Sales Tools: A Selection of Must-Haves to Boost Your Sales

Modern sales teams are constantly looking for ways to optimize their processes and performance. To achieve this, they use essential sales tools for their daily management and overall development. However, there is a multitude of tools dedicated to sales forces, and it is often complex to choose the best ones and those that will best integrate into the company’s and teams’ strategy.

Sales Tools: Which Ones to Choose?

Which sales tools can help teams sell better? Which CRM should you choose? Which tools can facilitate lead acquisition and management?

It’s important to remember that the sales tools you use are only a complement to an already effective strategy. A good product, effective management of your sales teams, and talented sales representatives remain your main keys to success. However, the use of good sales tools can be part of a framework for optimizing sales processes and improving performance.

Now, let’s get down to business. Here is a non-exhaustive selection of essential sales tools for your sales teams to perform throughout the second half of 2016.

Prospecting, Lead Generation, and Sales Development

LinkedIn Sales Navigator

How to improve your sales prospecting? LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a premium LinkedIn tool whose main function is to track and generate leads, contact companies, all in a localized manner. Indeed, you can choose your preferences regarding the sales sectors you want to target (region, industry, function, and hierarchical level) to get suggested information (lead and company) from LinkedIn. This information comes from both the web and the platform itself. This feature is innovative and valuable, as a portion of your leads can be found and thus generated via the tool. Your sales prospecting is therefore simplified, allowing you to quickly and targetedly find your prospects. LinkedIn’s suggestions are based on a very effective algorithm. Furthermore, LinkedIn Sales Navigator allows you to import your prospect lists directly into your CRM tools, primarily Salesforce. The tool also provides you with daily sales information based on your interests and preferences. Other features such as lead tracking, analysis of your prospecting performance, and your business relationships are accessible in real-time. The tool is, of course, paid, as it is accessible via LinkedIn’s premium feature.

Salesloft

Salesloft is a tool developed by Salesforce that, like LinkedIn Sales Navigator, allows you to find leads. The tool is built around two autonomous sub-tools. The first is called “Prospector”. It allows you to segment your prospect searches by geographic area, keywords, company size, or even LinkedIn affiliation. All this information comes from Google, so you don’t need any initial data to start your first searches, which will automatically refine over time and with your preferences. Your lead lists are automatically classified by qualification order, search terms, or preferences. The second is called “Cadence” and offers a smart emailing and calling solution that will facilitate your objective tracking. This clever combination is complemented by an almost direct Salesforce integration, as Salesloft is an external branch of Salesforce. This solution can therefore easily integrate into your existing process if you already use Salesforce.

Other more accessible prospecting and emailing tools offer similar but less comprehensive services, such as Clearslide or Docsend.

Project Management

Asana

Created in 2008, notably by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, Asana is a web and mobile application that allows teams to work on projects by eliminating email usage. Asana’s ambition is to “help humanity thrive by enabling all teams to work together effortlessly“. The application can be defined as a team communication and project manager. The application has numerous features that facilitate communication and task planning. It allows for the creation of specific workspaces, the implementation of an interactive calendar, and the use of an automated inbox that updates information in real-time. Asana is therefore a very well-designed and practical project and task management tool. It will allow you to track everyone’s work in real-time and schedule it. A sales team needs a precise and regularly updated schedule at its disposal. Simplicity and communication are Asana’s watchwords.

Trello

Like Asana, Trello is an online project management and planning tool. Created in 2011, this web and mobile application is based on an effective and original method: the Kanban method, a production management method deployed in the late 1950s in Toyota factories. Trello allows you to organize your projects and tasks using a system of boards and cards. Each task is classified into one of the application’s 3 columns, each representing the task’s status: “to do”, “in progress”, “done”. The application adds a new dimension of precision and ease thanks to this method, and that’s what gives it its charm. Each task is assignable and can therefore be moved between columns, depending on its progress. Practical, ergonomic, and simple, Trello will facilitate your daily task management and save you a lot of time. A basic version is free. Access to additional services will require upgrading to premium mode.

CRM

Salesforce/Salescloud

A pioneer and global leader in customer relationship management tools, Salesforce is the most famous platform dedicated to both sales and marketing teams. Salesforce does almost everything. Its use requires no software installation, as the platform is one hundred percent based on the “cloud computing” system, which allows you to store and manage your information entirely online. You can therefore access all your features wherever you are and on any device. Salesforce constantly reinvents itself and has just released a brand new, more modern version. The platform fully meets the expectations of the current sales market. Salesforce stands out for the many tools it comprises, particularly Salescloud. Salescloud is the cutting-edge tool for CRM and sales force automation. Its use provides a global view of your customers, allowing you to manage your calls and emails. Concerned with performance and constant optimization of the sales process, Salescloud is to CRM what Apple is to the digital market: expensive but innovative and effective.

Pipedrive

In a simpler, more intimate, and above all, more affordable vein, you can access numerous features with Pipedrive. Sales pipeline, chronological display, sales reports, and advanced interface customization—Pipedrive is well-equipped and is among the leaders in customer relationship management tools. Multilingual and very well-designed, it is practical and easy to use. The platform is customizable and thus adapts to individual preferences. Pipedrive’s primary goal is to simplify the sales process and thereby improve sales representatives’ focus on their objectives. The platform is accessible on mobile and, in addition to its basic features, supports integration with Google Apps. “Built for salespeople by salespeople,” Pipedrive is a quality CRM tool. If you were using another software and want to switch to Pipedrive, no problem—the platform includes an internal and external data migration system.

Dashboarding, Performance Management, and Motivation

Incenteev

I must introduce our own solution. Incenteev is a platform that helps you develop the engagement and motivation of your sales force, helps you manage your sales performance, and revolutionizes your sales challenges. Our tool adapts to each of your needs and allows you to measure your key performance indicators through a clear, well-designed, and real-time dashboarding system. We have developed four major features that will help you achieve your objectives, develop your teams’ motivation, and support your daily management.

• • • Dashboards: Track your performance in real-time, access rankings, and analyze the evolution of behaviors you monitor through simple and fun interfaces. Furthermore, Incenteev integrates with all your data sources according to your needs and project.
    • Sales Challenge Engine: Whatever mechanics you envision, Incenteev can bring them to life: point boosters, team challenges, training challenges, etc. You can organize motivating sales challenges built on ambitious goals and boost your teams’ motivation through innovative and customizable reward systems.
    • Micro-training: Offer quizzes to your teams, test and improve their knowledge of your products, sales methods, or daily company life. You can reward the progress of your teams’ results through a reward system and generate progress reports at any time.

Incenteev aligns with a modern approach to personal and professional development for sales teams. With Incenteev, centralize your information, analyze and improve your performance, and give your internal communication a more modern and dynamic new lease on life. Don’t hesitate to discover us and request a demo.

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