Selling is all about hitting the numbers consistently. However, today, how quickly you get to your numbers is more important.
To skyrocket the numbers, sales reps make use of various sales tools available in the market. Some of them are free while others are paid – but all bring in enormous value to the sales process.
Investing in a random sales tool is a waste of time, money and effort. We have listed the 10 best sales tools you must be acquainted with to boost your B2B sales.
However, let’s quickly learn the significance of the top sales tools in the 21st century.
What are Sales Tools?
Sales tools are software and technology solutions that help sales teams automate and streamline various tasks and processes, such as lead generation, customer relationship management, and sales forecasting. These tools can help sales teams to be more efficient and effective in their work, allowing them to close more deals and increase revenue. Examples of popular sales tools include CRM software, marketing automation software, and sales forecasting tools.
Why Use Sales Tools?
Using sales tools can help increase productivity and efficiency in the sales process by automating repetitive tasks, tracking and analyzing sales data, and providing actionable insights to inform better decision-making. These tools can also help sales teams prioritize leads and streamline communication with prospects and customers, leading to more effective and efficient sales efforts. Additionally, sales tools can provide a more professional and organized approach to the sales process, which can help build and maintain strong customer relationships.
What problems do sales tools fix?
Sales tools can solve various problems faced by sales teams, including:
- Inefficiency and lack of organization in the sales process, leading to missed opportunities and decreased productivity.
- Inaccurate tracking and analysis of sales data, making it difficult to identify trends and make informed decisions.
- Difficulty prioritizing leads and managing a large volume of prospects and customers.
- Inadequate communication and follow-up with prospects and customers, leading to lost opportunities and decreased customer satisfaction.
- Lack of visibility into the sales pipeline and forecasting accuracy, making it difficult to plan and allocate resources effectively.
By addressing these challenges, sales tools can help sales teams work more efficiently and effectively, close more deals, and build stronger relationships with customers.
What Type of Software do Salespeople Use to Track All Aspects of Customer Interaction?
There are various tools salespeople use to track all aspects of customer interaction. Here are some of them:
- Client relationship management (CRM)
- Email campaign management tool
- Visitor identification tool to track interaction with the website
CRM is the most commonly used tool out of the three.
What Is The Most Important Tool in Sales?
Sales prospecting is the primary challenge for sales reps. The reason – lack of data to identify and reach potential customers. So, data intelligence tool for prospecting becomes the most important tool in sales.
The Rising Importance of Sales Tools
- Nine in 10 companies use two or more lead enrichment tools to learn more about prospects.
- Using social selling tools can increase win rates and deal size by 5% and 35%, respectively.
- Sales development reps use on average six tools.
- The most popular sales tools include CRM, social prospecting, data and list services, email engagement, phone, and sales cadence.
- As per research, administrative tasks are responsible for 14.8% of the effectiveness drain.
How Sales Tools Bring Value to Your Business?
The most important benefits of using a sales automation tool for your business are:
1) Improve Your Reporting
Every sales manager or VP seeks ways to improve productivity. Many non-productive activities take time. One of which is the reporting as one cannot ignore creating a report.
Sales automation tools help you to automate report generation in the simplest and more presentable way.
Sales automation tools provide in-depth historical data to decide what’s working and what’s not.
2) Save Time and Improve Efficiency
If your sales reps can close the deals in fewer attempts, you can cut down the extra time spent on email drafting, checking the lead qualification, etc. This will help you improve their work efficiency.
For instance, sales tools can automate emails required at every buying stage, you can perform A/B testing using the best subject lines suggested by the tool.
Sales tools also help sales professionals dial phone numbers from a list, drop prerecorded messages, and track every detail of your company’s phone activities.
3) Focus on High-Quality Leads
Automated lead scoring helps you filter out the unqualified leads that allow you to focus on high-quality leads. This eliminates the time spent manually sorting the leads.
That means you just need to set a time for sales and marketing.
Choose the Right Tools to Improve Your Sales Strategy
Now that you know how beneficial sales tools are, you need to focus on implementing the right ones. The market has a wide spectrum of sales tools with different functionalities; you need to pick the ones most required.
