28 Sales Tools to Boost Your Team Productivity in 2022

Dave Cherrie
December 22, 2022

If you want to give your sales team a leg up, a full suite of sales tools makes a huge difference. While sales training resources focus on getting your team up to speed, sales tools help them efficiently and successfully tackle day-to-day tasks and projects.

Sales tools come in all shapes and sizes, and they ensure your sales team:

  • Doesn’t let any leads slip through the cracks
  • Checks progress toward sales metrics and finds ways to improve
  • Streamlines communications with prospects and clients
  • Uncovers insights into markets, clients, and new leads

Ultimately, the benefits of using sales tools are endless. But it’s also easy to get overwhelmed, so be strategic about which ones you add to your toolbox.

Here are 28 of the best sales tools for everything from customer relationship management (CRM) to sales intelligence.

What are sales tools?

According to McKinsey, sales teams who add automation tools to their deck of cards early on reported a 10 to 15% boost in efficiency, plus 10% in sales uplift potential. McKinsey also noted that “best-in-class companies” use automation tools to drive cost efficiency and boost sales. If that’s not reason enough to start automating your sales process, I don’t know what is.

Almost every part — if not all — of your sales process can benefit from sales automation tools. Like I mentioned before, sales tools come in all shapes and sizes, ranging from: 

  • CRM
  • Sales enablement
  • Sales intelligence
  • Marketing and sales automation
  • Sales engagement
  • Sales performance and analysis
  • Sales productivity
  • And more

How can sales tools help your team?

How much time do your sales reps spend on administrative tasks? How much time do they spend not selling?

If you don’t outright know, chances are your team spends about 65% of their time not selling, based on a survey by Inside Sales. The survey also found that 15% of that time is spent on admin tasks, 12% is spent researching, and 11% and 10% are spent on follow-ups and prospecting, respectively.

Sales tools can help your team automate every single one of those tasks and gain more time for actual selling.

28 Best sales tools of 2022

If you’re looking for the best sales tools to improve your team’s efficiency and boost time spent on selling, look no further.

Customer relationship management (CRM)

CRM software helps your sales team keep track of existing customers, their contact information, a log of past interactions, relationship status, and more. The goal of a CRM system is to manage and improve customer relationships.

1. HubSpot Sales Hub

HubSpot is a big name in the marketing and sales world, and for a good reason. Its Sales Hub software offers a full suite of tools, including CRM, engagement, lead generation, and sales analytics.

Pros

  • Easy for beginners to learn thanks to detailed tutorials
  • Customizable reporting
  • Includes a built-in meeting scheduler and live chat feature

Cons

  • Requires an extra add-on to integrate with Gmail

There’s a free plan, and paid plans start at $45 a month.

2. ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is another Swiss Army knife you can add to your sales toolkit. The software comes with over 750 automation templates to keep your communications flowing and your customer data up to date. ActiveCampaign also allows you to track client behavior and incorporate data when deciding on the appropriate messaging.

Pros

  • Pre-built automations allow you to plug and play
  • Combo of CRM and automations is good value
  • Easy-to-use interface

Cons

  • Built-in search function may not offer enough filters
  • Some users report their automated emails getting shut down when they reach their plan’s subscriber threshold

Pricing starts at $9 a month for 500 contacts.

3. Salesforce Sales Cloud

Another jack of all trades, Salesforce offers multiple extras along with its sales CRM software, including pipeline and forecast management tools, workflows and automations, and reporting tools. Salesforce is touted as one of the most powerful sales tools available.

Pros

  • Extremely customizable with widgets, views, and reports
  • Tracks lead and contact journeys, as well as opportunities
  • Free, pre-built dashboards and reports available

Cons

  • Setup is time-consuming and very technical
  • Pricey

Pricing starts at $25 per user per month, and a free trial is available.

5. Less Annoying CRM

If you’re running a small business and don’t need a buffet of additional tools or features (and the price tag that typically comes with them), Less Annoying CRM might hit the spot. This CRM tool boasts a simple approach to managing your contacts, leads, and notes, plus you can track your to-do lists and check your calendar, all in the same app.

Pros

  • Excellent customer support and onboarding
  • Simple, no-frills app is easy-to-use

Cons

  • No option for recurring tasks
  • Currently lacks geotagging and image options

Pricing starts at $15 per user per month, and a 30-day free trial is available.

Sales enablement tools

If you’ve put in the hard work to create your sales playbook, sales decks, and other resources, a sales enablement tool is a great place to store it all. This type of sales software ensures that your team members send the most up-to-date and correct information to prospects and conduct sales calls with the latest tactics.

