Technology Tools (Besides CRM and Dialers) For Better Sales Performance

When people ask us the best technologies to use to get more leverage for their sales teams, our first response (purely out of self-interest, obviously) is, “A lead management CRM and a dialer.”

After laughing a bit at our shameless self-promotion, a lot of them will follow-up by asking, “Anything else?”

It’s not a comprehensive list by any stretch, but here are a few things our own sales team uses to increase their productivity.

1. Docusign for e-document digital signatures https://www.docusign.com

We discovered a while ago that paperwork is a huge time-waster for most sales organizations (see Ken Krogue’s “15 Time-Wasters of Inside Sales and Marketing” for details).

A digital signature service cuts down the hassle of re-faxing every form each time a contract gets updated. Simply update the digital document, upload it, and have the client sign on the (digital) bottom line.

2. Third-party lead providers

Not every industry can get the same level of results, but opening an account with one or more companies that provide relevant sales leads can be a way to boost opportunities. Our own marketing efforts have cooled somewhat on this lead source lately, but over the years hundreds of our clients have had success with them. As long as you’re willing to consistently monitor how well each provider is converting and selling, this can be a great benefit to a sales team.

3. Flexible sales collateral

Technically it’s not a single “technology,” but creating manage documents that can be quickly re-applied and re-appropriated for multiple situations is a huge time-saver. A really sharp-looking product brochure is great–but if it’s only available as a PDF, you have to completely re-design it for the Web. Use Web-ready technologies and templates to create as much of your sales collateral as you can.

4. Digital faxing

Digital faxing is useful in two different ways–one, it’s a great change-up for sales collateral (if you can get permission to send faxes to prospects, it creates great synergy with calling and voice mail), and two, it’s much more efficient. Why go through the hassle of printing, faxing, and waiting? All of our reps have the ability to send faxes directly from within the XANT system, and it’s a huge cost and time saver.