It is important to understand your requirements, which tools your competitors are using, and what’s trending when it comes to sales tools.
To make it easier for you, we have come up with a list of the 10 best sales tools for your sales team to improve work efficiency and productivity.
18 Types of Sales Tools You Must Know:
- Sales Prospecting
- Sales productivity
- CRM software
- Sales intelligence Tool
- Lead management tools
- Sales Mapping Tools
- Sales Management Tools
- Sales Engagement Tools
- Sales enablement tools
- Sales acceleration software
- Sales analytics software
- Sales gamification
- Video conferencing software
- Marketing automation software
- Account-based marketing software
- E-signature and document tracking
- Customer service software
- Call Tracking
These tools enable sales professionals to understand the chances of prospects to convert into potential clients, the right time to reach the prospects, and how to keep them engaged throughout the buying process.
They save your time spent on administrative tasks, allowing you to spend more time selling and ultimately increasing productivity.
1. Sales Prospecting Solutions
Technology is increasingly becoming essential to most salespeople, with 62% of sales professionals believing that their sales intelligence software was “very important” in helping them close deals, and 74% stating that their organizations plan to invest more in sales intelligence tools going forward, according to LinkedIn’s survey.
Sales prospecting is the lifeblood of any successful sales strategy, and leveraging cutting-edge sales prospecting solutions is integral to maintaining a healthy sales pipeline. Recent industry reports indicate a 95% increase in sales prospecting technology utilization, underscoring its pivotal role in modern sales practices.
These solutions encompass a wide array of functionalities, including lead identification, data enrichment, personalized outreach, predictive analytics, and multichannel engagement. They empower sales professionals to target the right prospects with precision, thereby boosting conversion rates and revenue.
Selecting the optimal sales prospecting solution necessitates evaluating factors like data accuracy, ease of use, integration capabilities, and compliance with regulatory standards. Notable sales prospecting tools in the market comprise:
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator
- SalesIntel
- RevDrive (Free Linked email extractor)
- Bambora
- ZoomInfo
- UpLead
- RocketReach
- Lusha
- Leadfeeder
- Apollo.io
2. Sales Productivity Tools
Sales productivity tools are fundamental for optimizing the efficiency and output of sales teams. According to recent studies, sales productivity tools usage has surged by over 120% since 2017, with 75% of high-performing sales organizations attributing their success to the strategic implementation of these tools.
These tools come in various forms, aiding in tasks such as task automation, contact management, email tracking, performance analytics, and communication enhancement. They seamlessly integrate with existing CRM systems and offer comprehensive insights that empower sales professionals to make informed decisions swiftly.
Choosing the right sales productivity tool requires the consideration of usability, integration capabilities, scalability, and alignment with the sales team’s workflow. Some of the top sales productivity tools include:
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator
- Basecamp
- SalesIntel
- Salesforce Sales Cloud
- RescueTime
- Octoparse
- Pipedrive
- Salesflare
- Calendly
- Aircall
3. CRM Software
CRM is the first and essential investment that a company makes for the sales team. According to LinkedIn’s State of Sales 2018, CRM adoption by companies has grown 113% since 2016 and by 2018, 64% of sales professionals used CRM applications.
Customer relationship management is simple to use. Additionally, you can integrate your website, social media, telephone calls, chat, emails, and various marketing materials into the CRM. Due to its diversity, CRM can benefit any business – from a startup to a large enterprise.
Choosing the right CRM is a tough ask for businesses. Choose the one that offers the most simplistic yet effective user experience and gives you the UI/UX.
There are three most popular and reliable CRMs for B2B businesses – Hubspot, Salesforce and Leadsquared. Both CRMs have a lot of features making it easier for the sales reps to track the lead status.
Here’s a list of the top 10 Best CRM Software:
- HubSpot CRM
- Salesforce CRM
- Leadsquared
- Zoho CRM
- Freshsales
- Netsuite CRM
- Pipedrive
- monday.com CRM
- CRM Creatio
- vCita
- Pipeliner
4. Sales Intelligence Tools
Sales intelligence consists of a wide spectrum of technologies that provides contact information as well as additional information on the prospects. It also helps sales professionals to monitor and track the information on the prospects’ business.
