Outside sales aren't easy. You’re constantly on the lookout for new leads while at the same time  preparing for meetings. Your schedule tends to be constantly changing at the last minute. Presentations rarely go as planned.

When you talk to a lead over email, you have all the time in the world to prepare an answer for a tricky question. Outside sales reps need to come up with an answer in seconds. And they have to sound charismatic and persuasive while they do it. No big deal, right?

Thankfully, there’s no reason to go through your day empty-handed. High performing sales reps understand the difference sales technology can make in their day-to-day lives. The right sales tools for sales reps can make you more productive, attentive to detail, and confident as you prepare to step out into the field. 

We’ve put together a short list of the most essential sales rep tools which will make your life as a field rep much, much easier.

Badger Maps

Price: Business - $49/user/mo, Enterprise - 495/user/mo

Capterra Rating: 4.6/5

The more time you are in front of your customers, the more sales you will make. It really is as simple as that. 

But how can sales reps find more time from their day? They’re jam packed as it is, right?

Investing in a multi-stop route planner, like Badger Maps, is exactly what you need to sell more. 

Badger Maps was specifically designed with field salespeople's needs in mind and as it’s main goal is to optimize the time you spend in the field, this is truly one of the best sales tools for sales reps. 

With capabilities such as customer data visualization, check-ins, and lead generation on-the-go, Badger Maps helps field salespeople save time on their daily planning, maintain healthy customer relationships with customers, discover exciting new leads, and close more deals. 

Badger Map’s sales-specific features like follow-ups and advanced reporting allow you to keep track of important customer information and be proactive with your most important accounts.

With Badger Maps, sales reps can mobilize their CRM, allowing them to access and update customer info directly from the field. This enables sales reps to sync and leverage data in their CRM, all from their phone. Badger Maps can integrate with leading CRMs such as Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, Zoho, HubSpot, Insightly, NetSuite, and many more.

On average, salespeople using Badger Maps spend 20% less time driving and sell 22% more. 

Sign up for a free trial today and see how you can benefit from one of the best sales tools for sales reps!

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Google Calendar

Price: Free

Capterra Rating: 4.8/5

You already put meetings on a calendar. Now, schedule everything else: flights, commutes, lunches, and even your downtime. The trick to getting things done is realizing that every task takes up time.

Having the full picture of your day on a calendar is productivity heaven. You’ll notice whenever you have a free slot to schedule an extra meeting. You’ll see whether or not you’ll actually have enough time to prepare for it.

Google Calendar helps you stay healthy on the move as well. If there’s no way to squeeze five meetings without sacrificing sleep, reschedule. It’s better to get some rest and stay on top of your game.

Here’s a pro tip: If you’re working with a lot of customers, augment your calendar with a Calendly integration. Calendly will let other people schedule a meeting with you based on when you have the time. It’s seamless and eliminates a lot of back-and-forths.

If it’s not on the calendar, it’s not happening. Once you make this phrase your mantra, life becomes much more enjoyable!

LinkedIn Sales Navigator (and LeadGibbon)

Price: Professional - $99/month, Team - $149/month, Enterprise - contact for more info

Capterra Rating: 4.5/5

When it comes to sales prospecting, nothing beats LinkedIn Sales Navigator. This is one of the leading sales tools for sales reps as it’s great for finding potential new leads as LinkedIn boasts over 900 million accounts.

For example, you can filter prospects by their location, providing you with dozens of leads in the city you’ll be visiting. Pay attention to shared connections! Maybe the person you’ll be speaking to knows somebody from a company you’ve been trying to connect with.

Don't forget that LinkedIn itself is great for research. Profiles there tend to be pretty complete. You can see the lead’s work experience, education, and recent posts. If you’re not sure how you’re going to start a conversation, it can give you more than enough ice-breakers.

Add LeadGibbon to Sales Navigator and you’ll be able to verify business emails from the same interface. The extension can also export lead data to Google Sheets, in case you want to store everything in one place.

Listen to Dave Kurlans Outside Sales Talk podcast episode to learn how you can drive sales momentum with effective prospecting!

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Slack

Pricing: Free $0, Pro -$7.25, Business+ - $12.50

Capterra Rating: 4.7/5

Slack is an instant messaging platform that has revolutionized the way sales teams communicate on a day-to-day basis. 

Being away from your co-workers used to mean collaboration was next to impossible. With Slack added to your sales tool kit, those days are in the past.

Widely used by organizations both small and large looking to improve both internal and external communication, Slack makes it easier than ever to work side-by-side on important projects with your outside sales force, wherever in the world they may be! 

