3 Cool Sales Automation Tools to Supercharge Your Productivity

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March 14, 2014

Content note: While this blog post is outdated, it still offers valuable insights into past sales and marketing trends. For the latest strategies and up-to-date information, we encourage you to explore our newer posts on the ever-evolving landscape of sales and marketing.

Ever wished you could automate your sales process more to spend your time on higher value activities? Here are some apps we’ve been using here at the Hivehouse Digital to help our clients supercharge their sales productivity!

1. ToutApp

Do you ever put off sending a sales email because you can’t figure out how to phrase something? Do you wonder if a prospect has received your email, or looked at the material you’ve sent? ToutApp is a great tool that integrates with Gmail and helps speed up your sales communication:

  • Create email templates for your common email communication (follow-up after a phone call, check on the status of a proposal, etc.).
  • Share templates with your sales team to standardize communication, and minimize procrastination.
  • Track when a prospect opens your email, what they clicked on, and the content they are viewing on your website using the ToutApp LiveFeed.
  • Send templated emails to groups of people and benefit from the same tracking features.
  • Schedule email to be sent later – great for early birds and night owls.
  • Set reminders to follow up with people on a specific date.
  • Create a content library of common sales documents and easily attach them to your emails – and see when a prospect has looked at them.
  • Integrate Salesforce integration to automatically create leads and opportunities right from your Gmail, and log your communication to a lead, contact, or opportunity record.
  • Easily Suggest meeting times by selecting open slots on your Google Calendar, and letting ToutApp insert the times right into your email.
  • Analyze metrics analytics to see how many emails you and your team are sending, which email templates are effective at generating a response, etc.

2. Signals

Signals from HubSpot has some of the same tracking and templating features as ToutApp, but you need a subscription to Salesforce to utilize the email template feature. If you’re a HubSpot user, it’s a great complement to the marketing automation data you’re already collecting about your website visitors and sales prospects.

  • Signals works with Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail, and Salesforce – allowing you to track when people open your email so you can followup with them while your communication is top of mind.
  • If you already use Salesforce email templates, you can use Signals to send templated email right from your email, and track when the recipient opens your message.
  • Signals also integrates with HubSpot to notify when a contact is visiting your website, and what content they are viewing – if you’re tracking a hot lead or opportunity, this can be very valuable to a salesperson who is trying to gauge when to follow up with a prospect.

September 2014 update: HubSpot has replaced Signals with Sidekick, which is jam-packed with REALLY COOL features. Read our blog post, or check it out here.

3. YouCanBookMe

Do you feel like you spend half your life suggesting meeting times, holding them on your calendar, and emailing back and forth with prospects to settle on a time? Using a meeting scheduling tool like YouCanBookMe can eliminate this hassle and free you up to spend time actually meeting with prospects!

  • Send a link to your appointment calendar and let prospects select the time that works best for them.
  • Control your availability-  YouCanBookMe integrates with Google Calendar so you can do most of your management from within a familiar interface, and you can control which slots appear as available to prospects.
  • Automate appointment confirmations, reminders, and follow-ups.
  • Create a custom URL and brand your calendar with your logo, colors, etc.
  • Set up a template in ToutApp to give people a link to your calendar when they want to discuss an opportunity, and you’ve just cut about 10 emails out of your inbox!

Tips for Smart Sales Process Automation

Taking a couple of hours to set up electronic tools can easily improve your sales team’s productivity by 20-30%. Just make sure you’re not automating a dysfunctional process or systematizing bad habits!

  • Make sure everyone is clear on your process. Before you start creating templates, get clear on which messaging and collateral are appropriate for each step in your sales process.
  • Don’t be too available. You can waste a lot of time on free consulting if you offer appointment slots to everyone who fills out a form on your website. Consider setting up lead nurturing emails that educate prospects on your services and products before you start filling up your calendar.
  • Don’t be creepy. Just because you’re tracking their email opens and website visits doesn’t mean that you should start your followup call with “I’ve been watching what you’re doing on our website”.