Prospecting tools are now becoming an integral part of the sales process as more than 40% of salespeople say prospecting is the most challenging part of the sales process.
Sales prospecting software allows sales reps to conduct targeted searches for prospects using a specific set of real-time data points. These data points include firmographics, technographics, direct dials, etc.
Sales intelligence helps salespeople know precisely who they should be talking with, what they should be talking about, and when they should reach out to them. All relevant information must be in front of them when they’re having that conversation.
In short, sales prospecting tools help sales reps to save time and replace the previously manual process of locating the relevant insights you need with automation. You can trust these tools for accuracy. They will give you a complete overview of every prospect.
SalesIntel provides millions of accurate B2B data with the most direct dials in the industry.
In addition to the contact details of the decision-maker, you can access the technographic and firmographic data of the companies to support your prospecting.
Here’s a list of the most preferred sales intelligence & prospecting tools:
- SalesIntel
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator
- NinjaOutreach
- Mattermark
- CrunchBase
- Prospect.io
- Zoominfo
- D&B Hoovers
- Datanyze Insider
- RevDriver
- BuiltWith
5. Lead Management Tools
Efficient lead management is crucial for nurturing leads through the sales funnel and converting them into loyal customers. Recent trends show a 110% increase in the adoption of lead management tools, demonstrating their pivotal role in orchestrating successful sales conversions.
These tools encompass functionalities such as lead capture, scoring, segmentation, nurturing workflows, and real-time analytics. They seamlessly integrate with CRMs, enabling sales teams to effectively manage leads at various stages of the buyer’s journey.
Selecting an ideal lead management tool involves assessing criteria like lead tracking capabilities, automation features, scalability, and alignment with the sales process. Noteworthy lead management tools include:
- HubSpot Marketing Hub
- Overloop
- OptinMonster
- SalesIntel
- Marketo
- Pardot
- Skrapp
- ActiveCampaign
- Keap (formerly Infusionsoft)
- Datanyze
6. Sales Mapping Tools
Sales mapping tools are pivotal for visualizing geographical data, territories, and customer locations. They enable sales teams to strategize efficiently by mapping out prospects, identifying market opportunities, and optimizing travel routes for sales representatives. Recent trends indicate a 90% increase in the adoption of sales mapping tools since 2018, showcasing their significance in enhancing sales strategies.
These tools offer functionalities such as territory mapping, route optimization, demographic analysis, and visualization of sales data. By providing a visual representation of sales territories and customer clusters, these tools aid in making informed decisions to maximize sales efficiency.
Notable sales mapping tools include:
- Badger Maps
- Xactly AlignStar
- BatchGeo
- Maptitude
- Map Business Online
- Yellowfin
- Maptive
- SmartDraw
- GeoMetrx
- AlignMix
7. Sales Management Tools
Sales management tools are essential for overseeing and optimizing the performance of sales teams. Recent industry studies highlight a 105% increase in the utilization of sales management tools, underlining their critical role in driving sales effectiveness and team productivity.
These tools encompass functionalities such as sales performance tracking, coaching, forecasting, pipeline management, and incentive management. They empower sales managers with insights to make data-driven decisions, mentor their teams effectively, and align strategies with organizational goals.
Key sales management tools include:
- Salesforce
- HubSpot
- Pipedrive
- Freshsales
- Zoho CRM
- SalesHandy
- Insightly
- Zendesk
- Keap
- Zoho Corporation
8. Sales Engagement Tools
Sales engagement tools play a crucial role in facilitating meaningful interactions and communication between sales teams and prospects. Recent trends showcase a 115% increase in the adoption of sales engagement tools, highlighting their significance in fostering personalized and effective customer engagements.
These tools encompass functionalities such as email tracking, cadence management, personalized outreach, sales automation, and content sharing. They equip sales teams with the means to deliver tailored messages and timely follow-ups, resulting in higher engagement and conversion rates.
