The 10 Best Small Business Sales Tools of 2019
Running a small business is one of the most difficult tasks you can undertake. Especially, if you aren’t using the best small business tools to help you manage and grow your business.
It’s why 20% of SMBs fail within the first year, and 30% within the second. This only compounds as the years go on.
And it’s becoming more and more clear why:
75% of sales professionals state that closing more deals is their priority in 2019. But doing so is easier said than done.
Another huge sales priority is improving existing sales technology to make money online with less effort.
That’s why I’ve compiled a list of the top ten best small business sales tools to help you close more deals with more efficiency. And in the process, give your small business a better shot at long term success.
Ready?
Let’s dive in.
What are the Best Small Business Sales Tools?
Small businesses are very diverse in what they require when it comes to sales tools.
From contract management to invoicing to customer support to file management and more.
Depending on your business, you may or may not need some of the tools listed here. But, each and every tool can be utilized in different fashions to streamline your processes and improve sales performance.
In this post, I’ve compiled a diverse selection of sales software tools to help you manage the following aspects of your small business with the goal of improving aid in the following facets of a small business to improve sales:
- Contract management
- Invoicing
- Customer support
- File management
- Meeting software
- Proximity marketing
- Retail analysis
- Survey tool
- Online order fulfillment
- Point of sale
- Social media marketing
Without further ado, here are the ten best small business sales tools you can implement in 2019 to improve sales, customer satisfaction, and brand health.
1. PandaDoc: Best Contract Management Software
In 2017 alone, 61% of small businesses reported a cyber attack or leaked confidential data.
In the news, we consistently hear about confidential data breaches and leaks.
It’s everywhere and ever-present.
Securing customer data is more important than ever before, and customers are demanding more secure contracts and invoicing.
Enter PandaDoc.
PandaDoc is an all-in-one contract management and invoicing software for sales proposals, contracts, quotes, and eSignatures.
With a proven track record of security, they are the best in the business. Typical invoices and sales proposals are clunky, boring, and outdated.
With PandaDoc, you can bring them into the 21st century with ease using a drag-and-drop doc builder to create, send, track, and eSign stunning sales documents that are visually appealing and secure:
According to PandaDoc, their customers report a 28% improvement in close rates and an 18% increase in average order values. Integrating with countless other apps like Stripe for subscription billing and HubSpot for your CRM, it’s a full-stack sales dream.
If you’re still running old-school sales pages, unsecured PDFs, and faxed signatures, it’s time to upgrade.
After you integrate your contracts into your small business bookkeeping, only will you close more deals, but you’ll improve the customer experience tenfold.
2. Freshdesk Best Customer Support Software
One-third of customers will switch to a competing business after ONE bad customer service experience. And when they have that bad experience, customers tell an average of 15 others about it.
Just one bad instance is enough for you to potentially lose thousands to millions of dollars.
With that being said, having a good, stable business reputation for customer service is key. This means managing reviews, customer satisfaction, and your net promoter score (NPS).
“A customer loyalty score, ranging from -100 to 100, calculated by asking customers one question: “On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend this product/company to a friend or colleague?”
Having a good NPS score is a sign that your customer service is on-point. Having a low NPS score is a signal that you need to step your game up.
After all, it’s far more expensive to sell to new customers than existing ones.
That’s where a good customer support software, like FreshDesk, comes into play:
Using customer support software, you can manage your entire support profile from all channels, like your website, your company’s social media profiles, and more. You’ll want to make sure that you sync this data with your business website and analytics. Whether you’re using WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, or Weebly, you should choose a website builder that integrates with other systems. If there isn’t a native website app, you can use a tool like Zapier to integrate two systems. Next, install Google Analytics to see how users are interacting with your customer support tools.
Condensed down to on a single platform, your efforts are streamlined for efficiency. Combine this customer support software with one of the top online chat tools to automate your customer support and improve customer loyalty.
With custom tools and NPS metrics, you can monitor your support success and see key areas of improvement.
Now is the time to invest in better customer support and live chat software if you want to keep customers loyal for years to come.
SEE ALSO: 25 Simple Customer Service Tips All Retailers Should Try
3. Google Drive for Business: Best File Manager
The average tech stack is overwhelming large. And when it comes to file management, this presents a big problem:
How on earth can you find, secure, share, and edit these documents, especially if you have a team of people looking to collaborate?
Without a file management service, you can’t have the efficiency that your business needs.
Thankfully, Google Drive has a dedicated small business solution just for this.
With unlimited storage for small businesses, you can upload, share, and save any document you need.
Plus, Google implements its own top-tier security measure to ensure your documents and files are kept safe and secure.
If you collaborate with a team and your sales and marketing are directly intertwined, using a file management software is critical.
Google Drive for SMBs is one of the best around.
4. GoToMeeting: Best Meeting Software
Believe it or not, meetings don’t have to be in person.
In fact, it’s been proven that online meetings save you money and time.
98% of people stated that video conferencing helps to build relationships. And relationships are key for customer loyalty and spending, as well as a well-functioning internal team.
Online meetings can help you develop strategy plans, engage loyal customers, and sell to potentially huge accounts.
GoToMeeting is one of the best solutions on the market to do just that.
With over 18 million customers, GoToMeeting is a household name in the video meeting and web conferencing space.
GoToMeeting automatically transcribes your meeting minutes, schedules meetings that fit your team availability, and can be accessed from anywhere, including a mobile device on the go.
