The numbers are in: the average salesperson only spends 35.2% of their time actually selling. The rest is spent on menial tasks like prospecting, updating customer profiles, and scheduling meetings. Kind of depressing right?
In this article, we’ll introduce you to the 10 best sales productivity tools in 2024. If you invest in any of these essential tools for salespeople, you’ll be able to get more done in less time and boost your sales numbers, guaranteed.
So without further ado, let’s get started!
What’s a Sales Productivity Tool?
Before we dive in, we want to clarify what we mean by the term “sales productivity tool.” For the purposes of this article, a sales productivity tool is any piece of software that helps sales professionals get more done in less time. Simple enough, right?
The list below includes communication, customer management, sales data, and lead generation tools. Each software has been proven to help salesfolk boost productivity levels.
10 Essential Tools for Salespeople
Many lists of this nature feature 50, 100, even 150 different sales productivity tools. But we don’t want to waste your time and force you to wade through dozens of sub-par apps in order to find the real gems. So instead, we’ve narrowed our list down to 10 essential tools for salespeople and included more in-depth reviews of each. Let’s dive in!
1. Copper CRM
Copper is a popular customer relationship management (CRM) software that was created to handle “all your busywork, so you can focus on building long-lasting business relationships.”
It comes with numerous productivity features that were tailor-made for sales reps including Lead Management, which quickly scrapes and captures crucial account information like the names, occupations, and contact details of each of your leads; and Email Templates, which are ready-to-go messages that users can send with one click.
These and similar features have been proven to save sellers 15 hours a week, improve sales reporting by 30%, and shorten sales cycles by 35%. Heck yes!
But what really sets Copper apart from other CRM software is its G Suite integration. If you regularly use Gmail, Hangouts, or other Google apps like Sheets, Docs, and Slides, you’ll love how seamlessly Copper’s Chrome extension makes your workflow.
All in all, Copper is an excellent CRM and definitely one of our favorite sales productivity tools for 2024. New users can try the app for free for 14 days. After that, basic plans start at $19 a month for up to three users.
2. Zoom
Zoom is a G2 Crowd and TrustRadius top-ranked software for video conferencing — with good reason! This tool packs a serious punch and allows users to easily host digital meetings and sales presentations, and record engaging webinars.
Users of this enterprise video conferencing solution also get access to real-time messaging and content sharing features. Imagine being able to demonstrate your company’s products to multiple prospects at one time, answer questions via a chat window, and share customer testimonial documents — all from the same app!
To top it all off, Zoom gives its users access to detailed reports, can be used on all devices, and integrates with your favorite tools including Google’s G Suite, Microsoft 365, Slack, Salesforce and many more.
Zoom can be used for free, but if you want access to advanced features, paid plans start at $14.99 a month.
3. Yesware
Yesware is “your co-pilot in creating lasting business relationships.” Great, you’re thinking, but what the heck does this sales productivity software actually do?
Yesware is an email app that lets its users know when their messages have been opened, create and send custom email marketing campaigns, and make data driven decisions based on detailed reports. It’s also easily accessible and can be used with Gmail and Microsoft Outlook, and integrates seamlessly with both Salesforce and LinkedIn Sales Navigator.
When it comes to sales, data is key. You need to know what your audience likes and dislikes and be able to craft personalized experiences for each lead. Not an easy task! Yesware helps you find important information and use it to its full capacity.
Fortunately, all these amazing features can be yours for as low as $12 a month after a free trial. No wonder well known companies like Zendesk, Groupon, and Gainsight use Yesware!
4. LinkedIn Sales Navigator
If you’ve been in sales for any length of time, then you’ve undoubtedly heard of LinkedIn Sales Navigator. You’ve probably even used the tool yourself. Why? Because it’s one of the absolute best apps for sales prospecting!
Not only will it help you find high-quality leads, but it will help you find them quickly and efficiently. That’s why it makes our list for the best sales productivity tools in 2024.
Over the past few years, LinkedIn has exploded in popularity. It’s now almost impossible to be a working professional and not have a profile on this social channel. It’s the platform that countless people use to network and propel their careers forward in the modern age.