Prominent sales engagement tools include:
- Zendesk Sell
- Hubspot
- Zoho SalesIQ
- Mailshake
- Hippo Video
- Klenty
- Freshsales
- Salesloft
- Clearbit
- Pipeline
9. Sales Enablement Tools
Sales enablement tools are instrumental in empowering sales teams with the resources and information needed to engage prospects effectively throughout the buyer’s journey. At the start of the year, we already listed the must-have sales enablement tools for 2023. However, there are a few new additions to the list for 2024.
These tools offer functionalities such as content management, training modules, sales collateral creation, analytics, and seamless integration with CRM systems. They ensure sales representatives have access to relevant and up-to-date content, enabling them to deliver compelling pitches and address customer needs efficiently.
Key sales enablement tools include:
- Hoopla
- Outreach
- Salesloft
- LevelEleven
- Membrain
- HubSpot Sales Hub
- Highspot
- GTM Buddy
- Crayon
- Mindtickle
10. Sales Acceleration Software
Sales acceleration helps to speed up the sales process by automating repetitive and administrative tasks.
Sales acceleration software aims to speed up sales by automating administrative tasks and streamlining sales processes.
The sales acceleration tools include email tracking software, analytics tools, outbound sales dialers, sales coaching tools, etc.
People consider sales acceleration as a broader term for all the tools that help B2B sales reps spend more time chasing and nurturing qualified leads. As a result, it is tough to identify the one that suits your requirements.
SalesLoft and Outreach are the two sales acceleration tools that are gaining traction among B2B businesses.
Since engaging prospects using traditional methods is not yielding results, businesses are happy to invest in sales acceleration tools.
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11. Sales Analytics Software
Sales analytics software is useful to effectively track, evaluate, and improve sales productivity and performance. The tools are helpful to forecast the sales based on the on-going performance chart and insights.
Especially in this age where data is considered as the major ingredient for building a marketing and sales strategy. It has helped to avoid human errors while gathering the data manually and entering it in spreadsheets.
Sales analytics software gives you a systematic and customized representation of the reports that you can access in one place. In the age of big data, sales analytics has become an important part of every sales report.
Here are top 10 analytics and reporting tools that allow you to monitor and analyze your key sales metrics based on your preference.
- Tableau
- Heap Analytics
- Alteryx
- Google Analytics
- MixPanel
- Amplitude
- Zoho
- Solver
- Dataiku DSS
- KNIME
These tools offer a wide variety of customizable data visualization options and dashboard layouts.
12. Sales Gamification
Sales gamification is trending for the last couple of years. It allows the sales managers to choose the performance metrics for their sales reps. The tool provides rank to the employees by evaluating the parameters against the metrics set by the managers.
Some tools display real-time scores of the employees based on the data from the CRM to keep the competition interesting and healthy.
Some tools also allow more complex team games and one-on-one challenges for individual skills and performance goals.
It might be possible that you are already using sales gamification. If not, give it a try as it will boost motivation and sales performance to get the most from sales teams.
Here are 10 Sales Gamification tools for you:
- Ambition
- Influitive
- Badgeville
- Hoopla
- GetBadges
- Freshdesk Arcade
- Playlyfe
- Rise
- LevelEleven
- Catalyst
13. Video Conferencing Software
As businesses manage expenses in the pre-sales method, one of the major contributors to the expenses is meetings and demos at client sites. As a result, businesses are preferring video conferences for running online meetings to demo and/or share their offerings.
Along with the cost-cutting benefits, video conferencing also helps to reduce communication hiccups with remote teams, clients, or other stakeholders.
With the recent epidemic of Covid-19, many events and conferences called off globally. As a recovery measure, businesses are preferring to arrange video conferences.
Some tools also offer screen sharing and audio recording features for a better user experience.
With so many free and paid tools available for video conferencing, finding the right one for your needs can be both time-consuming and stressful.
Top 10 video conferencing tools for B2B businesses:
- GoToMeeting
- CyberLink U Meeting
- Zoom Meetings
- BlueJeans
- Lifesize
- Google Hangouts Meet
- WebEx
- Skype
- Microsoft Teams
- Zoho Meeting
14. Marketing Automation Software
While CRM is often the first sales technology investment by any business, marketing automation is the next tool that modern sales teams need.
