Today, speed in business is the requirement. The phrase for sales success is always efficiency. So, an organization always looks for a way to automate mundane things and allow more time for their sales teams to spend with their customers and conclude a deal. Thus, for that to happen, sales automation goes hand in hand as a necessity. Here’s what sales automation is, benefits, key features, and 15 best sales automation tools to date.
What Is a Sales Automation Tool?
It is just a software solution that will facilitate the process for the sales side in carrying out the whole from lead generation and on up to customer relation management as well as in sending follow-up messages. They are used in administering pipelines, about how they connect with prospects on timelines as well as repetitive actions towards improvement in efficiency. This makes an avenue for high-value activities by automating these mundane tasks.
They easily integrate with pre-existing CRM systems and other business software. They offer a holistic view of the sales funnel while ensuring that this smooth communication with leads and customers takes place.
Benefits of a Sales Automation Tools
With a sales automation tool, comes a lot with it for the sales team. Some of them include:
1. Efficiency Increase
It saves the time involved in time-consuming, redundant activities like data entry, email follow-ups, and appointment scheduling. The sales representatives are freed to concentrate on value-added activities such as building relationships and winning deals by automating the foregoing processes.
2. Accuracy
Humans are less likely to commit mistakes with automated tools. Therefore, data capture and maintenance can only be accurate, and your sales team will get real-time correct information to guide them in making the right decisions.
3. Better Lead Management
The lead gets automatically segmented, and a task can be assigned to sales representatives along with prioritizing follow-ups with certain leads, depending on their interest or response. Sales teams get focused on the most promising leads, and their conversion rates increase.
4. Response Time
These sales automation software will allow the sales teams to contact the prospects quickly so that the probability of having those potential customers fall through the cracks gets lessened and increases the chances of closing deals.
Key Features of Sales Automation Tool
The best sales automation tools provide diversity in features so that the sales team can take them up to make it more productive and successful. Some of the main features of a sales automation tool include:
1. Lead scoring and nurturing
Lead scoring can qualify leads by the chances of conversion. Scores can be assigned based upon engagement behavior and demographic details applying automation tools. This way, sales reps will focus more on the best leads.
2. Email Automation
All that aside, email marketing is perhaps one of the most important sales process steps any business could have. The automation feature would have perhaps also included another follow-up email on prospects that would have further assisted to nurture leads and keep them alive.
3. Integrates with CRM
One of the key integration points is keeping the updating of customer records such that there is an integrated view of all their interactions. With such handovers, the seamless sales team can hence follow up on progress throughout the sales pipeline.
4. Scheduling of task and assignment
It can automatically reserve a meeting time, set up reminders for follow up calls and will assign tasks to sales representatives automatically. With such automation tools, you will have nothing that goes unattended and your sales team will remain on track.
5. Analytics and Reporting
Most sales automation tools come with reporting dashboards giving insight into those KPIs, such as conversion rates, lead activity, and pipeline status. These allow the various sales teams to establish trends and patterns and modify their ways accordingly.
Top 15 Sales Automation Tools
1. HubSpot Sales Hub
HubSpot Sales Hub is one of the completely integrated sales automation tools combined properly to work in collaboration with the feature-rich marketing and customer service HubSpot tools. As far as analytics and tracking, it is also the best: sales teams can track live email interactions with customers, engagement progress, and pipeline activity.
It differs because of an intuitive interface, accompanied by its powerful automation abilities that lighten up the effort exerted on activities. This allows prospect activities to be tracked via the email tracking feature of the tool, and this meeting scheduler ensures that there will never be a back-and-forth communication about appointments.
Key Features
- Email tracking and notifications
- Meeting scheduling
- Management of a sales pipeline
- Tracking and management of documents
- Automated email sequences
- Advanced reporting and analytics
Best for:
- Small to enterprise-level businesses that are looking for the ultimate sales automation platform
Pricing
- Starter: $45/user/month
- Professional: $450/month/5 users
- Enterprise: $1,200/month/10 users
Website:
www.hubspot.com/products/sales
2. SalesBlink
SalesBlink is one of the sales automation tools for cold outreach that was built exactly for the sales teams in this new age. Such a tool stands out in carrying out multichannel prospecting and enables sales representatives to build complex outreach campaigns on channels such as email and social media as well as phone.
Such software excels at being able to automate the whole prospecting process, from finding verified emails up to scheduling follow-ups. The warm-up feature of advance warm-up for emails has been ensured by optimum delivery, and the inbuilt CRM system keeps and organizes the prospect information. It has other unique features as well, including LinkedIn automation and in-depth analytics giving the performance of the campaigns.
