Your startup's long-term success depends on what your current tech stack looks like. However, making random software investments can lead to more harm than good. That's why we're here today with a cherry-picked list of the best sales tools for startups.

Within this blog, we've pinpointed specific tools to optimize and streamline various aspects of your sales process. Whether it's acquiring new customers, efficiently managing existing leads, or fostering seamless communication within your sales team, we've got you covered.

Let's take a look!

1. QuickMail for Email Marketing and Outreach 

QuickMail is an omnichannel email outreach tool aimed at two things: first, to simplify email automation, and second, to enhance sales engagement efforts.

With QuickMail, you can craft and send email campaigns from scratch, manage sales chats (yup, it's also a CRM!), and track campaign performance with advanced analytics. It's not just for emails either — you can reach out via LinkedIn too, and it integrates smoothly with Gmail and Outlook.

But here's the kicker: QuickMail comes packed with nifty features to make your outreach even smoother. Take, for instance, the unified inbox that simplifies how teams can share reply handling or how AI can handle unsubscribe requests so you can focus on conversations that matter.

Your sales squad can easily import leads, create outreach campaigns, send tailored follow-ups, personalize messages, and schedule tasks. Plus, you can sync your leads from Google Sheets in real-time, keeping everything up to date.

QuickMail Pricing 

  • Basic Plan: $49 per month 

  • Pro Plan: $89 per month 

  • Expert Plan: $129 per month

2. LinkedIn Sales Navigator for Prospecting and Lead Generation

With almost everyone on LinkedIn, it makes sense that the LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a goldmine for finding leads. You can keep a close eye on potential leads, customize your outreach, and build stronger connections, all within a single platform.

But that’s not all — LinkedIn Sales Navigator comes with powerful filters, letting you narrow down your search based on factors like company size, occupation, industry, and job title. Personalized recommendations help identify potential customers based on their activity and interests, while features, like saved lists, alerts, and automated lead generation, streamline the prospecting process. Additionally, you can exclude specific clients and competitors from search results.

The account insights feature keeps you updated on your potential customers' companies, providing valuable information like financial updates and news articles. Use direct messaging to communicate with prospects within their network, and if you need to reach out to those not connected yet, there's always InMail.

Linkedin Sales Navigator Pricing

We did a deep dive into different LinkedIn plans for sales - get the scoop so you can see if going premium is right for your use case!

3. Highspot for AI-Powered Sales Enablement 

Sales enablement is all about connecting with customers more effectively, and that’s exactly what Highspot makes happen. It offers a unified platform with features such as content management, sales training, coaching, and SRM tools, all designed to ensure your success.

For example, the content optimization feature gives you access to the most relevant and impactful sales in content, facilitating more engaging customer interactions. However, it’s the AI-driven search and recommendations feature we like the most. Use it to effortlessly find the right sales content, simplifying content discovery.

Highspot's sales analytics helps you understand how prospects and customers engage with shared sales collateral, refining your sales enablement strategy. What's more, you can pair relevant training materials with your content, thereby empowering your sales reps to seal more deals.

Highspot Pricing

Pricing isn't available on the Highspot website. You'll have to fill up a form for a customized quote.

4. Proposify for Sending Sales Proposals and Quotes

Proposify is another indispensable sales tool for startups, offering a simplified approach to sending sales proposals and quotes. Its drag-and-drop interface allows you to easily customize sales documents with text, images, and videos, giving them a visual boost. You can also use the industry-specific templates to save precious time and maintain consistency across documents. 

A live chat feature supports real-time customer interaction during the review process, enhancing engagement. Stay informed with engagement tracking, receiving timely alerts for strategic follow-ups when recipients interact with your proposals.

There are also a host of practical integrations, including connecting with popular CRM systems to create and send proposals without leaving your CRM environment. Additionally, the integration with accounting tools simplifies the management of payment invoices, showcasing Proposify's versatility beyond sales.

Proposify Pricing

  • Team Plan: $49 per user, per month

  • Business Plan: Contact sales for a customized quote

5. PandaDoc for Managing Client Contracts

PandaDoc's adaptability is particularly advantageous for a startup — and we don't say this lightly. Tailored to meet your business needs, the platform provides a comprehensive solution for sharing, reviewing, and managing a range of documents. Think: contracts, proposals, quotes, and forms.

