It may seem impersonal to use automation to aid in something as communication-based and human as sales, but sales productivity and automation apps can be a great resource for sales professionals and representatives. These powerful solutions and tools streamline and optimize sales processes, helping teams and individuals to perform more effectively and efficiently.
One of the primary ways these tools aid sales professionals is by automating repetitive and time-consuming tasks. Instead of talking with clients, representatives’ days can be completely occupied by tasks like data entry, scheduling follow-ups, sending reminders, and generating reports. With automation software, these tasks can be eliminated or greatly reduced to save time for the more important parts of the job.
Moreover, these software solutions help with customer relationship management (CRM). They provide a centralized platform where all customer information–from contact details to interaction history–can be stored and easily accessed. With this centralized platform, salespeople have an easier time tracking leads, managing relationships, and personalizing their approach based on the customer’s history and preferences.
Furthermore, such tools often include features for collaboration and communication, making it easier for teams to work together, share insights, and stay aligned. This fosters a more cohesive sales effort, which can boost overall sales performance.
Key takeaways
- Sales productivity tools give reps more time to sell. Automating data entry, follow-up scheduling, reminders, and reports cuts the admin work that can fill a rep’s day, which leaves more time for conversations with clients.
- A CRM sits at the center of most sales stacks. HubSpot Sales Hub, Pipedrive, Salesforce, Close, and Freshsales store contact details and interaction history in one place, so reps can track leads and personalize each conversation.
- Engagement tools keep follow-ups from slipping. Outreach runs a series of touchpoints over a set period, and HubSpot’s email tracking shows when a prospect opens an email, so reps can follow up at the right moment.
- Shared wording keeps every rep on message. TextExpander Snippets with fill-ins turn standard emails into personalized messages, and shared Snippet groups keep the whole team using the same approved language with every prospect.
Here we provide a list of the top productivity apps to make your sales team more effective:
TextExpander
TextExpander, a productivity tool known for its ability to create and expand custom keyboard shortcuts into frequently-used text and pictures, can be an invaluable asset for sales professionals. With this tool, salespeople can streamline their communication and documentation processes, significantly increasing productivity.
One of the ways TextExpander aids sales professionals is by automating repetitive typing tasks. For example, salespeople often need to send similar emails to different prospects or clients. With TextExpander, they can create a ‘snippet’ or shortcut for the standard parts of these emails, and then simply trigger that snippet in any email or document. This eliminates the need for time-consuming manual typing, reduces the risk of typographical errors, and improves email productivity.
Moreover, TextExpander supports ‘fill-in-the-blank’ snippets. This means salespeople can create templates with empty fields to fill in specific details like the client’s name, the product they’re interested in, or the date of a follow-up meeting.
Furthermore, TextExpander’s advanced snippets can automatically insert date and time, change text case, and even use conditional logic to adapt the snippet based on what’s typed. This level of automation and customization is particularly beneficial for crafting tailored, timely messages or for generating dynamic content like sales reports.
TextExpander’s team features can also foster consistency in communication across the sales team. Shared snippet groups ensure everyone is using the same wording, which can strengthen the team’s branding and messaging efforts.
TextExpander provides sales professionals with a suite of features designed to accelerate and simplify their written communication, leaving them with more time to focus on building relationships and closing deals.
- Platforms supported: Chrome, macOS, Windows, Android, and iOS
- Price: Free plan available; paid plans start at $5 per user per month, billed annually
HubSpot Sales Hub
HubSpot Sales Hub enhances sales productivity, offering features that support contact and pipeline management, automation, analytics, and much more.
One of the standout features of Sales Hub is its seamless integration with the HubSpot CRM, offering a unified view of the sales process. The CRM automatically tracks customer interactions across various channels, providing salespeople with a complete history of each lead.
Sales Hub also includes robust email tracking capabilities. Sales reps can receive real-time notifications when a prospect opens an email or clicks a link. This instant insight can help salespeople to follow up at the most opportune time, improving their chances of securing a deal.
Automation is another area where Sales Hub excels. With its workflow feature, routine tasks such as follow-ups or data entry can be automated, freeing up salespeople to focus more on selling and less on administrative work.
