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Having the right tools in your sales software stack is going to boost your productivity and free up more time to spend talking with qualified leads.
In this article, we’re going to look at some of the best outbound sales tools you can use to improve your research, outreach, and deal-closing processes.
Let’s dive straight in.
What are Outbound Sales Tools?
Outbound sales tools are made to help you identify, reach out to, and close more deals.
The people you reach out to using these outbound sales tools won’t have had any interactions with you or your brand before. It’s important to personalize your outreach and prove to your prospects why it’s worth having a conversation.
Types of Outbound Sales Tools to Use
There are three main types of outbound sales tools that you’ll be using.
1. Research-Focused Tools
The first type of outbound sales software you’ll find yourself using almost daily are research-focused tools.
These help you:
Identify people that are qualified for what you’re selling
Find key decision-makers at companies you’re contacting
Source accurate contact details, such as email address and phone number
Without these tools, you’ll end up spending hours every day building a prospect list and there will always be a risk of your prospect contact details being unverified.
2. Cold Outreach Tools
The next type of tool you’ll use as a core part of your outbound process is a cold outreach tool.
These are made to help you reach out to cold prospects over email, phone, or on platforms like LinkedIn. This type of outbound tool will also help you personalize your outbound messages, as well as automate repetitive parts of the process.
Without these, you won’t have a way to contact your cold sales prospects at scale so they’re an essential part of your toolset.
3. Nurturing and Deal Closing Tools
Once people start replying to your outbound campaigns, you need a way to turn those leads into customers.
The tools we’ll look at focusing on nurturing and deal closing are going to help you optimize your sales process once you’ve been able to start that initial conversation with someone.
3 Outbound Sales Tools to Help With Prospect Research
1. BuiltWith
Technographic data platform that lets you source target companies based on the software they use on their website.
BuiltWith is a platform that collects information about the software and tools that companies around the world use on their website.
You can then search and filter through that information to identify the companies using technology that makes them a good fit for what you’re selling.
If you run an e-commerce marketing agency, you might search for companies using specific Shopify plugins on their website, or identify companies that use Shopify and have the Meta Pixel installed so you know they’re interested in marketing.
BuiltWith also has information on how much a company spends per year on its tools, which can give you an idea of whether they’ll be willing to spend the required amount on your product or service.
You can export the lists of prospects who match your criteria into a spreadsheet or export them into your CRM or other outreach tools.
Pricing: From $295 per month
Pros:
Identify leads based on the software they use to run their business
Track growth in new technologies to spot new opportunities for service delivery
Chrome extension that shows you software on any website that you’re browsing
Cons:
Users on G2 say that data on small websites can be unreliable
Doesn’t have contact details for all prospects
2. UpLead
B2B database with 50+ filters to help you identify the best prospects for your next outbound sales campaign.
UpLead is a B2B data provider that scrapes the web for contact information on B2B decision-makers. It then verifies that information for accuracy and leaves only verifiable records in the system.
You can search through the records with search filters such as company size, revenue per year, job titles, and much more.
When you find a prospect that matches your criteria, you can save them to a prospect list in UpLead and later export that list to use in your other outbound tools, like a cold email platform.
UpLead also shows you intent data on prospects. That means you can easily see if they’re been actively researching problems that you can help with. This enables you to reach out at the perfect time and have the best shot at starting a conversation with them.
Pricing: From $74 per month
Pros:
50+ search filters to identify the best prospects for your business
Includes intent data which shows you what topics a prospect is interested in and where they are in their buying process
Good alternative to enterprise B2B data platforms like ZoomInfo
Cons:
Email addresses are verified on download, so the prospect lis that you export will include fewer prospects than you expect
3. LinkedIn Sales Navigator
Adds new tools to LinkedIn that help you identify prospects that match your ideal customer profile and reach out at the right time.
Sales Navigator is an essential outbound sales tool for anyone whose target market spends time on LinkedIn.
It adds powerful features to your account, such as more search filters, the ability to build and save prospects lists directly in LinkedIn, and even a higher InMail limit if you want to use LinkedIn for sales outreach.
Another useful feature is the company alerts. This lets you monitor specific companies and get notified whenever something notable happens – for example, they hire a new team member or grow a significant amount in a short period of time. You can then reach out to them with the context of what’s happening in their business.
You can also use LinkedIn to connect with prospects with the help of LinkedIn outreach automation tools. These help you set up automated InMail campaigns for your target audience.
Pricing: From $99.99 per month
Pros:
Large number of B2B decision-makers use LinkedIn on a regular basis
Up-to-date information on details like job titles and company size because people often update their LinkedIn profiles
Build and save lists of prospects matching your ideal customer profile
Cons:
You pay per user, so it can get expensive
You can’t always source verified contact details from LinkedIn
6 Outbound Sales Tools to Improve Your Cold Outreach
1. QuickMail
Cold email platform to send personalized emails, automatic follow-up emails to boost response rates, and deliverability tools to ensure your emails get noticed.
