What Sales Enablement tools should you have in your sales stack?

What Sales Enablement tools should you have in your sales stack?

Your sales stack can make or break your business!

Every business needs a sales enablement strategy to empower their sales teams with top sales enablement tools.

Great tools automate most of the manual processes and make sure that the reps are focused on doing what they know best, and that’s selling! With the right sales enablement tools, you can empower your reps with a sales stack that can accelerate sales, improve buyer experiences, and (of course!) increase revenue.

But how can you be sure to pick the right tools to assemble your sales stack?

Still managing sales assets the old way?

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Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered as we take you through this step-by-step guide to making sure your sales stack is right for your business.

What’s a Sales stack?

All of the sales enablement tools that a business needs to accelerate their sales process are collectively defined as a sales stack, also known as sales tech stack.

A sales stack consists of a set of software tools, assembled together, for the sales team to perform efficiently and communicate effectively with their prospects. An ideal sales stack should at least have the following foundational set of software:

  • CRM
  • Content Management
  • Proposal Software
  • Quoting & Price Configuration
  • Closing/E-Signature Software

So, if your sales stack consists of the above-mentioned categories of sales enablement, know that your reps will always be one step ahead of selling 🙌.

Oh, and if it’s not clear what “sales enablement” is, then just think about all the tools and technology that help Sales and sellers prospect, nurture, close, and get those deals across the line and handed off to post-sales or account management. As, we talk about a sales stack, we’re talking about a strategic approach to assembling your sales enablement tools, from the ground up. (And not just a grab-bag of random buzzword-driven stuff).

Did you know the average sales rep spends 65 percent of their time on tasks other than selling?
The good news is there are dozens of tools that speed up the sales cycle without turning your reps into robots.

Now, how do you really come up with a sales stack that can help your sales team to generate untapped revenue?

You look at your sales content strategy and focus on how your reps are communicating with prospects and customers at different stages of the funnel. You can note down what’s important to your business when investing in a sales stack.

To help you make the right decision, here’s a quick checklist for you to build a foundational sales stack that works best for your business:

Sales Stack Checklist

Sales Enablement Checklist - Sales Stack

Sales Enablement Sales Stack Checklist
Organize - Level 1
Have a well-organized CRM and all salespeople are trained to use it.
Have a sales content management system to organize, find and track your sales assets.
Deliver - Level 2
Have email templates and scripts in place, so the team isn’t repeating themselves
Messaging automation tools, so you can streamline followup and opportunity nurturing
Close - Level 3
Have a standardized proposal system that streamlines your proposal workflow.
If required, implement a CPQ (configure, price, quote) system to quickly configure quotes based on a preprogrammed set of rules.
Have an e-signature software to digitally secure your contracts and agreements.
Train - Level 4
Content gets refreshed, and sales training gets rolled out. Make sure everyone is staying on top of the latest methods, messaging, and approaches
We didn’t include sales tech stack basics like Zoom or GSuite

Why do you need a sales stack?

The reality is that you have a sales stack today and are “doing” sales enablement anyway. Right now.

It may be unintentionally put together, but it’s there.

Google Drive. Dropbox. Spreadsheets. Content – decks, ebooks, whitepapers. Sales playbooks. Battlecards. Zoom. LinkedIn.

So, yeah, your stack is there (in some form).

And, at a time when hybrid work culture is the mainstream, your businesses is in competition with everyone else to evolve and adapt to the latest technology. To be in the best possible position, you’ll need certain tools within arm’s reach. One of which is sales enablement.

Knowing that your sales team is efficiently executing, effectively communicating, and empowered for customer acquisition, allows you to grow at the rate you need to.

For a lot of teams building out the foundation of their tech stack, they choose Content Camel for their sales content management. That gives the marketing and sales teams the ability to organize content, share assets with prospects, personalize that delivery with resources pages and microsites, and track the results all the way back to the content being used. We’d love to have you check it out.

What does enabling your team mean?

Any sales team with the right tools and resources at their disposal will be able to sell more efficiently to new customers and retain the existing ones.

Having all sorts of content ready to share with any prospect at any stage of awareness, consideration or decision shall empower the sales team to generate leads and boost revenue.

All of it is possible when the line of communication is open on all ends of the marketing and sales teams.
Integrated technology can enable both teams to work collaboratively to reach and convert more leads into customers. That’s what sales enablement is all about and doing it the right way ensures guaranteed ROI.