It centralizes document management, helping you efficiently handle contracts — and other essential docs — within a single, user-friendly platform. Plus, you get over 750 templates that you can customize and save at your fingertips.

Moreover, the platform's customizable user permissions and streamlined approval workflows help expedite the contract development and signing process, making your startup operations more efficient. 

PandaDoc's automated functionalities, such as variables and conditional logic, are useful in reducing errors and ensuring precise document preparation. Other key features like version tracking, comments, and approvals contribute to the overall organization and clarity of your document workflow. 

PandaDoc Pricing

  • Essentials: $19 per seat, per month

  • Business: $49 per seat, per month

  • Enterprise: Contact sales for a customized quote

6. Zapier for Implementing Marketing and Sales Automation

 

As a startup owner, you’re likely swamped with responsibilities. It’s why investing in sales automation tools is a no-brainer to simplify and accelerate different aspects of your (and your team’s) workflows.

Zapier, for instance, connects and integrates different sales and marketing apps, enabling you to streamline and automate your sales pipeline. The direct result? A significant increase in sales productivity.

Create custom workflows, trigger actions based on specific events, and eliminate repetitive or manual entries across multiple systems. The fact that Zapier also supports multi-step “zaps” means you can create complex automation workflow with multiple actions and conditions, too.

Data syncing between different apps is also possible, maintaining consistency across different systems.

Zapier Pricing

  • Free: Free forever

  • Starter: $19.99 per month

  • Professional: $49 per month

  • Team: $69 per month

  • Company: Contact sales for a customized quote

7. Slack for Seamless Internal Team Communication and Collaboration

Communication silos can spell doom for your startup, which is why it’s crucial to invest in a sales tool like Slack that allows teams to communicate asynchronously with each other and the clients. Moreover, it automatically saves conversation histories that can be searched later.

Here’s how Slack works: every discussion is organized into different channels, catering to specific projects, general chat, technical support, or clients. This creates structure and lends coherence to your organization’s workflow. Plus, users can subscribe to and benefit only from the updates they truly need.

Slack also supports video calling, which is another fantastic feature for smaller saps. While the platform doesn’t replace cloud storage devices, it provides an easy way to share important files and documents through a convenient drag-and-drop function.

There’s also limited storage capacity, where it integrates with services like Dropbox and Google Drive, giving you the capability to access and share files from various sources — all within the platform.

Slack Pricing

  • Free: Free forever

  • Pro: $7.25 per month

  • Business+: $12.50 per month

  • Enterprise Grid: Contact sales for a customized quote

8. 360Learning to Train and Onboard Team Members

360Learning doubles as a sophisticated learning management system (LMS) and collaborative learning platform designed to empower your sales squad. 

One standout 360Learning feature is progress tracking, which provides real-time insights into learner progress, engagement, and satisfaction. You can monitor your team's progression, send timely training reminders, and make necessary adjustments to improve overall course quality. 

This ensures your sales team stays on course and consistently enhances their skills. This ensures your sales team stays on course and consistently enhances their skills.

360Learning also offers comprehensive LMS analytics and tracking features, providing you with essential data to evaluate and optimize the learning program. Notably, the platform includes sales enablement training features, allowing your team to practice pitches and demos and receive coaching remotely — all within a single platform.

In terms of integrations, 360Learning remains versatile, connecting seamlessly with popular platforms such as Coursera, Google Drive, Zoom, Salesforce, you name it. The added flexibility of integrating with other tools through API ensures further adaptability to your specific needs.

360Learning Pricing

  • Team: $8 per user, per month

  • Business: Contact sales for a customized quote

In Summary

In a competitive market landscape, startups need every advantage they can get. Sales tools provide a competitive edge, enabling you to stay competitive by adopting the latest sales technologies and methodologies. This edge is crucial for really any business looking to carve out a space for themselves in the market and differentiate their offerings.

Our carefully selected list will improve your daily sales workflow, allowing you to focus on what matters most: growing your business. We recommend planning how to integrate them into your processes, followed by a free trial to assess their compatibility and potential to enhance your selling efforts. And when you're ready to send outreach emails to prospects, QuickMail has your back. 

Start your free trial today.