16 Best Sales Tools to Boost Revenues
Most sales teams need three tools to start: a CRM that logs every conversation, a way to find and verify contacts, and a booking link. Add email tracking, proposal software or meeting tools only when a specific step in your pipeline is slow or leaking leads. This list covers sixteen tools by the job they do, with what you can try for free.
Before you add another tool, check what your CRM already does
Many CRMs bundle email tracking, templates and meeting scheduling, so a separate tool for each means the same activity gets logged twice, or not at all when a rep forgets to update the second tool. HubSpot’s free CRM, for example, already includes email tracking, email templates, meeting scheduling and live chat. Read the sections below with your CRM’s feature list open and buy only for the gaps.
Then judge each new tool on one number for one pipeline step, such as the time from first reply to a booked meeting, and cancel it if the number has not moved by the end of the trial. A tool nobody measures is hard to cancel later.
1. Sales Enablement Tools
Kipwise
Kipwise is a knowledge management platform that combines smoothly with Google Drive, Slack, and others. It enables users to develop their group knowledge base from their daily conversations. Through these tools, users can identify, interpret, and keep articles shared in their slack platform.
2. Lead Generation and Sales Prospecting Tools
We recommend starting with a contact finder, and adding visitor identification only once your site gets enough B2B traffic to produce accounts worth calling.
Apollo
Apollo pairs a large B2B contact and company database with prospecting, email sequences and pipeline tools. It has a free plan, and usage is metered through a monthly credit pool that does not roll over, so check how many credits your outreach really burns before you upgrade.
Hunter
Hunter (hunter.io) finds the email addresses behind a domain, verifies them and runs email sequences. The free plan includes 50 credits a month: finding an email costs one credit and verifying one costs half a credit, which is enough to test it on a real prospect list.
Leadfeeder
Leadfeeder (you may know it as Dealfront) identifies which B2B companies visit your website. A free version remains available.
3. Sales CRM Tools
Pick a CRM by the follow-up habit you need your reps to keep, because a CRM only helps if it is updated.
Close
Close (formerly Close.io) puts calling, texting and email in one app, with pipelines on every plan. Calling is billed by usage, the power dialer is on the higher plans, and there is a 14-day free trial. Choose it if your reps live on the phone.
HubSpot CRM
HubSpot’s CRM has a free plan that covers contacts, deals and tasks, email tracking, meeting scheduling and live chat on your website. Choose it if marketing and sales should work from one record.
Pipedrive
Pipedrive is a pipeline-first CRM for small sales teams: every deal sits in a stage on a visual board. Choose it if your sales process is a series of stages you want visible at a glance.
OnePageCRM
OnePageCRM is built around its Action Stream, which lists each contact with its next follow-up and flags it red when overdue, orange when due today and grey when further out. Plans cost $9.95, $19.95 and $29.95 per user per month billed annually, with a 21-day free trial. Choose it if forgotten follow-ups are where your deals leak.
4. Email Management & Email Tracking Tools
If you send a few dozen tracked emails a week, a free plan or your CRM’s own tracking is enough. Pay when you run sequences at volume. Whichever tool you use, a template for a short thank-you note after a deal closes is worth setting up.
Yesware
Yesware tracks email opens, link clicks and attachment views, with templates, a meeting scheduler and campaigns. The free plan covers basic open tracking and 10 campaign recipients a month, and Pro costs $15 per seat per month billed annually ($19 monthly).
Mixmax
Mixmax adds tracking, sequences, scheduling and CRM sync to your inbox. The free tier allows 50 recipients a month, and the first paid tier is $29 per user per month billed yearly.
5. Appointment Scheduling Tools
A booking link in your email signature is enough for one rep. Pay for a team plan when prospects have to be routed to whoever is free.
Calendly
Calendly’s free plan is limited to one event type and one calendar connection, with one-on-one scheduling and a customizable booking page.
YouCanBook.me
YouCanBook.me’s free plan allows one calendar, one booking page and 30 bookings a month, and its Team plan adds shared booking pages with round-robin assignment.
6. Online Meeting Tools
Use whatever your prospects already have installed, because asking a prospect to install an app before your demo is friction you do not need.
Zoom
Zoom’s free plan ends each meeting at 40 minutes, so a demo that runs long gets cut off. Use a paid plan for external calls.
GoToMeeting
GoTo Meeting hosts up to 250 attendees, with cloud recording and transcription, and offers a 14-day free trial.
7. Proposal Management Tools
Choose by headcount: a proposal tool built for teams if several people send proposals, and a freelancer platform if it is one person.
Better Proposals
Better Proposals builds proposals from templates with built-in digital signatures, and it shows when a client opens and reads the document. Plans start at $13 per user per month, with a 14-day free trial.
Indy
Indy is a business management platform for freelancers that includes proposals alongside contracts and invoices. It suits a solo seller better than a sales team.
Start with the CRM, then add one tool for the step where deals leak and measure it for a month.