6. Salesken

Sales conversations can be difficult. Salesken uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to give your reps real-time cues during their calls, such as what to say when the prospect objects to the price, when to ask questions, and when to empathize. It also lets you dig into call analytics to learn more about what went wrong (or right) during the call. In short, Salesken is a must-have tool for keeping your sales playbook up to date and training your team.

Pros

  • Boosts sales team productivity
  • Allows sales reps to listen to and learn from call recordings
  • Responsive product team works to fix bugs ASAP

Cons

  • Sometimes runs slowly

Contact Salesken for a custom quote based on company size, budget, and needs.

7. Seismic

Seismic offers a handful of enablement tools, from buyer engagement to content management software. Or you can access all of them with the Seismic Enablement Cloud. Seismic makes it easy to keep your sales professionals on the same page — literally — when it comes to using the most up-to-date assets. It also has the option to set up a customized Digital Sales Room for clients that showcases your sales deck within a microsite.

Pros

  • Users report it’s easier to use than Google Drive
  • Ability to see when clients view sales materials and for how long
  • Digital Sales Rooms can be co-branded and customized

Cons

  • Potentially steep learning curve
  • Sometimes difficult to search for and find assets 

Contact Seismic to book a demo and get a quote.

8. Highspot

If you want to add a dose of AI to your sales enablement, try Highspot. It uses AI to make on-the-spot recommendations to sales reps regarding resources to use while they’re on the phone or in the middle of a video conferencing call. Another highlight is Highspot’s coaching dashboard, which lets you provide direct feedback on each sales rep’s engagements.

Pros

  • Built-in onboarding and training support
  • Personal folders still allow files to sync when updates are made
  • Responsive customer service team

Cons

  •  Admin settings can be confusing
  • Lengthy initial setup process

Contact Highspot to book a demo and get a quote.

9. Guru

Guru markets itself as both a company wiki and a sales enablement tool. Either way, it brings assets to the forefront so your sales team can stay on top of tasks. One feature that sets Guru apart from your typical wiki is that it includes insights into your most viewed assets and what your sales reps are searching for (and might be missing).

Pros

  • Easy to navigate through cards, including the ability to favorite and add tags
  • Highlights unread updates for individual sales reps
  • Helpful organization features

Cons

  • Google Chrome extension can be buggy
  • Built-in search engine can be hit or miss

Pricing starts at $5 per user per month. There’s also a free plan for up to three users.

Sales intelligence tools

Also called sales prospecting tools, this type of software scours data to help you improve your sales outreach process. These tools aim to boost the quality and number of leads by compiling useful data like contact info, job titles, recent funding, changes in tech stack, and more.

10. LinkedIn Sales Navigator

While also useful for outreach, LinkedIn Sales Navigator pulls together the level of buyer intent, mutual connections on LinkedIn, profiles for decision-makers, employee headcount, and company growth. Coupled with LinkedIn, Sales Navigator makes it incredibly easy for your sales team to do their research and reach out — all in one platform.

Pros

  • Massive database of companies and people
  • Ability to filter searches by lead and account characteristics
  • Detailed lead and account profiles

Cons

  • Might be overwhelming, especially without a true built-in CRM
  • Pricey compared to other solutions

Pricing starts at $79.99 per month.

11. Apollo.io

For any sales team searching for verified emails and phone numbers, Apollo.io is here to help. It allows you to easily filter your searches based on several characteristics, and you can also dig into analytics that help you improve your team’s messaging. But one of the best features might be that you can score, favorite, and rank your leads.

Pros

  • Integrates with HubSpot and other CRMs
  • Ability to sort leads into different sales funnels
  • Intuitive user interface

Cons

  • Users report some issues integrating with LinkedIn
  • Some contact info includes toll-free numbers

Pricing starts at $39 per user per month, and there’s also a free version.

12. Cognism

Cognism promises 98% or better accuracy for its dataset of cell phone numbers — the company manually double-checks each number. Cognism also includes data from global Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), US and Canada (NAM), and Asia-Pacific (APAC) markets and allows you to integrate your CRM and sales engagement platforms.

 Pros

  • Library consists of global contact data
  • Excellent customer support
  • Helpful integrations, including Salesforce

Cons

  • Managing .csv files for email sends can be clunky
  • Setup can be complicated and time-consuming

Contact Cognism to book a demo and get a quote.

Marketing and sales automation tools

Marketing automation tools also have a place in any successful sales team. As you’ve likely guessed, this software automates common tasks and actions. This means your sales reps are free to focus on more profitable tasks and spend less time on data entry and other admin tasks.

13. Omnisend

Text messaging isn’t dead, and neither is email. (Do we have to keep saying this?) Omnisend lets you use both to connect with your customers with fully customizable templates or a drag-and-drop email builder. You’ll also get access to automation templates and audience segmentation tools that help you engage the right people at the right time during the sales cycle.

