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Sales Navigator7 min read

LinkedIn TeamLink: Reach Prospects Through Colleagues

TeamLink shows which colleague already knows a prospect so you can ask for a warm introduction. It is an Advanced or Advanced Plus feature, the path appears as a Lead filter, and TeamLink Extend adds colleagues who have no Sales Navigator seat once they opt in.

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TeamLink is a Sales Navigator feature that shows which of your colleagues already know a prospect, so you can ask for a warm introduction instead of a cold approach. LinkedIn describes it as a way to "find prospects who can be introduced to you through someone you know," and it is only available on the Advanced and Advanced Plus plans (Sales Navigator Help (opens in a new tab)). Everything else about TeamLink follows from that: it is a relationship-path layer on top of a search, not another way to build a list.

TeamLink widens your view of the network beyond your own connections. When a teammate is a 1st-degree connection of a lead, Sales Navigator flags that lead, and the same thing works in reverse: your teammates can see your 1st-degree connections (Sales Navigator Help (opens in a new tab)). The practical result is that the pool of warm paths is the union of everyone's connections on the contract, not just yours.

That is why the feature is scoped to a plan. LinkedIn lists TeamLink and the Who Viewed My Company Page filter as features "available only on LinkedIn Sales Navigator Advanced and Advanced Plus plans" (LinkedIn Sales Navigator (opens in a new tab)). On Core, you search and save leads, but you do not see the shared-connection layer.

TeamLink is also a search filter, not a separate screen. It sits under the "Best path in" category of the Lead filters, which is where the warm-path work happens.

Finding a warm path to one lead

LinkedIn sets three conditions before a lead can show a TeamLink path: an Advanced or Advanced Plus subscription, TeamLink enabled for your organization, and at least one teammate connected to that lead on LinkedIn (Sales Navigator Help (opens in a new tab)). If a specific lead shows no path, one of those three is usually the reason.

To see the paths in the product:

  1. Sign in to Sales Navigator and click Lead filters.
  2. In the Best path in category, pick Connection > TeamLink connections to find leads connected to a teammate's 1st-degree connections.
  3. Pick Connection > Executive TeamLink connections when you only want leads whose seniority is Director or higher.
  4. To work backwards from one account, pick TeamLink connections of, type the lead's name, and Sales Navigator returns the colleagues on your contract who are connected to that person. LinkedIn notes you can add your company name after the lead name to keep the results inside your own organization (Sales Navigator Help (opens in a new tab)).

The point of the filter is to let you "choose the strongest connection path before reaching out," in LinkedIn's words (Sales Navigator Help (opens in a new tab)).

One filter carries a documented discrepancy. The Find TeamLink leads Help page lists TeamLink connections of after its Advanced/Advanced Plus prerequisites, but LinkedIn's published advanced-search filter matrix marks that one filter as "Advanced Plus Only" (LinkedIn Sales Navigator (opens in a new tab)). The two official pages disagree on this filter's tier, so confirm it appears in your own account rather than assuming it is available on every plan that has TeamLink. The general TeamLink eligibility above is not affected.

A worked reading (illustrative)

Suppose you filter leads at a target account and one result reads: connection path via a solutions engineer on your team. That single line tells you four things: there is a teammate who knows someone at the account, the path is inside your company rather than borrowed from your own network, the relationship exists today, and the next move is a conversation with your colleague, not with the prospect. The example is illustrative; the only thing to trust is your own filter output.

Asking for the introduction

TeamLink surfaces the path. It does not make the ask. LinkedIn frames the feature around people who "ask for a warm introduction," which is a human step you take yourself (Sales Navigator Help (opens in a new tab)). Open the lead or your colleague's profile and send the colleague a normal LinkedIn message: say which prospect you mean, why the timing matters, and make the request small enough to answer in one line. Nothing in TeamLink notifies the prospect or sends an introduction on your behalf, and a colleague can always decline.

TeamLink Extend is how you add colleagues who do not have a full Sales Navigator seat, using their networks instead. LinkedIn describes it as expanding TeamLink "to include colleagues who don't use Sales Navigator," and states that by "opting in via email invitation, they allow your sales team to uncover more warm paths to leads through their connections" (LinkedIn Sales Navigator (opens in a new tab)). It is an Advanced and Advanced Plus feature (Sales Navigator Help (opens in a new tab)).

An admin assigns the licenses in LinkedIn Admin Center, which is desktop-only: open Admin > Admin Center, go to the Users tab, click the Available number in the TeamLink Extend License section, add the person's email, choose the TeamLink Extend License on the Licenses and permissions tab, and confirm (Sales Navigator Help (opens in a new tab)). Each person receives an email invitation and must opt in to start sharing their connections. If your company manages Sales Navigator through SCIM, LinkedIn notes a separate SCIM application is required for TeamLink Extend.

What an invited colleague is agreeing to is narrow: Sales Navigator users at the organization can see whether that person is connected to a prospective lead and can request an introduction, and "no other information is shared" (Sales Navigator Help (opens in a new tab)). They can turn it off later from the Settings & Privacy page, and LinkedIn states that for Advanced and Advanced Plus users, TeamLink Extend "will override network privacy from your LinkedIn account" (Sales Navigator Help (opens in a new tab)). If someone holds invitations from more than one dashboard, each is listed separately, so they can opt in to one team and not another (Sales Navigator Help (opens in a new tab)).

TeamLink Groups joins the TeamLink networks of several contracts or dashboards. It is limited to Advanced and Advanced Plus offline contracts and cannot be switched on by yourself: it must be activated by LinkedIn support, all contract owners sign a data-sharing agreement, and activation takes about 48 to 72 hours. A dashboard can belong to only one group, and if a member opts out of TeamLink, their contribution disappears from the group too (Sales Navigator Help (opens in a new tab)).

Admins have one more control worth understanding before they touch it. TeamLink is enabled by default, and an admin can turn it off for the whole account under Admin > Admin Settings > TeamLink (Sales Navigator Help (opens in a new tab)). The catch is symmetric: LinkedIn warns that if you use those settings to hide yourself and your connections, your sales organization's network is hidden from you as well.

When a warm path is worth the ask

Use a TeamLink path when the colleague genuinely knows the person well enough to vouch for you, the account is worth the social cost of asking, and the request is small. Skip it when the connection is thin, when the colleague is junior to the prospect in a way that makes the ask awkward, or when the deal does not matter enough to spend a favor. A warm path is a shortcut through trust, not a replacement for a reason to talk. If you are still building the list this filter sits on, the search-to-list workflow is covered in how to use LinkedIn Sales Navigator, and the wider qualification step is in LinkedIn sales prospecting.

What a missing path does not mean

TeamLink only reports connections that people have chosen to share. Members can opt out of TeamLink or of TeamLink Extend, and a member who has opted out will not appear in the network for any contract or dashboard (Sales Navigator Help (opens in a new tab)). A missing path is therefore not proof that nobody in your company knows the account.

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FAQ

What is a TeamLink Extend license?

It is a license that adds a colleague who does not have a Sales Navigator seat to your company's TeamLink network, so their connections can surface as warm paths. An admin assigns it in LinkedIn Admin Center, and the colleague must accept an email invitation and opt in before their connections are visible (Sales Navigator Help (opens in a new tab)).

Can my teammates see my LinkedIn connections with TeamLink?

Yes, when TeamLink is on for the account. LinkedIn states that "your teammates can also see your 1st-degree LinkedIn connections" (Sales Navigator Help (opens in a new tab)). Members can opt out, and an admin can turn the feature off for everyone.

Does TeamLink send the introduction for me?

No. TeamLink shows you which colleague is connected. You still message that colleague and ask, and they can decline.

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