What sets HubSpot Sales Hub apart from many other sales tools is its combination of depth and ease of use. It offers a comprehensive suite of tools that covers every aspect of the sales process, yet it’s designed to be intuitive and user-friendly. Its native integration with other HubSpot Hubs (like the Marketing and Service Hubs) makes it a holistic solution for businesses, eliminating the need to juggle multiple platforms.
Finally, HubSpot provides extensive educational resources and exceptional customer support, further enhancing the user experience and making it a standout choice for sales professionals seeking a powerful yet user-friendly sales tool.
- Platforms supported: Web, Android, and iOS
- Price: Free to $18 monthly ($3600 monthly for their most powerful and largest scale app)
Pipedrive
Pipedrive is a customer relationship management (CRM) tool specifically designed to streamline and enhance the sales process. One of its standout features is its visual sales pipeline, which allows sales professionals to get a clear, intuitive view of their sales process. By dragging and dropping deals between stages, salespeople can easily track their progress and maintain a consistent focus on the tasks at hand.
The tool also provides automation capabilities. Routine data entry, follow-ups, and activity logging can be automated, allowing sales professionals to devote more time and energy to higher-value tasks.
Pipedrive stands out for its user-friendly interface and its strong focus on sales activities. The platform is designed to drive action. It prompts salespeople to schedule their next activity as soon as the current one is completed. This unique, activity-based approach encourages a proactive sales process and helps reduce the risk of deals falling through the cracks.
Furthermore, Pipedrive can integrate seamlessly with a range of other tools, from email clients and calendar apps to marketing automation software.
Pipedrive offers a blend of simplicity and power, designed to keep sales professionals organized, focused, and primed for action. Its activity-based approach and smooth integrations make it a compelling choice for sales teams.
- Platforms supported: Web, Android, and iOS
- Price: $14.90 monthly to $99.00 monthly
Salesforce
Salesforce is a CRM platform that provides a wide array of features to assist sales professionals.
One of Salesforce’s notable features is its highly customizable dashboard. This allows sales professionals to view and analyze real-time data regarding sales performance, client interactions, and marketing campaigns. Such instant access to critical data helps in making informed decisions and aligning strategies with business goals.
Salesforce’s automation capabilities, enabled by its proprietary AI, Einstein, are exceptional. Einstein can automate data entry and follow-ups, and it can generate predictive analytics to identify patterns, trends, and potential opportunities.
What sets Salesforce apart from many other sales apps is its extensive functionality and scalability. It caters not just to sales, but also to service, marketing, and e-commerce–providing a 360-degree view of the customer. This means that as a business grows, Salesforce can scale and evolve to meet its changing needs.
Moreover, Salesforce’s vast ecosystem of apps, available on their AppExchange, allows for endless customization and integration, making it adaptable to virtually any sales environment.
- Platforms supported: Web, Android, and iOS
- Price: $25 monthly to $300 monthly
Close
Close is a powerful CRM designed specifically to aid sales professionals in streamlining their workflow and boosting productivity. Its all-in-one platform brings together various communication channels, like calling, emailing, and SMS, in one place, providing an integrated solution to manage and track all customer interactions.
One of the standout features of Close is its built-in calling system. It allows for one-click calling, automatic call logging, and even call recording. With Close, sales reps can make and manage calls directly within the platform.
Close also provides robust email automation. Its bulk email feature coupled with customizable templates allows sales teams to send personalized emails to numerous contacts at once. The tool also offers two-way email sync, making it easy to track communication history.
What sets Close apart from other sales apps is its emphasis on reducing data entry and boosting efficiency. It focuses on automation and integration of communication channels to save time and streamline processes. This high level of sales workflow integration within one platform is a key differentiator.
Close provides detailed, analytical reporting features, giving sales teams valuable insights into their performance and helping them make data-driven decisions. These unique features make Close an effective tool for sales professionals aiming for productivity and efficiency.
- Platforms supported: Web, Android, and iOS
- Price: $99 monthly to $699 monthly (when billed annually)
Freshsales
Freshsales is a dynamic CRM platform designed to facilitate a streamlined sales process.
One of Freshsales’ key features is its AI-based lead scoring. This feature uses artificial intelligence to rank leads based on their likelihood to convert, providing sales professionals with crucial insights and helping them prioritize their efforts.
Furthermore, Freshsales includes a built-in phone and email system, enabling salespeople to communicate with leads and customers without leaving the CRM. The system also automatically logs these interactions, creating a comprehensive interaction history that can be referred to at any point.
