Several months ago, we wrote a blog post on apps that our distributed marketing team uses. Because it has received much attention, we felt that it is time to do a blog post on apps that our distributed sales team uses. We want to share our list of apps hoping that it might help other sales teams or small businesses like us. We asked what apps our sales team uses, and we broke them down into four categories:
- Communication
- Email Marketing
- Knowledge/File Sharing
- Outreach
A sales team’s responsibility is to convert prospects into customers. To understand a problem and to provide a solution. To do so, our sales team uses several different tools to maximize their outreach, have stellar communication, and keep tabs on the latest leads. Here are the apps our sales team uses:
Outreach
Salesforce– Customer Relationship Management
Our sales team uses Salesforce as our CRM. Salesforce needs no introduction. It is the #1 player in the CRM market. Most salespeople are familiar with Salesforce and they know how to use it effectively to connect with customers.
The good: The great thing about Salesforce is that it keeps everything in order. Salesforce keeps everything organized through its task handling. Additionally, Salesforce sales cadence, provide call reminders, email followups, and other tasks on potential clients. Having a sales cadence makes customer reach out easier. Finally, Salesforce offers a clear view of the state of accounts and helps teams forecast sales based on account activity.
The bad: The UI is a bit complex making maneuvering through the app cumbersome. Further, the platform is expensive. Often times, users have to pay for add-ons to get the most out of the software. The cluttered interface makes navigation and simple tasks unnecessarily complex.
A Quote from our Sales Team on Salesforce
Sales cadences are very useful. This way when new leads come in a cadence, it is attached, and based on the cadence it will send you for those tasks. For example, the calling task will appear. You can call them and if they do not answer you just mark complete and it will send the automated email you put in for this cadence and then set the next reminder three days out again to call again.
AirSend Sales Team
Skype– Outbound Calling
Skype is a communication platform made by Microsoft Teams. The platform specializes in chat and VoIP between computers, tablets, and mobile devices. Our sales team likes using Skype for its convenient calling system.
The good: Skype is useful for calling phone numbers or hosting quick conference meetings for a quick follow-up.
The bad: Skype does not offer much else other than their calling system. Getting work done can be difficult with Skype.
LinkedIn– Research and Outreach
LinkedIn is a social networking platform made for professionals.
The good: The platform is excellent for prospect research.
The bad: The UI is complex making it challenging to maneuver through.
Facebook– Research and Outreach
Similar to LinkedIn, Facebook is a social networking platform made for everyone.
The good: It is a great way to see what problems are trending in the industry.
The bad: Everything is organized by threads, which makes it difficult to search for information. The recent security issues are also a concern.
YouTube/YouTube Music– Research and Focus
Youtube is self-explanatory. They are the gold standard for video-sharing. Our sales team likes to use YouTube to stay in the loop on competitive products. YouTube Music is also a particular favorite among our team. Listening to music improves focus.
The good: YouTube is a great platform to learn about competitive products.
The bad: Currently, there are no issues.
Scheduling
Calendly– Online Appointment Scheduling Software
Like SalesForce, Calendly is another tool our sales team uses heavily. Calednly is an easy-to-use scheduling tool. It eliminates the old-school way of using email and phone tags for scheduling appointments.
The good: It is easy to schedule and organize appointments. Calendly also has a user-friendly interface, syncs with Google calendar, and marks available times for meetings.
The bad: The platform is basic, and has a ton of email reminders.
Google Calendar
Google Calendar is also another great tool used to schedule meetings, tasks, and more.
The good: It syncs with all Google accounts and Google applications.
The bad: While the UI on the web version is great, the UI on the mobile app is lacking and hard to use.
Communication
Gmail– Email
Gmail is self-explanatory. They are the gold standard for email, with great spam protection and neat features like smart compose and keep.
The good: we are not paying anything for G-Suite because we were early adopters and are still getting it for free.
The bad: The only downside to Gmail is that it lacks some functionalities available in a web browser like templates.
AirSend– Team Chat and Collaboration
AirSend is an all-in-one collaboration tool. Our platfrom features all the essentials we need in contrast to tools like Slack. Our teams use AirSend to carry meetings with our newly built-in audio/video calling, track and manage notes, organize files, and keep track of tasks.
The good: the clean, clutter-free UI is excellent compared to platforms that carry a busy UI design. Having built-in essentials makes it easier to collaborate with teams and clients.
The bad: Currently, AirSend does not have many integrations as our competitors.
