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10 Sales Productivity Tools Your Team Actually Needs

Sep 30th, 2019

Meaningful human interactions are the foundation of building great sales relationships – there’s no denying that. But these days, technology plays an equally critical role in forging connections with buyers.

Case in point: firms that are behind the sales technology curve are actually doing 12% worse than their peers, according to the Sales Management Association. So if you found this blog because you’re thinking about your organization’s tech investments, congratulations: your head is in the right place!

With so many sales tools available today, it’s normal to speculate which ones have the biggest influence on team performance – or even what qualifies as a “sales productivity tool.”

Understand: any piece of technology that makes life easier for the sales organization could technically be considered a sales productivity tool. You have sales enablement tools, sales engagement tools, ROI tools, and many other categories on the market. So where should you begin?

We’re here to help by spotlighting, in no particular order, 10 sales productivity tools your teams should start using. 

Best Sales Productivity Tools [2019]

  1. LinkedIn Sales Navigator
  2. SalesLoft
  3. Calendly
  4. Zoom
  5. Adobe Sign
  6. TopOPPS
  7. Aircall
  8. Proposify
  9. Slack
  10. Brainshark

1. LinkedIn Sales Navigator

How It Improves Productivity: While there are several excellent sales intelligence tools out there, LinkedIn Sales Navigator allows reps to source highly-targeted leads right within LinkedIn’s massive network of business pros.

Users save time spent prospecting by creating and bookmarking custom searches — filters include geography, industry, company size, seniority level, past customers, etc. – discovering second-degree connections using TeamLink, and then personalizing outreach via InMail.

Pricing: Linkedin offers three Sales Navigator pricing plans. There’s Professional ($79.99/month) for individual users, Team ($134.99/month) for multiple users, and Enterprise (pricing available by request) for entire sales organizations.

Comparable alternatives: ZoomInfo, D&B Hoovers, InsideView, Owler, Detective

2. SalesLoft

How It Improves Productivity: Writing and sending sales emails can be tedious and time-consuming. SalesLoft is one of many sales engagement tools that helps automate that process manage, measure, and optimize how sellers interact with their buyers.

Reps use the platform to create email cadences and templates, personalize and streamline their communications across phone, email and social, and automatically schedule outreach based on triggers and buyer time zones. They can then track engagement metrics, such as open rates and clicks, to gauge effectiveness.

Pricing: Available by request.

Comparable alternatives: Outreach.io, Yesware, InsideSales.com, Groove

3. Calendly

How It Improves Productivity: Scheduling calls and meetings over email can be a pain when you don’t have access to your buyer’s availability – especially when the other party is in a different time zone.

Calendly helps remove unnecessary back-and-forth by sending a link to meeting invitees, who can see the sender’s availability and book an open slot. The meeting is then blocked off on all participants’ calendars. (Calendly integrates with major email clients such as Gmail and Microsoft Outlook).

“[Calendly] really has helped from a productivity perspective. It eliminates back-and-forth emails; instantly I’ve got it done.” – Roderick Jefferson, sales enablement consultant

Pricing: Calendly offers a free Basic plan and an $8/month Premium plan, which includes priority support and customizable email notifications for attendees.

Comparable alternatives: Acuity Scheduling, Doodle, ScheduleOnce

4. Zoom

How It Improves Productivity: While cloud-based video conferencing tools have become standard practice for many companies, Zoom sets itself apart by offering unlimited 1-to-1 and group video and web conferencing for free. (There is a 40-minute time limit for each group meeting scheduled via Zoom’s free Basic plan.)

The platform offers collaboration features such as live screen sharing (particularly helpful for sales reps!), meeting/call recording, and calendar sync support that includes Outlook, Gmail, and iCal. Zoom is also a useful tool for sales managers who need to regularly meet with remote reps.

Pricing: Plans range from free for Basic, to $19.99/user per month for Business and Enterprise packages.

Comparable alternatives: Cisco Webex, Skype for Business, GoToMeeting

5. Adobe Sign (formerly Echosign)

How It Improves Productivity: Nothing gets a rep’s blood pumping like closing new business. Of course, the final step in that process – getting the contract signed – can sometimes be a hurdle.

