There are only so many hours in a day – only so many hours in a week. And sleep is supposed to account for some of those hours. If you’re in sales especially, you need to be able to maximize each and every hour you have. There will be times when you’re traveling from one meeting to the next and you’ll need to do some final preparation for the upcoming appointment.
Thankfully, there’s an abundance of sales tools and apps that can help you prepare and get organized, even on the go. Of the many, many resources at your disposal, the following are ten of our favorite sales tools. Learn how you can take advantage of each of them to make the best use of your time and find more success.
1) Your CRM Mobile App
Whichever CRM your company uses – whether Salesforce, HubSpot, or another CRM – there’s a good chance it has a mobile app you can download. And you certainly should.
With access to your CRM on the go, you can enter the information you need to record after a meeting or call, which will keep you from from needing to rack your brain after a long day of meetings. This whenever, wherever accessibility limits the possibility that you forget any crucial information.
2) Evernote App
Virtually every list of the best sales tools will include Evernote, and for good reason. With the seemingly countless conversations you have, you need a way to capture notes and revisit them at any time. With Evernote, you can share and update your notes across all devices you own. And you can easily share your notes with others on your team, or even your prospects.
You can take photos, which is great for snapping a shot of a note-filled whiteboard. And its search function allows you to wade through your typed and handwritten notes (!) so you can quickly find what you need. You can also create to-do lists, set reminders and much more. With three tiers of service plans (basic, plus, and premium) it’s affordable no matter what your budget is.
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3) Calendly
With 840,000 monthly users, Calendly is the app people are turning to simplify scheduling between with their prospects and clients. How does it work? You simply input your availability into the app – say Monday through Friday from 11am to 4pm – and send your prospect a unique link to your calendar. You can also embed Calendly on your website. Prospective buyers can then see your availability and choose a date and time that works best for them.
Calendly automatically adds the scheduled meeting to your calendar and blocks off this time for others viewing your schedule. And of course, Calendly syncs with Google, Outlook, Office 365 and iCloud calendars. So you’ll never have to worry about manually adding these appointments to your mail app.
4) SpotHero
Speaking of meetings, we’ve all been in a rush to get to an appointment at least once. And as a salesperson, showing up late to a meeting is one of the of worst ways to kick off a sales conversation. Thankfully, SpotHero can help you save time when you’re running late and take the hassle out of finding a parking spot.
Available in many major cities, SpotHero shows you which parking garages are near your destination and helps you choose the garage where you’d like to park. It then lets you pay right from your phone. You simply show up, scan your phone, park, and get to your meeting.
5) CamCard
Being in sales, there’s a good chance you have a countless number of business cards in your wallet, car or desk. It’s easy to lose a card and hard to scavenge for the one card you’re looking for. CamCard digitizes your business card collection so you can store all of your cards electronically.
Use the camera on your phone to take a snapshot of a card, and the app inputs the information on the card into different fields. You can then add notes to help you remember facts about that person or follow up with them. You can even exchange e-cards with other contacts who use CamCard. And you can access your database from anywhere – on your desktop or in the car before a meeting.
6) Yelp!
It may seem odd to think of Yelp! on a list of the best sales tools, but how often are you taking prospects or clients out to eat? If you’ve just had a great meeting and want to continue the conversation and build on your relationship, you could certainly look to find a great restaurant in town.
But it you’re in an unfamiliar area and your prospect doesn’t have any recommendations where to grab food or a drink, Yelp! can help you find a great place. And it will help you make sure you pick a vegetarian-friendly restaurant if one of your prospects doesn’t eat meat, for instance.
7) Slack
Slack is one of the best messaging tools that we’ve found. It helps you easily connect with and organize your team. You can create “Slack channels” specific to individual prospects, based on industries, or however you might want to organize conversations. These channels will keep your communication about specific people or topics in one place.
Slack lets you drag and drop files from your desktop into a slack channel to simplify file sharing. And it even allows you to take your conversation from text to face-to-face with voice or video calling from a chat box.
8) LinkedIn
LinkedIn has long been an excellent way to connect with industry leaders, prospective buyers, and get involved in professional groups. Networking groups will help you connect with a large group of likeminded professionals. And they can help you discover new resources to hone your skills.
LinkedIn is also a great resource to learn more about your prospects. Look at their posts and even questions they may be asking in groups to get a better sense of what’s important to them. By following what your prospects are doing, you’ll be better prepared to solve their problems in your next meeting.
9) Feedly
In the sales industry, it’s important to stay up to date on the latest industry news and tips. But when you’re running around from meeting to meeting, it may be difficult to keep up with what’s going on outside of your own world. Feedly allows you to subscribe to your favorite blogs and then view the latest and greatest on the go. That way you can check in on industry news between meetings or whenever you have some downtime.
10) Adobe Sign
You want to make sure you’re prepared for anything when you go into a sales meeting. And that includes being prepared for a prospective buyer to sign the dotted line. Adobe Sign is one of the most trusted apps on the market, allowing you to get a new client’s signature in person.
Adobe Sign is the first global vendor to bring open, standards-based digital signing to mobile devices and the web. It’s extremely secure and ensures that your confidential information is protected.
Choose the Right Sales Tools for Your Needs
These great sales tools and apps can all help you nail your next meeting. Consider any and all of them to help you be organized, prepared, and even more productive during your downtime.
And if you want even more help preparing for success, you can download our free Calendar Management Checklist. Just click the button below to continue increasing your sales productivity:
