Cognism vs LinkedIn Sales Navigator

A quick summary of how Cognism compares to LinkedIn Sales Navigator:

Access to global data, including NAM, APAC, and leading EMEA coverage.
Quality-driven cell phone numbers in the US (2x more than other providers.)
Phone-verified cell phone database.
16-step email verification process.
Integrations with your existing tech stack, including native Salesforce integration.
Simple, predictable pricing with unrestricted viewing and page-level exporting of global data in all packages. Subject to generous fair usage policy.
CCPA & GDPR compliance with broader DNC list checks.
Cognism AI Search to find your prospects using ChatGPT-style textual or voice prompts.
Intent data by Bombora.

In this article, we’ll explain how Cognism compares to Sales Navigator so you can make an informed decision when selecting your next prospecting solution.

👇 Scroll to learn more about LinkedIn Sales Navigator pricing, features, user reviews and more!

Cognism

Cognism equips teams with everything they need to exceed quota month-on-month. It focuses on supplying accurate global B2B data to sales, marketing and RevOps leaders. Features include:

Accurate and up-to-date global contact database.
Diamond Verified Phone Data®, which arms sales teams with phone-validated, factually-correct mobile numbers.
A mobile phone number coverage leader in the US (2x more than other providers).
The most complete data in the EMEA.
Intent data powered by Bombora.
Unrestricted views and individual and page-level exporting.*
Advanced contextual data points and sales trigger alerts.
CRM and sales engagement integration tools are included in every package.

*Subject to a generous fair usage policy

LinkedIn Sales Navigator

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a prospecting tool for building prospect lists on LinkedIn. It has one of the largest professional databases for recruiters and SDRs.

Users can research prospects and companies in their target markets and send them InMails. But it shouldn't be confused with a data vendor. Features include:

Advanced search filters: job title, company size, location, and industry.
Personalised lead recommendations based on a user’s search history and LinkedIn activity.
InMail messaging to reach prospects outside your network.
Buyer interest alerts.
Buyer intent capabilities.
CRM integrations.

Alternatively, see other Cognism comparisons👇

See what you can do with Cognism

B2B sales

How to find net new, ideal-fit prospects in assigned verticals

B2B sales

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B2B marketing

How to revitalise your stagnant LinkedIn campaigns

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What’s the difference between LinkedIn Sales Nav and Cognism?

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a good tool if you’re looking for prospects who are registered on LinkedIn. The tool helps teams find and connect with decision-makers in their ICP and provides emails and phone numbers if they have been made public on the platform.

This is different to Cognism, which is a sales intelligence solution and data provider. Cognism provides teams with cell phone numbers, direct dials and emails across the US, EMEA, NAM and APAC. Its browser extension works across all corporate websites, including LinkedIn.

Even better, its phone-verified mobile number accuracy helps you connect with 87% of your list while LinkedIn has to rely on the data input by users, which, according to Sales Navigator reviews, can often lead to data inaccuracy and frustration.

To summarise:

Packages to suit business size

Cognism

✔️

LinkedIn Sales Navigator

✔️

Web app

Cognism

✔️

LinkedIn Sales Navigator

✔️

Browser extension

Cognism

✔️

LinkedIn Sales Navigator

✔️

Intent data

Cognism

✔️

LinkedIn Sales Navigator

✔️

Phone-verification/ research on-demand service

Cognism

✔️

LinkedIn Sales Navigator

❌

Do-not-call lists in US and Europe

Cognism

✔️

LinkedIn Sales Navigator

❌

Unrestricted views/ individual and page-level exporting

Cognism

✔️

LinkedIn Sales Navigator

❌

Phone-verified mobile numbers

Cognism

✔️

LinkedIn Sales Navigator

❌

Compliance status

Cognism

GDPR & CCPA compliant

LinkedIn Sales Navigator

CCPA compliant

“We use the Cognism Extension in tandem with LinkedIn Sales Navigator. We build the lists in Sales Nav, generate the contact details in the Cognism Extension and sync these to Salesloft sequences. Then the data is routed to HubSpot via the integration. I love the Cognism Extension because I don’t have to spend hours trudging through LinkedIn looking for email addresses. The information is accessible in one click.”

8 weeks

taken to achieve ROI

Vinh Ly
CTO and Co-Founder @Moonhub

Cognism’s dataset offers the most complete coverage in the EMEA. The tool has EU and US research teams, making it a great option for anyone looking to find highly-targeted global leads, including NAM and APAC.

Quality is of utmost importance to Cognism, with phone-verified numbers, the most complete data in Europe and next-level mobile number coverage in the United States (2x more than other providers).

Where does Cognism get it's data?

Cognism gathers data via its proprietary sources and fills in the gaps from third-party data providers, publicly available sources, manual research and strategic partnerships.

Cognism ensures up-to-date and accurate B2B data via machine learning processes that check millions of data points daily. A team of in-house researchers verifies the data, ensuring accuracy and compliance. This stringent verification process applies to Cognism’s entire database.

However, Cognism takes data verification to the next level through its exclusive data asset, Diamond Data®.