Cold Email with Automatic Follow-Ups
QuickMail lets you schedule personalized cold email campaigns and automatically follow-up with prospects if they don’t reply.
You can build a campaign with as many email steps as you need, and once the campaign starts, everything will run on autopilot. You can pull in a prospect list from a Google Sheet, set the campaigns up to email a certain number of new prospects each week, and notify your team in Slack whenever a new reply comes in.
It’s a powerful way to get more replies to your outbound sales campaigns.
Easily Scale Up Sending Volume
Outbound sales teams need a way to scale their sending volume. In QuickMail, you can add as many sending inboxes to your campaigns as needed, and your campaigns can be sent from as many inboxes as is required using inbox rotation.
You won’t need to copy-paste any campaigns into new inboxes, and won’t need to switch between different accounts to hit the sending volume your campaign needs.
Ensure Your Emails Always Land in Your Prospect’s Inbox
No matter how good your cold emails are, they’ll only deliver results if they get opened and read by your prospects.
To ensure your emails never land in spam and always get noticed, QuickMail integrates natively with an email deliverability tool, MailFlow.
Using MailFlow, you will increase engagement on your account and build trust with email service providers like Gmail or Outlook. After warming up your email for around two weeks, you can send outbound campaigns knowing that your emails will always land in the primary inbox.
Pricing: From $49 per month. Free trial available.
Key features:
Send personalized cold email campaigns with automatic follow-ups if someone doesn’t reply.
Works with Gmail, Outlook, or any other custom inboxes you need to send emails from
Deliverability tools help your emails land in the primary inbox and avoid the spam folder
Track your email performance in a dashboard with metrics on open rate, reply rate, bounce rate, and more
Collaboration is free by default so you can add as many team members as you need to
2. Aircall
Cold calling platform with a power dialer to call through a list of prospects without having to manually dial any numbers.
Aircall is a call center platform with a range of tools to help you make outbound cold calls to your prospects.
You can integrate it with your CRM or upload a list of prospects, and Aircall can automatically call through the list of numbers. If someone picks up, you can run through the cold call script you prepared beforehand and see if they’re interested in a second meeting.
If they don’t, you can automatically leave a voicemail and then Aircall will automatically call the next person on the list.
Aircall will display call analytics for your team, with metrics including the number of calls you make per day or week, how many people pick up the phone, and the average length of conversations you’re having
Aircall also has direct integration with QuickMail.
You can make calls directly from QuickMail as part of a campaign and any notes you make on a prospect will be synced between the two platforms.
Pricing: From $30 per user per month
Pros:
Automatically call through a list of prospects without needing to manually dial
Sync notes with QuickMail, your CRM, and other outbound sales tools used in your company
Call analytics means you can easily track performance on a team or an individual basis
Cons:
Users on Capterra said that the call quality can be inconsistent
3. Zopto
Cloud-based LinkedIn automation tool that lets you send message sequences and follow-ups on LinkedIn.
Zopto is a tool that enables you to connect with prospects on LinkedIn using outreach automation. You can set up automated messaging campaigns that will send personalized LinkedIn messages to your prospects and automatically follow-up if they don’t reply.
As well as automating the messaging process, you can set up workflows such as an automatic profile viewer to help get your profile noticed by prospects and warm up your initial interaction.
Zopto will also clean your lists before running your outreach. If anyone in the list has had their information changed recently, Zopto will flag it and remove them so you don’t message people who aren’t a fit for your business.
It’s a powerful way to engage with your prospects on LinkedIn without needing to spend hours every day messaging everyone manually.
Keep in mind that there’s always a risk of your account being restricted if you use external tools to automate processes on LinkedIn, so use it with caution.
Pricing: From $172 per month
Pros:
Cloud-based tool with a dedicated IP, so the chances of LinkedIn flagging your account for suspicious activity are reduced
Set up multi-step LinkedIn message sequences
Import existing prospect lists with LinkedIn profile URL from your CRM or a spreadsheet
Cons:
You’re limited by LinkedIn’s messaging limits, so it’s not as flexible or scalable as email outreach
Some users on G2 say that the reporting is limited and they need to export their data into spreadsheets to understand campaign performance
5. Phantombuster
Platform that you can use to build custom outbound workflows and connect other tools together.
Phantombuster is an automation platform that you can use to build custom workflows to match your outbound sales needs. There’s no need to install anything on your computer and no coding skills are needed to get set up.
Phantombuster can scrape data from platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, Quora, Github, and more. The data can be then sent automatically to a spreadsheet, your CRM, or other tools in your stack.
Examples of automations you can set up include scraping LinkedIn profiles or comment sections, then automatically connecting with those people – all without needing to do anything manually.
The platform uses a cloud-based automation system to mimic human behavior which avoids your account being flagged on any platform you interact with.
