Contact leads, make the pitch, close the sale, rinse and repeat. Unfortunately, the sales process is not as easy as it sounds. There are many variables present; numerous ins and outs that can cause delays or even entire roadblocks in the sales process. This is the main reason why not everybody can do sales, and not everyone in sales is good at it.
However, building a great sales team shouldn’t just focus on leveraging the innate skills of the members. More than that, team leaders or managers must also invest in digital tools that can make the sales process so much easier for their team, and therefore, more efficient and effective.
Here are some of the best digital tools that every sales team needs:
1. Live transfer leads
The first step of the sales process is finding a prospective customer, which is primarily done through effective lead generation. However, not all lead generation methods are created equal. In order to make the most out of resources, every lead that the sales team pursues must be verified. More than that, every verified lead should be transferred as early as possible to further increase the chances of closing a sale within the first call.
Live transfer leads allow sales teams to receive verified leads as soon as they express an interest in the product or service. This way, sales representatives can keep that interest alive and make a successful sale within the first point of contact, which is much more possible the earlier the lead is pursued.
2. High-powered work phone
Everyone has smartphones nowadays, but it can be difficult to separate work and personal matters in only one phone. For this reason, sales teams should strongly consider providing work phones to each of the members for business use (e.g. calling clients, answering work emails, going over work documents, etc.) and ensuring that these phones are high-powered enough to do multiple tasks at once.
Moreover, providing a separate work phone to sales representatives can help keep sensitive business data safe as opposed to letting them access private information on their personal phones. In fact, a lot of companies ban personal phones in offices for this exact reason.
3. CRM platform
Modern sales teams cannot go without a CRM platform in place, and a business that doesn’t use one is unheard of nowadays. A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform is a tool that helps reps keep track of customer information, leads, and sales data all in one place. It helps moves leads through the sales funnel much faster, which, in turn, makes the whole process more efficient.
Furthermore, sales reps can make much better use of their time when they’re not spending it organizing customer information or generating sales reports for meetings.
4. Marketing automation tools
Similar to tasks related to customer relationship management, marketing processes can effectively take up too much time. This includes things like sending out marketing emails, publishing posts on social media, and tracking web analytics. In short, tasks that sales reps do not have time for.
To avoid having to spend unnecessary time on these marketing tasks, sales teams can leverage marketing automation tools to accomplish marketing tasks with minimal effort. For example, teams can use an email marketing service to send email blasts automatically and use a social media scheduler to publish posts on a predetermined schedule. Aside from keeping tasks as efficient as possible, automating also reduces the risk of human error, which is more likely to happen when doing things manually.
5. Social media platforms
Social media is one of the most powerful tools for marketing, lead generation, sales, and just about anything related to business these days. Thus, it only makes sense for a sales team to take full advantage of social media platforms for generating leads, engaging with customers, building an online presence, and so much more.
The best social media platform for a particular sales team depends on what that team is selling. For instance, if a sales team is focused on selling business tools, they may find more viable leads for business owners on LinkedIn. But if the team is selling a typical consumer good that has a large target audience, using Facebook and Instagram are usually the best options.
Not all sales teams are created equal, and each one has a different set of techniques that work best for them. However, the common denominator for all of these teams is the need for digital tools to make the sales process more effective and efficient, and the ones mentioned above happen to be the most essential.