Marketing automation software helps companies to streamline the marketing process and refine the marketing strategy based on the data and performance. It automates daily tasks such as emails, social media posting, and b2b lead generation activities.
While marketing professionals are frequent users of marketing automation tools, it is equally important for the sales team. It helps the sales reps to automate the sales process especially when the buying process is long.
Here’s a list of marketing automation tools that will help you generate leads, close deals, and manage your sales pipeline on auto-pilot.
- Marketo
- HubSpot Marketing
- Ontraport
- SendinBlue
- ActiveCampaign
- Prospect.io
- InfusionSoft
- Autopilot
- GetResponse
- Drip
15. Account-Based Marketing Software
Account-based marketing (ABM) has helped B2B businesses to take an account-specific approach and build scalable, personalized marketing campaigns. Additionally, it also measures the results against a set of key performance indicators.
To succeed with the account-based marketing strategy, you need to back your marketing strategy with the prospecting tool that will give you accurate data.
With a clearly defined target audience and data, marketing departments can better categorize and evaluate leads and move them further along the sales process.
SalesIntel helps you develop your ideal customer profile using a powerful combination of firmographic, technographic and behavioral data points across the USA, UK, Australia, and Canada region.
If you stick to the basics and have the right B2B data, the essence of Account-Based Marketing is nothing to fear.
Top 10 Account-Based Marketing (ABM) tools:
- SalesIntel
- Marketo
- LeanData
- Act-On
- ON24
- Sendoso
- Terminus ABM Platform
- Engagio ABM Platform
- Triblio
- Bizible
16. E-signature and Document Tracking
For those who are not aware of this type of tool, e-signature and document tracking tools are replacing the putting pen to paper method.
The tool helps users securely collect signatures on sales contracts, project charters, and proposals.
The market has started to see more e-signature and document tracking solutions pointed out for sales teams. These tools can be useful also for sending out any sales and marketing collateral.
Docsketch is a popularly used E-signature tool that also tracks and maintains an audit trail of all the important activities related to your documents.
- PandaDoc
- SignRequest
- Zoho Sign
- SignNow
- DocuSign
- e-SignLive
- Qwilr
- eSign+
- RightSignature
- Sertifi
- Signable
17. Customer Service Software
Lastly, a tool to ensure the best and most convenient after-sales service.
Customer service tools ensure smooth inbound and outbound communication across multiple channels and resolve issues.
Tools for help desk, live chat, social customer service, and ticket management mold into this category of software.
To improve customer experience, most vendors include features such as call-routing, auto-attendance, and case management.
Chatbots are the most popular these days as it aims to qualify new leads and book new meetings for the salespeople’s calendars.
There are hundreds of different customer service software available to choose from. They vary by scale, industry use, platform type, compatibility, and features. So, you can start with the free ones.
10 best customer services software:
- Nextiva
- FreshDesk
- Zendesk Support
- Kayako
- Salesforce
- ZohoDesk
- HubSpot CRM
- LiveAgent
- HelpSpot
- AzureDesk
18. Call Tracking
Call tracking helps you analyze marketing campaigns that drive calls to your business.
It also tracks and sorts information about all incoming phone calls. You can use it to attribute each phone number to specific marketing channels. These include SEO, paid ads, and other online and offline campaigns.
These phone numbers capture data from the calls and help you understand how many calls each of these channels is driving. It also allows you to extract necessary demographic information about each caller.
It is one of the most advanced solutions that can be integrated with your CRM systems. Thus, helping you measure key metrics like call drivers, quality of each call, and conversion rate.
Here is a list of call tracking software that will help you
- CallRail
- CallHippo
- Invoca
- DialogTech
- CallTrackingMetrics
- RingDNA
- Vonage Contact Center (formerly NewVoiceMedia)
- Marchex
- ResponseTap
- CallSource
Get Started
The landscape of sales technology continues to evolve, providing an extensive array of tools to enhance sales productivity, prospecting efficiency, and lead management. Assessing the specific needs and compatibility with existing systems remains pivotal in selecting the most suitable tools for achieving sales excellence.
Now that you have a list of sales tools that can boost your sales process and offer a better customer experience, start using them.