16 Incredible sales tools to boost your sales online

Providing the best sales tools for your sales team can make a huge difference to enhance productivity, save time from doing repetitive tasks, and focus on what really matters to drive more sales, and increase revenue. 

The use of the right software can help in different parts of the selling process, but, this requires planning, strategic thought, and also dedication to training your employees. It's essential to instruct them on how to make better use of the tools you are going to put available. 

What are sales tools?#

Sales tools are software and applications that were designed to be implemented in a company with the purpose of helping to optimize the sales processes.

You will find a big variety of tools, focused on Customer Relationship Management, performance evaluation, metrics, and generating and managing leads, for example. 

Through them it's possible to have a more efficient team, by organizing all the steps of the buyer's journey, automating tasks, and using data to know more about your customers. They are very useful to prevent errors and can provide a high return on investment. 

How to choose the right sales tools?#

To select the proper sales tools, first, it's necessary to evaluate your sales department. Determine which are the current processes, and try to identify which ones need to be improved. What are the pain points of your team? 

Talk with your salespeople, ask them about their feedback, and how they think it's possible to enhance productivity.

Through it, you will see how different types of sales tools can be applied inside your company. It's going to be easier to define the apps and software that better suit your needs, and to know what features to look for. 

Pay attention if the sales tools allow you to:

• Give more accessibility to data;
• Integrate with other apps;
• Automate repetitive tasks;
• Have access to important metrics.

Types of sales tools#

CRM (Customer Relationship Management)#

Customer Relationship Management software was developed (CRM), as the name implies, to help in the process of dealing with clients, storing and organizing information about them, for example.

On a single platform, you can keep track of your customers’ actions,  and identify what it's necessary to do in order to straighten the relationship with them, and make sales. 

Inside a CRM platform, it's even possible to set the activities every person from your sales team needs to do, automate tasks, and set alerts not to lose any deal opportunities. Besides, the app provides metrics to evaluate your customers' journeys and have new insights. 

CRM can be used as the basis to draw sales and marketing strategies, therefore, usually, it's the first sales tool that a company invests in. When choosing one, pay attention if it's scalable, adapting to your demands as you grow. 

Lead generation and sales prospecting#

Conquering new leads is an essential part of the sales process, it's when you reach people who could be interested in your products or services and set a path to turn them into customers. Tools focused on lead generation, LinkedIn automation, and prospecting will help you to manage the strategies implemented to gain leads and follow their steps.

Sales and marketing intelligence#

Sales and marketing intelligence tools will help you to know who your target audience is, gathering precious information about them, so your marketing and sales team will be able to create precise strategies considering what are your customers’ demands.

By knowing your customer’s behavior such as the main social media they use, age range, and average income, it becomes easier to understand how to approach them, and what to do to call their attention. Your team is going to have a more clear view of what they are looking for in your product or service. 

E-signature and document tracking#

In B2B companies, mainly, it's common that the clients will need to sign a contract to finalize the purchase and have to send documents. Counting on digital solutions for that will save time and enable you to close deals quickly, no matter where your client is. 

By having an e-signature and document tracking software it's possible to easily collect digital signatures for all the parties involved, and provide everyone access to necessary documents. Adding transparency to the whole process, and making it less time-consuming. 

Most of this type of software also enables you to set notifications in case of due dates to send the papers, or to remind you that a contract needs to be renewed, for example. It will speed up the whole process.

Analytics and reporting#

Analytics and reporting tools will enable your managers, and department heads of sales and marketing to have access to several metrics, which give a much more precise view of the performance in both areas.

It's possible to evaluate each employee and the results of all the team, for example, the number of sales, the main sales channels, the actions that have generated more leads, and the calls to action that had the most engagement. 

Through it, managers can give better feedback, and draw strategies to enhance the effectiveness of the sectors, and, as a consequence, increase revenue. 

Performance management #

Along with analytics and reporting, performance management software makes it easier to evaluate each sales reps' work, by providing data regarding important aspects of their job, such as lead response time and sales rates.

It isn't about pointing errors in each one's face, it's important to make it clear, but using these tools to see where the person can improve. Managers should be able to help them to think of solutions, identifying what are the weak points to work on is halfway to conquering better results.

But, be aware, it requires an environment that encourages learning with mistakes. By following their performance rates, your salespeople will be able to be more alert and pay attention to the points they need to upgrade. 

The best sales tools#

CRM #

1. Brevo#

Brevo allows you to manage all your customers’ relationships on a single platform. With an intuitive interface, you don't need to know coding to install and start using it in your company. You can simply upload all the information you already have about your clients and begin to organize it. 

The platform gives you the option to separate your customers into different lists, based on similar characteristics, such as the source of acquisition,  and step in the conversion funnel. You can also assign tasks, insert deadlines, and keep track of all of them.

