Warm Introductions in Sales Navigator: Who Can Introduce You to the Decision Maker
Since September 22, 2026, warm introductions in Sales Navigator appear right in search results, showing who can introduce you to a lead and why. One click on “Ask for intro” asks that person to introduce you.
Warm introductions in short
- A warm intro is a path to a lead through someone you both know. Sales Navigator showed these paths before, but only on the lead page, so you had to open every profile separately.
- Leads in search results now have badges such as “3 Executive TeamLink connections” and “8 Mutual connections”. Clicking a badge opens a panel with people who can introduce you.
- Sales Navigator sorts the people who can introduce you by relationship strength and gives a reason for each one, for example that they and the lead worked at the same company from 2016 to 2019. A connection the lead worked with for three years is a different request from one made at a conference.
- When you search for leads at one company, Sales Navigator shows an “Intro paths to senior leaders” badge and a list of that company’s leaders sorted by path strength. In LinkedIn’s example there are 12 leaders, each with a number of paths, for example “5 intro paths”.
- The Sales Navigator release notes list warm intros on all three licenses, but paths through TeamLink, meaning your colleagues’ connections, are only on Advanced and Advanced Plus. On Core you will most likely see paths through your own network.
- For me, the “Get introduced” option always suggests the same single person, a professional networker, as the way to anyone in Poland. It is now supposed to pick the best people for a warm intro based on the actual strength of the relationship, not just the number of mutual connections and shared employers.
The “Get introduced” option, which shows who can introduce you to a specific person and why, lives in the details of the lead card in Sales Navigator. For me it works terribly, because it always shows that the same single person will introduce me to anyone in Poland: the famous Grzegorz in the red jacket, a professional networker. And while Grzegorz probably does know a lot of people, and a lot of people know Grzegorz, I doubt he is really LinkedIn’s best pick for every introduction. So I was curious to read that Get introduced is now supposed to show the best people for a warm intro based on the actual strength of the relationship, not just the number of mutual connections and shared employers.
What is a warm intro in Sales Navigator
It is a path to a lead through someone you both know. Instead of sending yet another cold LinkedIn message that goes unanswered, you ask a mutual acquaintance to introduce you. An old method in a new place. Sales Navigator used to show these paths already, but on the lead page, so you had to open every profile separately.
What changed in September 2026? The place. The paths are visible right in search results, sorted and with an explanation of why a given person is a good route to the lead. LinkedIn describes this as four new features, which I go through below.

Badges in search results
Leads in search results now have new badges showing that a warm path to them exists. In LinkedIn’s graphic these are, for example, “3 Executive TeamLink connections” and “8 Mutual connections” under the lead’s name. That said, either I have too many new Sales Navigator accounts or this was already there on Advanced Plus, because I checked the slides from my training and I had these badges before.

Clicking a badge opens a panel with a list of people who can introduce you. The list is sorted by relationship strength, and each person comes with a reason. In LinkedIn’s example: she and the lead worked at the same company from 2016 to 2019. Under each person there is an “Ask for intro” button. One click. Nice, because before you had to dig into the details on the contact card.
Does the reason help? Yes, because a mutual connection the lead worked with for three years is a different request from a connection who just clicked accept on an invitation at a conference. It certainly won’t replace the preparation you can do with Lead IQ (I describe it in the post on Lead IQ in the CRM, also a new feature), but it will definitely speed up the work.

Paths to a whole company’s leadership
The second pair of new features is about the company, not a single person. When you search for leads at one company, a badge appears: “Intro paths to senior leaders”. Click it and you see a list of that company’s leaders, sorted by the strength of the introduction paths. In LinkedIn’s graphic that is 12 leaders, each with a number of paths, for example “5 intro paths”. Now that is something I was missing.

What is it good for? Sales where several people decide. In other words, most B2B sales. Instead of looking for a way to one director, you see which board member you are closest to, and you can start there. Working out the whole buying committee, who works with whom and where everyone sits in the hierarchy, used to be a real pain. If this works the way they describe it, great.
What you see on Core and what on Advanced
The release notes list warm intros on all three licenses. But some of the paths in LinkedIn’s graphics go through TeamLink, meaning your colleagues’ connections, and TeamLink is on Advanced and Advanced Plus, not on Core. I broke this down in the Sales Navigator pricing post.
So what will a Core user see? Most likely paths through mutual connections in their own network, without TeamLink badges. Still useful, if it starts showing a list of colleagues or more variables than before.

The full overview of the September update, with a table of availability by license, is in the post on Sales Navigator 2026 features. In my Sales Navigator training we look for warm paths to your most important customers on your own account.
The whole series on the September Sales Navigator release