Pros

  • Includes campaign booster and A/B testing features
  • Helpful customer service team 
  • Pricing adjusts based on contact list size

Cons

  • A/B testing process can be cumbersome

Pricing starts at $16 a month for up to 500 contacts, and there is a free version available.

14. Encharge

Ever wish you could send an email when someone interacts with your website a certain way? Encharge lets you do just that — you can set this SaaS up to send an email after a certain amount of time has passed, a form is submitted, or a trial starts or ends. You can even integrate Encharge with other apps and sites, including HubSpot and Facebook

Pros

  • Email and social media automation
  • Simple and intuitive interface
  • Multiple integrations, including webhooks

Cons

  • Pricey, especially for small contact lists
  • Takes time to learn

Pricing starts at $79 a month for up to 2,000 contacts.

15. BloomReach

BloomReach is an automation toolkit focusing on omnichannel customer journeys. Along with customer segmentations, real-time triggers, and automations for email, SMS, notifications, and ads, BloomReach helps you stay on top of everything with a built-in campaign calendar. 

Pros

  • Includes A/B testing and real-time performance insights
  • Drag-and-drop email designer
  • One place for emails, automations, reports, and more

Cons

  • Manual reports and segmentation (but more control)
  • Users report some bugs 

Contact BloomReach to book a demo and get a quote.

Sales engagement tools

If your sales and marketing teams need help engaging with clients and leads, a sales engagement tool can help. Use this software to streamline communication across emails, phone calls, social media posts, text messages, video chats, and more.

16. MixMax

From scheduling meetings to email tracking, MixMax aims to make your sales team’s job easier. The feature I enjoy most about MixMax is the ability to add interactive elements to your emails. This includes adding Google Maps, live web page previews, polls, and survey questions.

Pros

  • Integrations with SalesForce, Pipedrive, Stripe, DocuSign, Zoom, and more
  • Exceptional email scheduling and automation functions
  • Includes the ability to set up automated reminder emails

Cons

  • Somewhat pricey

Pricing starts at $24 per user per month, and a free version is available.

17. Salesloft

For any sales team connecting with clients across multiple channels, Salesloft offers powerful automations. This includes a real-time sales playbook walkthrough for sales reps that reminds them of best practices and vetted sales plays. Salesloft also includes customizable email templates and integrations with apps like Vidyard and Seismic.

Pros

  • Cadence feature helps reps know when to connect with prospects
  • Detailed analytics reports
  • Organized and easy-to-use dashboard

Cons

  • Contact list mass import function can be touchy
  • Users report the Salesloft mobile app is lackluster

Contact Salesloft to get a quote. 

18. Scratchpad

Raise your hand if you have more than five browser tabs open. (I’m raising mine.) Scratchpad hopes to give sales reps a reason to close those tabs — and keep them closed — by rounding up notes, customer data, activity, and calendar entries all in one place. And since Scratchpad is a Chrome extension, you can pull up Salesforce data without having to tab or click over to another window.

Pros

  • Easy-to-access account info
  • Ability to add tasks and to-dos
  • Responsive and helpful customer service team

Cons

  • Full suite of features can feel overwhelming

Pricing starts at $39 per user per month, and a free version is available.

Sales performance and analytics tools

Data is king, and sales analytics and performance tools can help sales managers ensure their team is on track to hit goals. 

Sales analytics software allows you to dig into performance by sales activities and individual reps, as well as provide leaders with critical info for forecasting. Performance tools shine a spotlight on successes or areas for improvement so sales leaders can take action.

19. Arcade

This list wouldn’t be complete without Arcade. Along with a full kit of gamification tools to keep your sales team engaged and productive, Arcade leaderboards give you insight into team performance. This includes quotas, customer feedback, and goals — all of which are visible to the entire team to encourage friendly competition.

Pros

  • Integrates with other sales tools, including Slack, Salesforce, and more
  • Supports instant rewards for top-performing sales reps
  • Works for both in-office and remote teams

Cons

  •  Users report the mobile app can be slow to respond

Arcade offers a forever free plan, book a demo with us today to learn more.

20. Looker

Looker provides comprehensive data reports that are fully customizable and able to update in real time. That can be critical for the sales team that needs the most up-to-date customer data to close a deal. Looker reports can also be scheduled and sent out, so sales leaders are sure every member of the team has the most current data. Time to ditch the spreadsheets?

Pros

  • Robust analytics and reporting
  • Can pull data from a large pool of sources
  • Clear data visualization tools

Cons

  • Setup can be complicated
  • Lack of templates

Contact Looker to book a demo and get a quote.