Key Features:
- Automated email finder and verification
- Multi-channel outreach automation
- Email warm-up capability
- Campaign scheduling and monitoring
- CRM integration
- Custom reporting
Best for:
- B2B sales teams with the intention of cold outreach and lead generation
Pricing
- Basic – $39/month
- Professional – $99 /month
- Business – $169 / month
Website
www.salesblink.io
3. Clearbit
Clearbit is the upgrade of data-driven automation for sales, in the sense that it places an emphasis on enriching a customer’s data with deep business intelligence. Using a large database to generate information about companies and contacts in detailed form, it enables sales teams to get a fairer idea of their prospects before making initial contact. Its real-time enrichment capabilities can update and validate customer information automatically and thereby ensure data accuracy across all the platforms integrated.
It becomes especially valuable for B2B sales teams because of the anonymous visitor identification feature and its detailed company information. Also, its integration capabilities extend very well to all major CRM platforms and marketing tools, making it ideal for organizations that prioritize data-driven sales strategies.
Key Features:
- Data enrichment
- Company contact intelligence
- Visitor identification
- Prospecting tools
- Lead scoring
- API access
Best For
- Data-driven sales teams requiring detailed prospect intelligence
Pricing:
- Custom pricing depending on volume of data
- Enterprise plans are available as well
Website:
www.clearbit.com
4. 6sense
6sense is one of the leaders in AI-powered sales intelligence and account engagement solutions. The value proposition of the platform will be finding out and predicting the buyer behavior due to advanced artificial intelligence along with big data analytics.
It excels at anonymous buying behavior and actionable insight into proactively in-market accounts. Its full account engagement platform integrates intent data and predictive analytics, coupled with multi-channel orchestration, to power account-based marketing and selling.
Key Features
- AI-Powered Buyer Intent Detection
- Account identification and prioritization
- Predictive analytics and scoring
- Multi-channel orchestration
- Campaign analytics
- Integration capabilities
Best For:
- Enterprise B2B companies with account-based selling
Pricing:
- Custom priced according to company size
- Enterprise solutions
- Contact for more detailed quotes
Website:
www.6sense.com
5. Salesforce
Market Leader in customer relationship management and sales automation. Its powerful platform scales from small businesses to global enterprises. At the heart, the attractiveness of this company lies within a comprehensive suite of everything related to selling-from lead management through closing deals and also post-sale relationship maintenance.
Its significant automation features include workflow management, lead scoring, and territory management. Using Einstein AI is predictive analytics as well as smart recommendations as it sits as a cybersecurity tool for all the data that gets eventually processed.
Key Features
- Lead and Opportunity Management
- Improved insights through Einstein AI
- Territory Management
- Quote and Proposal Automation
- Mobile Sales Tool
- Comprehensive reporting and analytics
Best for:
- Mid-sized to large-sized businesses that require overall automation of sales
Pricing:
- Essentials : $25/user/month
- Professional: $75/user/month
- Enterprise: $150/user/month
- Unlimited: $300/user/month
Website:
www.salesforce.com
6. Cognism
The platform provided a unique way to add AI to data in real-time verified business contact information that is compliant with global data protection regulations. The proprietary Revenue AI engine looks to identify and prioritize high-potential prospects based on intent signals and behavior patterns.
For sales teams looking to achieve reliable mobile numbers and direct dials for direct outreach, this is just the best. Not to forget, major CRM platforms and sales tools fit perfectly well to have an appropriate workflow for sales teams.
Key Features
- Compliance-oriented contact information
- Revenue AI for lead scoring
- Direct dial and mobile phone validation
- Sales cadence automation
- Browser extension for prospecting
- International data coverage
Best For:
- B2B sales teams requiring compliant prospecting data
Pricing:
- Prospector : at $6,000 per year
- Enterprise : pricing would be custom
- Custom solutions are available
Website:
www.cognism.com
7. Docebo
What Docebo does is change sales enablement with an AI-based learning platform that makes the knowledge retention capabilities of a sales team much stronger. Indeed, the differentiation factor in the product is its fully personalized learning experience that learns the patterns of a few particular needs of a specific sales representative. Use the Content Management System to create and share sales training material, product updates, and competitive intelligence easily.
The features of social learning from the tool make it possible to share knowledge within the organization, and the gamification would add to the level of engagement in addition to full completion rates. Its analytics tool is also advanced and offers rich and granular insight into the learning process along with its impact on sales.