Slack has a long list of excellent features such as Channels, Clips, and Huddle, all which can provide you with seamless and modern communication channels for you to discuss important topics with both team members and your customers.

Notion

Price: Plus - $8/user/mo, Business - $15/user/mo, Enterprise - contact for more info

Capterra Rating: 4.7/5

Outside sales reps know how important a role note-taking plays in their workdays. Taking notes during meetings will not only ensure you appear interested, they will earn you bonus points in your follow up meeting as your customer will be appreciative of your attention to detail.

Notion is a productivity software platform that allows you to build your workspace from scratch. With a wide range of features such as note-taking, project management, and database management, this tool is a lifesaver for busy reps.  

You can add spreadsheets, links, and even Kanban boards to Notion. Want to use it as a lightweight CRM? Done. Track events via a built-in calendar? Easy. Notion can be a bit hard to get around at first, but it can become one of those invaluable tools for sales reps once you do.

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Beaconstac

Price: Starter - $5/user/mo, Lite - $15/user/mo, Pro - $49/user/mo, Plus - $99/user/mo

Capterra Rating: 4/5

Outside sales reps must carry business cards. How else are they going to ensure their prospects can reach out to them after their meeting? But paper business cards can really weigh you down. They'll have to carry hundreds of them along with the other paper documents they require for a sale. Sounds like a lot, right?

This is exactly what Beaconstac's digital business card solution is trying to resolve. It is an effective (and better) alternative to traditional business cards. Sales reps can create and manage your contact information right from the platform's intuitive dashboard. The details they include on this business card would include name, address, phone number, website, photo, location, user bio, social media links, and much more.

Sales reps can easily share electronic business cards through Apple or Google Wallet, email signatures, or social media. They can even embed the QR Code of the business card created on a paper business card for clients to scan, view, and save your contact information with a single click on their smartphones.

Zoom

Price: Basic - Free, Pro - $149.90/user/year, Business - $199/90/user/year, Business Plus - $250/user/year

Capterra Rating: 4.6/5

Not every meeting a field rep takes is going to be face-to-face and over lunch. Sometimes you need to walk a customer through a challenge from another part of the country.

In that case, a tool like Zoom is ideal. It allows you to set up a seamless and quick screen sharing session. Zoom is more reliable than Skype and super useful to show a particular feature in action or troubleshoot in the moment.

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Crystal

Price: Free - $0, Premium - $49/mo, Business - contact for more info

Capterra Rating: 4.8/5

Crystal is a tool that provides you with personality insights of your customers and gives you detailed instructions on the most effective ways to communicate with them. It can help reps better understand who they are pitching to, giving them a clear advantage before they ever sit down to talk. 

It works by analyzing the online communications of a prospect and highlights their key characteristics. This can allow you to really accelerate the conversation in your favor. 

Some people like a direct, matter-of-fact approach. Others prefer longer informal meetings. Crystal can tell you who is who.

Note that it won’t work for every potential customer you’re going to speak to. But when it works, it works really well and the results are pretty spot-on.

If you’re eager to brush up your sales communication skills, check out this blog for tips on how to master sales communication!

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Google Drive

Price: Basic - $6/mo, Business -$12/mo, Enterprise - contact for more info

Capterra Rating: 4.8/5

This one seems super obvious but it doesn’t hurt to reiterate how important cloud storage is.

Nothing is more debilitating than realizing that you forgot an important file on your laptop just when you need it the most. Store everything online and double-check when you're leaving for the next destination. Google Drive is one of the best sales organization tools for salespeople who are constantly working with a multitude of different documents.

CRM integration

CRM is the core of a sales team workflow. No matter if your team runs on Salesforce or HubSpot, don't leave the dashboard behind when you go into a meeting.

Instead, install a mobile app which comes with most professional CRMs. Both Salesforce and HubSpot have stellar apps available for iOS and Android. It's quicker to send a report after the meeting is over than to spend an evening trying to remember the details.

Accuweather

Pricing: Free

Coming into an important meeting soaking wet? Not fun.

Dressing for an important sales meeting is important. With Accuweather, you’ll always know whether it’s time to pick up your umbrella or call an Uber. And if it’s raining, the app will tell you exactly how long you have to wait before the rain stops. It won’t secure sales for you, but when it comes to weather, nothing beats Accuweather.

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Conclusion

The sales rep tools we mentioned will make your outside sales workflow more efficient. They will save you a lot of time and help keep track of things.

So, if you’re planning to improve your efficiency in the field and close more deals, be sure to delegate some of your busywork to one of these essential sales tools for sales rep.

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Author Bio: Steven Garland is the Head of Content at LeadGibbon, a one-click tool for sales teams to find email addresses and other data for their leads.