Sales Navigator gives you access to the people that matter to your business and helps you connect with them. To make the most of this tool, you can easily extract emails from your LinkedIn Sales Navigator searches, streamlining your outreach to high-quality prospects. Automating this process will save you hours of manual work, allowing you to focus on building relationships. It also integrates with many CRM apps so that leads found on the social site can easily be moved into your official pipeline.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator is one of the most expensive sales productivity tools on this list, costing $65+ a month. But it’s almost always worth it for professional sellers.
5. Calendly
As a sales professional, you’re intimately familiar with meetings. After all, if you can’t schedule discovery calls and product demos, you won’t be able to close many deals. The problem is, planning meetings and arranging multiple calendars is tedious, time-consuming work. Luckily, salespeople can use Calendly, an intuitive scheduling tool.
Here’s how it works:
- First, you tell Calendly what your availability is. Only want to take meetings on Wednesday afternoons between 1pm and 4pm? No problem.
- Second, you share your calendar link with anybody interested in meeting with you. Your calendar can be sent via email or embedded on a website.
- Third, your leads pick a time on your schedule that fits your pre-set availability parameters. And since Calendly features time-zone intelligence, you’ll never have to worry about 3am meetings with prospects in other countries.
Calendly is intuitive and integrates with other popular apps like Zoom (mentioned above), Salesforce, and Intercom. Get started today for free. Or upgrade to a more feature-rich plan for just $8 – $12 a month.
6. Zight (formerly CloudApp)
Ready to accelerate your sales cycle and win more deals in less time? Zight (formerly CloudApp) is the ultimate visual collaboration tool and allows users to craft engaging sales materials in minutes, dramatically boosting conversion rates in the process.
Studies show that the human brain processes visuals 60,000 times faster than plain text. Zight (formerly CloudApp) capitalizes on this fact with powerful screen and webcam recording, GIF creation, and image annotation features. Sales reps can use these tools to quickly capture the attention of their prospects and clearly communicate the benefits of the products they sell.
From product demo videos to fun GIFs showcasing key product features, Zight (formerly CloudApp) is the best way to communicate with your leads and literally show them why they should buy your company’s solutions.
This sales productivity software is easy to use; integrates with top tools like Zoho, Drift, and Slack; and can be used for free. Sign up today and watch your sales productivity levels skyrocket overnight!
7. HelloSign
Salesfolk and contracts go together like a horse and a carriage — que sultry Frank Sinatra jam. As soon as you get a prospect to verbally commit to purchasing one of your company’s products, your next mission becomes getting them to make it official and sign on the dotted line.
HelloSign is an electronic signature service that makes this process quick and painless. In other words, it’s one of the most essential tools for salespeople!
Nobody likes to print, sign, scan, and email back physical contracts. It takes too much time and reduces the likelihood that prospects will follow through and make purchases. Paper contracts are also harder to store and organize.
HelloSign allows salesfolk and their soon-to-be-customers to sign legally-binding agreements electronically and store them in the cloud. The system features bank-level security, real-time document notifications, and a seamless Gmail integration.
Sales professionals can use HelloSign for free for 30 days. After that, prices range from $0 to $40 a month depending on the number of documents, senders, templates, and other features required.
8. Proposify
Before you can use HelloSign (mentioned above) to sign contracts and close deals, you usually have to present your prospect with a winning proposal that gets them to say, “Yes!” first. As it turns out, the best way to send said proposal is with Proposify; a proposal software that allows modern salesfolk to create, send, and track winning proposals.
Proposify comes with a lot of great features including handy templates that sales reps can reuse and customize for each customer; the ability to include interactive pricing, videos, and even live chat in every proposal; and easy proposal cloud storage so agreements are never lost.
We should also mention that the proposals sent in Proposify can be electronically signed. Once they are, they become legally binding, meaning Proposify also acts as a HelloSign alternative.
After a free 14 day trial, Proposify will cost you $19 a month (per user) for basic functionality and $49 a month (per user) for the right to send unlimited proposals, create custom proposal fields, and access to other upgraded capabilities.
9. Aircall
If you regularly engage in outbound sales — and let’s face it, that includes a vast majority of salespeople out there — then Aircall might just become your new best friend.
Aircall is a complete call center solution for busy sales teams. Forget about physical phone lines. The entire cloud-based system can be set up in minutes and features a ton of productivity boosting features such as click-to-dial, which allows sales reps to launch calls with a single click; forward-to-phone, so you never miss an important sales call; and custom filters that allow sellers to search and sort through previous calls to easily find information.