Key Features
- AI pathways
- Content development tools
- Mobile learning
- Social learning
- Performance monitoring
- Integration with a CRM system
Best for:
- Companies that either widely rely on or are interested in training and empowering sales teams
Pricing
- Growth: starts from $1,600/month
- Enterprise: by request
- Custom solutions are also available
Website:
https://www.docebo.com
8. Vanillasoft
The right sales reps are engaged with the best opportunities at the right time because of this queue-based lead routing system platform. With logical branch scripting, teams can create and then, in real-time, adjust consistency in messaging based on prospect responses. Also offered is an integrated dialer with email tracking for a seamless multichannel outreach experience.
The system provides strong reporting and analytics capabilities and gives deep insights into team performance as well as the effectiveness of campaigns, user-friendly means new users can easily discover how to navigate all different aspects of it quickly.
Key Features:
- Queue-based lead routing
- Logical branch scripting
- Auto dialer integration
- Email and SMS automation
- Real-time activity dashboards
- Custom workflow builder
Best For
- Inside sales teams and high-volume sales operations
Pricing:
- Professional- $80/user/month
- Enterprise- $100/user/month and much more
- custom solutions available.
Website:
www.vanillasoft.com
9. Bambora
Bambora is best suited in easing the entire payments processing and sales transaction activities based on its far-reaching and comprehensive payment automation. It will fit one’s international sales operation if there is a wide application to multiple payment methods based across different currencies, so it is very secure with an enhanced detection algorithm for fraud.
One of its strong features is that it can integrate very well with already operational systems for sales and accounts in such a way that reconciliation as well as reporting are fully automated. Its analytics dashboard also provides deep insights into transaction patterns and customer payment patterns.
Key Features:
- Multi-currency processing
- Fraud detection and prevention
- Automated reconciliation
- Custom checkout experiences
- Recurring billing automation
- Advanced reporting tools
Best For:
- E-commerce companies and businesses that need something more complex than simple payment processing.
Pricing:
- Basic: 2.65% + $0.30 for every transaction
- Custom rates for large merchants
- Enterprise plans
Website:
Home Page
10. Clari
Clari is the revenue operations platform that uses AI to give unprecedented transparency to the sales pipeline and revenue forecasting. It excels in blending historical data with real-time customer engagement signals to predict deal outcomes with unprecedented accuracy levels. This advanced opportunity management system helps sales teams find out risks and barriers early in the sales cycle. Therefore, pipeline inspection, with its forecasting approach, has turned the operations management into revenue for sales organizations.
Key Features
- AI-based forecasting
- Pipeline inspection
- Activity intelligence
- Predictive analytics
- Team collaboration tools
- Revenue insights dashboard
Best for:
- Enterprise organizations making an emphasis on revenue operations and forecasting
Pricing:
- Professional: Price according to needs
- Enterprise: Price according to business needs
Website:
www.clari.com
11. Mailtastic
Mailtastic brings email signature marketing mainstream. It makes every email written by employees a force to reckon with, as regards marketing. An organization’s email signatures are brought together all in one place with Mailtastic. Hence, coordination across communications, campaigns can now be run through its employees. Advanced tracking capabilities measure the performance of banners and click-through rates on signature campaigns.
Automatically applies the same branding and messaging content to all employee signatures All employees’ signature updates available due to central management campaigns can be tailored towards a particular department or region and even customized criteria for targeting.
Key Features
- Central Management
- Campaign and analytics tracking
- Dynamic content update
- Departmental targeting
- Click tracking
- Brand compliance tools
Best for
- Companies using email signatures as marketing
Pricing
- Basic: $5/user/month
- Professional: $8/user/month
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
Website:
www.mailtastic.com
12. Gong
Gong is game-changing sales enablement with a revenue intelligence platform that aggregates and analyzes customer interactions across the platforms of the phone, the email, and the web conferencing. Advanced AI capabilities through the platform at real-time sales conversations that get transcribed and analyzed enable deep understanding of successful patterns of selling and precisely what the customers mean.
What’s made it invaluable in the art of sales coaching and development is by revealing winning patterns and applying those patterns to a more extensive sales team. It does a great job providing actionable intelligence on competitor mentions, price discussions, and next steps in conversations in a sales engagement.
Key Features:
- Conversation Intelligence
- Deal Pipeline Analytics
- Reality-based Forecasting
- Team Coaching Tools
- Market Intelligence
- Automated Call Scoring
Best for:
- Sales teams that have done conversation intelligence and coaching
Pricing:
- Core: Custom pricing
- Premium- Quote by customized price
- Enterprise- Quote by customized price
Website:
Homepage
13. Instantly
Instantly is the next-generation email automation platform that is uniquely built for high-volume outreach campaigns with advanced deliverability features. Unique automated technology builds and maintains sender reputation across multiple email accounts to help aid in optimized delivery rates. It’s equipped with an intelligent throttling system which can preclude the users from actually getting flagged by spam filters while still maintaining their ability to be sent at high volumes.
