How to Find Decision-Makers on LinkedIn (2025 Guide)

If you're selling B2B, you need to get in front of decision-makers.

The good news? LinkedIn is full of them.

Whether you're targeting CEOs, Heads of Sales, or Marketing Directors, LinkedIn gives you powerful tools to find the right people fast.

Here’s what you’ll learn in this guide:

• How to find decision makers on LinkedIn (without Sales Navigator)

• How to find decision makers on LinkedIn Sales Navigator

• How to use Account Based Marketing to find decision makers

• How to engage with and reach decision-makers on LinkedIn

Let’s dive in.

How to find decision makers on LinkedIn?

If you don’t have LinkedIn Sales Navigator, no worries. You can still find key people manually.

1. LinkedIn Search

You don’t need any paid tool to start finding decision-makers. Just use the LinkedIn search bar at the top of your screen.

Here’s how to do it:

• Type a job title like “Sales Director”, “Founder”, or “Head of Marketing”

• Click on the “People” tab to filter out everything else

• Use additional filters like location, industry, or company to narrow it down

You can also use keywords like past companies, education, or specific industries if you’re looking for people with a certain background.

Once you’ve got a list, sort by:

• Relevance: to see the most matching profiles

• Connections: prioritize 1st or 2nd-degree connections for better acceptance rates

• Activity: pick people who post or engage regularly, they’re easier to reach

This method works best when you already have a clear idea of the role or persona you're targeting.

2. LinkedIn Company Page

You already have a company in mind? Head straight to their LinkedIn company page.

Click on the “People” tab. This section gives you access to a full list of employees—along with their job titles, locations, and sometimes even direct contact details.

Here’s how to use it effectively:

• Use the search bar to filter employees by department (e.g. “marketing” or “sales”)

• Narrow the list using filters like location, job title, or seniority level

• Look for decision-makers like VP Marketing, Head of Sales, or Founder

Take a moment to review their profiles. Look for mutual connections or recent activity—these give you a natural opening for your message or connection request.

Once you’ve found the right person, send a personalized invite or craft a message that shows you’ve done your homework.

How to find decision makers on LinkedIn Sales Navigator

If you have LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you’re already one step ahead. It gives you way more control and precision than a regular LinkedIn account.

If you're serious about prospecting, I strongly recommend using Sales Navigator. It’s hands down the best tool to identify and contact decision-makers at scale. You’ll save hours every week and get way better results.

📺 If you're wondering if Sales Navigator is worth it, you can check this video:

Use lead filters

With LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you can use 40+ filters to identify decision makers.

Head to the Lead Filters section and start applying filters. This is where the magic happens.

Here’s a simple setup that works for most use cases:

• Set the right company headcount

• Choose a good current job title (like “CEO”, “Head of Sales”, or “Marketing Director”)

• Define a geography

You can also refine with:

• Years in current position (great for spotting experienced decision-makers)

• Connection of (to check leads in the network of your competitors)

• Viewed your profile recently (to target warm leads)

This setup will give you a clean, focused list of decision-makers that match your exact targeting.

📺 If you want learn how to use LinkedIn Sales Navigator, and its filters, you can check this in-depth tutorial:

How to target CEO/Founder

In the "Current job title" filter, the best way to identify a CEO or founder is to use a boolean search.

You can use this boolean search to use this job title filter trick:

"CEO" OR "Founder" OR "Co-Founder" NOT "Assistant"

✅ This boolean search finds founders whether they write “CEO”, “Founder” or "Co-Founder".

📺 If you want to learn to identify CEO or founder on LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you can check this video:

How to target Head Of Sales

In the "Current job title" filter, you can use this boolean in the job title filter to find Head of sales:

"Head of sales" OR "Sales Director" NOT "Marketing"

✅ This boolean search finds founders whether they write “Head of sales”, “Sales Director” or "Co-Founder".

📺 If you want to learn how to identify Head of Sales on LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you can check this video:

How to target Head Of Marketing

In the "Current job title" filter, you can use this boolean in the job title filter to find Chief Marketing Officer:

"Chief Marketing Officer" OR "CMO" NOT "Part Time" NOT "Fractional"

✅ This boolean search finds founders whether they write “CMO”, “Chief marketing officer”.

📺 If you want to learn how to find CMO on LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you can check this video:

How to find decision makers with Account Based Marketing

If you already know which companies you want to target, here’s how to go from company list to decision-makers.

Step 1: Use account filters

The first step to find decision makers with an Account Based Marketing strategy is to identify companies.

On LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you can explore the LinkedIn database with many filters like:

• Company headcount

• Company headcount growth

• Industry

• Hiring

• Headquarters location

• Etc

To access the account filters, go on the homepage of LinkedIn Sales Navigator, then click on "Account filters":

You will have this page.

On the left part of your screen, you will have all the account filters.