Pricing: From $48 per month
Pros:
Scrape and use data from 10+ social platforms to use in your outbound sales process
Cloud-based system to avoid platforms restricting your activity
No coding skills required
Cons:
Requires some set up time if you want your automation to work correctly
Users on G2 say that the data extracted still needs to be cleaned and verified once exported, which can add an extra step to your process
6. Kixie
An intuitive power dialer with local presence dialing and automatic spam detection to increase your live connection rate on cold calls.
Kixie is a calling and texting platform for sales teams, with a suite of built-in sales engagement tools to help you reach more prospects. Kixie integrates with your existing tech stack and all major CRMs, making it easy to plug into your existing setup and start dialing.
With the multi-line power dialer, reps can call up to 10 lines at a time directly from the CRM or from an uploaded list. Paired with ConnectionBoost, your reps are more likely to reach a real person on the other end of the line.
Once you connect with a prospect, you can disposition calls with one click and create workflow automation based on call outcomes to simplify your follow-up. For example, you can automatically send prospects who didn’t pick up to a “Call again later” list, or automatically trigger a templated SMS to those that did.
With 100% US-based support and complimentary support for building out custom sales processes, Kixie is committed to helping you win.
Pricing: Available upon request. A free, 7-day trial is available.
Pros:
Simple implementation; start/use the same day.
Lightning-fast customer support.
Integrations with all major CRMs and productivity tools.
Cons:
Some reviewers note the software is buggy at times.
The interface and UI/UX can be improved.
3 Outbound Sales Tools to Boost Your Deal Win Rate
1. Crystal Knows
Personality insights tool that you can use to personalize your outbound sales messaging, and improve meetings with prospects.
Crystal is a sales platform made to help improve your interactions with prospects and leads.
The main value proposition is that it surfaces personality insights about the people you’re interacting with. It’ll tell you things like “Share an agenda before the call” or “Keep the conversation focused on an outcome”.
Whenever you have a meeting you will always show up with a clear idea of how to approach different topics and move each prospect through the buying process most effectively.
There’s also a Crystal Chrome extension. As you’re looking through prospect profiles on Linkedin before a call, it’ll surface tips to communicate with them in order to give you the best chance of converting them.
Pricing: Available upon request
Pros:
See communication style preferences and what a prospect cares about before you’ve even had a conversation.
Gives different recommendations based on the medium of communication (email vs. call) and the intent of your communication
Cons:
There is always a risk of the data being inaccurate, so don’t completely rely on it.
2. Calendly
Give your prospects an easy way to book meetings and optimize the scheduling process.
Calendly is a meeting booking tool that’s an excellent part of any outbound sales software stack.
You integrate it with your calendar and can then send a meeting booking link to anyone you need to. They can choose a time that works best for them, and the meeting will be confirmed on both of your calendars. It streamlines the process of booking meetings as you won’t need to worry about time-zone conflicts or double booking on any time slots.
Calendly includes a meeting reminder system, which can help you reduce no-shows to meetings. As you would expect, it integrates with tools like Salesforce so you can see your upcoming meetings directly in your CRM records.
Pricing: Team plan from $12 per month per user
Pros:
Browser extension means you can easily generate a meeting link and instantly paste it anywhere you need to
Automatic meeting reminders to ensure your prospects always show up
You can add required fields to the booking form to help you qualify prospects before meetings
Cons:
Can feel impersonal if a prospect wasn’t expecting to receive a booking link
3. Gong
Conversational insights to help you find ways to improve your deal-making process and win more deals.
Gong is a powerful tool for outbound sales teams. It plugs into your sales process and works on top of sales tools including your outbound email platform, CRM, and video conferencing tools.
It then analyzes your communication, looking for signals that show whether prospects are at risk of dropping out of the sales process, or if they’re showing signs of being ready to purchase.
You can also use Gong to transcribe your meetings. After the meeting, it can extract questions that were asked by prospects that can be addressed in a follow-up email, and even provide sales coaching on ways to improve your approach to meetings.
Pricing: Available on request, pricing is based on number of users
Pros:
Automatically transcribes your sales calls and helps you find ways to improve your interaction with that prospect in the future
Shows you information on what makes your top performers close more deals than average so your whole team can improve their approach to sales
Assess whether a prospect is ready to buy based on signals they’ve shown during the sales process.
Cons:
Users on Capterra say you need to add the Gong bot to your sales calls, and if you forget, you won’t have a transcription
Wrapping Up
These outbound sales tools can help you with different stages of your outbound sales process.
From research to outreach, to optimizing the deal closing process, there’s going to be value you can get from all of these.
If you integrate these outbound sales tools into your workflow you’ll be able to save time on repetitive tasks and spend more energy doing what moves the needle for your business: talking to prospects and closing deals.
Want to use cold email to start more conversations with prospects? Try QuickMail with a free 14-day trial.