Highlighted features:

• Organize your team
• Track every customer interaction
• Centralize your contact information
• Assign tasks
• Marketing automation

2. Pipedrive#

Easy to install and to use, with Pipedrive you can customize your sales process, inside the platform, by naming and dividing your pipeline stages according to your company needs. Also, It allows you to track calls, email, and contact history, and manage leads. 

To eliminate repetitive tasks, it's possible to use artificial intelligence to automate them. Another advantage is that you can access PipeDrive from your mobile devices, and integrate it with other sales tools. 

The platform provides access to valuable metrics as well, which will help you to compare the company performance against the established goals. To avoid forgetting important tasks, you can set activities reminders, sync with Google Calendar, and add notes to files and contacts. 

Highlighted features: 

• Manage leads and deals
• Track communications
• Automate tasks
• Insights and reports
• Mobile apps and integrations

3. Freshsales#

Freshsales will provide you with a 360-degree view of your customers, so your sales team can see all their information and interactions, to deliver personalized experiences.

Focusing on having more opportunities, the software enables you to capture visitor information with customizable web forms, and track page visits and actions on your website. 

Inside Freshsales, your sales reps can access each customer’s activities timeline, which provides easy visualization of their steps. They can use the AI-based Deal Insights to find the greatest opportunities, and collaborate using the Slack integration. 

Highlighted features: 

• 360° view of your customers
• Automate tasks
• Track page visits and actions on your website
• AI-based Deal Insights
• Slack integration

Lead generation and sales prospecting#

4. JivoChat#

What about counting on an all-in-one platform where you can manage all of your communication channels, live chat, email, telephony, Apple business chat, Whatsapp, Instagram, Facebook, Telegram, and chatbots? That's exactly what JivoChat allows you to do.

You can install a live chat on your website, which will help you to gain more leads by answering their questions in real-time. Besides, you will avoid losing track of messages, since all of them are going to be stored and easy to access in the JivoChat app. 

Your sales team will be able to identify new leads, integrate with the CRM software to have more information about them, and count on real-time visitor monitor. Another benefit is that JivoChat can be integrated with several other apps, like Shopify, WordPress, and BigCommerce. 

Highlighted features: 

• All-in-one platform
• CRM integration
• Detailed visitor info
• Service quality ratings
• Email chat transcripts
• Automatic triggers

5. Semrush#

Generating leads is an important part of the strategies to increase sales, and Semrush enables you to invest in SEM (Search Engine Marketing) to create different actions to conquer more leads. It's a valuable sales and marketing tool. 

With Semrush you can create a pay-per-click campaign on Google and other search engines, by finding the right keywords that are relevant to your target audience and are connected to your product or service. 

This way, it's possible to appear on the search page results that are made of your potential customers, conquering visibility, and showing how you can help them. With the ads in action, it's up to your sales and marketing departments to qualify the leads and identify the ones who have higher chances to become customers.

Highlighted features:

• Keyword magic tool
• Keyword manager
• Advertising research
• On-Page SEO
• Competitor SEO analysis

6. Apollo#

Apollo is a sales tool that focuses on helping you to find your potential customers and reach out to them at the right time, with the right message. To enable you to do that, the software counts on precise targeting and filtering capabilities to find the perfect list of companies and prospects. 

You can analyze the sales processes with the metrics provided by Apollo and make data-driven decisions. The software recommendation engine will learn from the company's activities to suggest the best leads to pursue. 

Apollo also can be integrated with many applications, including HubSpot, Outreach, Sendgrid, and LinkedIn. The platform offers world-class security and is GDPR compliant. 

Highlighted features:

• Laser precise targeting
• Systematize your workflows
• Make data-driven decisions
• Enrich and clean your CRM
• Prospect on LinkedIn

7. DealSignal#

If your company is focused on the B2B market, DealSignal provides fresh, accurate, and verified on-demand data in this area, to boost campaigns and increase sales outreach. Through the platform, you can have access to more than 600 million contacts with over 100 data points. 

By using the information acquired, it's possible to enrich your inbound leads, find market buyers with intent, improve your CRM data quality, save time on research, and conquer more sales opportunities. 

Highlighted features:

• Fresh, accurate B2B data
• 600M+ global contacts and 20M companies
• 100+ data points per contact
• 100% data guarantee
• Integrates with other apps

Sales and marketing intelligence#

8. Intricately#

Intricately counts on a team of experts and data architects that will help you build your sales and marketing strategies based on technographic data. You will be able to segment prospects based on cloud platforms used, usage, and spending, for example.

The software also provides a Google Chrome Extension that enables your team to see prospects’ technographic data in real-time, allowing them to have unique insights. They can build target lists based on data, and develop strategies by having access to other organizations’ cloud footprint. 

Highlighted features:

• Segment prospects based on cloud platforms used
• Build target lists
• See prospects technographic data in real-time
• Customize views
• Integrate with other apps

9. Clearbit#

Clearbit is a marketing data platform directed to B2B companies that allows you to target potential customers on Facebook, Instagram, and Google by using several filters, including employee attributes, to create more efficient campaigns. 