Foundational Sales Stack

When you finally have clarity regarding your sales process, it will be much easier to decide which sales enablement tools you need in your sales stack.

Especially using our checklist above – thinking about the the tooling from an organize-deliver-close – perspective.

Some things are an obvious necessity for the sales stack, which is why we recommend you to start with a foundational set of tools that every sales stack consists of.

Below, we have compiled a list of multiple foundational tools from which you can pick and choose.

Sales Enablement Level 1

Sales CRM

It’s not a surprise that CRMs are the backbone of any company that is driven through lead generation and goal-oriented sales.

CRMs like Salesforce, and HubSpot facilitate customer relationships from pre- to post-sale and allow companies to store information on clients and prospect interactions with the sales reps.

With various automation features, CRMs enable personalized buyer experiences to target KPIs for both the marketing and sales team.

With your own sales CRM, you can empower your team to establish brand advocates and speed up the sales cycle while being organized and goal-focused.

Below are some of our top picks for Sales CRM for you to consider as you decide what works for your business!

Examples of a Sales CRM

HubSpot

Hubspot offers a multi-suite platform that empowers SMEs and MNCs with exactly the right software their core teams require. Their CRM is one of the promising tools that has helped businesses around the world to increase their profits.
And the best part, it’s completely free.
It brings the entire team on a single platform and allows them to never miss an opportunity, effectively engage with customers, and manage their pipeline from anywhere in the world.

Learn more about Hubspot CRM.

Cost: Hubspot CRM Pricing

Salesforce

Salesforce needs no introduction as a CRM. Salesforce is a great fit for larger, enterprise teams, but may not be suited to your team if you don’t have dedicated sales ops staff to configure and maintain the solution. The ecosystem of add-ons, consultants, and resources can’t be beaten, though.

Dig into Salesforce CRM.

Cost: Salesforce Pricing

Copper

Copper is one of the most conveniently simple CRM tools available on the market that completely integrates with GSuite. Offering intuitive features, Copper enables the sales teams to nurture their customer engagements to earn more sales and generate revenue. Since it integrates with Google, all the company information is organized on a single platform to deliver insights and quick accessibility into each client engagement. Allowing visibility across the entire team of each activity while closing a deal, ensures responsibility and accountability. Copper is customizable as per business needs and offers workflows that promotes a productive team.

Learn more about Copper CRM.

Cost: Copper Pricing

Pipedrive

Pipedrive is a sales CRM focused on tracking and managing your entire sales pipeline from one place. Pipedrive focuses on sales automation and easy configuration vs having dedicated admin staff configure and maintain the solution. This means that reps are going to be enabled to track leads, set alerts and reminders, and view reporting themselves – without a lot of additional overhead.

Learn more about Pipedrive CRM.

Cost: Pipedrive Pricing

Bitrix24

Bitrix24 CRM is an unlimited database of your customers – current, past, and future to help the reps speed their sales cycle by utilizing the sales content and empowering each rep to generate qualified leads. It also allows storing client data and all the interactions with the prospect to create a personalized buyer’s experience. Bitrix24 enables businesses to identify their most valuable prospects.

Learn more about Bitrix 24 CRM.

Cost: Bitrix Pricing

Sales content management

No business can function without the content that it needs to generate leads and create interest in the product and services.
That’s where you need to rely upon a content management system that can empower marketing and sales teams to create an authentic brand and generate qualified leads.

With a sales CMS you can centralize the platform for all employees to access and share content across the teams.
Below are some of our top picks for Sales Content management tools to help you determine which tools work best for your teams

Examples of Sales Content Management Software

Content Camel

You know your Google Drive/Sharepoint/Dropbox is full of great content but your salespeople probably aren’t using assets you just launched. And 62%+ of buyers will make a decision based on the content you send, but 80% of your content goes unused. Content Camel gets your salespeople enabled to deliver the right content at the right stage and you get the analytics you need to prove the content ROI.

It’s a key part of your sales foundation, so that you can organized, deliver, and close deals using content all along the way.

Learn about Content Camel.

Cost: Content Camel Pricing.

Sales Enablement Level 2

Proposal Software

You know that growing the business means that you’re constantly creating content. Either it’s marketing copy, a whitepaper, a sales deck, a proposal, or any other type of sales content you can imagine.

Especially for proposals, you need to organize your content and present it professionally to a targeted audience that includes prospects, partners, investors, sponsors, and clients in order to close that deal. It’s critical to make it easy for sales reps to generate those proposals and deliver them without a lot of roadblocks.

The good news is that there are good options that can assist you in composing proposals in a professional template, giving you full control over how to create the right proposal for every scenario.

Below are some of our top picks for Proposal Software from which you can choose what makes the best fit in your sales stack!

Examples of a Proposal Software

Google Docs or Microsoft Word

Ok, maybe not a top pick, but everyone uses Docs or Word at some point for proposals.
For sure, these two are the most convenient and the obvious choice for composing proposals (because I bet you have one of the two). The key here is to use and to customize pre-defined templates specifically for composing proposals. With a template, your sales reps can worry less about the design and focus on the content. And getting that proposal out the door.

Explore Google docs here.
Learn more about Microsoft Word here.
Cost: Included with GSuite / Office 365 subscriptions

Proposify

With Proposify you can manage your proposals from design to sign-off. It gives the right kind of control and insights that you’ll need while composing a winning proposal, contract, and agreement. It streamlines the entire proposal workflow and enables the sales team to build a predictable and scalable closing process.
Learn more about Proposify.
Cost: Proposify Pricing.

Quoting and price configuration

Your sales stack might be incomplete without a CPQ tool. Configure, Price and, Quote software allows you to quickly and accurately generate quotes for orders.

With integrated data, CPQ software will save you time by ensuring error-free pricing that takes into account every aspect of the preprogrammed set of rules. It’s for teams delivering configured products and services with a variety of options (that’s where the rules kick in).

Below are some of our top picks for CPQ software to help you determine your ideal solution.

Examples of a Quoting and price configuration software

ConnectWise Sell

ConnectWise Sell enables data visibility and brings the entire operational process into focus to make TSPs operate effectively. It allows remote support and control, making it one of the most reliable solutions in the market. It also includes advanced threat detection and response in case of any cybersecurity attack.

Learn more here.
Cost: Request pricing here.

Apparound

Apparound integrates with the most popular CRM and ERP systems, and keeps track of the content, configure quotes, offer electronically signed contracts, and monitor each customer engagement to ensure that the client is satisfied.

Learn more here.

Cost: Request demo & pricing here.

DealHub

DealHub is a powerful CPQ, that accelerates sales performance and provides unreal operational efficiency. It enables the reps to engage with the buyer on a virtual platform through relevant and personalized content for maximum customer retention. It also enables the reps to prepare quotes and proposals much faster with fewer errors.

Learn more here.

Cost: Request pricing here.

Sales Enablement Level 3

Contract/E-Signature Software

Authenticating a document or a contract with an e-signature tool is much easier, reliable, and secure. That’s why every sales stack must have e-signature software that provides digital security to their sales content and manages contracts.

Below are some of our top picks for Closing/E-signature Software to help you decide what works best with the existing system.

Example of Contract/E-Signature Software

DocuSign

DocuSign is an e-signature software that enables businesses to digitally secure their agreements. It eliminates the hassle of having to manage, prepare and sign physical contracts. It automates the entire agreement process and streamlines the entire workflow including document generation, review, and approval.

Learn more about DocuSign.

Cost: DocuSign pricing here.

DocSend

DocSend offers a document sharing and tracking platform for investors, service providers, executives, and founders. It creates a modern virtual data room where the users can manage and control documents. It also provides actionable insights alongside its branded viewing experience, with an e-signature feature that makes authenticating documents from mobile devices safe.

Learn more about DocSend.

Cost: Request DocSend pricing here.

FormStack

Formstack offers to build custom forms, creating documents, and collecting e-signatures to save time and increase operational productivity. These simple tasks, once automated, tend to provide room for IT, human resources, revenue, sales, and marketing teams to increase their functional capacity. It also offers complete data security and can be integrated with major web applications to automate workflows at an enterprise level.

Learn more about FormStack.

Cost: Request pricing here.

Next Level Sales Enablement

While the foundational stack is a must-have, there are some more tools that you may want to explore for some additional features that can be beneficial to your sales process and to your particular sales team.

Depending upon your workflow, it’s always good to know what are your options and what kind of tools are out there that can be an important part of your sales stack.

Let’s dig in!

Screen Recording

Cloud App

CloudApp offers screen recording software for Mac, Windows, Chrome, and iOS. It allows users to utilize video messaging and image sharing to pitch their ideas rather than committing to scheduled meetings far in the future, especially when time is money!

