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10 Must-Have SDR Tools to Drive More Sales

How many tools do you think an average SDR uses?

The answer is one too many! 

Tools for SDRs are designed to cut repeatable processes and make sales reps' lives easier. But the irony is too many tools slow down the sales process and strain your budget.

That’s why I asked Cognism sales leaders for tips on streamlining SDR’s tech stack and spending more time selling than switching between different tools.

I highly recommend this article to managers looking to upgrade or downgrade their tech stack.

1. Cognism

Cognism is a sales intelligence platform and the best SDR tool for data. You can tap into the Cognism globally compliant database and perform company and contact searches in EMEA, NAM, and APAC markets.

It provides direct dials, B2B emails, and phone-verified mobile numbers for prospecting in hybrid workplaces.

SDRs who use Outreach and Salesforce love the Cognism Chrome extension—it works over Outreach and Salesforce, so they don’t have to leave the tools to enrich records. Click through our interactive demo. 👇

Not ready to book a demo? Click through Cognism interactive workflows to see how intuitive our platform is.

Key benefits

  • View and export data without restrictions: on individual and page-level (subject to fair use policy)
  • Enrich LinkedIn profiles and Sales Navigator prospect lists (via Chrome Extension)
  • Don’t leave Outreach and Salesforce to enrich records: just open the extension, see if we have additional information and if we do, export the data
  • View key account and lead information on corporate websites: without leaving the browser (via Chrome Extension)
  • Multithread deals: tap into the prospect’s coworkers to find other stakeholders (via Chrome Extension)
  • Integrate popular CRMs and sales engagement tools: prospect into your owned accounts and cut manual work when exporting new data
  • Sales trigger events and technographic data: identify the best-fit companies and prospects
  • Intent data: have timely and relevant conversations thanks to a partnership with Bombora
Watch the video to learn how SDRs can use Cognism for sales 👇

Pricing

Cognism offers custom pricing packages. All Cognism packages are suitable for individual SDRs and teams with bulk list-building needs.

Speak to our team to find out more 👇

What do customers say?

2. Salesforce

Salesforce is a CRM platform with a suite of tools designed to support the sales process. It's a powerful tool in any SDR’s tech stack that makes it possible to manage and track their sales pipeline, maintain accurate records of customer interactions, and analyze sales performance data.

Key features

  • Lead and opportunity management: centralize and organize how SDRs manage leads and opportunities, track their progress, and update their status.
  • Contact management: store and manage customer and prospect information in one place, including contact details, account information, and historical interactions.
  • Customizable dashboards and reports: create and customize your dashboards and reports to track key metrics and performance indicators.
  • Lead scoring and prioritization: score and prioritize leads based on specific criteria, such as lead source, company size, or industry, to help focus your efforts on hot leads.
  • Email and call tracking: track email and call interactions with prospects to improve your messaging.
  • Lead generation and nurturing tools: integrate Salesforce with a range of lead generation and nurturing tools, such as marketing automation platforms, to help SDRs generate more leads and drive more sales.

You don't have to switch to another tool to enrich records in Salesforce. Cognism works over Salesforce to cut manual work 👇

Pricing

The cost of Salesforce can range from a few hundred dollars per user per month for the Essentials edition to several thousand dollars per user per month for the Enterprise and Unlimited editions. You should inquire personally to get a quote for your team.

3. Outreach

Outreach is a sales development platform that lets you create workflows to engage prospects more effectively so you can close more deals and drive more revenue. SDRs get AI-driven recommendations on customer interactions, such as tone of voice, message length, or the process's next steps.