Olark– Live Chat Software
Olark is what we use to provide and run the live chat windows on our product websites.
The good: It is easy to use once integrated, and they offer great support.
The bad: It can get expensive if you have multiple websites.
Zoom– Webinars and video conferencing
For webinars and video conferencing, our sales team uses Zoom. Zoom is great for providing links to external parties to hold meetings and present demos.
The good: Links for external parties to use. The free version allows up to 40-minute calls, which is more than enough for most meetings. Finally, screen sharing and recordings of customer interactions are helpful.
The bad: Zoom is not great for one-on-one calls. For example, with Mac, there are glitches. Additionally, we find it annoying when the app starts when you click on a meeting link in your browser when it would be more convenient to have a call in the browser.
Knowledge/File Sharing
Trello– Task Management
Trello is a task management tool with a kanban-like design to it. A particular plus is its smooth UX and aesthetic themes.
The good: Trello helps our teams stay organize and keeps tabs on priorities. It is also easy to assign members on Trello cards for easier collaboration. It is also super fast.
The bad: It is a freemium platform, so there is a limitation to the platform’s powerup usage. There is also difficulty in searching for archived cards, and card descriptions have no history.
FileCloud– File Storage/Sharing
FileCloud is an enterprise file sharing, sync, and backup platform. With your Filecloud server, users can run their own private dropbox-like file sharing and sync solution.
The good: FileCloud has data governance, self-hosting, and remote access to data. There is an ease of use and stability.
The bad: The setup process can be a bit intimidating.
OneNote– Notetaking and management
OneNote is a free-form multi-user collaboration tool with users’ notes, drawings, screen clippings, and audio commentaries. Think of OneNote as an advanced form of GoogleDocs.
The good: It is easy to take notes while talking with a customer.
The bad: It is sometimes difficult to find specific notes due to the somewhat complex UI.
Email Marketing
MailChimp– Email Sending and Tracking
MailChimp is an easy-to-use platform with drag-and-drop capabilities to create beautiful emails without code.
The good: It is a great tool for newsletters and CSM reach outs. Creating an onboarding series (workflow), which creates personal touchpoints with customers in an automated way, is also a plus.
The bad: it can get pretty expensive. Another limitation is that there is no type of campaign that allows you to create a loop for a single campaign.
SalesHandy– Email Sending and Tracking
Similar to MailChimp, SalesHandy is an easy-to-use email sending and tracking platform.
The good: It is excellent for sending one-on-one emails and campaigns. The statistic function is also a plus. Finally, the platform is user-friendly and integrations with Microsoft and Google.
The bad: It can be expensive, and you have to use the app itself to send emails.
MixMax– Email Tracking
We use MixMax to send and track small email campaigns we dispatch from our Gmail accounts.
The good: MixMax lets you create contact lists and email sequences for those contact lists. It then tracks your open, replied, and bounce rates.
The bad: The free version of MixMax doesn’t do any of the above mentioned. You need to use the paid version to get the sequence and numbers.
Other Tools
TechSmith Capture– Recording and Screenshot
TechSmith Capture is used to make professional demos and how-tos by recording your screen.
The good: Can turn on the webcam doing a recording for a tutorial video.
The bad: Doesn’t store history of screen captures.
Screenpresso– screen capture
Screenpresso is a screen capture that allows you to grab an image or video of what you see on your computer screen, annotate, and share it with anyone.
The good: It is straightforward and easy-to-use.
The bad: It is only available for windows.
LeadgenApp– Form and Survey Builder
LeadGen App is a form and survey builder to help businesses and marketers capture more leads and data.
The good: There are a variety of premade forms available, as well as customizable forms. Easy to copy and paste on a website.
The bad: It is a freemium platform, and it can be somewhat expensive.
KeypassX– Password Management
As a team grows, a necessary tool needs to contain and share information like product social media accounts logins and email address logins. To keep our shared account usernames and passwords safe and in one place, we use KeePassX.
The good: It is straightforward and secure.
The bad: There is none so far.
Apexure – Web Design Agency
Apexure helps with driving conversions on web and landing page design. The platform takes a data-driven approach to increase conversions.
The good: With Apexure, your website and landing pages will have a design optimal for user experience. All of Apexure designs are created from the ground up to better match your brand.
The bad: There is none so far.
What apps do you use?
As you can see, we use quite a few apps, tools, and services to run our sales team. We hope that sharing this list and talking about our likes and dislikes can help you find the right mix of apps for your needs.
Happy working!