Diamond Data® comprises phone-verified mobile numbers that make it 3x more likely you'll connect with your ideal customer. The team phone verifies mobile numbers and includes contacts specifically requested by customers leveraging the Diamonds-on-Demand® service.

Diamond Data® gives sales teams the ability to connect with 87% of prospecting lists. With companies seeing a 54% increase in mobile coverage and ROI increasing due to 70% of outbound meetings booked from Cognism mobiles.

Here’s an infographic detailing the difference that calling factually correct, phone-verified mobiles can make 👇

“Our exact pipeline from Cognism’s data is $125k.” “A great example of the accuracy of Cognism’s data is a $50k deal we won. I simply rang the prospect, booked a demo and now they are a client.”

Read the full case study

$125K

of pipeline from Cognism data

Paul Donnachie
Sales Manager EMEA @Keboola

Cognism pricing

Cognism’s pricing model was created to overcome the scarcity mindset, allowing teams to prospect into their target accounts without worrying about credits. Its seat plans best suit individual contributors who:

Don’t want to worry about credits and volume.
Do want to get the best possible data for their target accounts.

Cognism users get unrestricted views and page-level exporting*. This includes emails, mobile numbers, firmographic data, technologies, sales trigger events, etc. All European and US data is visible from the get-go, allowing users to make informed decisions when exporting data to their systems.

Marketing and RevOps teams that need Cognism for list building and enrichment workflows can also access packages suitable for bulk exporting.

Cognism grants all its users access to the following:

The Cognism web app.
The Cognism Chrome Extension.
All available integrations.

In addition to this, users can add intent data and Diamonds-on-Demand® to their package.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator pricing

LinkedIn Sales Navigator pricing includes three packages - Core, Advanced and Advanced Plus.

Each package includes:

Extended network access for saved searches and profile view tracking.
InMail reach out.
Advanced search, relationship builder, buyer persona segmentation, etc.
Lead/account tracking.
Sales tool integrations.
Relationship map, saved leads/accounts, custom lists, alerts, etc.

TeamLink, SmartLink, reporting, advanced CRM integrations, Enterprise tools and Premium Business access all come with higher-tier packages.

**Pricing information for LinkedIn Sales Navigator and Cognism is dependent on your company's needs. For accurate pricing, please contact your preferred data provider.

Sales Navigator is CCPA compliant and has been working on GDPR compliance. The tool also holds a number of ISO certifications.

However, some companies like Formation Tech made the switch from Sales Nav to Cognism because of the personal emails included with Sales Navigator.

Personal emails require additional levels of consent and compliance obligations. They said:

"We used another provider, but it was not replenished or in real-time. We worked with LinkedIn Sales Navigator but found the emails were often personal addresses and, therefore, non-compliant. There was obviously a real issue with data accuracy.”

Cognism is GDPR and CCPA compliant and scrubs all mobile numbers against:

TPS/CTPS lists in the UK.
Do-Not-Call lists in the USA, Canada, Australia and European countries, including Germany, France, Spain, Ireland, Belgium, Croatia, Portugal, Sweden and more.

If a number is marked as TPS or DNC, it means that the user has opted out of receiving unsolicited phone calls by applying to the national do-not-call registry.

Cognism allows admins to choose whether to hide or show contacts on DNC lists from reps. Meaning that its customers have complete confidence in the legality of its outreach.

The platform follows these compliance-based actions:

A stringent B2B data verification process.
Ensures all data is legally sourced and of the utmost quality.
Provides users with a notified database.

Customers like Corporate Traveller praise Cognism for its commitment to compliance:

“Compliance is a major factor when considering how best to access prospect data, and choosing a partner that can combine GDPR conformity, great coverage of the UK market and deliver constantly updated qualified mobile numbers and contact details meant Cognism was the right choice for us.”

Remember, choosing a provider serious about compliance isn’t only about ensuring you don’t incur a hefty fine but also that your teams can prospect confidently.

Henderson Scott saw the effects of having quality, compliant data when they invested in Cognism:

“Cognism is our comfort blanket when it comes to compliance.”

“Whenever a prospect asks where we get their data from, we can confidently say that we’ve sourced their information from a reputable ISO 27001 and SOC Type II certification data company.”

“With Cognism, you aren’t snowing yourself under with ICO complaints. I couldn’t recommend it enough.”

Is there something better than LinkedIn Sales Navigator?

Cognism is a sales intelligence platform that is one of the best LinkedIn Sales Navigator alternatives. Cognism provides teams with cell phone numbers, direct dials and emails across the US, EMEA, NAM and APAC. Its browser extension works across all corporate websites, including LinkedIn.

What is the best Sales Navigator alternative?

Sales Navigator does not include B2B contact data making Cognism the better choice for businesses looking for a sales intelligence platform that offers up-to-date, accurate data in an easy-to-use interface.

If you’re looking for the best tool to help you reach out to potential leads and target customers, Cognism is the winner.

Is Cognism a good alternative to LinkedIn Sales Nav?

