Quick answer
LinkedIn Sales Navigator is LinkedIn's prospecting tool: advanced search over LinkedIn profiles and companies, saved lists, alerts on job changes and activity, and InMail. It is the best view of who is in a role right now, but it generally does not give you email addresses. Apollo is a contact database with built-in email sequencing. Use Sales Navigator to find and engage on LinkedIn, and Apollo (or a similar tool) to get contact details and run email. Most outbound teams use both.
Side by side
| LinkedIn Sales Navigator | Apollo | |
|---|---|---|
| Data source | LinkedIn profiles and company pages | Its own B2B contact database |
| Freshness | Updated by people on LinkedIn itself | Depends on the database |
| Emails and phones | Generally not included | Included, using credits |
| Outreach | LinkedIn connection requests and InMail | Email sequences, with tasks for calls |
| Signals | Job changes, posts, company growth | Filters such as hiring and technographics |
| Best for | Account research and LinkedIn-led selling | Building lists and running email at volume |
Plans and limits change regularly, so check current pricing and credits on each vendor's site.
When Sales Navigator wins
- Your buyers are senior and active on LinkedIn.
- You sell larger deals to a short list of named accounts, where research depth matters more than volume.
- You want alerts when a champion changes jobs or a target account starts hiring.
When Apollo wins
- Email is your main outbound channel.
- You need contact details and sequencing in one place, quickly.
- You are building larger lists and want to send from the same platform.
How teams combine them
- Find accounts and people in Sales Navigator, where titles are most current.
- Get verified contact details from Apollo or an enrichment tool such as Clay.
- Run multichannel sequences: email from your sending tool, plus LinkedIn touches and calls. See multichannel outreach.
- Log everything in the CRM so you can see which channel produces meetings.
Where Enablemnt fits
In the 14-day sprint we build your target account list, enrich the contacts, and launch email and LinkedIn outreach in your own tools, with the CRM wired to report on both channels.
Follow Enablemnt AI on LinkedInShort, practical posts on GTM, outbound and RevOps for early-stage B2B founders.FollowFrequently asked questions
- Does LinkedIn Sales Navigator give you email addresses?
- Generally no. Sales Navigator is built for finding and engaging people on LinkedIn, through search, lists, alerts and InMail. For verified emails and phone numbers, teams pair it with a data or enrichment tool.
- Is Apollo a replacement for Sales Navigator?
- Not fully. Apollo covers contact data and email sequencing, while Sales Navigator gives the most current view of people on LinkedIn and LinkedIn-native outreach. Many outbound teams use both.
- Which should a startup buy first?
- If email outreach is your main channel, start with a contact data and sequencing tool like Apollo. If your buyers are very active on LinkedIn and you sell high-value deals to a small account list, Sales Navigator often earns its cost first.
Keep reading
- Apollo vs Clay: which B2B prospecting tool do you need?Apollo vs Clay compared: what each tool is built for, how they find and enrich data, where each one fits in an outbound stack, and when startups use both.
- LinkedIn outreach for B2B: a practical playbookA practical LinkedIn outreach playbook for B2B: connection requests, message approach, what to avoid, and how to pair LinkedIn with email in one sequence.
- Multichannel outreach: combining email, LinkedIn and callsHow to combine email, LinkedIn, and calls into one multichannel outreach motion, why it beats single-channel outbound, and how to sequence the channels.
- How to build a target account listHow to build a target account list from your ICP: source accounts, score them by fit and timing, and work the top first. A scoring method for startups.
Filed under Sales tools & stack cost. Written by Enablemnt AI.