Tools like Adobe Sign make finalizing deals easier by enabling sales teams to quickly collect e-signatures from all required parties, both external and internal, via email or mobile device. Perhaps most helpful are Adobe Sign’s tracking features, which notify users when a document is viewed or signed, alert users when a document is set to expire, and send reminders to ensure the process moves forward.

Pricing: $9.99/month for individual users, $24.99/month for teams of 2-9 users, and $39.99/month for 10-plus users.

Comparable alternatives: DocuSign, HelloSign, SignNow

6. TopOPPS

How It Improves Productivity: Forecasting is always top-of-mind for front-line sales managers. They’re wondering how likely deals are to close, and whether they have enough deals in the pipeline to achieve their team’s number for the quarter (or year).

TopOPPS prevents managers from having to routinely check the CRM for visibility into the status of current deals, instead using automated data capture to present relevant insights via easy-to-use dashboards. The tool also uses historical data and AI to more accurately project sales results, calculate the “health score” of individual opportunities, and recommend actions based on patterns in previous closed-won opportunities.

Pricing: Available by request.

Comparable alternatives: Clari, InsightSquared, Salesforce SalesAnalytics

7. Aircall

How It Improves Productivity: The average salesperson spends 17% of his or her day on data entry, according to Hubspot research, making it a huge time-suck.

Aircall helps streamline dialing, call logging, and other low-skill activities involved in outbound selling using features like click-to-dial, call recording, and CRM integration. Reps can also automate post-call follow-up actions, such as importing phone numbers into the CRM for follow-up or matching it with an existing customer account if it’s from an unknown number.

Pricing: $30/user for the Essentials plan and $50/user for the Professional plan, which includes features such as Salesforce integration, advanced reporting, and live call monitoring.

Comparable alternatives: RingCentral, Five9, Talkdesk

8. Proposify

How It Improves Productivity: Submitting a proposal is a critical step toward winning new business, but it can also be cumbersome. Proposify helps reps streamline the process with customizable proposal templates, quote and contract automation, and document tracking that supports faster sales cycles.

The platform lets users save important information – client and company names, product descriptions, case studies, and fees – in a content library, where it can be quickly added to new proposals. You can also receive notifications when a client opens, reads, or signs a quote, and send automated reminders to buyers who haven’t signed.

Pricing: Proposify’s three Starbucks-inspired pricing plans are: Tall ($19/user per month), Grande ($49/user, per month) and Venti (available by request).

Comparable alternatives: PandaDoc, Loopio

9. Slack

How It Improves Productivity: According to InsideSales.com, field sellers spent 89% more of their time working remotely in 2017 than they did 4 years earlier. Combine that trend with inside sales roles, and you see how communication might be a hurdle for sales managers.

Slack (and tools like it) make it easier to collaborate with remote or dispersed team members with its intuitive chat channels, which can be organized into different groups based on teams or use. For example, you could create Slack channels for your SDRs, AEs, marketing and sales enablement announcements, peer learning, or welcoming new hires.

Reps can share updates and tips with peers based on what they’re hearing from clients. Managers can also coordinate handoffs from sales to customer success or send reminders that won’t get lost in their teams’ inboxes.

Pricing: Slack offers Free, Standard ($6.67/user, per month) and Plus ($12.50/user, per month) pricing plans.

Comparable alternatives: Microsoft Teams, Skype for Business, Flock

10. Brainshark

How It Improves Productivity: Too often, salespeople lack the knowledge and skills required to thrive in their roles. Instead, reps are left to fend for themselves in front of clients, resulting in missed deals, disappointing results, and ultimately, an unproductive sales force.

Brainshark helps client-facing teams win more deals by equipping them with the training, coaching, and content they need to lead a highly effective sales process. More specifically, our platform allows sellers to focus more of their time on what really matters – your clients – by:

  • Reducing the time reps spend looking for sales assets by providing a single place to store, organize, tag and filter content
  • Allowing reps to learn from engaging eLearning courses and practice their skills whenever and wherever they’re working, from their desktops, mobile devices or CRM
  • Helping sales managers coach more efficiently with our Machine Analysis engine for video coaching, which uses AI to automate feedback and identify which reps need the most assistance

To learn more, check out our eBook: 12 Ways to Use Brainshark for Sales Readiness.