They say a good carpenter never blames his tools.
The same might be said for a good salesperson.
Just as a carpenter would never try to cut a plank of wood without a sharp saw, as a salesperson you should never try to close deals without some sales automation. You'd just work harder, take longer, and ink fewer contracts.
Effective sales tools help you automate manual, laborious tasks to free up more time that you can use for actually talking with clients and closing more sales.
Here is a list of 5 sales tools that will help you close more deals.
#1 - Email Finder Tools
Most salespeople waste a lot of time during the research phase of the sales process. It can be very laborious to manually search for potential clients and find their contact information.
Tools such as Hunter.io stop you from wasting time with trial and error trying to guess a prospect's email address, and instead automatically finds the most likely email combination. You can also use these tools to find a prospect’s email from their LinkedIn profile and verify that the email result is valid so it won’t bounce. Hunter is not the only email finder around. This article looks at some alternatives to Hunter you might consider.
Other tools such as data.com allow you to search for a prospect’s contact information in their own database.
Or use Wiza, a Chrome extension, to quickly find hundreds (or thousands) of verified email addresses via a LinkedIn Sales Navigator search.
#2 - Scheduling Tools
We’ve all been stuck going back and forth with a client trying to schedule a meeting or a call. Not only is this a frustrating situation, but it can also waste a lot of time. Instead of wasting time going back and forth in order to set a meeting, use automation and let your client book a meeting that suits your schedule.
Tools such as Calendly read your calendar and show your availability in real time to your client. Calendly also allows you to set pre-meeting questions to help qualify your prospect before you even start the meeting. These tools save valuable time and give you the information you need before your meeting to help you close more sales.
#3 - Digital Signing Tools
Never wait for a contract to be printed in order to close a deal. When it comes to closing deals in a timely fashion you don’t want to rely on access to a printer in order to close. Instead you can use a digital signing service such as HelloSign or DocuSign to save time. In addition you can be sure that all your important documents will all be stored on the cloud so you’ll never lose the contract.
#4 - Power Dialers
Calling prospects and clients takes up a large portion of every outbound salesperson's day (or at least it should!). Whether you’re making cold calls to new prospects, or following up with your pipeline we all know that the amount of time actually spent talking to contacts is LOW.
But what if it wasn't?
Tools such as PhoneBurner - which dial for you, leave voicemails for you (without you having to listen to the voicemail message of the person you're calling), streamline workflow, and automate lead management - can literally multiply yours calls and live conversations - and build you a bigger, more engaged sales pipeline.
# 5 - Email Automation Tools
We all know how crucial email is throughout the sales process - including pre-call and post-call outreach. But when you really take a look at how salespeople use email, you’ll realize that there are a lot of repetitive and time-consuming tasks, as well as missed opportunities.
Tools like Prospect.io can really save you time and hassle if you're regularly sending cold emails to prospects found online, on LinkedIn, and through other research.
For leads already in your pipeline, PhoneBurner's email tools - most notably SmartSender - offer all kinds of time-saving and conversion-boosting benefits.
For example, you can:
- Send pre-written, fully personalized emails in a click based on the outcome of your sales calls (ie. no answer, wrong number, interested, set demo, etc.)
- See which prospects open your emails, click links, view documents, watch videos, and more, and WHEN, so you know precisely which leads are engaged and when to follow-up with them.
- Bundle resources together (ie. a PDF Case Study and a Video Walkthrough) into "SmartPacks" and email them together attachment-free with real-time notifications when prospects engage with them. You can also then "retarget" these engaged prospects with branded ads for increased exposure and conversion potential.
Conclusion
Whether you see sales as a numbers game or a quality game (or both), sales automation tools are a powerful way to get more done, and to do it more professionally.
As long as gains in efficiency aren't met with losses in quality or professionalism, your goal should be to automate as much of your sales process as you can. Leave your time open to do what's most valuable: having real conversations with leads and moving them closer to a sale.
What sales tools have you found useful? Let us know in the comments below!