You will count on Clearbit data as well, which is sourced from over 250 public and private sources and enables you to use the information to develop more accurate sales strategies. It's possible to create your personas on the platform, and the Clearbit prospector will give you full profiles from its database. 

Highlighted features: 

• B2B audience targeting
• Streamline your operations
• Fresh and real-time data
• Integrate with other apps

10. ZoomInfo#

 

ZoomInfo allows you to identify B2B prospects through data-driven insights and buying signals, which point out when a company is ready to buy. In their platform, you can define your ideal customer profile, and you will receive accurate and updated information about potential ones.

ZoomInfo's intent engine will capture consumption patterns across the internet, helping you to spot which are the companies that are looking for products and services similar to yours, so you can track and engage with them.

The platform also gives you the option to capture and analyze every conversation your team has with customers and prospects via email, call, and meeting to create a blueprint for sales success, identifying top performers and winning behaviors. 

Highlighted features:

• Cross-reference 300+ attributes with professional and company profiles 
• Detect buyer intent
• Conversation intelligence
• Sales automation

E-signature and document tracking#

11. Adobe Sign #

Adobe Sign provides companies with sales tools to prepare documents online and collect e-signatures. This way, you don't have to send papers through the mail and wait for everyone to receive them and send them back to you. The process becomes easier and quicker. 

Besides the e-signature, Adobe Sign also allows you to convert and combine PDFs online. Depending on the plan you choose, you can count on other features like embed custom web forms, collecting payments with PayPal, and adding custom branding. 

Highlighted features:

• Create your e-signature
• Collect e-signs
• Convert and combine PDFs online
• Embed custom forms
• Collect payments with PayPal

12. DocuSign#

 #

DocuSign provides the Agreement Cloud feature where you can prepare a contract with just a few clicks. You will be able to automatically fulfill all your data, taken from other systems, and allow users to personalize the contract according to your customer's needs. 

When the paper is ready, you can send, track it, and set notifications to know when you need to sign anything. You will also find the options to collect payment and to create a repository to store documents and keep them at easy access if needed.  Use the AI tools to identify opportunities and hidden risks in the contracts. 

Highlighted features:

• E-signature
• Prepare contracts
• Fulfill data automatically
• Track documents
• Create a repository
• Collect payments

Analytics and reporting#

13. VisitorAnalytics#

The data that you can gather and analyze from your website is valuable to understanding your consumers' behavior.

By identifying what pages have the biggest number of visitors, where they come from, what CTA has people most clicked on, it's possible to create marketing and sales actions that are more effective.

VisitorAnalytics is the tool that's going to allow you to have your website statistics in one place, visualize them in graphics and develop reports.

You will be able to check pages performance, hardware information (such as the devices used to access your site), campaigns performance, and heatmaps (seeing the most clicked areas on each page). 

Highlighted features:

• All-in-one analytics app
• GDPR compliant
• Pages performance 
• Hardware information
• Campaigns performance
• Heatmaps

14. Google Analytics #

When it comes to website data analysis, there is no doubt Google Analytics is one of the most famous tools, and there are many reasons for that. The platform provides you with a range of tools that will allow you to study your website data from several aspects, and have many insights. 

With Google Analytics you will have access to data that's collected in real-time, such as the number of page views, bounce rate, the load speed of each page, website conversion, Ads performance, among many others. You can customize your dashboard, create personalized reports, set alerts as well. 

Highlighted features:

• Measure website traffic
• Analyze customer's behavior
• Create reports
• Check campaigns performance
• Conversion tracking

15. Clari #

Clari is a revenue operations platform that gathers data across your organization, from CRM to marketing campaigns. Then, it uses AI to create dashboards and provide insights. The data it collects, enables you to have a broader view of your business and to get more accurate predictions on revenue. 

Clari will automate the forecasting process by analyzing the data for you, so you can save time from making manual reports. You can identify, for example, which transactions make up your inventory, and what is the coverage in each segment and territory. 

Highlighted features:

• Pipeline management
• Revenue intelligence
• Forecasting accurate and easy
• CRM automation

Performance management #

16. HireVue #

HireVue is a software focused on helping you to have a more effective hire process, it integrates with market-leading Application Tracking Systems (ATS), and calendars to speed up the time-consuming hiring activities with conversational artificial intelligence. 

Recruiters can spare their time by automating tasks, setting on-demand interviews, and using AI to find the best talents to reinforce your sales team, which will help to increase performance. 

Highlighted features:

• Hiring experience platform
• Automate hiring tasks
• Use AI to find the best candidates

Select the sales tools according to your business profile#

Each business has its unique characteristics, there isn't a formula where you have to implement the same sales tools all the other businesses have. To take the most of all the tools you choose, select them according to your sales and marketing demands.

Choosing the right sales tools is just the beginning, though, after this, it's time to get your team together, present the apps they are going to use, and train them.

Explain why the tools are valuable and how they will make a difference in their daily work, this will help to instigate them to get on board with the changes the sales tools are going to bring.