21. Crayon

Despite the name, there’s nothing elementary about Crayon. Through AI, machine learning, and manual curation, this data visualization tool helps you build a full profile stacked with competitive intelligence to reduce churn and boost your win rates. While you can custom-build your views, Crayon also offers templates to get you started.

Pros

  • Customizable visuals and templates
  • Makes it easy to share intel across departments and roles
  • Helpful customer service

Cons

  • Newly pulled data can be messy and irrelevant
  • Some users report the Battle Card builder is buggy

Contact Crayon to book a demo and get a quote.

22. Gong

Using AI, Gong analyzes customer interactions and provides data-driven insights to help sales teams close more deals. Gong also lets you analyze any interaction with clients — whether via phone, email, or video chat — which can be helpful if sales leaders need to review performance.

Pros

  • Automatic call transcription
  • AI-generated insights
  • Integrates with 100s of other sales tools

Cons

  • Scorecard features don’t allow for KPI tracking
  • Some users report inaccurate transcription

Contact Gong to book a demo and get a quote.

23. Clari

Clari is a sales intelligence tool that helps sales teams track their progress and pipeline across your entire business. The platform then assembles that data into real-time insights and forecasts using — you guessed it — AI. Clari provides data-driven insights and recommendations to help sales teams close more deals.

Pros

  • Data-driven insights assist with forecasting
  • Ability to create custom dashboards
  • Allows sales leaders to spot pipeline risk in real-time

Cons

  • Users report some bugs with Salesforce integration
  • Mobile app lacks features compared to web app

Contact Clari to book a demo and get a quote.

Sales productivity tools

Productivity tools come in many different flavors, but all are created to help your team streamline the digital sales process.

24. ClickUp

If you’re looking for a full productivity suite and collaboration tool, look no further than ClickUp. It’s a central hub where users can chat, share documents, track goals, and plan projects and tasks. The company doesn’t pull punches when it says it replaces other tools, from Asana to Trello.

Pros

  • Shortcuts allow you to quickly navigate across different views, tasks, and projects in ClickUp
  • Easy-to-use, intuitive, and requires little to no training to get started

Cons

  • Some users report their ClickUp dashboard is slow to update
  • Bug fixes and product updates can be slow

ClickUp states that it’s free forever, all you need to provide is your email.

25. PandaDoc

PandaDoc is document automation software that helps your sales teams close deals faster. Along with over 750 templatized proposals, PandaDoc’s drag-and-drop editor makes it easy to create custom documents. It’s also used to e-sign, automate workflows, and create contracts and proposals.

Pros

  • PandaDoc integrates with multiple CRMs, including Salesforce, HubSpot, and Zoho
  • Includes a drag-and-drop editor plus templates
  • Get real-time insights into who’s viewing your document and when

Cons

  • No support phone number or live chat
  • Limited formatting options

Pricing starts at $19 per user per month, and there is a free plan available.

26. Proposify

Need to create professional-looking proposals? Proposify offers templates, branding capabilities, e-signatures, and integrations with CRMs like Salesforce and HubSpot. It also provides proposal statistics, including top-viewed sections, view time, and more, to help you pinpoint what’s working.

Pros

  • Interactive quote options allow prospects to choose upsells
  • Branding features allow you to add your logo, color scheme, and fonts
  • Integrates with leading CRMs

Cons

  • Basic plan is pricey
  • Some users find the interface difficult to use

Pricing starts at $49 per user per month.

27. Calendly

Calendly is a scheduling tool that allows you to plan appointments and events easily. You can even set it up to allow clients to book time on your calendar. In addition, Calendly integrates with Google Calendar, Outlook, iCal, and Office 365 and offers a free plan if you only need the basics.

Pros

  • Customizable event reminders
  • Integrates with major calendar applications
  • Clients can reschedule meetings themselves

Cons

  • Event setup can be time-consuming
  • Some users report calendar sync errors

Pricing starts at $8 per user per month, and there’s a free plan available.

28. Badger Maps

Badger Maps is a route planning and mapping tool designed specifically for sales reps. With Badger Maps, you get features like territory management, automatic route planning and optimization, and CRM integrations with Salesforce, HubSpot, and Zoho.

Pros

  • Ability to sync route with calendar
  • Integrates with Waze, Google Maps, Apple Maps, and Garmin
  • In-app follow-up reminders

Cons

  • Monthly price can be high
  • Some users find the interface difficult to use

Pricing starts at $49 per user per month.

Sales teams aren’t meant to get stuck handling time-consuming administrative tasks. Make sure your team stays as productive as possible by providing a full suite of effective sales tools for managing customer relationships, analyzing data, and gathering intel.

Your salespeople (and your revenue) will thank you.

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