It features a rich set of tools for sequence building, allowing for customizable multi-touch campaigns at scale. It tracks advanced system analytics, which is not limited to opens and clicks but the full health of the campaign, deliverability, and more.
Key Features:
- Automated email warm-up
- Smart sending limits
- Advanced sequence building
- Deliverability monitoring
- A/B testing capability
- Team collaboration tools
Best For:
- Sales teams that send thousands of emails a month. The firm promises premium deliverability.
Pricing:
- Starter – $37/month
- Growth – $79/month
- Enterprise – Custom pricing
Website:
www.instantly.ai
14. Klenty
Klenty is the wholesale engagement platform that links marketing automation and sales execution. Klenty is great in high-level campaign automation with a personal touch to the communication aspect. Its smart follow-up system ensures no single lead loses the ball with automatic prospect engagement based on patterns of interaction.
It feeds live content to numerous touch points automatically. It is, additionally, the ultimate multi-channel outreach because of the in-built phone dialer and social selling tools. It offers comprehensive analytics from the platform to indicate engagement patterns and performance effectiveness of the campaign.
Key Features
- Multi-channel engagement
- Automated follow-ups
- Dynamic personalization
- Phone dialer
- Social selling tools
- Performance analytics
Best for:
- B2B sales teams which need personalized multichannel outreach
Pricing
- Startup: $30 per user/month
- Growth: $60 per user/month
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
Website:
www.klenty.com
15. LeadSquared
LeadSquared is an all-inclusive, complete sales execution CRM platform for high-velocity sales environments. Where the key strength of the platform lies in completely automating the lead capture to conversion process through sophisticated workflow automation. Its unique lead scoring system continuously evaluates and prioritizes leads based on behavior and engagement patterns.
It’s the execution of mobile-first solutions, with field sales teams being able to grow there proficiently. Its territory management, on the other hand, delivers great lead distribution and ensures team productivity. Integration through marketing automation tools provides a seamless lead nurturing experience.
Key Features
- Lead Capture Automation
- Dynamic Lead Scoring
- Mobile Sales Apps
- Territory Management
- Task Automation
- Advanced Analytics
Best For
- High-velocity sales teams and field sales operations
Pricing:
- Lite: $25/user/month
- Pro: $50/user/month
Website:
www.leadsquared.com
What to Consider When Choosing One
Here are some of the most vital factors to consider when selecting the right sales tool for your business automation:
1. Ease of integration
Before putting your money in a sales automation tools, make sure it really and truly plays well within the other systems you are already using: CRM, email marketing, and business systems integration. Let this be key for the sales team to use their respective favorite tools with a consolidated customer view. Tools support strong APIs or have pre-built integrations like with Salesforce, HubSpot, and Microsoft Dynamics.
2. Workflow
Each sales team has its workflow; therefore, each tool is unique in customizing automation for particular needs. These features include customizing the creation of sales pipelines, ensuring different email triggers, and thus reporting metrics to fit what you’re trying to achieve in your sales strategy rather than vice versa.
3. Ease of Use
A user-friendly interface will make it easier for your sales teams to adopt the tool properly. A badly user-designed tool leads to inefficiency or denial from the team. You should look for a sales automation tool that is easier for people to design intuitively and also has enough resource-based training so that your team can learn quickly how to take full advantage of it.
4. Scalability
The sales automation tool should grow with your business. In case the size of your team increases and your customers multiply, then the tool should be able to accept and manage increased volume without losing performance capabilities. Check if the tool can scale with bigger volumes of leads and contacts; and to do that it either offers add-ons or advanced features that can cater to future business needs.
Conclusion
The right sales automation tools help your selling process a lot in improvement toward efficiency with the sales team and lets you easily establish a lead nurturing process, and close deals as well. Considerations such as integration, customization, user-friendliness, scalability, and analytics can help you pick a tool that best supports your business needs.
FAQs
1. What is sales automation?
This is a use of technology to automate repetitive sales process works, such as emailing, tracking leads and creating follow-ups.
2. What are the productivity benefits of selling automation?
Sales automation improves productivity by eliminating routine work and engaging the sales team in high priority work through relationship building and deal closure activities.
3. Is a sales automation tool expensive?
There are variations in the costs of sales automation along with feature and scale, but most vendors do have modestly priced plans for small businesses.
4. Will sales automation work in place of human sales professionals?
Sales automation does not replace human sales professionals; it complements them.
