LinkedIn has become a staple for sales teams of all sizes– and for good reason. Microsoft's massive professional social network (with 775 million members) is designed to connect businesses with each other and to help salespeople find lucrative leads in minutes.

But with so many companies and voices on LinkedIn, it can be difficult for sales reps to cut through the noise and make a significant impression on their intended audience.

Whether it's a full-fledged CRM or a tool to get your foot in the door, anyone who is active on LinkedIn needs to have an extension in their repertoire if they hope to leverage the platform effectively for their business goals.

Here are our picks for LinkedIn Chrome extensions that will make a direct impact on your sales team in 2021.

1. Soundboard

Soundboard's sales extension is a free tool for starting informed conversations with LinkedIn leads.

In seconds, the extension analyzes a LinkedIn profile, offers articles based on the lead's interest, and provides suggested messaging (powered by AI) to get you talking with the lead on their terms.

You can toggle between Smart Mode and Search Mode to find the perfect content to share and talk with your lead about.

Soundboard's philosophy on online conversation for sales is that the focus should be on them, not me. This extension designed to do just that: give outbound messaging a personal, conversational feel that's both meaningful to your clients and impactful on your company's bottom line.

You can download the Soundboard extension for free today on the Chrome Web Store.

2. Lusha

Lusha is an extension that extracts company and contact info from LinkedIn profiles, among other sites.

This free-to-download extension cuts significant time from researching background information on the company you're researching and trying to contact.

It's compatible with several CRMs and is mainly used to collect phone numbers and email addresses for sales cold calls.

3. Dux Soup

Do you like email drip campaigns? If yes, then Dux Soup might be the extension for you.

This extension automates the LinkedIn messaging process by taking customer lists and creating outreach campaigns.

Dux Soup specializes in lead management, meaning the extension is built to contact a lead until they either respond or drop off the drip campaign.

Also, the extension has some CRM features like allowing users to take notes on leads while on their profile in LinkedIn.

Though not free, Dux Soup has an introduction demo before requiring you to choose between two paid plans.

4. Wiza

Similar to Lusha, Wiza collects emails from your LinkedIn. However, Wiza goes a step further in that they create verified email lists that save crucial man hours.

They claim to be able to prevent bounced emails and are mainly targeted toward users who are in need of a large swath of leads, not necessarily high quality ones.

But, with only 15 cents per email, it can be a cost-effective way to reach a large LinkedIn audience outside of LinkedIn itself.

The platform also makes it easy to filter by job function, geographic location, and industry. Wiza boasts the ability to export up to 2,500 leads at once from LinkedIn.

5. ProspectIn

Touted as the ultimate LinkedIn automation tool, ProspectIn automates more than just email drip campaigns, it automates visiting profiles, following profiles, bulk messages, and more.

ProspectIn claims to reduce time on LinkedIn by 70% by automating these daily tasks and sending bulk messages to profiles you may or may not have had actual contact with.

Again, this extension is more about quantity over quality, as ProspectIn does the interacting for you in many ways, leaving you without a personal touch of actually contacting and knowing the leads they contact on your behalf.

Nevertheless, ProspectIn is compatible with Sales Navigator and with some CRMs.

Regardless of your choice, with all these tools out there, one thing is clear: to compete for attention in the saturated world of LinkedIn, you need a quality extension.

Not only do they save time and money, sales extensions can provide valuable assets that help you better communicate with customers online and close more deals.