Enabling sales starts with process and tools, and ends with coaching and growth hacking
These b2b sales enablement tools (what is sales enablement?) have been the staples to our successes as well as those of our clients. They support you with inbound sales, cold calling, and any other method of growing your business that you're deploying.
The key to finding the right sales enablement tools is to understand your sales culture, sources of opportunities, and where your weaknesses are today. What I'm sharing with you in this article are my top sales enablement tools for inbound lead-centric sales tactics. (what is inbound?)
1 - Hubspot Marketing
Now, why would a marketing tool make the list let alone the top spot? Because data is everything. Toxic sales culture often starts with lack of clarity and accountability between marketing and sales, so if you really want to improve your b2b sales process, you should look at the data you're feeding your sales teams first.
There are other marketing automation software programs out there, but Hubspot is best in class, and they have the most straight-forward inter-platform connectivity out there. Salesforce doesn't connect to its marketing cloud solution like this!
2 - Hubspot Sales
I've been with Hubspot Sales since the beginning... when they were still called "Sidekick," a perfect metaphor for how the program was positioned in the Hubspot universe. But that all changed when Hubspot started recognizing the need to build a more holistic bundle of software that addressed the entire sales funnel/flywheel.
I personally consider it to be the best out-of-the-box sales platform in existence because it puts the salesperson and b2b sales process first, not as a side-note to management pandering.
Here are a few of my highlights (you can read the full Hubspot CRM review here):
- Embedded calling and calendar tools
- Email tracking in your native email environment
- Marketing insights showing online behaviors
- Quick research tools
The package you get should depend on the size of your sales team and the sophistication of your sales process. I usually recommend Starter for the solo practitioners or sales teams of 2 or less. I recommend Pro for larger sales teams and/or those that have mature/complex sales processes.
3 - Hubspot Operations
This will be my last call-out to the software giant (today), but it's worth mentioning because it will help you integrate all of your sales tools to give you more of that sweet data. When I think about how important data is to improve your b2b sales process, I can't help but get hung-up on tech that ties everything together.
4 - Basecamp
Basecamp is a project management software that we use to execute our growth marketing program. I consider it to be a sales enablement software as well, because it's the direct link we provide between sales and marketing. It's where we store, analyze, and collaborate on our sales enablement best practices. We store our alignment document (the SLA) there and host our inbound sales playbooks.
Most importantly, it's where salespeople go to provide feedback and suggestions. It's a space where marketers are listening and using sales insights to improve the impact of the contributions they're making.
It keeps us aligned, self-aware, and working together toward common goals.
5 - Google Sheets
Whether it's Google or Microsoft, you HAVE to get your docs on the cloud. And, Google sheets is helpful in a number of ways beyond the most obvious. We pride ourselves on removing sales dependencies on spreadsheet data. But I don't know if we'll ever see a day where the spreadsheet disappears completely.
For example, at Orange Pegs, we use Google Sheets to:
- create marketing and sales collateral, such as calculators (check out this example)
- model data from various sources through API connections
Whatever the use-case, being in the cloud makes live collaboration simple since you're updating a live document that saves as you go, thereby giving your collaborates a real-time view. It also prevents duplicate versions from getting lost in shared drives and personal computers.
6 - Crystal Knows
Crystal Knows is an awesome tool for getting to know your prospective buyer quickly. It's a browser extension that helps you understand personality traits and desires based on the frame work of DISC.
Click on the LinkedIn profile of choice, run the scan, and you'll have a read-out explaining what kind of personality traits they have and what kinds of conversations motivate them.
The best way to see it in action is to scan your own profile. I think you'll be amazed at what you see.
7 - Vidyard
I love Vidyard. I use it every single day, whether we're talking sales and marketing or providing direction to my team. It's a simple desktop recording software, and it comes free with a Hubspot Sales Pro subscription.
I use it to:
- go over changes in contracts with prospective clients
- introduce somebody from sales to a lead
- share data analyses with my team
- show support resources where problems are occurring
8 - Pandadoc
Pandadoc is a cloud-based contract tool. Like Docusign or Proposify, you can create templates that pull data from your CRM, making contract creation faster and with fewer errors.
I specifically like Pandadoc because of it's native Hubspot integration (although I think Proposify has a better one) and how easy it is to customize. It's the right balance of programmable and drag-n-droppable.
Hubspot Sales Pro has a quoting tool, but as of the writing of this article, I think it still has a long way to go. Through tokens, Pandadoc can import ANY data you set up in Hubspot.
I tend to take it a step or 10 beyond contracts, and use it for presentations as well. In fact, when we present our program to prospective clients, we use the same template that we later append boilerplate and signature pages to. So, I'm creating just ONE document to address the presentation AND the closing of the deal.
Conclusion
Finding the right sales enablement software solutions for your company is important. Choosing the right processes to fit those tools is equally so. Check out our Sales Enablement Services to see how we can help you build your sales stack and enable the best sales outcomes possible:
