Sales organizations can be complex. With all the different responsibilities, activities, and nuance of "sales", it can be difficult to track what's actually happening.
Thankfully, there are a lot of sales tools and software on the market designed to help maximize your sales team’s activities. From user-friendly project management to AI-powered email management, tools can help your sales team streamline their workflow and spend more time nurturing customer relationships.
Here are 7 of the best sales programs for your team’s tech stack in 2023:
1) Best Email Writing Assistant: Lavender
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What it does: Lavender helps you assess and refine email communications to increase your chances of getting a response. Emails are evaluated and scored based on multiple criteria points to help you spot weaknesses, such as a lack of clarity, ineffective formatting, and more. Then, AI-powered content generators help rewrite your email to increase engagement chances.
Who it’s great for: Sales teams that use email as a crucial prospecting arena, and outbound SDRs who write a lot of cold emails.
2) Best Real-Time Call Coaching: Abstrakt.ai
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What it does: Abstrakt.ai provides actionable, real-time insight into sales calls immediately after they end. This tool allows SDRs to receive quick feedback and guidance in real time, rather than waiting for periodic performance reviews or coaching sessions. Abstrakt gives your team the help they need to succeed when the moment is fresh, and turns every sales call into a teachable moment.
Who it’s great for: Sales teams that are expanding quickly, or which aren’t meeting quotas. Real-time coaching can help new SDRs get up to speed, and can help struggling teams improve without the need for resource-heavy coaching initiatives.
3) Best Call Recorder: Avoma
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What it does: Avoma helps your sales team keep records of calls without time-consuming input. More than just a call recorder, Avoma also takes care of scheduling meetings, and provides automated note-taking and call transcription services to make it easy for your team to reference later.
Who it’s great for: Sales teams who rely on video conferences to nurture client relationships. Teams that handle clients in multiple industries can especially benefit from Avoma’s note-taking features to help keep their information organized.
4) Best Commissions Tracker: Compass
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What it does: Compass manages all aspects of commissions tracking, and its unique UX helps improve motivation. In addition to allowing SDRs and managers to track their commissions and understand their compensation, Compass’s gamified incentives provide your sales team with inspiration and help with goal-setting.
Who it’s great for: Sales teams with high commission rates, or who have multi-tiered commissions and bonus packages. If compensation is complex at your company, Compass can help provide clarity.
5) Best Data Provider: Infotelligent
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What it does: Infotelligent is a contact database that you can use to find emails, phone numbers, and other information about the companies and people you sell to. You can filter by location, role, company size, and more. Infotelligent also allows you to build lookalike audiences, gauge intent, and even dial prospects directly. You can watch a full walkthrough and review of Infotelligent here.
Who it’s great for: Infotelligent is a great tool for companies targeting the US and Canada (it doesn't cover other countries). It's also more cost-effective than some of the bigger data providers out there while being just as effective. It's a great tool for any company looking for a reliable data source that's also packed with other sales bells and whistles.
6) Best Automation Tool: Apollo.io
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What it does: Apollo acts as a sort of subscription service for lead generation. With a curated, up-to-date list of contacts from over 10 million companies, Apollo helps customers find verified contact data to help them find B2B leads.
Who it’s great for: B2B sales teams with a large potential lead base. If your team spends significant time combing through data from Zoominfo and other sites, Apollo could help save time on lead-finding.
7) Best Video Tool: Loom
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What it does: Loom lets team members record quick video updates to help avoid real-time meetings. Team members can record themselves on camera, share screen recordings, and record voice overs for visuals. Loom allows your sales team to cut down on scheduled meetings without cutting down on communication and interpersonal interaction.
Who it’s great for: Dispersed teams who have difficulty coordinating communications. As remote work increases, teams need ways to communicate internally without causing undue scheduling problems. Loom means your California workers don’t have to log on at 5 to make it to an 8 am meeting with your New Yorkers.
8) Best Sales Team Coaching Tool: Novah
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What it does: (Quick disclosure: Vouris acquired Novah at the beginning of 2023, so we're a little biased. But, we absolutely believe it belongs on this list!) Novah is a tool that automatically tracks your sales reps' individual performance data and boils it down to focus on several key metrics. It'll show your reps where they stand in terms of their quota and give them clear steps to get back on track if they've fallen behind.
Who it’s great for: Novah is a great fit for sales managers and leaders who want a simpler way to interpret their reps' performance data and give them relevant, effective coaching and clear focus areas.
Focus On Your Team’s Needs to Find the Best Tools
Ultimately, what makes a tool “the best” depends on your team and how they use it. A team's needs will vary based on factors like:
- Which market you're selling into.
- How many people are on your team.
- How much integration you need between tools.
- What your team's workflow looks like.
- Your team's budget.
- (and many other factors)
Every team's needs are different, so it's important that you build a tech stack to fit your team's needs.
The quickest way to do that is to get their feedback directly. Ask about what kinds of tools they might need to help improve their process, and focus on what they identify as problem areas.
Here are some questions to ask your team:
- What part of the sales funnel takes the most time for you?
- What administrative or recordkeeping task keeps you off the phones/email the most?
- If you could automate one part of your workday, what would it be?
By identifying problem areas and using tools to alleviate them, you can hep your team where they need it most, and avoid overloading your sales reps with tools they may not need.
Plus, here's one more bonus question you can ask to knock down some low-hanging fruit:
What tools are you using right now on your own, independent of what [our company] has given you?
There are some great tools out there and many more being developed and improved every day. Figure out exactly what your team needs and build your tech stack!
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