Today, almost every company uses sales tools. According to 2021 State of Sales Report, over half of sales professionals say sales tools help them build stronger relationships with buyers and close more deals.

About 70% of companies say best CRM software is important in their sales process, while 69% say sales engagement software or sales intelligence software are very important.

Sales tools help organizations stay competitive and increase their sales team’s performance.

But with limited time and resources to spare, you’ll want to make sure to select only the best tools for your sales tool tech stack.

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Why do you need sales tools?

The right tools will take your sales team to a new level of performance. Not only can sales enablement tools increase efficiency and eliminate drudge work, they can also:

  • Make your daily tasks easier
  • Keep information organized all in one place
  • Help you identify and clear bottlenecks in your sales process
  • Provide useful data on sales metrics and team performance
  • Help you close deals, faster


Seven must-have sales tools to boost efficiency

There are endless different sales tools out there, each with their own set of features. Below, you’ll find seven different types of sales tools you should consider investing in. These tools can help your team throughout all the different stages of the sales cycle:

  • Generating leads
  • Contacting leads
  • Nurturing leads
  • Sharing your offer
  • Overcoming objections
  • Closing the sale
  • Upselling and referrals
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1. Prospecting and lead generation tools

The first (and arguably most important) step in your sales cycle is lead generation. After all, to sell your product or service, you’ll need to get in contact with many potential customers.

Only a certain percentage of leads are ever going to convert, so for the greatest chances of success, you’ll need to develop a large pool of prospects. But lead generation isn’t just about quantity, it’s also about quality. By finding the best leads for your business, you can avoid wasting time and talk to more people who are actually interested in your offer.

Depending on your product and target audience, there are many different lead generation tactics you could try. The two main types of lead generation are outbound and inbound. Outbound lead generation involves proactively contacting leads (for example, by sending sales emails or running advertisements). On the other hand, inbound lead generation means attracting leads to come to you by providing something valuable (for example, you could offer a free white paper, which leads can download by entering their email address into a form).

Lead generation tools can help you find and contact leads more effectively. The tools can:

Some examples of this type of sales tool include landing page builders, email marketing automation software, web forms, chatbots, and more.    

2. Lead management tools

When dealing with large numbers of leads, it can be challenging to keep them organized. To get the best results, you’ll need a systematic way to keep track of important information about your leads—their contact details, interests, needs, and stage in the sales funnel. This way, salespeople can keep leads qualified and engaged and nudge them towards a sale.

Lead management tools can help your team:

  • Understand which leads are most engaged with your business (and most likely to buy)

  • Explore how leads are interacting with your website and marketing campaigns

  • Assign leads to a dedicated salesperson

Some examples of lead management tools include contact management software, event tracking software, and more. 

Lead management tools Lead management tools

3. Sales automation 

While building relationships with leads and guiding them through the sales funnel, your sales team will need to complete many different tasks. Some of these tasks are social and creative. Others are routine and repetitive.

You can cut down on your routine tasks by using sales automation software to improve efficiency. This will free up your team’s time for more valuable work. A research study from McKinsey shows that about a third of all sales tasks can be automated. 

Today’s sales teams can use machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to make their jobs easier. With sales automation tools, your team can:

4. Artificial intelligence (AI) 

Many sales tools use artificial intelligence to improve sales results. These tools analyze data from customer conversations and other interactions to make helpful suggestions and automate tasks. One example of an AI sales tool is conversational AI. Conversational AI tools such as chat bots, can eliminate work for both your sales and support teams.

Conversational AI can field common questions from prospects, initiate conversation with leads on your website or app, and offer further information about your products and services. This allows you to offer a 24/7, convenient, and instant service without putting additional pressure on your team.

AI also offers automated insights. These might include suggestions on the next best action to close a deal, which deals are most likely to close, and which deals are potentially at risk.

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5. Analytics and reporting tools

One of the best things about building a solid sales tool tech stack is that you’ll have more access to valuable data. Decisions that used to be made based on guesswork or intuition in the past can now be data-driven. This gives you a greater chance of success when it comes to strategy and tactics.

Many sales tools offer automated reporting and analytics, so you can instantly get a clear picture of:

Ideally, you’ll want to choose a tool that not only lets you view this information, but also create charts, graphics, and reports to share with decision-makers at your company. 

6. E-signature and document tracking tools

Once your sales representatives have found leads, nurtured them, and overcome objections, hopefully they’ll reach their goal and enter the final stages of the sales cycle. Even when you’re at the finish line, there are still many ways sales enablement tools can help make your team’s job easier.

