You've invested in LinkedIn Sales Navigator to find your ideal customers. But if you're using it straight "out of the box" in 2025, you're leaving money on the table.

"Everyday I get tonnes of valuable LinkedIn messages, and it's a nightmare to manage!" laments one sales professional on Reddit. Another dismisses LinkedIn outreach entirely: "Why bother? Bots talking to bots. Total waste of time."

These frustrations reveal a critical truth: Sales Navigator is necessary but insufficient. The platform excels at helping you find prospects, but falls short in facilitating meaningful conversations that close deals.

This gap is especially significant considering that top-quartile LinkedIn outreach achieves 50% reply rates versus a mere 0.5% for cold email, according to research from Paddle. With such potential, the right add-ons aren't just nice-to-haves—they're essential revenue multipliers.

The most successful Account Executives in 2025 are augmenting Sales Navigator with strategic tools that solve three critical challenges:

• Finding and qualifying the right leads at scale

• Accessing accurate, compliant contact information

• Managing high-value conversations through to close

Let's explore the three tools that are transforming how top-performing AEs use LinkedIn Sales Navigator in 2025.

Tool #1: Apollo.io - The All-in-One Prospecting Engine

For Building Hyper-Targeted Lead Lists with Speed and Scale

Sales Navigator's search capabilities are powerful, but Apollo.io takes prospecting to an entirely different level by serving as a comprehensive sales intelligence and engagement platform.

Key Features for AEs:

• Massive Database Access: Apollo provides access to over 265 million contacts, helping you discover prospects who might not appear in standard Sales Navigator searches.

• Advanced Filtering: While Sales Navigator offers solid filtering options, Apollo lets you drill down with incredibly specific criteria to pinpoint your ideal customer profile (ICP).

• Direct Export & CRM Integration: One of Sales Navigator's biggest limitations is its restricted export functionality. Apollo solves this by allowing you to export lead lists directly to CSV or sync with your CRM, addressing the critical need for seamless integration.

• Email & Sequence Automation: Once you've identified prospects, Apollo helps you find verified emails and enroll contacts in automated outreach sequences.

Apollo effectively bridges the prospecting and outreach phases of your sales process, making it easier to qualify leads efficiently and move them into a structured sales pipeline.

Pricing:

• Free plan available with basic functionality

• Basic plan starts at $49/month

• Pro plan at $99/month for most features

Learn more about Apollo.io

For AEs frustrated with the high costs of tools, Apollo's free tier provides an accessible entry point while still delivering significant value beyond what Sales Navigator offers alone.

Tool #2: Kaspr - For Accurate, Compliant Contact Data

For High-Fidelity Phone Numbers and Emails, Instantly

Once you've identified promising prospects on LinkedIn, the next challenge is taking the conversation beyond the platform. That's where Kaspr comes in.

Kaspr is a focused prospecting tool that enriches LinkedIn profiles with highly accurate, GDPR and CCPA-compliant contact information. This solves a major pain point for AEs who need reliable ways to reach potential customers across multiple channels.

Key Features for AEs:

• One-Click Enrichment: Kaspr's Chrome Extension works seamlessly over LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, and Recruiter Lite interfaces. With a single click, you can extract phone numbers and email addresses without leaving the page.

• Data Accuracy: With a 4.4/5 rating on G2 specifically for data accuracy, Kaspr addresses the common frustration of outdated or incorrect contact information that plagues many lead generation tools.

• Bulk Enrichment: For efficiency-minded AEs, Kaspr allows you to upload a CSV from a Sales Navigator search to enrich an entire list at once, saving hours of manual work.

• Export Options: Export your enriched contacts directly to your CRM, email marketing platform, or spreadsheet, ensuring your sales data stays synchronized across systems.

For Account Executives focused on building multi-channel outreach strategies, Kaspr provides the critical bridge between identifying prospects on LinkedIn and engaging them through additional channels like email and phone.

Pricing:

• Free plan: 5 phone credits, 5 direct email credits, 10 export credits

• Starter plan: $49/user/month

• Pro plan: $89/user/month

Try Kaspr

Tool #3: Kondo - Taming the LinkedIn Inbox and Mastering the Follow-Up

Don't Let Your Hard-Earned Leads Die in a Messy Inbox

You've used Apollo to build a targeted prospect list. You've enriched those contacts with Kaspr. Now comes the most critical part of the process: managing conversations that lead to closed deals.

This is where most AEs fail. The native LinkedIn inbox is chaotic, making it easy to miss replies and drop the ball on follow-ups. As one frustrated sales professional put it, "It's a nightmare to manage!"

Kondo solves this problem by transforming LinkedIn's cluttered messaging experience into a streamlined, high-speed communication hub—essentially "Superhuman for LinkedIn."

Key Features for AEs:

• Labels & Split Inboxes: Stop trying to manage your entire pipeline in one endless feed. Triage conversations by applying custom labels like "Hot Lead," "Meeting Scheduled," or "Proposal Sent" and view them in separate, prioritized inboxes. This brings structured organization to the chaos, ensuring you focus on what matters most.

  "I needed an external message CRM which is fast, can filter by dates, texts, and can be tagged," shared one sales professional on Reddit. Kondo delivers exactly this functionality, making it the ideal solution for AEs drowning in LinkedIn messages.

