Sales tools may seem like a luxury only large businesses can afford. However, many of these tools are affordably priced, yet packed with valuable features for managing leads, automating workflows, and gathering sales pipeline insights. Other features help you personalize digital conversations with prospects.
Everyone’s experienced sales pitches that remind you of the old Billy Mays infomercials for OxyClean—or worse, a snake-oil offering that leaves your skin crawling. That’s not the vibe you’re going for, and the right sales tools can help you turn a potentially creepy pitch into a friendly, personalized conversation that capitalizes on your strengths. Find out how these 12 sales tools can help you build genuine connections with your customers.
How sales tools address the challenges of modern sales teams
Sales tools are the perfect way to meet customers where they are—research firm Gartner expects 80% of B2B sales to occur digitally by 2025. Along with managing your pipeline and removing sales process bottlenecks, sales tools empower digital sales teams with features like:
- Virtual customer interactions with tools like Loom and Overloop
- Customer segmentation and account-based sales retargeting
- Data-driven forecasting and insights
- Sales automation tools
With these tools, your sales team can create long-lasting customer relationships, even if your customers are located halfway across the world.
12 best sales tools for stronger customer connections
Each of these outbound and inbound sales tools offers unique benefits for customer-focused sales.
Sales engagement platforms
Create lasting first impressions with sales engagement platforms.
1. Loom
Loom’s screen recorder focuses on personalized video outreach, making it ideal for any touchpoint along the buyer’s journey. Sales reps can easily record custom messages featuring their face and screen to add a human touch to each interaction.
Other sales-focused features include Variables, which let you personalize your outreach at scale, and Auto CTA, which automatically adds a next-steps link to all your recordings. Loom also lets you request an email before someone can view your video so you can collect leads for future follow-ups.
Features:
- Engagement tracking: Add link tracking parameters or request a viewer’s email to gather leads.
- Loom AI: Embed links in your videos with Auto CTA, remove filler words and pauses, and generate messages to send with your videos.
- Branded messaging: Add your logo, company colors, and custom backgrounds to make your Loom videos stand out.
- Easily record and share: Record messages for prospects and customers in one click, then share them with an instantly generated link.
Pros:
- Features an easy-to-use interface with numerous video customization options for personalization at scale.
- Loom AI automates repetitive sales tasks to speed up your prospecting.
- Embedded CTAs and tracking options encourage both sales reps and customers to take action.
- Integrates with multiple sales productivity tools and customer relationship management (CRM) tools like Calendly, Salesforce, Zendesk, and Slack.
Cons:
- Some sales-specific features require a Business or Enterprise plan.
- Loom’s free plan limits you to 25 total videos.
Pricing: Loom offers a free plan, and paid plans start at $12.50 per user per month.
Video messaging for sales teams: Discover how Loom’s own sales team uses video messaging to capture attention and close deals.
Try Loom for Sales for Free2. Drift
Drift offers multiple engagement features like AI analysis of your sales cycle, conversational landing pages, and lead engagement scores to help your sales team know who to connect with, and when.
Features:
- Prospect alerts: Follow up with high-intent prospects thanks to Drift’s alerts when someone replies to a chatbot conversation, views a web page, or watches a video.
- Lead management with landing pages: Nurture leads with conversational landing pages where they can engage with chatbots to learn more.
- AI-powered pipeline optimization: Discover trends, buyer intent, and actionable insights to prioritize your sales pipeline and personalize outreach.
Pros:
- Drift includes tools for creating personalized omnichannel outreach emails, videos, and links.
- Conversational landing pages allow prospects to engage directly with your sales content.
- The activity timeline tracks client account activity over time, so your sales team engage with clients in the right way at the right time.
Cons:
- Drift’s starting price may be too high for small teams.
- Teams may need additional tools for proactive sales engagement.
Pricing: Drift’s paid plans start at $2,500 a month.
3. Overloop
Overloop gathers information, finds missing contact information, and automates interactions in LinkedIn. The app also helps your sales team improve cold calling and emailing efficiency.
Features:
- Cold outreach support: Send cold emails and messages, and make phone calls that are personalized based on behavior.
- LinkedIn prospecting tools: Build LinkedIn prospect lists, manage your sales pipeline, and send personalized DMs.
- Automated campaigns: Automate multi-channel sales tasks like cold emails, new tasks, and LinkedIn activities.
Pros:
- Overloop enhances LinkedIn outreach with automated tasks and personalization data.
- The Email Finder uncovers missing contact info for any prospect.
- Analytics dashboards track prospect interactions with emails, phone calls, and LinkedIn communications.
- Overloop works with both LinkedIn Basic and LinkedIn Sales Navigator.
Cons:
- Overloop doesn’t offer a free trial or free plan.
Pricing: Overloop plans start at $58 per user per month.
4. Bloobirds
Bloobirds enhances Salesforce with sales engagement features like making and receiving calls, sending emails, and DMing prospects through LinkedIn and WhatsApp.