When signing a hard-won deal, the last thing you’ll want to worry about is keeping track of paperwork. Printing and scanning paper contracts is a pain, and wastes valuable time and resources. Physical contracts are also more likely to get lost.

In a digital world, you may want to invest in a modern solution to ease your new customer’s onboarding process. The last thing you’d want would be to send over the contract, have your contact person say “I’ll print that out tomorrow”, and then forget—delaying the entire deal. 

But, e-signature tools can help. Whether you’re signing a sales agreement, service agreement, or bill of sale, these tools help take the headache out of the sales process. Not only do they save time, they also reduce ink and paper use, so you can cut down on waste and work towards your corporate social responsibility goals. 

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7. CRM software

CRM stands for ‘customer relationship management.’ Many companies turn to CRM platforms to streamline every aspect of their relationship with leads and customers.

A CRM can be an excellent addition to your sales tool tech stack, because they typically include a variety of features. Most of the above functionalities (lead generation, lead management, sales automation, conversational AI, analytics, and document management) are included in a modern CRM.

How to evaluate your sales tool tech stack

With so many types of sales enablement tools out there, it can be difficult to know if your current tech stack is sufficient or if it’s in need of an upgrade. Here are a few tips for evaluating your sales tool tech stack:

1. Define your business challenges and expected outcomes

Are you currently thinking about investing in new tools? If so, ask yourself what motivated that decision. Are there certain problems you’ve been facing in your sales process recently, or are you just curious about how software can help you improve your business outcomes?

 

2. Collect feedback from your team


Chances are, there are at least a few bottlenecks in your sales process. If you’re not sure exactly what these are, consider calling a team meeting or sending out an anonymous survey to find out. Ask your team members:

  • What their daily challenges are

  • If there are any problems with the tools they’re currently using

  • If they have any ideas about how sales performance could be improved 

3. Calculate ROI


To get an idea of your sales tools’ effectiveness, you can calculate their return on investment (ROI) using this formula:

ROI = [ (Gross Return - Cost of Investment) / Cost of Investment ] x 100

As an example, imagine you’ve calculated that a software tool has saved your company $50,000 in increased efficiency, while the tool has cost $10,000. The formula would be:

[ ($50,000 - $10,000) / $10,000 ] x 100 = 400% ROI

 

4. Analyze case studies


When selecting a new sales tool, you’ll want to look for a trusted brand with proven effectiveness. A great way to get a sense of this is by looking at company success stories. Software companies often share case studies that can help you get an idea of what customers have been able to achieve using their product. 

 

5. Consider implementation time and ease of onboarding

Any new investment is going to require a certain amount of time and resources for onboarding. Before taking the leap, make sure your chosen vendor is aware of how you want to use their application, and what you’ll need to get started. Ideally, you’ll want to choose a vendor with good implementation support, so your team can start using the software as soon as possible.

Why is a CRM like Freshsales the most important tool in your tech stack?

Based on your business requirements, you can use a combination of different tools to meet your sales team’s requirements. However, using one centralized sales enablement tool offers some big advantages.

You’ll have full visibility over all aspects of the sales process in one place, without having to worry about switching between platforms. You can also bring all your sales, marketing, and customer support initiatives on a single platform, so that customers receive the same information and all the teams are on the same page. 


This is why a CRM should be the core of a great sales tech stack. Sure, you could build a custom tech stack piece by piece, using various smaller tools—but using just one system will make things a whole lot easier.

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CRM like Freshsales offers:

AI insights and conversational selling

  • Get suggestions on the next best action to help your sales representatives close deals

  • Discover which deals are most likely to close, and improve the accuracy of your sales forecasts

  • Reduce response time on your website and book more meetings with AI chatbots

A complete, 360° view of the customer 

  • Unify your sales, support, and marketing strategies

  • Make sure everyone has access to the same information

  • Save time, and avoid accidental miscommunications between teams

  • Customize the CRM to get the functionalities you want

Full visibility over your sales pipeline

  • Generate leads, qualify them, initiate contacts, schedule meetings, negotiate, and close deals—all within one easy-to-use platform. 

Easy workflow automation to supercharge your team’s productivity

  • Save time by creating workflows with a simple point-and-click interface

  • Automate manual tasks like sending emails, updating fields, or assigning records

  • Use pre-set templates to create new workflows instantly