The end of this decade has slowly turned the concept of Remote Working which largely appeased the millennial talent into a necessity.
The new normal – used to denote the current circumstances has made virtual meetings and team collaboration over apps a day to day activity. People have been restricted to their monitor screens and the usual office workplace has been transformed into a makeshift home working environment.
Sales teams especially “Field Sales” has taken tremendous efforts to stay afloat and crunch in the numbers during these testing times. It’s a war that has been waged against businesses by the pandemic.
However, with employers now realizing that the home office can actually help their team’s productivity if they are armed with advanced technology, it has never been this simple to set up a professional working environment at home that empowers efficiency.
When it comes to sales, it is important to find the best tools that both employees and businesses can benefit from.
Running a remote sales team can be challenging, but it can save costs and bring in even more significant results if done right.
Here is a checklist of what essential tools your sales team needs while working remote:
CRM Tools
A no-brainer and hands down the most important tool! A CRM is the center of the sales process. It is extremely important to invest in a good CRM tool in remote work conditions. The CRM requirements would vary across companies so it’s important to choose a CRM that works for your specific needs. Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Copper, Creatio are some top CRM’s which can meet your essential needs.
Read More: Is Dynamic Content The Key for Better Email Engagement?
Collaboration/Internal Communication Tools:
War is always won with teamwork and the same holds true for businesses trying to attain their objectives. With bare minimum contact due to multiple offices being closed, seamless virtual communication becomes the priority. Tools like Slack, RingCentral Glip, Microsoft Teams, Wrike, Chatter are starting to get rave reviews from users.
Virtual Conferencing Tools:
The customer-seller relation has been hit badly during the pandemic times due to minimal face to face interaction. The human touch which is so important to strike a negotiation or deal has gone amiss. Although, it cannot totally replace original conversations, Virtual Meeting software act as a respite to get clients or teammates to interact with you. The new normal has spiked interest globally for software like Zoom, BlueJeans, GoToMeeting, Cisco Webex, TeamViewer.
Sales Intelligence / Sales Prospecting Tools:
The reach out in today’s time is now only limited to phones, email and social media, this has made it a pre-requisite to invest in tools which help you determine numbers, email addresses and qualify your buyer persona. Tools like ZoomInfo, Clearbit, Linkedin Sales Navigator, Prospect.io, Seamless.Ai help you figure out the prospecting stage and make sure you focus on the essential part of the job – “Selling!”
E-signatures and Document Tracking Software
A sale is never completed unless you sign on the dotted line. E-Signature tools provide the security and privacy of important contractual documents which is usually the last part of the sales process for a salesperson. Softwares like DocuSign, PandaDoc, Hellosign make this job a lot easier for Salespeople in today’s times.
Sales Acceleration / Sales Engagement Software
Sales engagement platforms make for a very crucial component of the Sales teams’ operations, a great impact on your team performance and it can help build an effective customer journey. Sales engagement streamlines all the ways you communicate with prospects – from email to voice to social – and lets you do it all in one place. Tools like Outreach, SalesLoft, Groove, Dealhub.io are essential engagement tools which help you meet your end goals.
Scheduling Tools
With so many virtual meetings all day, it becomes important to keep a tab and plan your day better. A productive day can only be achieved if you plan it well. Tools like Calendly, HubSpot Sales, Acuity Scheduling, Mixmax can help you with your day to day scheduling activities.
Sales Analytics Tools
It is important to measure the results achieved by sales teams. An Individual or a team can benefit by having access to information and analytics pertaining to their results to help them do better in the future and also see where they are lacking. Sales analytics and insights can be used to improve sales strategies and implement a more predictable sales model.Tools like Clari, InsightSquared, Xant, Zendesk Sell help sales teams gain insight into their sales activities to measure their results.
Read More: How can your Sales Team Stay Agile In a Remote Working World?
As someone has rightly quoted, ‘The secret to sales is (and always will be) building better relationships,”
However, in these unprecedented times where human interaction is a tough task, making optimum utilization of tools and platforms could elevate your chances of reaching the ultimate goal.