How to Scrape LinkedIn Sales Navigator and Find Decision Makers Using Clay.com

In this guide, we’re going to discuss how to scrape LinkedIn Sales Navigator safely and then enrich those contacts to find their email addresses.

We will be using Clay.com for both scraping and enrichment. Of course, we will also need access to LinkedIn Sales Navigator. Let’s dive in! 

Step 1: Identify Target on LinkedIn Sales Navigator

In this example, we are looking for “CEOs” in the United States.

Step 2: Download the Clay Chrome Extension

The Clay Chrome Extension is great because we don't have to keep switching between tabs when working with Sales Nav. You can download it from the Chrome Store. Once installed & configured, open it up when you're on the LinkedIn Sales Navigator page. 

This is what you should see. 

• Untitled Recipe
• Clay Verified Recipes
• Autodetected Lists

You’re going to select “Clay Verified Recipes” 

Once you select it, you will see data being collected. Specifically a number of rows. 

The way Clay’s Chrome Extension works is that you have to manually scroll through the data. So, as you go through the LinkedIn pages, it will pick up the relevant data.

Notice how I’m now on page 8 and have collected 191 rows? This means we’ve done it successfully.. 

Step 3: Enrich Data with Clay

Now we’re ready to start enriching the data we collected. 

You see the “Add to Workspace” button? Go ahead and click that. It should open a brand new Clay table with the data that was collected. 

Now that we have data to work with, let’s find these people's email addresses.

Let’s look at what data points we have access to:

• Name
• Company
• Location
• Profile
• Sales Nav Profile Link
• Sales Nav Company Link
• Title and Company 

To find people’s email addresses we usually need their full name + company URL. By looking at the data, you would think we have what we need. 

But if you look closely, you’ll realize a few things. 

Many rows for companies are blank, and instead of URLs, there are only company names.

So now we have to do a few things:

First, let's fill in the empty rows and turn those company names into URLs. 

You’re going to create a new column, specifically an enrichment and we’re going to enrich via “Enrich Person from LinkedIn Profile”. 

Under “LinkedIn Sales Navigator Profile” you’re going to reference the column titled “Sales Nav Profile Link”. If your column is titled differently, be sure to reference the column that contains the Sales Navigator link of their profiles. 

Click “Continue to Add Fields”

You’re going to see a few options to toggle on. 

You’re going to toggle the following: Latest Experiences -> Company Domain

This will give you a URL. 

After running the enrichment, this is what your table should look like. 

Though I have to note a few things. We have a lot of empty rows and this is due to the data not being available. So now, we have to get creative!

Step 4: Using Conditional Formulas in Clay

Stick with me here, we’re going to get a bit technical. 

Remember the goal is to get a URL of the company name. 

For some rows, the company name is available on the left, but on the right we couldn’t pull the exact URL from the LinkedIn enrichment. That's okay! We have another path to get this URL. 

We’re going to add another column to our table, specifically an enrichment, and this time we’re going to search for a Clearbit enrichment titled “Get Domain from Company Name”.  *It's also free to run (no additional credits)*

When referencing a column, you’re going to select the original company column, the one on the left. You’re then going to toggle the “Domain”. 

Before you run the enrichment, we have to set a conditional formula. 

You’re going to click the column and select “Settings”. 

Then go into “Run Settings” and select “Conditional Formula.

You’re then going to click the “Use AI” button. 

Now you should see the AI Formula Generator. 

You’re going to type in the following: 

“only run if /Company Domain - Latest Experience does not exist” 

This will reference the new column we generated from LinkedIn. We’re saying, if LinkedIn was not able to provide what we needed, then let’s try this method. 

This is what your generator should look like. 

Click the green button. 

Run the new enrichment and then this is what your Clay table should look like:

Step 5: Clean Up The Data

Now that we have two columns, each containing links, we need to consolidate them. Go ahead and create a new column, specifically a text format. 

Click settings, and then you’re going to use the AI Formula Generator again. 

Here you’re going to write the following: 

“Return either /Company Domain - Latest Experience OR Clearbit -> Domain”

This is what it should look like.

Now your Clay table will look like this. Containing only the domain URL from either of the two sources. 

We can actually clean this up further. Let’s hide the two columns, we only need the new column with the URLs. And we can also hide the blank rows, rows that we couldn’t find a URL for. 

To hide columns, you’re going to click into each column and select “Hide”. 

To remove blank rows, go to the last column and select it. Then click “Filter on this column”. 

You’re going to change this to “Is Not Empty”.

Now our Clay table is cleaned up and we’re now ready to find email addresses. 

Step 6: Find Lead Email Addresses

Now we have the data needed to find their email address. 

Go ahead and create a new column and you’re going to select “Work Email”. 

Follow the instructions to fill in the inputs.

Go ahead and click “Save & Run First 10 Rows”. 

And now we have verified emails! Go ahead and do what you did before to clean up the column. We don’t want to see empty rows. 

Summing It Up

Alright, we're finally done. We did this without harming our account, spending more than we have to on third party tools, and with only a few clicks.

Clay is so powerful. If you want to learn about everything it offers, check out our complete review. You could also reduce your spend on future credits by connecting to the OpenAI API.

There's really limitless possibilities. Also, if you read this just for fun but are finally ready to hop in, we have a special link that lets you bypass the Clay waitlist to sign up for an account!

Happy prospecting!