Yes, Cognism is an excellent alternative when comparing Sales Nav competitors.

Cognism provides highly accurate and up-to-date contact information that helps sales and marketing teams find the information they need to make fewer calls, contact the most relevant people, and hit quota faster.

Furthermore, Cognism has received overwhelmingly positive reviews from its users. In particular, many users praise its user-friendly interface, accurate data and excellent customer service.

What is the difference between Sales Nav’s intent data and Cognism’s?

Sales Navigator’s Buyer Intent offers sellers valuable insights on accounts demonstrating intent based on actions taken across LinkedIn.

Industry leader Bombora has partnered with Cognism to provide users with consent-based intent data. It’s collected from a cooperative of 5,000 B2B sites, where B2B buyers actively research a topic when they’re ready to make a purchase.

It considers the historical baseline or typical content consumption when calculating intent.
It considers the context and the length of each interaction.
Bombora’s dataset is 70% exclusive.

Combining Bombora’s buyer intent with Cognism’s contact data, you can find, prioritise, and connect the right prospects at the right time. It shortens the sales cycle, improves targeting, and creates a more relevant buyer journey.

Can I use Cognism and LinkedIn Sales Nav together?

Yes, you can!

A number of companies use LinkedIn Sales Navigator in tandem with Cognism. Here’s how Centelli does it:

“We use the Chrome Extension to double-check the accuracy of the data and also see how our prospect is moving around the company. Have they left the company? Are they still in a relevant position for what we’re trying to do? We also like that we can easily import the leads from Sales Navigator into Cognism. The integration and capabilities within the platform have been great for us.”

Or you can choose to use these tools together, like Lee does at a global SaaS company:

“I spend much of my day prospecting in LinkedIn Sales Navigator. Targeting businesses that have a $50 million revenue or above is a vital sales qualification criteria for us. In LinkedIn Sales Nav, you can filter and search accounts based on revenue.”

“Once I’ve found the most relevant contacts that match our criteria, I’ll then use Cognism’s Chrome Extension to acquire the contact details.”

“I no longer have to individually type lead details one by one into Salesforce. Now, I can import contacts directly to Salesforce and Outreach from the Chrome Extension, removing the bottleneck of manually doing it myself.”

See how you can use Cognism to enrich Sales Nav records in this quick on-demand demo.

Every company needs the right foundations to build and scale. I’d recommend Cognism to any business that doesn't have data because this is the ammunition to building the right foundations to grow your business.

Fresh Relevance

Ellie Emerson, Head of Sales

Read Full Case Study

We considered ZoomInfo and Lusha. After trialling all three platforms, Cognism’s US data outperformed the others. I also found the UX/UI of the platform easier to understand. Thirdly, Cognism’s Intent Data partnership with Bombora was the final piece of the jigsaw. All of these collective features ultimately led to our decision to have Cognism as our B2B data vendor of choice.us

Metrikus

Derayo Adetosoye, Marketing Manager

Read Full Case Study

The sales managers used to make 100-150 calls per day. Now they can achieve their targets by making 30 calls per day because they are calling prospects who actually pick up the phone. That’s more results, less calls.

Ultima

George McKenna, Head of Cloud Sales

saw ROI in 8 weeks

70%

achieved target with 70% fewer calls

Read Full Case Study

Cognism leads the way for any company looking to grow their sales and increase the number of conversations they have with decision-makers. I’d recommend Cognism to any business that wants to expand within European and APAC markets

Gradfuel

Elliot Mitchell, CEO

60%

increase in the number of reps hitting target

sales in 6 months

Read Full Case Study

I use the Chrome Extension everyday and I love it! As soon as I’m on LinkedIn, the extension pops up and provides contact information. I don’t need to spend hours looking for email addresses and mobile numbers because the information is accessible at the click of a button.

Promon

Beatriz Bastos, BDR

33%

of new business meetings in Southern Europe booked through Cognism

10 hrs/week

saved on admin

Read Full Case Study

Try Cognism, a Sales Navigator alternative

Cognism vs LinkedIn Sales Navigator - who to choose?

Cognism is a LinkedIn Sales Navigator competitor with the most complete data in the EMEA and next-level mobile coverage in the US. Even better, it’s the only data provider actively phone-verifying mobile numbers, making it an excellent choice for global prospecting.

With Cognism, you get more:

✔️ More mobile numbers that go through to the right contacts.

✔️ More confidence when prospecting.

✔️ More targeted leads.

✔️ And more incoming revenue.

Start making every month your best month. Book your demo today!

Cognism vs LinkedIn Sales Navigator

A quick summary of how Cognism compares to LinkedIn Sales Navigator:

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Key features of Cognism vs LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Cognism

LinkedIn Sales Navigator

See what you can do with Cognism

What’s the difference between LinkedIn Sales Nav and Cognism?

Cognism

LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Packages to suit business size

Web app

Browser extension

Intent data

Phone-verification/ research on-demand service

Do-not-call lists in US and Europe

Unrestricted views/ individual and page-level exporting

Phone-verified mobile numbers

Compliance status

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