Want to succeed in B2B sales? You’ll need a thick skin, a winning strategy, and a relentless work ethic. A tech stack full of top-rated B2B sales tools wouldn’t hurt either.
We know what you’re thinking, “I already invest in a bunch of B2B sales tools. I really don’t want any more.” You’re not alone. According to Salesforce, 66% of sales reps say they’re drowning in tools. And 94% of sales organizations plan to consolidate tools within the next 12 months.
You don’t need more tools; you need the right tools. So, in this article, we’re going to help you build a B2B sales kit that actually works for you and your organization. Let’s get to it!
What Are B2B Sales Tools?
A B2B sales tool is any tool that helps sales reps close more deals.
Some B2B sales tools enable reps to store and organize customer data. Others automate communication between reps and prospects. Still others streamline social selling processes.
At the end of the day, the right sales tools for B2B will help you and/or your team become more efficient, connect with potential customers on a deeper, more personal level, and take your reporting procedures to a whole new level. Let’s talk more about these important benefits…
What Are The Benefits Of Sales Tools For B2B?
Why use the B2B sales tools we talk about in the next section? Because doing so will improve your sales processes. In fact, there are four benefits you’ll experience once you optimize your organization’s tech stack and invest in the right tools. Those benefits are:
Enhanced Efficiency
The best sales reps are often the most efficient. They know how to leverage their time more effectively than other sellers. B2B sales tools can help you achieve peak efficiency, too.
The right app will allow you to send email and text communications, schedule appointments, and generate reports automatically. When these things are handled for you and your team, you’ll be able to focus your efforts on higher value tasks, such as building relationships with leads.
Streamlined Communication
As mentioned above, the right B2B sales tools will improve your communication efforts.
You can use many of these apps to build full-fledged email and text sequences that send at predetermined times. Or ensure your follow-up messages never fall through the cracks.
Just as important, a stellar B2B sales toolkit will help you track your communication efforts. That way you always know which messages work, and can optimize your approach accordingly.
Refined Reporting
How many leads are in your pipeline? Which stage of the sales process are they in? And how many deals do you expect to close in the next week, month, and quarter?
You need to know the answers to the questions—and many others like them. B2B sales tools can help in this regard, too, allowing you to generate quality reports in a matter of seconds. You can then use the information gleaned to make better decisions in less time. Win!
Improved Sales Performance
All of the benefits we’ve mentioned so far—enhanced efficiency, improved communication, refined reporting—will lead to better sales performance for you and/or your sales team.
How could they not? If you can complete tasks in less time, communicate with leads, prospects, and customers more effectively, and quickly generate sales reports, better results are (almost) inevitable. You still have to do the work, of course. But your likelihood of success goes up.
The Complete B2B Sales Toolkit for Every Stage Of The Sales Process
There are a ton of B2B sales tools out there. Which ones should you use?
First, analyze your sales strategy. Then select tools that will aid you in each stage of your sales process, from preparation and research to following-up. Here are 16 ideas to get you started:
Stage #1: Preparation & Research
A strong sales process starts with extensive research.
You need to know the products and/or services you sell like the back of your hand. You need to be aware of current market trends and competitors, too. And, most of all, you need an intimate understanding of your target audience—who are they and why do they want your offerings?
The two B2B sales tools below will help you uncover key data points you can use to find leads and optimize your sales pitches..
B2B Sales Preparation & Research Tools
LinkedIn Sales Navigator: For networking and research
Key features:
- Search LinkedIn’s database of 950 million professionals
- Access over 40 advanced filters to identify the right leads
- Receive buyer intent signals to improve your outreach efforts
- Integrate LinkedIn with your CRM to quickly transfer information
Crunchbase: For business insights and company data
Key features:
- Easily monitor industry trends with real-time alerts
- Identify qualified prospects within your specific territory
- Access verified contact data to engage decision makers
- Receive automatic lead recommendations that match your ICP
- Create and store email templates to personalize your outreach
- Connect Crunchbase to your CRM to quickly track your prospects
Stage #2: Prospecting
Now that you’ve done your research, you can look for potential customers.
