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Looking for tools to help your growing sales team? As Ambition Co-Founder and CSO, I've sampled my fair share. Today, I'd like to walk you through six of my personal favorites that we've successfully implemented here at Ambition.
I spend countless hours scouring the web for leads. Prospecting makes up a large part of both my time & our quickly-growing sales team's time. Finding prospects' names these days is pretty straightforward, but it's fairly difficult to acquire the valuable meta information (email, phone, title) needed to begin a conversation and move a cold lead to a warm lead and then to an opportunity.
Best Practices in Sales Enablement
Fortunately, my frustrations with this process have led to the discovery of new tools for businesses looking for a better way to acquire meta information. The following technologies should prove especially relevant for Sales Development reps (SDRs) amongst new and growing sales teams. Here are 6 tools your sales team should download today:
1) Yesware: Smart email tracking
Yesware is a must have for any sales rep interested in tracking his/her email. Simply install yesware and you'll have real time open/click/share information of any email sent through Yesware. It also plugs into Salesforce.com and stores templates for quick replies.
2) Signals: Smart email tracking (with Apple mail integration)
A product of Hubspot, Signals is beautifully designed and very easy to use. The idea is simple: install Signals in gmail & Apple mail and immediately receive real time email open activity. While Signals is very similar to Yesware, I'm a huge fan of the native Apple mail integration.
For sales professionals, timing can be everything. Knowing exactly when someone is reading your email can provide for a moment of serendipitous delight when the receiving party immediately receives a relevant follow-up.
3) Rapportive: Gmail plugin that shows Social profiles
Rapportive allows you to view a pop-up in gmail that quickly lets you know who you are emailing with. By hovering over an email address, you can quickly see the social sites associated with that email address.
No longer worry if you're emailing with a decision maker or not, simply click the linkedin button to the right of your email draft and you'll know exactly who you're talking to.
Bonus: You can also guess at email addresses by trying common email breakdowns (firstinitiallastname@, firstname@, first.last@) and see if rapportive loads a profile.
4) Data.com: Find & target business executives at specific companies
Data.com is the best way to target companies, postitions, or industries for decision-maker contact information. It's my go-to source for landing email addresses, phone #'s, or simply just understanding the company hierarchy.
A great feature is that you can save searches for future use. Taking a trip to Chicago to see a customer? Simply search your exact target customer in Data.com and you'll now be able to see other potential customers in that vicinity who may be worth paying a visit.
5) Toofr: Easiest way to guess email addresses
I'm new to Toofr but I've found it to be extremely valuable. Ever hunt someone down in Data.com only to find that their email is out of date or non-existent?
I have, and Toofr is a great way to reconcile the situation. Simply add first name, last name, and domain and Toofr will test the address for pingbacks. This allows you to quickly and easily collect accurate email addresses for those you're prospecting.
6) Prospect Ace: Email addresses + Demographic info = Smarter prospecting
Like Toofr, Prospect Ace's primary function is using social media information to track down valid email addresses for prospects. Prospect Ace also has the added bonus--in some cases--of being able to find additional demographic information about the prospect-in-question.
Even better, they find your first 25 validated emails for free. Definitely a tool worth checking out.
Honorable Mention. Join.me: Online meetings made easy
With most online meeting platforms, the receiving party needs to download & install the applicable software for the meeting platform to work.
With Join.me, there is no need for download by a new user. This means less wasted time, less worries about technology, and a better way to start online meetings on the right foot - all they'll need is your unique browser link.
Sales teams now have an incredibly vast arsenal of technological tools at their disposal. The trick is knowing what these tools are and how to use them. The six (plus one) products mentioned here are all value-adding additions to any sales force, in my experience, and I encourage you to seek them out and give them a test drive whenever you have the opportunity.
Ambition: The 360° Sales Management Platform
Ambition is a sales management platform that syncs business teams, data sources, and performance metrics on one system.
Sales leaders use Ambition to enhance sales performance insights and build sales reports, scorecards, contests, and TVs that supercharge focus, effort and accountability.
Ambition is endorsed by Harvard Business Review and AA-ISP (the Global Inside Sales Organization). Hear more from business leaders who use Ambition in their organization.
Watch Testimonials:
- FiveStars: Adam Wall. Sr. Manager of Sales Operations .
- Filemaker: Brad Freitag. Vice-President of Worldwide Sales.
- Outreach: Mark Kosoglow. Vice-President of Sales.
- Cell Marque: Lauren Hopson. Director of Sales & Marketing.
- Access America Transport: Ted Alling. Chief Executive Officer.
Watch Product Walkthroughs:
- ChowNow. Led by Vice-President of Sales, Drew Woodcock.
- Outreach. Led by Sales Development Manager, Alex Lynn.
- AMX Logistics. Led by Executive Vice-President ,Jared Moore.
Read Case Studies:
- Clayton Homes: HBR finds triple-digit growth in 3 sales efficiency metrics.
- Coyote Logistics: Monthly revenue per broker grew $525 in 6 months.
- Peek: Monthly sales activity volume grew 142% in 6 months.
- Vorsight: Monthly sales conversations grew 300% in 6 months.
Contact us to learn how Ambition can impact your sales organization today.