Features:
- Salesforce-accessible contact tools: Follow-up with leads via phone, email, or messages directly from Salesforce.
- Built-in guidance: Help sales reps get off on the right foot with suggestions based on customer preferences.
- New lead logging: Log and update LinkedIn and WhatsApp lead info in Salesforce.
Pros:
- Bloobirds adds helpful engagement features to Salesforce without the need to build and maintain customizations.
- Customizable guidance and training features, like sales cadences, help sales representatives stay on top of tasks.
- Automations reduce manual tasks and are easily configurable.
Cons:
- Bloobirds requires you to use Salesforce.
- There’s no free plan available.
Pricing: Bloobirds offers a 14-day free trial. For plan pricing, contact Bloobirds directly.
Customer relationship management (CRM) software
Keep valuable customer information and insights organized with CRM tools.
5. Salesmate
Labeling itself a “conversational CRM,” Salesmate offers multiple customer management features like chatbots, personalized email campaigns, and automated outbound follow-ups.
Features:
- Automated email and text campaigns: Create custom marketing campaigns, conduct A/B test variations, and nurture new leads.
- Data-driven actions: Gain a full view of your sales pipelines, including follow-up alerts and real-time conversation logging.
- Sales-specific workflows: Create automated workflows so your sales team can focus on finding and qualifying more leads.
Pros:
- Multiple automations help your sales team work smarter, not harder, while continuing to scale and personalize communication.
- Works with existing tech stacks that include Gmail, HubSpot, and Mailchimp so your sales reps can find data when and where they need it.
Cons:
- Salesmate doesn’t offer a free plan.
- Syncing Google Contacts creates duplicate records.
Pricing: Salesmate plans start at $23 per user per month.
6. Insightly
Insightly’s CRM and pipeline management tools include insights into your most valuable accounts and notifications when leads are at risk.
Features:
- Lead prioritization: Prioritize high-quality leads with custom lead-scoring criteria and automatically assign them to sales team members.
- Automated workflows: Improve efficiency with automated approvals, task assignments, and follow-up reminders.
- Product and price books: Ensure every salesperson is on the same page with single sources of truth for offerings and prices.
Pros:
- Affordable plans make Insightly CRM a budget-friendly solution for small teams.
- Insightly’s marketing and customer service products make it easy to scale your toolkit.
Cons:
- Certain features, like workflow automation and price books, require a mid-tier plan.
- Insightly lacks more advanced customization features for project management and reporting.
Pricing: Insightly CRM offers a free plan for up to two users, and paid plans start at $29 per user per month.
7. Nimble
Nimble automatically syncs contact info, calendar events, and email interactions for Google and Microsoft 365 accounts across your entire business. It also offers segmentation and personalized outreach features.
Features:
- Cross-team workflow cards: Track processes and contacts across multiple departments like accounting, business development, and HR.
- Nimble Prospector: Use the Prospector Edge, Safari, or Chrome extension to view sales intelligence data and immediately take action.
- Multiple outreach tools: Get in touch with prospects using web forms, automated email campaigns, and cold-calling tools.
Pros:
- Automatic activity updates, profile enrichment, and project management tools boost sales team efficiency.
- The Nimble mobile app displays essential prospect data on the go.
- Email campaign automation and segmentation let you scale personalized outreach.
Cons:
- Storage and contact limitations may be too restrictive for some teams.
- The number of features may become overwhelming for teams looking for a simpler solution.
Pricing: Nimble offers a 14-day free trial, and paid plans start at $24.90 per user per month when purchased annually.
8. Vtiger
Vtiger’s CRM combines marketing, sales, and customer support features so you can manage customer relationships through the entire buyer’s journey. Its sales features include customizable sales playbooks, lead routing and segmentation, and AI-powered insights.
Features:
- Proprietary Calculus AI: Use Vtiger’s built-in Calculus AI for recommended actions, call quality analysis, deal scoring, and sentiment analysis.
- Built-in playbooks: Streamline your sales process with customizable playbooks that define pipeline-specific tasks and dependencies.
- Field sales tools: Improve field sales efficiency with optimized routes and on-the-go access to valuable sales data.
Pros:
- Vtiger offers affordable plans that include automation, lead management, and reporting features.
- CRM tools include routing and optimization tools for sales reps in the field.
- Automation tools let you customize workflows and sales processes, as well as cross-department processes.
Cons:
- Vtiger lacks direct integrations with popular apps like Shopify, Slack, and Jira.
- Some users noted issues setting up Vtiger’s reporting features. (Source: TrustRadius)
Pricing: Vtiger offers a free plan, and paid plans start at $12 per user per month.
Sales enablement tools
Build stronger sales teams with training and coaching tools.
9. Bigtincan (formerly Veelo)
Bigtincan empowers your sales team with just-in-time online and offline training, personalized feedback, and content management.
Features:
- Gamified learning: Inspire sales professionals to reach goals with learning games, badges, and leaderboards.