On the right part of your screen, you have the results of your filters.

With all these account filters, you can identify the accounts you want to target (meaning, in your ICP).

After you played with some filters, it's time to save your results in an account list.

Let's say you select 4 companies:

Then, to save these companies into a list, you need to:

1. Click on "Save to list"

2. Create new list

Finally, to create this account list you need to:

1. Name your list name (Tiers 1 for example)

2. Click on "Create and save"

Congrats! The companies you've selected are now in your account list.

📺 If you want to learn how to build your account list with LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you can follow this video tutorial:

Step 2: Add this account list to the lead search

The second step to find decision makers with an Account Based Marketing strategy is to identify leads inside the accounts you've selected before.

On LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you have many lead filters like:

• Current job title

• Geography

• Posted on LinkedIn

• Years of experience

• Previous company

• Etc

To access these filters, go to your Sales Navigator homepage and click on “Lead filters.”

Once you're there, you'll see two main sections:

• Left side: All the filters you can use to narrow your search.

• Right side: The results based on the filters you apply.

It’s your lead-hunting control panel, and once you know how to use it right, you can easily find your best leads.

Now, if you want to find the leads inside the companies you've selected before, you need to use the "Account list" filter:

One of the best way to find decision makers in the lead filters, it's to use the "Current job title" filter.

👉 For example, let's say you want to reach out to CEOs in your Tiers 1 account list.

In the Current job title filter, I will use the boolean operators to get better results.

So I will write: "CEO" OR "Founder"

Then, I select my account list "Tiers 1".

At the end, I get all the CEOs (or founder) who are working in the companies in my Tiers 1 account list:

📺 If you want to learn how to build your leads list with LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you can follow this video tutorial:

How To Export Decision-Makers from LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Follow the 7 steps to export decision makers from LinkedIn Sales Navigator with their verified emails:

1. Create a GiveMeLeads account

2. Download the Chrome Extension

3. Select your target on LinkedIn Sales Navigator

4. Add Intent Data (Optional)

5. Launch your export

6. Schedule Your Leads Export (Optional)

7. Download your leads file

Let's dive in!

Step 1: Create a GiveMeLeads account

Go on GiveMeLeads. Then click on "Get first 10 leads for free".

Then, you have to write your:

1. First Name

2. Last Name

3. Email

4. Password

And click on "Create account".

Step 2: Download the Chrome Extension

The GiveMeLeads Chrome extension allows you to export your LinkedIn Sales Navigator leads with one click.

It's not mandatory to use it — you can also copy and paste the Sales Navigator search URL directly into the platform.

However, using the extension makes the process faster and easier, especially if you're just getting started.

Step 3: Select your target on LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Go to LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

Use filters to find your ideal leads (like job title, company size, or location).

Then click “Extract leads” using the GiveMeLeads extension or paste the search URL on the platform.

Step 4: Add Intent Data (Optional)

Depending on your GiveMeLeads plan, you can add intent data to your searches.

It’s a great way to find warm leads — people who are more likely to reply or book a call.

Let’s say your LinkedIn Sales Navigator filters are:

• Company size: 51–200 employees

• Job title: “Head of Sales”

• Location: San Francisco Bay Area

On top of that, GiveMeLeads will look for people who match these filters and show intent, such as:

• 1st-degree connections

• People in your competitors’ network

• People who follow your company page

• People who viewed your LinkedIn profile

Once you’ve selected your intent data sources, click “Save Changes”

💡 Pro tip: You can set priorities for each source. For example, you can give more weight to 1st-degree connections than profile viewers.

💡Pro tip #2: If you work with multiple sales reps (or co-founders), you can use all of their LinkedIn accounts to get more and better leads. Each account brings its own network, 1st-degree connections, and profile viewers — which means more warm leads for your team.

Step 5: Launch your export

You target is set up. Now it's time to export your leads.

For that, click on "New Leads Export".

You will get a pop-up where you can select:

• The number of leads you want to export

• If you want to schedule this export on a weekly basis.

Then click on "Export Leads".

Step 6: Schedule Your Leads Export (Optional)

GiveMeLeads lets you schedule lead exports. Pick the day you want, and you’ll receive fresh leads weekly.

Once set up, you'll get a fresh list of leads every week — automatically.

Each lead is unique, and the system ensures there are no duplicates. This saves you time and keeps your CRM clean, so you can focus on outreach, not data cleaning.

Then, you’ll automatically receive new leads every week — no manual work needed.

You can focus 100% on what really matters: sending emails, starting LinkedIn conversations, and booking meetings.

💡 Pro tip: With scheduled exports, you can easily build lead files with more than 2,500 fresh, qualified contacts delivered straight to your inbox every week.

Step 7: Download your leads file

When your export is finished, you’ll receive an email with a download link.

You can also download your file directly by clicking the "Download" button in your dashboard. You’ll see two options.

