LinkedIn has upped its Sale Navigator for Gmail offering with a free, lite version. The release follows a slew of negative feedback for the chrome extension and many questions about a free service.
Thanks to the release, Gmail users won't need an expensive Sales Navigator subscription to get its benefits. You'll be able to hover over email addresses to view profile details, view ice-breakers, and find email contacts on LinkedIn with ease.
The decision comes after a similar extension, Rapportive, stopped working. The app was previously independent but was acquired by LinkedIn in 2012. In the coming weeks, Rapportive users will be automatically transferred to Sales Navigator Lite.
“We are committed to maintaining all of the same features you currently have with Rapportive, while also improving the experience with some additional functionality,” said Steven Kaplan, group product manager at LinkedIn.
Sales Navigator Premium Benefits
With this new version, premium users of Sales Navigator will be left wondering what their benefits are. There are still a couple of exclusive features, as LinkedIn notes on the web store:
“If you have a Sales Navigator subscription, the extension will unlock these additional Premium features:
– Save contacts as leads in your Sales Navigator account
– Use TeamLink to see if prospects are connected to your colleagues and get a warm introduction”
So far, the response has not been good. Users are reporting that Sales Navigator simply doesn't work after transitioning from Rapportive. Others say its functionality isn't even close. After months of poor reviews, the app now has a rating of 2.4.
It's clear that LinkedIn still has some work to do on its web app, and hopefully, this announcement will come with further development. LinkedIn has been very active in their support, so I'm hopeful.
In the meantime, you can download the app from the web store and make use of the current offering.