- AI-powered coaching: Use built-in AI to analyze and spot real-life examples to share with your team for scalable coaching and peer learning.
- Digital sales rooms: Create customer-friendly portals and monitor customer engagement with content.
Pros:
- Analytics monitor sales performance and provide coaching insights.
- Bigtincan includes its own video conferencing platform and online presentation tools.
Cons:
- Certain features, like Salesforce integration and support, require you to pay for add-ons.
- Bigtincan lacks more advanced sales engagement and CRM features.
Pricing: Contact Bigtincan for pricing.
10. Accent
Using data science and AI, Accent personalizes sales training recommendations and suggests customer-facing content based on prospect preferences, behavior, and pipeline stage.
Features:
- AI-powered product book: Ask Accent’s custom ChatGPT app about sales assets to get info, research leads, and translate documents.
- Guided sales tips: Plan next steps with AI-guided insights and suggestions for prioritization and follow-ups.
- Pitch scoring and feedback: Record sales calls, share feedback, and highlight examples of top-notch pitching techniques.
Pros:
- Accent focuses on push learning, which surfaces relevant training content at the right time.
- Sales management features let you monitor team performance, automate coaching, and improve pipeline health.
- Content analytics tools pinpoint which customer assets perform best for which buyer personas so you can optimize your selling strategy.
Cons:
- Mac users may have trouble using certain features.
- A lack of in-depth information and reviews makes it difficult to know if Accent is a good fit without booking a demo.
Pricing: Contact Accent to book a demo.
11. Aligned
Aligned focuses on managing your sales content to streamline team productivity with digital sales rooms, mutual action plans (MAPs), and engagement analytics.
Features:
- Project management suite: Improve selling efficiency and replace spreadsheets with custom MAPs based on pipeline stage and buyer persona.
- Customer success hub: Simplify renewals and onboarding with personalized customer hubs that support collaboration and stakeholder management.
- In-depth analytics: Track account health, activity, and engagement along with insights into buyer intent and risks.
Pros:
- Aligned displays helpful engagement metrics to help you prioritize your sales efforts.
- Features like MAPs and customer success hubs help sales teams create delightful customer experiences.
Cons:
- Zapier, Gong, HubSpot, and Salesforce integrations require a Pro or Enterprise plan.
- The free and Basic plan limits your content library to 500 MB.
Pricing: Aligned offers a free forever plan, and paid plans start at $29 per user per month.
12. Copper
If your sales team primarily uses Google Workspace, then Copper’s Google-friendly CRM features are bound to make their lives easier. It adds follow-up and task automations, activity logging, and cross-team collaboration to your Gmail inbox.
Features:
- Google Workspace integration: Sync your Gmail activity in Copper, gain helpful insights about meeting attendees, and view and send customer files with Google Drive.
- Customizable pipeline views: Sort deals by value, assess win probability, and spot risks with visual sales pipelines.
- Highly customizable reports: Pull data from anywhere within Copper and build personalized reports—or use pre-built templates to quickly assess performance.
Pros:
- Copper automatically syncs Gmail and Google Calendar contact information.
- Reminders and tasks are visible in your Gmail inbox for easy viewing and prioritization.
- Customizations, including pipeline views and reporting, give sales teams access to granular insights.
Cons:
- A majority of Copper’s features require Google Workspace accounts.
- The Basic plan lacks advanced features like workflow automation and app-specific integrations.
Pricing: Copper offers a 14-day free trial, and paid plans start at $23 per user per month.
How to choose the right sales tools for your team
To pick the best sales tools, you first need to assess your needs, team structure, and goals. Pinpoint areas where your sales team needs the most help, such as lead generation, automation, or sales prospecting. Next, consider these features and whether they’re a top priority for your team:
- Integrations: Improve efficiency and adoption by choosing a sales tool that works with other apps. For example, your CRM should connect to email marketing and sales video software for effortless communication with potential customers and qualified leads.
- Scalability: Avoid the need to switch to enterprise sales software and look for platforms that grow with your team by offering plans with additional features or customizable add-ons.
- User-friendliness: Reduce learning curves as much as possible with sales apps that are easy to set up and use.
- Customer support: Troubleshoot hiccups when introducing your new sales tools with helpful guides and support channels.
- Value: Evaluate whether the tool you’re considering provides the right amount of value for the price. While cost is often a concern for small businesses, you shouldn’t need to skip essential features.
The power of video for customer connection: Why Loom is different
Zendesk found that 67% of consumers prefer self-service over speaking to a sales rep, making a customer-focused sales strategy essential. Sales tools like Loom let you engage with leads without coming across as pushy or impersonal. Loom videos add a human touch and nurture genuine connections by recording your webcam and screen.
Use Loom to share personalized follow-ups and capture customer feedback without scheduling a meeting. Loom’s flexibility also makes it helpful for recording sales training and coaching feedback, sharing team announcements, and updating stakeholders. Discover more ways you can build genuine customer relationships and close more deals with Loom.
Try Loom for Sales for Free