Key features

  • Workflow automation: create and automate workflows across different channels, from email to voice messages. 
  • Intelligent reporting: get a 360-degree overview of all your prospects, customer interactions, and deal health for coaching, identifying risks, and keeping track of pipelines.
  • Sentiment analysis: create more engaging messages to increase the reply rate. The system analyzes many data points and interaction history with prospects to identify the most effective headlines and message content.
  • Integrated A/B testing: test various sequences against each other and identify the most effective headlines, message structure, or sequence of interactions. As a result, SDRs hit goals faster.
  • AI-powered forecasting: visualize your pipeline in real-time to see pipeline health and check if you are on track with achieving your sales development goals.

You can enrich Outreach contacts with Cognism’s verified mobile numbers and B2B emails without leaving Outreach 👇

Pricing

Get ready to pay around $130 per user. Inquire for a quote on the official website to get a personalized offer.

4. Chili Piper

Chilli Piper is one of the most popular sales acceleration tools that automates lead routing and booking of qualified meetings for sales teams. Our SDRs use this tool to access every Account Executive calendar, making booking a demo immediately on the call quick and easy. 

Key features

  • Form concierge: route leads to the right sales rep using existing forms on your website.
  • Lead distribution: automatically qualify and route leads to the right sales rep who can jump on a call with a lead much faster.
  • Handoff: SDRs receive leads based on geographic location or organization size so that leads are distributed equally among reps, and everyone on the team gets the same chance to hit their targets.
  • Booker: let clients schedule calls with your reps by choosing the best available slot with just a click. Set the rules to allow prospects to schedule a call only if they are in your ICP, so you don’t waste your time on low-quality leads.
  • Automatic synchronization: integrate Chilipiper with your CRM—you can see all meeting details, reschedules, and interactions in real-time.

Pricing

Paid plans start at $15 per user per month.

5. Sales Navigator

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is an essential tool an outbound SDR needs. It’s used for LinkedIn prospecting and making prospect lists. Its premium filtering options allow you to find and prioritize hot leads quickly. Our SDRs enrich Sales Nav lists with Cognism contact data to start conversations faster.

Key features

  • Lead recommendations: make a tailored list of lead recommendations based on your specific criteria, such as industry, job title, location, and more.
  • Advanced search: search for prospects based on specific criteria, such as company size, location, etc.
  • Lead Builder tool: build a targeted list of leads by adding specific filters, such as company size, job function, and more.
  • InMail: send direct messages to prospects, even if you are not connected.
  • Lead insights: access recent changes to a prospect's job title or company to help you stay up-to-date on your leads.

Pricing

The Professional Plan starts at $79.99 per user per month and is designed for individual sales professionals. The Team Plan targets sales teams and starts at $64.99 per user per month (minimum 10 users).

6. Outlook

Microsoft Outlook integrates with multiple other SDR tools, which makes it an essential addition to SDR’s tech stack. It can become a centralized platform for managing customer communication and scheduling when adopted consistently. Outlook features can streamline sales workflows and pipeline management, increasing teams' productivity.

Key features

  • Email management: organize, manage, and track emails, with features like flagged messages, folders, and search tools.
  • Contact management: store and manage all of your contacts in one centralized location, with the ability to categorize contacts, add notes, and track communication history.
  • Calendar management: access a calendar system to schedule appointments, meetings, and follow-up tasks. It also provides reminders and notifications to help keep you on track.
  • Built-in task management: create, prioritize, and track tasks, with the ability to set due dates and receive reminders.

Pricing

Office 365 is a subscription-based service that starts at $6.99 per user per month for the Business Basic plan. The Business Premium plan starts at $12.50 per user per month.

7. Spiff

Spiff is a sales motivation platform and one of the top tools needed to become a successful SDR. It gamifies sales activities to improve reps’ performance. There’s even a mobile app for sales rep engagement. It also helps SDR track commission, thanks to CRM integration. 

Key features

  • Real-time reports: get insight into your commission statements without calculating your commission manually.
  • Advanced analytics reports: customize your reports and see how you and your colleagues perform in sales and who gets the most commission.
  • Smart predictions: predict the future commission based on the previous history of an SDR’s successes in sales.
  • Document management: manage the sales content such as contracts, signatures, and storage.

