If your career is in sales, you don’t need to be convinced of the company’s cutthroat nature. Those who become emotionally invested in the industry tend to fail, while the professionals who have access to the right kind of shortcuts manage to gain a competitive edge.
This is where the adage ‘work smarter, not harder’ really comes to the fore. By applying your skills to a range of software tools that are completely free to use, your business can take steps in the right direction.
From prospectors to planning and managing a range of marketing materials, there’s a way to simplify your day-to-day efforts with the help of some programs that are freely available.
So take a good look at these platforms and take advantage of what they have to offer.
Hootsuite
Social media integration will be one of those buzz phrases that sales managers will mention from time to time and if you want to develop a plan that works for Facebook, Twitter and Instagram then Hootsuite is the tool for you.
It allows beginners and experts alike to schedule their content, track the progress of likes and phrases, and sync everything in one hub.
Social media accounts merely act as an extension of the business to open up more means of communication with consumers, so keeping up with those incoming messages and promotions can be less stressful and more efficient on the business clock.
FindThat.Email
Obtaining a database full of emails can be a tedious exercise that takes an individual salesperson days, weeks, or even months to be successful.
To give something of a shortcut to that process, FindThat.Email can deliver on searched emails with an estimated success rate of over 90%, according to Ahrefs.
With over 100 million verified emails on their system, this tool can be used with a Google Chrome extension.
CharlieApp
Between your commute, lunch, prospecting, and attending 6 different meetings with department heads, it can be easy to overlook the need to research a customer when a meeting is approaching.
Should you need an on-the-spot summary of a prospect’s profile without the time to do that research yourself, CharlieApp can fill the gap.
Using Google Calendar, this tool extracts important data about a company to give you more insight into their staff, history and way of working.
Reporting
This handy little application will make you come across as an incredibly knowledgeable, considerate and considerate person.
Instead of only communicating with an email contact based on their name, in your sales capacity you can see their LinkeIn bio, social media profile, photo, email history between yourself and geography.
Rapportive works to transition a cold contact to a warmer contact, giving you more access to their status and habits.
Boomerang
Experienced salespeople understand the need to not only compose emails optimized for a campaign or message, but also send them at the right time. There’s no point in putting out a promotion to your customer base when it ships at 3:30pm on a Friday.
Boomerang helps plan your Gmail output with archiving and reminders that manage your communications. While there is a $4.99 per month subscription associated with additional features, the free Boomerang subscription still gives users a 10 message credit.
That way, the big email campaign can be sent on Tuesday at 9:00 AM, so all retailers and business owners can see it when they’re fresh and responsive, even if you forgot from the previous week. Pretty neat.
Freelance writer and journalist on news, sports, SEO, conservation and entertainment
Contents
