25 Top Sales Tools

When you think of typical sales tools, CRM software and services, such as Salesforce.com, likely come to mind. While CRM is certainly an important aspect of a salesperson’s job, it’s by no means the end-all-be-all.

In order to effectively prospect and sell, sales people and managers can and should take advantage of a host of tools and applications to guide their activities and help their efforts.

Here’s my list of 25 Top Tools for Sales People with brief descriptions and grouped by activity:

Sales Prospecting Tools for Finding Leads

Very few sales reps have an evergreen book of business. In addition to networking, these sales tools might help you find new business:

1. LinkedIn — 200 million+ members. Manage your professional identity. Build and engage with your professional network. Access knowledge, insights and opportunities by company, industry, geography and role. Leverage groups and discussions.
2. Twitter — Follow your clients and prospects, their colleagues and their corporate accounts to stay on top of what’s important to them and their business. What are they saying, and who do they follow?
3. Lead411 — Lead411 provides business e-mail lists, company addresses, executive e-mails and phone numbers.
4. Google Maps — Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

Sales Tools to Help You Stay Informed

There’s no shortage of information out there, but you need to be able to sift through what’s most relevant to you and prioritize your time in reviewing it. These sales tools might help you keep up to date on the latest news.

1. Evernote — The Evernote family of products sales tools help you remember and act upon ideas, projects and experiences across all the computers, phones and tablets you use.
2. Scoop.it — Easily curate engaging magazines. Effectively feed your web presence.
3. Feedly— Feedly takes your favorite websites and transforms them into a colorful and interactive mosaic. Sign up to personalize your experience.
4. Flipboard — Flipboard is your personal magazine, filled with the things you care about. Catch up ... Tap red ribbon, Accounts, select a network and sign in.
5. Google Alerts — Google Alerts are e-mail updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your queries. Follow client or prospect organizations, and receive an e-mail when they’re in the news. Depending on the amount of news, you may need to refine your queries.

Sales Tools to Facilitate Live Conversations

Few sales reps are shy and likely prefer to have a live conversation. There are many new sales tools available that might help you connect with prospects one on one even when an in person meeting isn't possible!

1. ConnectAndSell — ConnectAndSell offers an order-of-magnitude improvement in sales productivity.
2. Insidesales.com — Phone dialer software. InsideSales.com is the leading provider of inside sales software and solutions to respond immediately and persistently to leads. Make 350+ calls per day.
3. ooVoo — ooVoo is a FREE video chat and instant messaging app for desktop, mobile, tablets and Facebook. ooVoo lets you chat with up to 12 people for FREE anytime.
4. Skype — Make internet calls for free with Skype. Sign up today and discover a whole new world of staying in touch. Not a tool for cold calling, but an effective one if you’re in that stage of not having met in person but want to enhance your relationship. More personal than a webinar.

Sales Tools for Sending Better Emails

E-mail is still a prevalent mode of communication. These sales tools can help you leverage your e-mail efforts and know what’s getting through, opened and clicked on. Don’t underestimate the power of a good subject line.

1. Cirrus Insight — Rated #1 by Salesforce users. Create new leads and contacts. Save e-mails and attachments to Salesforce. Sync calendars.
2. Boomerang — Boomerang is a plugin for Firefox and Chrome that adds scheduled sending and integrated e-mail reminders to Gmail.
3. Yesware — An e-mail tool for salespeople. Track e-mails, create templates, sync with CRM and more. Yesware helps you close more deals faster.
4. Bananatag — Track e-mails from all clients. Know when your e-mails are opened or clicked.
5. Streak — Streak is great for sales, but you can also use it for hiring candidates, handling e-mail support, organizing deal flow, fundraising and organizing.

Video and Presentation Tools to Help You Make a Lasting Impression

According to Domo, there are 48 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute. Videos and savvy presentations might be just what you need to get the attention of your targets. Keep them professional and not too long. Leverage your charismatic sales leaders in a way that e-mail can’t do justice.

1. YouTube — Share your videos with clients, prospects and colleagues. Record brief tutorials, demos or product descriptions to whet your prospects’ interest. Put your content experts on screen to help engage your targets.
2. SlideShare — Offers users the ability to upload and share publicly or privately PowerPoint presentations, Word documents and Adobe PDF Portfolios.
3. Brainshark — Create online video presentations and mobile video presentations from PowerPoint or your other static content. You can also create voice-enriched video presentations.
4. Snagit — Snagit screen capture allows you to grab an image or video of what you see on your computer screen, add effects, and share with anyone.

Hopefully, this list gives you some ideas to help your selling and prospecting. Do you use a tool or application I haven’t listed here? Please let us know by leaving a comment along with the primary benefit to you.