This stage of the sales process is known as prospecting, and there are many B2B sales tools you can use to streamline your efforts in this area. We spotlight three of the best ones below:
B2B Sales Prospecting Tools
SPOTIO Lead Machine: For B2B field sales prospecting
Key features:
- Sync SPOTIO with Google places to get instant data on businesses in your territory
- Find quality leads with 200+ filters like business type, revenue, and number of locations
- Import a list of current leads into SPOTIO, then use the platform to assign them to reps
- Use colored pins on a digital map to represent different accounts and stay organized
Leadfeeder: For identifying potential leads visiting your website
Key features:
- Learn who visits your website, who they work for, and your best marketing channels
- Discover accurate contact information for prospects inside the Leadfeeder database
- Filter contacts based on a variety of factors, including role, seniority, and location
- Connect Leadfeeder to your CRM to store prospect data and assign leads to sales reps
Hunter.io: For finding email addresses associated with a domain
Key features:
- Find email addresses by company name, individual name, or website
- View confidence scores to understand which email addresses are least likely to bounce
- Contact the professionals you find contact data for with Hunter’s built-in email sequencer
- Connect Hunter to your CRM of choice and keep your prospecting efforts organized
- Use the Chrome, Firefox, or Edge extension to find emails while you surf the web
Stage #3: Needs Assessment
A needs assessment is a powerful tool you can use to engage your prospects in conversation, learn more about them, and make informed decisions that improve your entire sales process.
For example, you might ask prospects questions like, “How do you see your business growing in the next 6-12 months?” and “How do you currently promote your business?”
Here are two tools you can use to create a needs assessment and learn about your audience:
B2B Sales Needs Assessment Tools
SurveyMonkey: For creating and distributing surveys
Key features:
- Create beautiful, customized surveys that your audience will enjoy taking
- Use AI to ask better questions that quickly reveal more detailed insights
- Access 250+ templates to help you build a winning survey in less time
- Choose to use sliders, star ratings, multiple choices, or 20+ other question types
- Guide participants down custom survey paths with branching and logic features
Typeform: For interactive forms and surveys
Key features:
- Build web forms that include your company’s logo, colors, and unique style
- Personalize your forms by adapting follow-up questions based on previous answers
- Access Typeform’s template library and AI tools to create better forms in less time
- Connect Typeform to your favorite CRM to automatically transfer data between apps
- Create surveys and quizzes for your audience, too, in addition to custom web forms
Stage #4: Pitch & Presentation
At this point, you’ve studied your industry, found high-quality prospects, and learned about their individual needs. Now it’s time to pitch your products and/or services to them.
The best pitches are personalized and articulate value in a visual way. Here are two B2B sales tools you can use to craft presentations and effectively present your solutions.
B2B Sales Pitch & Presentation Tools
Prezi: For engaging and dynamic presentations
Key features:
- Elevate your virtual presentations by appearing on screen with your content
- Create prospecting videos that can be sent via email and shown on social media
- Access designer templates to help you make eye-catching videos in mere minutes
- Build a brand kit inside Prezi to make sure you have quick access to brand assets
Slidebean: AI-powered presentation design tool
Key features:
- Use Slidebean’s AI functionality to build a stunning presentation in seconds
- Choose from 120 different templates to ensure your presentation is top level
- Easily invite other team members to collaborate with you on your presentations
- Access analytics to learn who viewed which slides and how long they viewed them for
Stage #5: Objection Handling
This is one of the most important stages of the sales process—but it’s not easy to navigate.
Common objections include, “I’m not ready to make a decision,” and “I need to think about it,” and “I don’t have the budget.” Top sellers know how to overcome these excuses.
Top sellers tend to use B2B sales tools that help in this area, too. The two solutions below will simplify your objection handling efforts by giving you access to accurate data.
