This is the blog transcript of our video “Best Sales Automation Tools for Small Businesses. If you’d like to see more of our videos, you can subscribe to our YouTube channel here.
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by all of the different sales automation tools that are out there. Which ones do you need? And which ones are the best for you?
Hey everyone, I’m Ian Campbell, CEO of Mission Suite. Before we jump into today’s video, do me a favor and hit the subscribe button and ring the bell so that you’re notified whenever we post new videos.
There are an unbelievable number of sales automation tools out there. If you look at the number of CRMs alone, the number is staggering. And finding the right tool for you can be one of the biggest challenges in actually putting a tool in place.
Fortunately, this is my world. I spend all day every day getting to know the different platforms out there and how they work.
Not just because I may end up competing with some of them as I talk to prospective clients, but also because I want to make sure that I’m always making the best recommendations for those clients.
If Mission Suite isn’t the best option for someone then I want to be able to give them a couple ideas on what platforms to review as well. The only way I’ll be able to do that is if I actually know the other systems that are out there.
What’s more, I use some of these systems in my own business as well, so this is a topic that’s definitely near and dear to my heart.
So let’s jump into some of my favorite tools. And, if you want to learn more about any of these platforms, you’ll find the links to all of them in the description of this video.
Mission Suite
I’m sure it’s no surprise to you that Mission Suite tops my list of CRM options. The functionality and versatility of the platform allows you to go pretty deep into developing a full sales automation system that can help you automate everything from prospecting to networking to managing deals to closing deals.
But in addition to your standard sales CRM tools, Mission Suite can also help you automate things like events, drip campaigns, marketing and content promotional journeys, it can even let you know when someone shows enough interest in your content to be considered a lead.
I don’t want to get too self serving in this video, but if you’re looking into automation for your business on the sale or marketing side, Mission Suite might be worth looking into.
Meet Alfred
Meet Alfred is a tool that I was introduced to relatively recently and I love it.
A friend of mine told me that I should check it out for their LinkedIn automation tools but, as it turns out, it does a LOT more than that.
Let’s start with the LinkedIn automation, though.
Meet Alfred lets you drop a search into their platform and then automatically send a connection request and an immediate follow up message once they accept your request.
Pro Tip: DO NOT use that immediate follow up to try to sell to them. Just thank them for connecting and let them know you’re looking forward to seeing their contributions to the network.
I know you may be wondering what the point is if you’re trying to use LinkedIn to grow your business. Well that’s where their campaign option comes into play.
You can actually create a campaign to warm up that contact by visiting their profile, endorsing their skills or liking their posts and then, once you feel an appropriate period of time has gone by, drop them a message asking if they’d be interested in meeting.
If they respond, it stops the campaign, if they don’t it keeps going for as long as you’d like it to.
And the best part about it is that it works with the free version of LinkedIn so you don’t need to spend extra on Sales Navigator!
You can also connect Meet Alfred to your email and Twitter accounts so that you can add in those touchpoints as well.
It’s really a remarkable tool and actually less expensive than a lot of the other ones that are out there, although it is a self managed platform so you need to be sure to have some sort of a plan going into it.
All in all, though, it’s well worth the investment in time and money.
Leadfuze
Leadfuze is another great tool that I use exclusively to find leads to add into my sales campaigns. Basically, they’re a data provider.
And they do this very well.
I hear a lot of people talk about using LinkedIn to find leads, but there are a number of problems with that method and reasons why I recommend Leadfuze.
For example, LinkedIn relies on their users to keep everything updated. So if Sarah leaves ABC Corp but never updates her profile, LinkedIn will still show her as an employee there, which skews all sorts of information, employee count, department count, target contact, and potentially a lot more.
Leadfuze, on the other hand, has relationships with a host of data sources so I’ve found that their information is significantly and consistently more up to date.
Plus, with tools like Leadfuze, you can specify that you only want to see leads with a business email address instead of the gmail address that CEO you’re trying to connect with never looks at.
Leadfuze is easy to use, connects with a host of different sales tools and you can set it up to automatically pull leads and drop them into your campaigns so that all you have to do is manage the follow ups!
What’s your single favorite automation tool? Are you using one that everyone else should absolutely try?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments and, while you’re down there, be sure to give this video a like so that we know that you’re getting something out of it!
Woodpecker
Next up we have Woodpecker.
It’s not often that I recommend cold email campaigns given the fact that SPAM laws all over the world are getting more intense, and the penalties with them.
There are ways that you can execute on cold email campaigns, though, as long as you’re going through your own email account and not broadcasting through a third party email system.
Woodpecker actually connects directly with your Gmail or Office 365 account and sends emails out from that account individually over the course of the day so that you’re not running afoul of those SPAM laws.
Of course, you want to be sure that you’re providing value and not just using this as a work around to spam your email list, but if you’re using this right, it can be a great sales tool.
Imagine being able to automatically import a list of 100 new contacts a day and then have those contacts get an introductory email from you.
That’s the power of systems like Woodpecker. Of course, unless your email is REALLY impressive, you’ll likely still need to make a phone call at some point.
But there’s a lot you can do with this type of system. I’ve seen it used to promote webinars, to invite people to events, or just to reach out and let them know that they should be expecting a phone call.
If you’re going to use a system like this, though, I’d recommend setting up a secondary email address that you’ll be able to use to send those emails. Otherwise, you’ll end up inundated with email responses that you don’t necessarily want in your primary inbox.
Everwebinar
Everwebinar is a really impressive system that I started using about four years ago. It’s a tool that will allow you to actually record a webinar and then automate the playback in such a way that makes it feel like it’s a live webinar.
With Everwebinar, you create and record the webinar first and then load it up. This can be cool because it lets you test out different webinars to find one that converts really well before committing to putting ad dollars behind it.
Once you load up the webinar, you can define all of your “broadcast” parameters like time of day, day of the week, even days that aren’t available (is anyone actually giving a webinar on Christmas Day?).
From there, you can even drop in polls, a question box that sends questions people ask over to you via email, and if you’re trying to make sales directly on the webinar, it will actually manage those webinar sales as well!
This is pretty cool because it has the potential to be a truly automated selling system. And, of course, once you have people on the webinar, you can do a lot with them from there.
Zapier
Finally, let’s talk about Zapier.
If you’ve watched my videos, you’ve probably heard me talk about Zapier quite a bit in the past. And there’s a good reason for that.
There are a lot of “game changing” technologies out there…or at least technology companies that SAY that they’re changing the game. Really most of them are just honing the game at best.
Zapier actually did change the game.
By making it possible to integrate all of these different platforms so that the data can move back and forth between them, automation is possible on an entirely different level.
Think about it this way, you could have a killer webinar that makes a lot of sales, but if you couldn’t get those contacts into your Mission Suite account to follow up with them and upsell them, you would have to manually pull that information out every day and then manually upload it into Mission Suite.
Sure, it might not take a ton of time, but it’s pretty annoying.
With Zapier, those two tools can actually talk to one another without the need for expensive software development and you don’t have to think about it.
Whatever you’re using for sales automation, marketing automation, etc, make sure that it connects to Zapier so that you can TRULY automate the work you’re doing.
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We’ll see you next time around!