• Reminders (Snooze): Never forget to follow up again. If a prospect says "Check back next quarter," don't rely on your calendar. Hit "H" to snooze the conversation. It will vanish and reappear at the top of your inbox on the exact day you chose, preventing valuable leads from getting buried and forgotten.

• Keyboard Shortcuts: Process your inbox twice as fast. Navigate conversations (J/K), Archive (E), Set Reminders (H), and Apply Labels (L) without ever touching your mouse. This mimics the speed of Superhuman and is a game-changer for AEs processing dozens of conversations daily.

• Snippets: Save hours of repetitive typing. Create templates for common messages—like your initial pitch, a link to your calendar, or answers to FAQs. Type ";" to instantly insert a snippet, personalized with variables like {firstName}. This ensures consistency and speed without sacrificing the personal touch that distinguishes you from the "bots talking to bots" problem plaguing LinkedIn.

• CRM & System Sync: Bridge the gap between LinkedIn and your source of truth. Automatically push conversations, notes, and labels to HubSpot, Salesforce (via Zapier), Google Sheets, or Notion. This solves the massive pain of manual data entry and gives your entire team visibility into your LinkedIn activity.

• Voice Notes (from Desktop): Add a personal touch that cuts through the noise. Kondo lets you record and send voice notes directly from your desktop—a feature LinkedIn restricts to mobile. It's a powerful way to build rapport and stand out.

For AEs who recognize that LinkedIn messages have become a critical sales channel, Kondo transforms a liability (an overwhelming inbox) into a strategic asset (a structured, efficient communication hub).

Pricing:

• Pro plan: $12.99/month

• Business plan: $24.99/month (includes advanced features like CRM integration)

Try Kondo

Building Your 2025 Sales Navigator Stack

The most successful Account Executives in 2025 aren't just using these tools in isolation—they're creating an integrated workflow that maximizes efficiency without sacrificing the human touch:

1. Apollo: Find your ideal customers and build targeted lists.

2. Kaspr: Get accurate contact information for multi-channel outreach.

3. Kondo: Manage the crucial conversations and follow-ups to close deals.

This stack addresses the entire sales cycle, from prospecting to closing, and solves the common pain points that hold back Sales Navigator users from achieving their full potential.

From Connections to Revenue: The Bottom Line

The tools that truly matter aren't those that replace human salespeople with automation—they're the ones that augment human capabilities by removing friction and busy work.

By automating the tedious parts of prospecting and organizing the chaos of communication, this stack frees up AEs to do what they do best: build relationships and sell.

As we move through 2025, the gap will continue to widen between AEs who rely solely on out-of-the-box Sales Navigator and those who strategically augment it with tools like Apollo, Kaspr, and Kondo.

Which side of that gap will you be on?

Start by identifying your biggest bottleneck—is it finding leads, enriching them, or managing conversations?—and try the tool that solves that specific problem first. For most AEs, the highest ROI comes from fixing the leaky bucket of a disorganized inbox, making Kondo an excellent first step toward sales inbox mastery.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is LinkedIn Sales Navigator not enough for sales outreach in 2025?

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is not enough on its own because while it excels at finding prospects, it fails to provide adequate tools for managing conversations, exporting data seamlessly, or enriching contacts for multi-channel outreach. Top-performing sales professionals augment it with other tools to build targeted lists at scale (like Apollo.io), find compliant contact data (like Kaspr), and manage high-value conversations effectively (like Kondo) to prevent leads from being lost in a chaotic inbox.

What is a sales technology stack and why do I need one for LinkedIn?

A sales technology stack for LinkedIn is a combination of specialized tools that work together to cover the entire sales process, from prospecting to closing deals. You need one because no single tool, including Sales Navigator, can efficiently manage every stage of modern sales outreach. An integrated stack allows you to solve common bottlenecks, automate tedious tasks, and focus your time on building relationships and selling.

How do I manage a high volume of LinkedIn messages effectively?

To manage a high volume of LinkedIn messages effectively, you need a tool that brings structure and efficiency to your inbox. A solution like Kondo adds essential features like labels, reminders (snooze), keyboard shortcuts, and CRM integration directly to LinkedIn's interface. This allows you to organize conversations by priority, ensure you never miss a follow-up, and handle your inbox in a fraction of the time.

What is the best way to get contact information from a LinkedIn profile?

The best way to get accurate and compliant contact information from a LinkedIn profile is by using a dedicated data enrichment tool like Kaspr. These tools provide a one-click solution to find verified phone numbers and email addresses directly on a prospect's profile. This is far more efficient and reliable than manual searching and ensures you have the data needed for a multi-channel outreach strategy.

I'm on a budget, which tool should I start with to improve my LinkedIn sales process?

If you are on a budget, the best tool to start with is one that solves your biggest bottleneck with the highest return on investment. For most AEs, this means fixing the "leaky bucket" of a disorganized LinkedIn inbox, making a tool like Kondo an excellent and affordable first step. By ensuring you can effectively manage the replies from your current outreach, you maximize the value of every lead and prevent opportunities from slipping through the cracks.

This article was produced by Kondo, the productivity tool that transforms LinkedIn's messaging experience into a streamlined communication hub for sales professionals, recruiters, and networkers.