the next scheduled follow-up (via the LinkedIn Message Sender worker). If you don’t set up a second follow-up, the automation won’t be able to detect replies that come in after your first follow-up.

Step 5 (Optional): Advanced settings

Advanced settings are available if you want to fine-tune how your Workflow runs, but by default they’re already optimized for most use cases.

We recommend leaving them as they are unless a guide specifically instructs you to change something.

→ For a detailed overview of all advanced options (like execution limits, retries, email notifications, proxies, webhooks, and file management), see our Advanced settings guide.

Launch and results

When you’re ready:

• Toggle the ON/OFF switch to start your Workflow.

Once it finishes:

• Invitations aren’t sent right away. The automation first gathers your leads from the search URLs you provided, then begins sending invites according to your daily limit.
• You can track progress in the Workflow's dashboard:
  • Leads tab → Shows the status of each lead being processed by the automation (e.g., Not invited yet, Invited, Accepted, Follow-up sent, Replied, or Could not invite). From here you can search, filter, and also download your results as a CSV.

  • Report tab → Displays performance metrics of your Outreach campaign, including:

    - Time saved
    - Profiles collected, invites sent, requests accepted
    - Performance progress over time (visual graph of collected vs. invited vs. accepted)
    - Message sequence performance (how your follow-ups are performing).

• The next worker agent (or Phantom) to launch is always visible in the Workflow Dashboard. 
  → Look for the line starting with “Next:” to know what’s coming up in the sequence.

Export and input limits on the Free plan
If you’re on the Free plan or Free trial, some features are limited:
- CSV exports include only the first 10 rows of results.
- CSV download links (for dynamic viewing in Google Sheets or integrations) are not available.
- JSON exports are not available.
- CSV upload as an input method is not supported.
To unlock all features, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan.

How invitations and messages are sent

Even though this Workflow uses a Sales Navigator search or list as input, the actual connection requests and follow-up messages are sent through your regular LinkedIn account, not through Sales Navigator.

Behind the scenes:

• Connection requests are sent by the LinkedIn Auto Connect worker - they appear as standard LinkedIn invitations to the recipient.
• Follow-up messages are sent by the LinkedIn Message Sender worker - they appear in the recipient's regular LinkedIn inbox, not as InMails.

That said, pending invitations are visible in both LinkedIn and Sales Navigator interfaces. Connection requests are shared at the LinkedIn-platform level, so if you open the recipient's profile in Sales Navigator after the Workflow has sent an invite, you'll see the pending-invitation status there too.

This Workflow doesn't send InMails or Sales Navigator-only messages. If you need to message leads outside your 1st-degree network without first connecting, use the Sales Navigator Message Sender instead and enable the Send InMail messages option in its setup (requires InMail credits).

What you give (Input) and What you get (Output)

This section gives you a detailed breakdown of everything you need to provide to run this Workflow, and everything you’ll receive once it completes.

What you give (Input)

What you get (Output)

Tips and troubleshooting

Common pitfalls

• Using a private Google Sheet → make sure it’s shared with “Anyone with the link.”
• Message length → Premium accounts allow the full 300 characters with unlimited personalized invites.
• Updating inputs after launch → once a Workflow is turned on, changing the input is not recommended. This can lead to errors or disrupt the process.
  → Instead, create a new Phantom to process the new input.
• Scraping emails:
  • This Workflow does not collect professional emails.
  • If you need verified professional emails, use the Sales Navigator Profile Scraper instead.
• No custom scheduling → This Workflow doesn’t have Launch settings. You can only choose between the two available options (Weekdays during working hours or Randomly throughout the day and week). It isn’t possible to set other times or frequencies.
• If the Workflow stops working:
  • Errors may not always appear in the Dashboard.
  • To check hidden errors and execution details, open the Logs section from the console page of your Phantom. For step-by-step instructions, see How to Troubleshoot Errors in Workflows.

If you run into issues

• Browse the Fix Issues & Troubleshoot Errors section for solutions to common problems.
• Review our Automation Rate Limits by Platform guide.
• Check our Best Practices for Social Media Automation guide.

Suggested automations

After sending outreach, you can:

• Enrich connected profiles → Use the Sales Navigator Profile Scraper to collect deeper information.
• Monitor activity → Combine with the Sales Navigator Alert Extractor to stay updated on new changes or alerts.
• Expand account targeting → If you’re focused on specific companies, use the Sales Navigator Account Employees Export.