If you’re a sales leader or sales manager, you’re always on the lookout for new methods, activities, and tools that can improve your organization’s sales processes. And as your sales department grows, you might have enough room in the budget to invest in a software tool to help you do that.
But with so many different software tools on the market, how will you know which ones are the best for improving your sales management process and are worth your time and money?
To answer that question, this guide will walk you through the five most important sales management software tools on the market. If you truly desire a boost in the sales aspect of your business, then you should keep reading.
Best Sales Management Software
#1: Customer Relationship Management Software
First on our list is the quintessential tool for any sales team: customer relationship management software, called CRM software for short.
A CRM maps out the customer journey, outlining each step sales representatives need to take to move a lead from the beginning to the end of the sales funnel.
In other words, a sales leader can use the CRM to gain live updates on how each sale is progressing and track how many leads are in each sales funnel stage. This lets sales managers directly observe the sales funnel and adjust it immediately as soon as issues arise.
Additionally, sales leaders can use CRM systems to assign specific sales reps to leads and record customer information to deliver an intimate, personalized customer experience.
As a CRM helps improve the sales management process on both a macro and micro level, it’s rightly earned the top spot on our list of essential sales management tools. If you’re interested in purchasing a CRM system of your own, some popular vendors are Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics 365, HubSpot, Pipedrive, and Zoho CRM.
CRM systems are also used by marketing teams. The key features include customized email templates and survey forms for email marketing and other digital marketing campaigns. Some providers also leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to curate marketing and sales copies. When collaborating with an AdWords consultant or in-house marketer, sales teams can promote sales and marketing alignment as they set goals and execute plans.
#2: Sales Automation Tools
Two important parts of sales management are designing processes that make your sales reps’ jobs easier and creating accurate sales reports and forecasts based on your team’s activities.
Well, what if we told you there was a tool that could help with both of those things at once? Sales automation tools automate repetitive tasks in the sales process, such as following email schedules and managing leads in the company’s CRM.
In other words, it handles mundane and time-consuming tasks so that your sales reps have more time to focus on more important work, such as nurturing leads and making sales. A sales automation tool will make your sales reps happier and more productive.
Additionally, a key benefit of sales automation data entry is that it eliminates inaccuracies in the company’s database. This helps sales managers derive more accurate sales reports, analyses, and forecasts, allowing the business to make stronger data-based decisions.
Advanced sales automation tools are AI-powered and capable of handling vast amounts of sales data. The complex AI algorithms enable sales managers to assign sales tasks automatically to reps, track their performance, and discover deal opportunities. Lead scoring, predictive analysis, and other sales activities are a lot faster and easier with AI.
Some of the best sales automation tools you should look out for are Freshsales, SalesBlink, HubSpot Sales Hub, GrowBots, and Keap.
#3: Project Management Tools
Next on our list is project management tools, which help your company—sales team or otherwise—track projects and assignments, manage workflows, and coordinate activities with other employees across the organization.
As your company grows larger and larger, you risk miscommunication with every employee you have to personally convey project, meeting, or assignment information to, and information silos as each employee works in isolation from each other.
With a project management tool, though, managers can assign specific tasks to employees and post project updates live. This helps keep the entire team updated on who’s doing what and how it all comes together.
This is especially important if your team works remotely, which would make communication and project tracking more difficult due to time and schedule differences. Some project management tools that can be of great help are Basecamp, Asana, Trello, ClickUp, and Wrike.
Additionally, project management tools can be used as a lightweight CRM system for businesses that don’t want to invest in a full-blown sales system. For example, using Asana as a CRM is not only free and easy to set up, but also includes helpful features such as sales automation that usually cost extra from CRM vendors.
#4: Lead Generation Software
Without any new inbound leads, a sales team can’t make any sales. That’s why a sales manager must be diligent in always looking for ways to draw in more potential customers to the sales team.
Lead generation software, or lead gen software, helps a sales manager set up digital lead gen tools such as landing pages, interactive advertisements, chatbots, and webinars, appealing to more consumers and encouraging them to reach out to a sales rep.
On top of that, once a customer has reached out, lead gen software can also help the business identify who they are, qualify them based on their activities and profile, and prioritize which leads should be followed up with first.
The best lead generation software in the market? Think Google Ads, Drift, AeroLeads, OptinMonster, and LeadFeeder.
#5: Sales Prospecting Software
Similar to lead gen software, sales prospecting software helps businesses identify and reach out to potential clients.
However, while lead gen software is more useful for one-to-many B2C communications online, sales prospecting software is more useful for managers and salespeople at B2B companies who rely on one-on-one communications.
By trawling networking sites and industry-specific databases, sales prospecting software can help sales managers identify key buyers at a target company and use tools to automatically qualify, score, and prioritize each prospect.
As an added bonus, sales prospecting software also usually includes tools to help you reach out to prospects, such as integrated video conferencing, VoIP, calendar, and email integrations.
If you’re interested in sales prospecting software for your own sales department, some popular choices are LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Crunchbase, VanillaSoft, PartnerTap, and Apollo.io.
When choosing the best sales management software, it’s crucial to thoroughly evaluate the general and core features. Compare the pricing, value for money, ease of use, security, and other relevant parameters that are suitable for your business. Furthermore, ensure the provider has excellent customer support from onboarding to regular business operations.
You can find insightful customer reviews online to help you make an informed decision when choosing a sales management software provider. Watch video tutorials on how their systems work to determine if the solution is best for you. Asking business acquaintances and talking to sales experts can also help.
Final Note
With this prioritized list, you’re hopefully now well-equipped to make a decision on the best sales management software to help uplift your sales department.
Empowered with the best tools for the job, your sales reps will be able to focus on their assigned leads and close more sales than ever before.