B2B Sales Objection Handling Tools
Gong.io: For conversation intelligence and analysis
Key features:
- Understand exactly what works with your go-to-market initiatives and adjust accordingly
- Receive AI-powered insights in real time to improve your decision making processes
- Supercharge your sales coaching efforts to help reps overcome objections more reliably
- Connect Gong to your other sales tools, including your CRM, to streamline workflows
Chorus.ai: For recording and analyzing sales calls
Key features:
- Automatically record and analyze sales calls to pinpoint top objections
- Receive real-time insights to determine why you won or lost a specific deal
- Use data to improve your sales coaching processes and help reps close more
- Connect Chorus to your current tech stack and benefit from true sales intelligence
Stage #6: Closing
This is the stage of the sales process where prospects become customers.
The best sellers in the world have enviable close rates. There are many reasons for this. Top sellers are often excellent communicators, know how to build meaningful relationships with leads, and can convey value in simple terms. But many of them use B2B sales tools, too.
Below, we share two important tools you can use during the closing stage to win more deals:
B2B Sales Closing Tools
DocuSign: For electronic signatures and agreements
Key features:
- Create, store, and manage multiple sales contracts with the click of a button
- Accept e-signatures and boost productivity while improving the customer experience
- Use AI to analyze your contracts, find hidden revenue opportunities, and much more
- Protect all of your agreements with enterprise-grade security and compliance controls
- Connect DocuSign with your favorite B2B sales tools, such as a CRM or meeting app
Pandadoc: For document management and e-signatures
Key features:
- Create quotes, proposals, and contracts from one convenient location
- Accept e-signatures and reduce the time it takes to close deals and get paid
- Manage all of your contracts in one place to boost productivity and peace of mind
- Enjoy top-level security features, so your contracts are always locked down tight
- Collect payments directly from the PandaDoc contracts that you create
- Connect PandaDoc to your CRM, accounting software, and other must-have tools
Stage #7: Follow-ups, Repeat Business & Referrals
If you spend all of your time looking for and selling to new customers, you’re missing out on a ton of potential revenue. Repeat customers are often the most profitable. Don’t neglect them!
Make sure your sales process includes a follow-up stage. That way you can consistently score new sales from old customers and increase your referral count.
These three tools will ensure your follow-up, repeat business, and referral game are on point:
B2B Sales Cadence Tools
SPOTIO: For sales sequence automations
Key features:
- Build multi-channel sales sequences and stay top of mind with your audience
- Create a library of sequences that you (or your colleagues) can use in the future
- Automate emails and texts to send at ideal times and boost your team’s close rate
- Access your follow-up sequences from anywhere, on any internet capable device
- Integrate SPOTIO with many other B2B sales tools to minimize data entry tasks
Mailchimp: For email marketing and follow-ups
Key features:
- Automate complex email marketing campaigns and nurture leads effectively
- Access drag-and-drop functionality to build eye-catching emails in less time
- Enjoy top deliverability and ensure your messages always reach their targets
- Analyze your email marketing metrics to understand what works and what doesn’t
ReferralCandy: For managing referral programs
Key features:
- Access professionally designed templates to increase sign-ups
- Promote your referral program across online and in-person channels
- Automate your referral program so that it runs seamlessly on autopilot
- Track many important metrics, like sales generated from referrals
- Connect ReferralCandy to your online store to simplify operations
SPOTIO Is An All-In-One B2B Sales Tool For Every Stage Of The Sales Process
Most sales reps agree: they have too many B2B sales tools. This is why a whopping 94% of sales organizations plan to consolidate their tech stacks within the next year.
As we established in this article, B2B sales tools aren’t the problem. Sellers just need to invest in the specific solutions that will improve their unique workflows.
For many reps—especially those in the field sales space—SPOTIO is a must have app.
Once you invest in SPOTIO, you’ll be able to generate leads, cut and manage territories, set appointments, map customers, automate a variety of tasks, build multi-channel communication sequences, track activities, and generate customer reports—all with a single tool.
Sign up for a free demo of SPOTIO to experience the power of our platform for yourself!
