about clients services insights contact 5 Essential Tools You Need in Business Development Just starting in sales? Looking to transform your old-school sales department? Don’t have a sales department and need some tools implemented to help? Get in touch with Icebreaker as we can help. Well here’s the rundown of what you need to have in your sales department in 2021. 1. Sales Intelligence Tools Intelligence tools are specifically for finding and giving insight into your prospects. The types of sales intelligence tools vary wildly, but that’s due to every industry having wildly different needs. Long gone are the days of having a rolodex or simply a CRM populated with company name, telephone number and contact name. We’re now looking, from vast datasets, for buying signals – and want to be informed by the tool when the best time to contact potential clients would be. Some examples: Sales Navigator, Zoominfo, InsideView, Datanyze, InsideSales, Winmo 2. Marketing Automation Automation can be complex, but once set up it will provide you with invaluable data about your prospects. Who is visiting your website? Who is opening your salespersons’ emails? Are there repeat visitors to your website? Which content is being read the most, and which content is converting web visitors to calls the best? Marketing automation is also closely related to content marketing (if done correctly). Some examples: Hubspot, SharpSpring, Marketo, Pardot 3. CRM If you don’t have a CRM, then everyone will have no idea what is going on in your sales teams. People will be treading on each other’s toes, prospective clients will be getting numerous calls from different people and management will have no way to project sales. Quite simply, having a decent CRM is a must. Some examples: Salesforce, PipeDrive, SugarCRM, Zoho, Capsule 4. Social Media Management Social selling is such a big part of sales. So, make sure you’re managing it correctly – scheduling posts to multiple social networks from multiple accounts. This can be very time consuming. Some of these tools will help you find new content, and some have excellent analytics as well. A good social media management tool should increase your efficiency, but it should also increase your early-stage leads. Some examples: Hootsuite, Buffer, Sprout Social, Percolate, SocialPilot 5. Workflow Planner Keep organised, keep on top of everything and never miss a deadline. If you can get buy-in from all your team you’ll be able to maximise efficiency in the sales and marketing departments using a workflow management tool. It’s not about checking up on what people are doing but making sure there is consistency and collaboration between teams and individuals. Some examples: Asana, Monday, KiSSFLOW, Forecast Leave a Reply Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * Comment Name * Email * Website This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. LABS Triangle Building Camden Lock Market, Chalk Farm Road London, NW1 8AB Hudson House 8 Albany Street Edinburgh, EH1 3QB 0207 089 6838 Email us Privacy Policy © ICEBREAKER BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT LTD 2021