1. "Open in Sheets"

This gives you a simple version of your lead list.

You have:

• Source (Sales Navigator, 1st-degree, profile viewers…)

• First Name

• Last Name

• Profile picture

• Company name

• Job title

• Headline

• LinkedIn URL

• Email

It doesn’t include all the data, but it’s perfect if you just want to import leads into your CRM or outreach tool like Lemlist or Expandi.

2. "Download CSV"

This gives you the full file with all available data. For each lead, you’ll see extra info like:

• Whether they have LinkedIn Premium

• Their total years of experience

• Company details like size, industry, and location

• Etc

Here's all the informations you can have:

💡 Pro tip: Don’t forget to scroll horizontally — there's a lot of valuable data in your lead file, including job titles, company size, verified emails, and even intent signals.

On top of that, GiveMeLeads automatically cleans your data:

• Fixes capital letters in names and job titles

• Removes emojis from job titles

• Removes legal suffixes in company names (like LLC, GmbH, etc.)

GiveMeLeads also checks if each lead matches your LinkedIn Sales Navigator filters.

If a lead doesn’t fit — for example, they have:

• An invalid job title

• Invalid location

• Wrong company size work

• Etc

We tag them in the column "filters" with the reason they’re invalid (like “Invalid job title” or “Wrong company size”).

That way, you keep full control of your data and don’t waste time guessing why a lead doesn’t match your targeting. We make sure your boolean search is respected.

📺 If you want to check the video tutorial on how to export your leads from Sales Navigator, you can check this video:

How To Engage With And Reach Decision-Makers On LinkedIn?

Finding the right people is just step one. Here’s how I recommend you contact them.

1. Send a connection request

Start with a short and personalized message. Your goal isn’t to pitch, it’s to open a conversation.

Mention something relevant like:

• Their role or team

• A common industry or pain point

• A shared connection or recent LinkedIn post

Example:

“Hey [First Name], I saw you're leading growth at [Company]. I work with similar teams on [pain point]. Would be great to connect!”

Keep it light. Don’t oversell. If it feels like a cold pitch, most people will ignore it.

2. Follow-up

If they accept your connection request but don’t reply, don’t leave it hanging. Follow up 2–3 days later with a short, thoughtful message.

Here’s what works well:

• Ask a quick question related to their role or team

• Share a useful insight, article, or idea

• Mention a common challenge you help with

Just make sure it doesn’t feel automated. Avoid generic templates — they can smell it from a mile away.

Example:

“Thanks for connecting, [First Name]! Curious — are you currently working on [challenge]? I might have a few ideas that could help.”

Keep it casual and value-driven. You’re starting a conversation, not making a pitch.

3. Send an InMail

InMail credits allow you to message LinkedIn members you're not connected with. Unlike standard messages, which require a connection, InMails lets you reach out directly.

They are useful if you want to send a message to someone in your 2nd or 3rd degree connections without sending a connection request.

Here's how it looks like on LinkedIn if I send a connection request:

Sending InMail is useful when you want to reach decision-makers or potential clients who are not directly connected to you.

💡 Pro tip: you can send an InMail to people who haven't accepted your connection request yet.

Here are the number of InMail credits you get depending of your Premium plan:

📺 If you want to learn more about how InMail messages work, you can check this video:

4. Send a cold email

If you’ve got their verified email (using a tool like GiveMeLeads), don’t hesitate to reach out via cold email.

Example:

“Hi [First Name], saw you're leading marketing at [Company]. I had an idea that could help you [solve X]. Mind if I send you a quick 2-min overview?”

That’s it. No pitch. No pressure. Just a conversation starter.

Conclusion

Now you know how to find and reach decision-makers on LinkedIn — whether you’re using the free version, Sales Navigator, or an account-based strategy.

If you want to speed things up and get verified emails directly from your lead lists, try GiveMeLeads. It’s the easiest way I’ve found to save time and go straight to the right people.

FAQ

How to find a decision maker’s email address?

Once you’ve identified the right decision-makers, the next step is getting their email address. Here’s how I recommend doing it:

1. Check their company website

Go to the “Team” or “Contact” page. You’ll sometimes find direct email addresses or at least the company email format (e.g. firstname.lastname@company.com).

2. Look at their LinkedIn profile

Check the “Contact info” section — some people list their email there. Also, keep an eye on their banner photo or about section. Some founders include contact details directly on their profile.

[Screenshot idea: LinkedIn contact info panel with visible email]

3. Check other social platforms

Twitter bios, personal websites, or even Instagram can sometimes include business emails — especially for consultants, freelancers, or agency owners.

4. Use an automated tool

If you want to go faster, save your lead lists in Sales Navigator and use a tool like GiveMeLeads to automatically enrich them with verified emails.

It’s quick, scalable, and way more reliable than doing it manually.