Pricing

The pricing for Spiff.com is not publicly available on their website. You have to submit a form to get a personalized quote.

8. Seismic

Seismic is a sales enablement platform that lets SDRs manage content, analytics, personalization, and enhance their sales enablement strategies. This sales development software improves efficiency because you can easily find, customize, and share the right content with prospects and customers. 

Key features

  • Content management: access a centralized repository for sales content such as presentations, case studies, proposals, and more.
  • Personalization: personalize content for each customer, increasing relevance and engagement.
  • Analytics: use real-time insights into content usage, customer engagement, and SDR performance.
  • Sales enablement technology: access guided selling, sales playbooks, and interactive content.
  • Integrations: integrate it with nearly a hundred other sales and marketing tools for a seamless experience.
  • User management: manage user access, permissions, and content sharing.

Pricing

Seismic doesn’t publicly disclose pricing plans on its website. 

9. Gong

Gong.io is one of the best tools for SDR success and one of the most popular SDR training tools. It’s designed to help sales teams improve their performance and close more deals. The platform uses artificial intelligence and conversation analytics to provide stats and insights on every cold call. 

Key features

  • Conversation analytics: use AI to analyze sales conversations to identify best practices and improve their sales performance.
  • Sales coaching: coach and train SDRs based on real-world sales conversations and let them analyze their performance.
  • Sales playbooks: access to sales playbooks on the best ways to handle common sales objections.
  • Real-time insights: identify trends in sales performance based on metrics such as win rate, deal size, and time to close. 
  • Integration with CRMs: get a complete view of sales reps' performance thanks to integrations with other SDR tools like Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, and Pipedrive.

Pricing

Gong.io does not publicly disclose its pricing. It depends on several factors, including the size of your sales team, the features you require, and the length of your contract. 

10. SalesScreen

SalesScreen is a sales performance management tool for SDRs. It visualizes data to motivate reps to achieve their goals and boosts their performance through competitions, celebrations, and rewards.

Cognism SDRs say it’s so much fun when they run competitions with each other and play your sale celebration soundtrack. You can also see when anyone globally books a meeting or signs a deal. 

Key features

  • Sales performance tracking: track sales performance in real-time, allowing sales teams to monitor their progress against targets and quickly identify areas for improvement.
  • Gamification: motivate and engage sales teams with various interactive games and challenges designed to encourage friendly competition and drive performance.
  • Customizable dashboards: customize dashboards to view and analyze key performance metrics, including pipeline progress, win rates, and deal values.
  • Collaborative workspaces: centralize your workspace where sales teams can collaborate, share information, and work together on deals.
  • Automated reporting: view automated reports with detailed insight into sales performance and activity, including pipeline reports, activity reports, and sales performance reports.
  • Integration with CRMs: integrate it with various sales development software, like Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, and Pipedrive.

Pricing

SalesScreen doesn’t disclose pricing on its website. 

How to choose the best SDR tool?

Choosing the best SDR tools for your business can be a complex decision, as there are many factors to consider and a wide range of tools to choose from. Here are some key factors you should consider when choosing:

  • Integrations: consider the tools SDRs already use and ensure that it integrates seamlessly with your new software.
  • Lead management: look for sales development software with robust lead management features, such as lead scoring, lead nurturing, and lead distribution.
  • Email and outreach: consider the email and outreach capabilities of the tool, e.g., personalization features, templates, and data quality of email providers.
  • Data management: ensure that your B2B contact data is up-to-date and accurate—the best SDR prospecting tools provide lead enrichment, lead verification, and intent data.
  • User-friendliness: choose a sales development tool that offers flexible workflows and is easy to adopt. 
  • Pricing: if a platform you’re considering doesn’t disclose pricing plans, get a quote that matches your specific needs.

See how much ROI you can achieve with Cognism with our free ROI calculator, and book a demo if you think it's worth it 👇

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