5. Beaconstac: Best Proximity Marketing Tool
Mobile-first is the second biggest organic trend in 2019. Mobile traffic is currently dominating and is set to continually rise.
If you aren’t currently capitalizing on this trend using proximity marketing tools, you are missing a huge potential sales opportunity.
What’s proximity marketing?
Beaconstac defines it as:
“Proximity marketing refers to communicating with customers at the right place, the right time and with highly relevant and personalized messages, on their smartphones – be it greeting at the entry points, special offers in the store aisles, or getting feedback on a new product.”
Proximity marketing includes using tools like QR codes to drive action on your mobile app or website:
But Beaconstac is more than just a QR code and NFC-based app.
It also provides loyalty program tools that help you manage customer satisfaction, drive new sales via compelling coupons and offers, and provides analytics to manage the entire process.
Users are continually researching products on the go. If you aren’t capitalizing on this with proximity marketing, you are missing a big potential driver of sales.
SEE ALSO: How to Increase Sales in Retail – The Ultimate Guide
6. Sisense: Best Retail Predictive Analytics Tool
We live in an era of data. Everywhere we look there are insights, analytics, and statistics at our fingertips.
But, there is one big problem. As Avinash Kaushik says, we are “data rich, information poor.”
What does that mean? We have tons of data, but making sense of that data and turning data points into practical, actionable steps isn’t simple.
Data is just data unless you utilize it for the improvement of your business.
With Sisense, that’s what you can accomplish.
With Sisense, you can build custom analytics dashboards and programs to track and measure your data in real-time.
With custom building, you can better understand the data you have and receive actionable tips on how to implement changes to improve your data.
If you are struggling with the current analytics on your platform, it’s time to upgrade.
7. SurveyMonkey: Best Survey Tool
Surveys are the king when it comes to collecting information from both potential and existing customers.
Market research is more often than not done via surveys to target markets attempting to gauge interest in a product or service.
Especially for omnichannel marketing across both retail and ecommerce, surveys can help you identify pain points and customer service blindspots that need fixing.
Surveys are versatile sales and marketing tools that are key for your sales toolkit.
If you are looking for a survey tool, SurveyMonkey is the gold standard. From market research to concept testing to online polls, SurveyMonkey does it all.
If you have a large tech stack, don’t worry, SurveyMonkey integrates with over 100 different applications and services from your favorite CRM to point of sale system.
8. ShipBob: Best Online Ordering Fulfillment Provider
Amazon dominates when it comes to online sales. In fact, they make up 49.1% of online shopping.
Competing with them is close to impossible. But it’s not impossible. You just have to offer your customers the same perks and service they know and love from Amazon.
Things like free two-day shipping:
With ShipBob you can do exactly that.
ShipBob is the best online ordering fulfillment provider out there.
Instead of basic, outsourced fulfillment, ShipBob works like a logistics partner, helping you run the fulfillment of your products.
Plus, ShipBob integrates with every ecommerce platform and provider out there, giving you an easy way to improve fulfillment ASAP.
Shipping anywhere in the world using popular carriers, it’s a no-brainer.
9. ShopKeep: Best Point of Sale (POS) System
Point of sale systems have changed the game for small business selling.
They can accept countless forms of payment, from standard credit and debit cards to contactless payments like Apple Pay and Google Pay, and more.
Point of sale systems also allow you to track vital data on purchases, purchase history, and loyalty programs, too.
There are countless point of sale systems to get the job done. But, one, in particular, is ranked first by business owners like you: ShopKeep.
Why?
ShopKeep offers the ideal balance between power and ease of use. While many POS systems target either new or enterprise businesses, ShopKeep is easy enough for new businesses to launch with, while still offering the deeper features you’ll need as your business grows.
Whether you are a clothing retailer, quick-service stop, coffee shop, food truck, bar or even a pizza restaurant also selling the best frozen pizza to go, a good POS can improve your selling, analytics, and efficiency.
10. SocialPilot: Best Social Media Management and Scheduling Tool
Social sharing is becoming more difficult than it has ever been. Traditional social engagement is down 50% in the last few years alone. Why? Blog content has exploded. There are over four million posts published daily.
This means you need to get more creative with your social sharing. More well-edited video content, infographic development, and better quality pictures.
The only problem? Uploading tons of different files of all sizes on the go on your phone isn’t possible.
And if you just started a new blog and aren’t staying on top of social sharing, you won’t receive the engagement to make your efforts worthwhile.
To combat this, a powerful sales tool is scheduling your social content in advance. This helps to improve brand awareness, engagement, and authority, all working to improve your ability to close when the time comes.
Using SocialPilot, you can directly upload these heavy multi-media posts and schedule them to publish on every social network:
Combined with Google Drive for SMBs, you can store your files for later, and import them directly to SocialPilot for an efficient social sharing schedule.
Start promoting your content on social. Anything from podcasts to company news, helpful online course videos, and anything in between.
No more winging your social media. It’s 2019, and social engagement is essential.
Start scheduling your content with SocialPilot and develop the awareness you desperately need to sell.
Final Tips
There you have it: the best ten sales tools for your small business.
While you don’t have to implement all of them, give them a shot in areas that you currently struggle in.
If customer support is your weakness, capitalize on a customer service platform that can help you please existing customers.
If your invoicing software is out of date and causing billing issues, it’s time to revamp it.
Focus on your biggest sales issues at the moment and tackle them one by one for quick and easy success.
What are your favorite sales tools?
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