9 Sales Tools Every Small Business Must Have

Running a business has never been a child’s play but the evolving technology and growing reach of the internet and virtual world has made it more complex.

It’s equally true that every successful business has a common objective and mindset. They must be well structured, fast and scalable. They have to be competitive, hungry to grow and eager to learn.

It’s particularly true for startups and small businesses that focus on B2B sales. But achieving success in business without relying on certain sales tools is not possible.

Here are some of the most popular and effective sales tools that every small business must have to run their business smoothly and proficiently.

  1. A Powerful Customer Relationship Management Tool

To track your current prospects a promising CRM system is ideal. It not only save your contacts and their sensitive data like contact no. phone no. website and more, it also keeps track of your every communication with them. This way, you can review your interaction with your prospects any time to know if they purchased your products, how they came to know about your business and their preferences. And it all is stored under a single terminal at your finger-tips.

2. Order and Inventory Management Software

Of course, you‘d be selling some product, better to use inventory and order management software to manage it all smoothly and keep track of your updated stock, sales and purchase orders including your inventory – all in one place.

The majority of systems come with Barcode scanners, reorder alerts, multiple reporting and more. Some of the best inventory software could be inflow or Xero for your startup or small businesses. 

3. Documents Management Tool

Being a small business, investing in a large documentation team could be highly expensive. But you still can invest in document management tools like HelloSign, DocuSign and more. These tools allow you to send and receive documents, proposals, and contracts virtually making your operation faster without any hassle. This will expedite your workflow and bring money into your bank account faster

4. Invoicing Tool

An invoicing system in place makes your payment process simple and fast. You can use several invoicing tools like FreshBooks, which are meant to expedite invoices in seconds.  You can also craft a template for future use, customize it given specific order, put your logo, tagline, and this way can personalize your thank-you note. You can also set up auto-reminders to gently remind anyone who has failed to pay in a specific period.

5. A Video Platform

Sending out videos to your prospects is a great way to add a personal touch to the sales and after-sales experience. This develops a series of loyal prospects that will last for a longer time. For a small business, videos will surely help you develop a wider and corporate-like business entity. There are several free tools like Vidyard GoVideo, which can empower you to record videos, share within your circle through Gmail, and even see who’s watched them. This will help you follow up with your prospects.

6. LinkedIn Premium Sales Navigator

LinkedIn has been one of the most popular and effective professional networking platforms offering valuable paid versions for searching and connecting with prospects and existing customers, potential job candidates, media professionals and any other individual that could be of help to grow your business. You can select the best subscription plan given your budget and objectives.

In the nascent stage of your business, you can subscribe to the Premium Business Plan. This plan will help you watch out who all have looked at your profile in the last 3 months through detailed analytics and you can also send out 15 InMail messages every month to contact people outside your circle. Their subscription starts at $47.99 per month for an annual plan.

If you’ve got a larger sales target, invest in Sales Navigator. This is a powerful tool that displays the most relevant updates from your clients, and contacts recommend updated target accounts given your current list and help you to run highly specific searches. This subscription starts at $64.99 per month if you opt for an annual plan.

7. A Meetings Software

Meeting and scheduling appointments with your partner, vendors or clients is a necessary process of your business and it might take away a lot of your precious time. But now, with the help of tools, you can save many productive hours of your business. These apps can display the hours you’re available and when not. They can get the idea of your schedule through a link and accordingly can book the appointment directly. This will automatically be displayed on your calendar.

8. Email Organizer Tool

Email cannot be avoided in any business. To organize emails you can use a tool to study your recipients’ behavior, i.e. if they opened your email and liked your message or not or if they went to the link provided. This is crucial for following up with them.

Many email software also helps you schedule your email. You can schedule your emails to shoot to specific prospects at a given time when you may not be there to send an email. That means you can set a time for each email that you want to shoot in the future without hassle.

9. Survey Tool

Learning more about your customers is something you cannot miss out on doing for better future business. If you could target your happiest customers, you can get referrals or word of mouth for repeat business. Same way if you’d identify your dissatisfied customers, you could proactively reach out to them and fix the issue. This is not all. The more you understand your customers, the better you’ll be able to serve and market to them.

There is many easy-to-use software like SurveyMonkey, which allows you to create multiple surveys without requiring any technical savvy. These survey forms you can also use for your leads, prospects, and internally for your employees.

Synopsis

These are your critical arsenals required when running a business in today’s time and without these tools, an entrepreneur cannot stand anywhere in this competitive business landscape. So, be prepared to have most of these tools to grow your business arsenal and watch your business achieve new milestones.

Mamta Sharma

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