Learn more here.

Cost: CloudApp Pricing.

Consensus

Consensus offers interactive video demos to assist the sales process and provide buyers with an exclusive buying experience to help them make their decision faster. It also provides insights into customer behavior and enables sales and marketing reps to strategically align their goals with the insights provided through Demolytics.

Learn more here.

Cost: Request pricing here.

Learning Management / LMS

Allego

​​Allego, is a sales readiness platform that is equipped with the right tools to cater to today’s distributed network of teams. It enables organizations to bring their workforce on a consolidated platform for virtual learning and collaboration. It enables the workforce by offering them training as per requirement, increase their engagement, and foster collaboration across the team.

Learn more here.

Cost: Request demo and pricing here.

Docebo

Docebo is an enterprise learning platform that offers a library of industry-related professional content to make enterprise learning experiences successful. It offers a suite of AI-powered learning tools that enable training programs for external and internal audiences. It also provides actionable insights to measure the success of each learning program.

Learn more here.

Cost: Request pricing here.

Call Optimization

Chorus

Chorus offers conversation intelligence; analyzing each customer interaction and provides actionable insights against them. It enables reps to make better decisions by analyzing conversations to replicate winning behaviors. With data-driven strategy, it can guide the reps towards areas of improvement and measure performance. Chorus is used by sales managers to coach the team and focus on great buyer interactions vs robotic talk tracks.

Learn more here.

Cost:Request demo and pricing here

Gong

Gong offers deal intelligence, people intelligence, and market intelligence through business calls, emails, etc. to provide deep insights into customer behavior. This software replicates winning behaviors which allow the reps to direct their efforts towards customers’ pain points.

Learn more here.

Cost: Request pricing here.

Call Tracking

Call Rail

CallRail offers businesses and entrepreneurs to track their calls, manage their leads, automate call transcriptions with AI, and enable form tracking to connect all phone and web leads to their marketing. All of it helps them evaluate whether what works for them or what doesn’t.

Learn more here.

Cost: Request pricing here.

DialogTech

DialogTech offers AI-driven conversation intelligence software that allows businesses to generate value from their call data. It provides them with insights that help them to personalize each customer’s experience and take care of the do’s and don’ts.

Learn more here.

Cost: Request demo and pricing here.

Knowledge Management

Bloomfire

Bloomfire enables the sales team by being a one-stop platform for all the knowledge that reps need to drive in more sales. It is one of the first knowledge engagement platforms that allow the reps to engage with the company data and provide relevant insights. This software democratizes company data as it offers a central platform for knowledge sharing.

Learn more here.

Cost: Bloomfire Pricing

Gamification

Ambition

Ambition is one of the leading gamification and coaching software in the market. It is designed for sales teams to build action plans and measure their coaching impact. It produces meaningful insights as it integrates with the existing systems and projects a 360-degree view of every rep’s performance; enabling the entire sales team to evaluate their KPIs.

Learn more here.

Cost: Request pricing here.

Sales Sequences

Outreach

Outreach offers a sales engagement platform that enables sales sequences as it manages all customer interactions throughout the sales cycle across emails, phone calls, SMSes, and social media, etc. It drives predictable and measurable growth and delivers visibility into sales activity and performance.

Learn more here.

Cost: Request pricing and demo here.

Sales Lead Generation / Lead Scoring

Albacross

Albacross offers lead enrichment so you can gain intent data on each website visitor. Based on that enriched data on different companies visiting your websites and converting, sales reps can prioritize their efforts in order to close more deals. And, easily streamline their workflow to increase revenue.

Learn more about Albacross.

Cost: Request Albacross pricing here.

Wrapping up - Your new Sales Stack for Sales Enablement

You can access the full Content Camel sales enablement tools directory to explore more tools that may suit your budget as well as your sales and marketing team.

Now you know what to do and how to do it. All you need to do is lay out your sales enablement strategy and decide on the top sales enablement tools that are right for your business to create the most impactful sales stack.

Remember, your strategy is dependent upon your sales process, and streamlining the process will help your efforts towards creating your sales stack. After all, every business is unique in its own way and requires a sales stack that is unique to its sales process. Given that you likely have a solid CRM in place, Content Camel helps fill the missing gap between a simple Google Drive, Dropbox, Sharepoint, and spreadsheets when you need to effectively organize, share, and track the results of your high value content.