What differentiates Freshsales from other sales apps is its simplicity and ease of use. Despite offering a comprehensive feature set, Freshsales maintains an intuitive, user-friendly interface that focuses on usability. Coupled with its robust feature set, Freshsales can be a compelling choice for businesses of all sizes.
- Platforms supported: Web, Android, and iOS
- Price: $Free to $69 monthly (when billed annually)
Outreach
Outreach is a sales engagement platform designed to help sales teams drive more productive conversations and close deals faster. It integrates with existing CRMs to streamline sales activities, drive efficiency, and improve the accuracy of sales forecasts.
One notable feature of Outreach is its sequence function, which allows sales reps to create a series of touchpoints that automatically run over a set period. This helps ensure no potential clients are overlooked and facilitates consistent follow-up.
Outreach also offers advanced analytics, providing sales teams with valuable insights into their processes and performance. This data can be used to optimize strategies and improve results over time.
What sets Outreach apart from many other sales tools is its primary focus on sales engagement. The platform is designed specifically to help sales reps engage prospects more effectively, and as such, it offers powerful features for automating and improving interactions across various channels.
Moreover, Outreach offers advanced personalization features, such as the ability to customize sequences and messages based on specific prospect behaviors or characteristics. This focus on personalization and engagement allows Outreach to enhance salespeople’s outreach efforts and drive more meaningful conversations with prospects.
- Platforms supported: Web, Android, and iOS
- Price: Varies with team size
What should a sales productivity stack include?
A sales productivity stack usually covers five jobs: storing customer data, running outreach, handling calls and email, automating admin work, and keeping every rep’s messages accurate. Most teams start with a CRM, then add tools for the gaps that slow reps down. The tools in this guide map to those jobs like this.
| Job | What it handles | Tools in this guide |
|---|---|---|
| Customer relationship management | Contacts, deal pipeline, and interaction history | HubSpot Sales Hub, Pipedrive, Salesforce, Close, Freshsales |
| Sales engagement | Sequences of touchpoints, email tracking, and follow-up timing | Outreach, HubSpot Sales Hub |
| Calling and email in one place | Built-in calling, call logging, and email inside the CRM | Close, Freshsales |
| Automation and AI | Data entry, follow-ups, lead scoring, and predictive analytics | Salesforce, Freshsales, Pipedrive |
| Consistent messaging | Approved emails, call notes, and replies with fill-ins in any app | TextExpander |
Where TextExpander fits
A CRM and a sequencing tool decide who to contact and when. TextExpander helps with what reps say. Save follow-up emails, call recaps, objection responses, and meeting requests as Snippets with fill-ins for the prospect’s name, product, and next meeting date. Reps type a short abbreviation in the CRM, Gmail, Outlook, or LinkedIn, and the full message appears, ready to personalize.
Shared Snippet groups keep the whole team on the same approved language, and when pricing or positioning changes, one update reaches every rep. See how TextExpander for sales teams works, or learn more about shared snippet libraries for teams.
TextExpander is free. Your time isn’t.
Create shortcuts for the things you type most and start saving time everywhere you type. Use it solo or build a shared library with your team.
Free forever, no credit card required.
Frequently asked questions
What are sales productivity tools?
Sales productivity tools are apps that help reps spend less time on admin work and more time selling. They include CRMs that store customer data and pipelines, sales engagement platforms that automate follow-up sequences, calling and email tools that log every interaction, and text expanders that insert approved emails and notes. Together they cut data entry, keep follow-ups on schedule, and make reporting easier for managers.
What is the difference between a CRM and a sales engagement platform?
A CRM, such as Salesforce, HubSpot Sales Hub, or Pipedrive, is the system of record: it stores contacts, deals, and the history of every interaction. A sales engagement platform, such as Outreach, works on top of the CRM to run outreach, with sequences of emails and calls that go out over a set period and analytics on what gets responses. Many teams use both together.
How can sales reps spend less time writing emails?
Write your best follow-up, recap, and meeting-request emails once, then save them as reusable templates with fill-ins for the details that change. With TextExpander, reps type a short abbreviation in any app they type in on Mac, Windows, Chrome (extension), iPhone, iPad, and Android, and the full email appears with a prompt for the prospect's name and next steps. Shared Snippets keep every rep's emails consistent.
