Flourishing or Fumbling?
If you’re part of a very large sales team, you’re constantly bombarded with new information. You and your colleagues are qualifying contacts, reaching out, building relationships, and closing deals, all at once. How do you keep track of everything your team is accomplishing? And how can you stay on top of your own work?
Sales tools can help. In the fast-paced world of sales, they can offer time, freedom, and information so that you can focus on creating connections.
In this lesson, you’ll learn about sales tools and their benefits. You’ll also explore different types of tools and learn how your team might use them.
Watch the video to learn about different sales tools and how they can make your job as a salesperson easier.
What Are Sales Tools?
Sales tools are applications and software that organisations use to improve their sales processes, including organisation, record keeping, and communication. For example, a document-sharing tool can help salespeople organise and track updates on contracts.
Sales teams are constantly moving. That means a salesperson has to track, analyse, and organise information to tackle their task list. Sales tools help individuals and organisations meet these challenges.
How Tools Can Improve Your Process
Working in sales demands a lot of time and energy. If those precious resources are squandered on time-consuming and tedious administrative tasks, a salesperson may not have the reserve needed to interact with prospective customers. That’s where sales tools can help.
Using sales tools gives sales professionals:
- More time. Sales tools can eliminate manual work, like sending individual emails or filing proposal drafts. Automation can slash the time you spend on these necessary but humdrum tasks.
- Improved focus. With the time that sales tools help you save, you can focus on more personal aspects of sales.
- Increased control. By allowing you to see your sales process from different perspectives, sales tools can strengthen your ability to qualify prospects, build relationships, and close sales.
"As you know, the sales process is full of challenges. If you want to achieve more success than your competitors, take advantage of every tool and solution that is available to you."
– Neil Patel
Common Types of Sales Tools
While there are many types of sales tools available for businesses, most fit into the following categories.
Expand the tabs below to learn more about each type of tool and how your team might be using them.
CRM
Customer relationship management (or CRM) systems help salespeople keep track of how they interact with prospective buyers and customers. As a salesperson, you will likely use a CRM solution to keep records and maintain a detailed history of how you communicate with your contacts. Many CRM systems also include other features like communication capabilities or territory mapping.
Prospecting and Sales Intelligence
These tools help salespeople find and qualify potential buyers. They can speed up research and provide information like purchase history and business objectives—data that typically would not be available to the public.
Some can even help strategize the best ways to reach out. For example, tools with mapping capabilities can help managers assign contacts strategically by location, preventing overlap. These tools can ensure you’re connecting prospective customers with the right salespeople.
Email Management
Email management tools streamline sales communications. As online communication increasingly replaces face-to-face meetings, salespeople need to know how to communicate efficiently.
If your team uses an email management tool, you can use the tool to send emails quickly to well-organised lists of contacts. Most tools will track when someone opens an email or clicks on a link, helping you analyse strengths and weaknesses in how you reach out to prospective customers.
Document Management
Document management tools organise all the paperwork involved with sales. Salespeople no longer need to keep drawers full of disorganised files. With document management tools, every file can be accessible to everyone on the team instantly.
These tools can also help keep track of document updates. You can use them to work collaboratively with potential customers on documents, saving changes along the way. And you can use them to get contracts reviewed and signed online, minimising the time it usually takes to go through a contract.
Analytics
Sales analytics tools show how effectively a sales team is working. These tools collect data such as sales process length and performance metrics on your prospective customers and your team. Some tools may even be able to predict trends based on previous sales activities. By acting on real data rather than assumptions, your team’s managers can make informed decisions based on facts.
This is just a broad overview of the types of sales tools available. Talk to your manager and your teammates to clarify which tools you have and how your team is using them. The next section will help you use your team’s toolkit most effectively.
Getting to Know Your Team’s Toolkit
Whether you’re a new hire or an experienced member of the sales team, you need to know how your team uses sales tools. You’ll likely receive training during orientation or whenever a new tool is brought to the team. However, it’s always helpful to talk to others about how the tools fit into your workflow. You might also be able to access regular online training or forums for some tools, so you can explore how to use them to their full potential.
A tool is only useful if you know how to use it.
Ask your manager and your teammates how they’re using the tools available to your team. Consider getting additional training so that you know how to use your tools correctly.
Summary
Sales tools make work easier for salespeople by streamlining the sales process. They give salespeople more time, focus, and control over their work, improving the flow of business. While there are many different kinds of tools available, most fall into these categories:
Customer relationship management (or CRM) software
Prospecting and Sales Intelligence
Email Management
Document Management
Analytics
Tools are useless if not used correctly, so talk to your team about how you can best learn to use the tools you have.
- It’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the tools available. Remember that sales tools are only meant to enhance your sales process, not overtake it. Ultimately, sales continues to be about building positive relationships, which good tools can make easier for your team.
Click on “Mark Complete ✓” to take a closer look at one essential sales tool: the CRM system.