Integrations are another major selling point for Aircall. Connect your favorite tools like HubSpot, Salesforce, and Copper CRM (Mentioned earlier) so that all of the information your company has stored on callers instantly appears during phone meetings.
There’s a lot to love about Aircall, but, fortunately, all this selling power won’t break your bank. The Essentials plan can be accessed for $30 a month, while the upgraded Professional plan will run you $50 a month when paid on an annual basis.
10. Growbots
And finally, we have Growbots, an outbound sales automation software that allows users to supercharge their prospecting and outreach efforts. Basically, if you need leads, Growbots helps you find them quickly and easily. Here’s how the software works:
- First, users select their target market and the Growbots AI will instantly generate a list of qualified leads from it’s database of 200 million contacts.
- Second, users set up automated and personalized email outreach campaigns using the built-in Growbots email marketing feature.
- And third, Growbots will analyze user results and make individualized optimization suggestions. This process has been proven to boost campaign results by up to 40%!
Pretty simple, right? Growbots is one of the best sales productivity tools because it enables salespeople to find quality leads and turn them into paying customers faster. Isn’t that what every seller is looking for?
If Growbots looks like a sales productivity software that you might be interested in testing, we suggest you visit the company’s website and request a demo.
11. Storydoc
Storydoc is an interactive AI sales deck and proposal creator. It is an effective sales productivity tool that can increase your sales velocity by enabling SDRs and sales teams to create extremely engaging sales decks and proposals that stand out.
Storydoc enables prospects and buyers to easily understand your product or solution’s value and come to a buying decision. The tool comes with dedicated slides and interactive elements that help you tell a story rather than just state facts. You can easily add videos, live data, an ROI calculator, your calendar, or e-signature directly into your decks.
Designing decks with this tool is intuitive and safe. The tool guides your content and design with the help of AI. The design automatically adjusts to the content changes you make and prevents you and your team from breaking the slick and balanced design. This includes live infographics, charts, and graphs that are generated dynamically with your brand colors and scaled to fit your data.
Storydoc also lets you automate content creation and prospecting personalization through its CRM integrations which enable SDRs and AEs to send out personalized proposals directly from your CRM with the contact’s information.
A Starter plan goes for $30/month, but a Pro plan can go a long way for $45/month. Any team plan can be discussed with them directly.
Choosing The Right Sales Productivity Tools for You
In this article, we’ve given you 10 amazing sales productivity tool options. Now it’s up to you to decide which ones to invest in and make a part of your workflow. But that’s the thing isn’t it? How do you choose the right app(s)?
We have a simple three-step system for you to follow:
- First, look at your current situation and identify the type of tools that you’ll actually benefit from using, and the features you need said tools to have.
For example, if you’re not currently using a CRM system, you’ll need this type of software to help you organize your sales leads and prospects. And if you’re a diehard G Suite user, you may also want a tool that easily integrates with Google apps. Using this initial criteria, eliminate every sales productivity tool from your list, except the ones that meet these standards. - Second, take a look at your budget and what you can honestly afford. Then whittle your list down farther by crossing off any apps that cost more than you want to spend. At this point, your list of potential sales productivity tools should have shrunk dramatically.
- And third, sign up for a free trial or product demo of any sales productivity tool that interests you and still happens to be on your list. Each of the software mentioned in this article offers some kind of “try before you buy” deal. We suggest you take advantage!
After implementing the remaining tools into your workflow, you should be able to easily choose which sales productivity software you’ll invest in and continue using.
Follow this simple three-step process and you should be able to quickly identify the perfect sales productivity tools for you and your company.
Wrapping Up: Boost Your Sales Productivity Today!
The right sales productivity tools may be the difference between average sale numbers and out of this world, business-boosting ones. After all, if you invest in the right solutions, you’ll be able to reduce the time you spend on menial tasks, leaving you with many more hours to close deals So take a closer look at each of the apps listed above and try out the ones that seem intriguing. Good luck!
Don’t forget about Zight (formerly CloudApp), a visual communication solution and one of the absolute best sales productivity tools on the market. Try Zight (formerly CloudApp) for free today and see how its screen and webcam recording, GIF creation, and image annotation features can boost your sales career.
