In the spirit of giving, we asked some of the top B2B sales experts online to share their favorite sales tools they wouldn’t be without heading into the new year. The result is a hand-picked list of game-changing tools that can help you and your team crush your quota in 2015. Have a great tool that isn’t on this list? Let us know in the comments below.
Greg Alexander, Sales Benchmark Index, @gregalexander Why he uses it: Generating appointments with decision makers inside of targeted accounts is very hard to do. LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a great tool to help.
Dave Brock, Partners in EXCELLENCE, @davidabrock Why he uses it: Decisionlink is about articulating, quantifying, and developing your specific value from the very first sales call through the entire sales process. It goes far beyond the classic ROI calculator and helps the sales person conduct role-specific, collaborative conversations about what value (expressed in financial terms) the customer should expect from the solution. It makes Challenger and Provocative Selling real, makes it fact and data-based. I’ll stop here — it has so much to offer, every sales person should be using it.
Dave Brock, Partners in EXCELLENCE, @davidabrock Why he uses it: Accompani will turn the world of relationship management tools on it’s head. It is a completely new way of looking at and maximizing the value you create with your customers and the relationships you have with them. It is scheduled for launch in the next couple of months, and it will be a tool that sales people and business professionals will be clamoring for.
Favorite tool: LinkedIn Publishing
Lori Richardson, Score More Sales, @scoremoresales Why she uses it: You have to understand that you are part publisher. You need to promote your expertise and to stand out in a sea of noise.
Miles Austin, Fill the Funnel, @milesaustin Why he uses it: So those who want to schedule with me can do so without friction or delay.
Favorite tool: A large analog clock above my computer
Jeff Hoffman, MJ Hoffman Associates, @mjhoffman Why he uses it: Every great rep needs to command time and know exactly how long 5, 10, 15 minutes truly is.
Anthony Iannarino, The Sales Blog, @iannarino Why he uses it: There is nothing more valuable to a salesperson than relationships, and Contactually does the work of reminding you which relationships you need to follow up with and when. Each day, it emails you a reminder of ten contacts you need to communicate with based on the information you provided. You want to focus on the relationship, and offloading the tracking makes it easier and more efficient to do so.
Jill Konrath, Author ofAgile Selling, @jillkonrath Why she uses them: They block online distractions so you can get more and better work done in less time.
Aaron Ross, Author of Predictable Revenue, @motoceo Why he uses it: It’s for sales execs rather than salespeople, but it helps companies automate the Predictable Revenue process.
Favorite tool: The telephone
Mike Weinberg, The New Sales Coach, @mike_weinberg Why he uses it: It’s been around for a long time and is often ignored, maligned, or abused. But when put in the hands of proficient sales hunters, it’s still an incredibly effective way to deliver your message, secure a desired meeting or move an opportunity along.
Does automating outbound sales efforts really work? It can and it does, as shown in this post by Thena. They use automated outbound to 10x their efforts. Here’s how they do it.
