The best productivity tools for digital sellers

Email tracking & scheduling

Don't know your email open rate when sending cold prospecting messages? You're flying blind. It's impossible to judge effectiveness of your message without, first, knowing your subject line is effective.

If your messages are not being opened your message isn't getting read. This means you cannot reliably judge message effectiveness AT ALL. Don't spend hours changing-up your cold message approach when the message may be just fine!

It's being sabotaged by your open rate... your weak subject line.

Many of my students report 40% and even 75% open rates. Sound impossible? It's not. But you've got to get out-of-the-box, get creative... take risks.

To understand email open rates, Mac (Apple Mail) users seem to prefer MailButler. For non-Mac heads, Boomerang for Gmail is a strong option, especially for businesses who allow Google to host their email via G-Suite.

MixMax and SalesHandy are pushing beyond the usual functionality of Gmail / G-Suite plugins. My team and I use MixMax. Cannot live without it! (productivity improvement is addictive)

These tools offer a wide (and growing) array of simple functions vital to your digital prospecting success. These include email:

1. ​Reminders. (return to top of inbox on certain date based on recipient action not taken/taken)
2. Scheduling of message delivery at designated time. (great for managing multiple time zones)
3. Template storage & insertion. (a must when you're customizing templates on-the-fly in large numbers)
4. Open tracking & notifications. (showing real-time, location & device type)
5. Download notifications. (showing when prospects open attachments & click links)
6. Follow-up message sequencing. (based on pre-defined or on-the-fly message cadence you use)
7. Calendar management tools. (allowing prospects to pick dates/times from your available slots)

Need to integrate with your CRM of choice? No problem. Most of these tools can move contacts to various popular CRM tools. Many SaaS CRM tools are also able to “suck in” email message data from your cloud G-Suite account.

Bottom line: These tools make knowing your open & response rates—across all messages, based on subject and message content—possible.

Thus, you know what is working, what isn't, without guesswork. This makes weekly reporting to the boss a snap.

Email discovery & validation

When prospecting we're forced to email and call prospects. LinkedIn InMail alone is not enough. There are various, reliable hacks and methods to identify business email addresses. However, most found online are a chronic waste of time.

Most free email verification tools are horrific. Quality lacks. You will also find many CRM and lead generation database+CRMs that include access to contact data/emails. Most generate 30% or less accuracy rates on valid email addresses. This is what I and my students experience.

However, there are a few that shine at providing valid email addresses.

Among the better choices (based on collective experience... please share yours too!) are:

• Hunter.io (free email validation)
• Emailvalidator.co (free email validation)
• Proofy.io (free and affordable paid email validation)
• LeadGibbon (capture LinkedIn data & validate email in 1 click ... get 20% off with this coupon jeffmolander20)

Take note: I rarely recommend tools. MixMax and LeadGibbon are exceptional. For example, LeadGibbon does NOT auto-scrape data from LinkedIn profiles of your targets, nor auto-visit profiles, nor auto-message profiles. Automation tactics are against LinkedIn's terms & conditions and rarely work. 

LeadGibbon moves key pieces of a prospect's contact data (name, title, company, etc.) off individually-researched LinkedIn profiles, onto a Google Drive spreadsheet or CRM.​.. AND (when possible) identifies the contact's email address. Validity of these emails is not perfect, but is unusually strong.

Digital calling & telephone tools

Get on the phone. Maybe you're a small business entrepreneur ... or part of a global sales team. Either way, you need to be on the phone. Like it or not, cold calling remains essential to success of 85% of students I coach.

Thus, you may need (or benefit from) emerging VOIP telephone tools like Grasshopper.com. This service makes it easy for small organizations to look-and-feel big. Once you have a registered toll-free phone number the possibilities begin. Your business can have:

1. Multiple extensions: An automated call routing system. (even if there are only 2 of you!)

2. Voicemails transcribed & emailed or texted to you.

3. Call forwarding.

4. Business text messages.

Hardware required? Zero. It's all in the cloud. 

Microsoft-owned Skype should not be overlooked, especially if you're like me: Traveling and working with international clients. Simply pick your phone number and bring it with you—no matter where on the planet you are. So long as you have wifi you have your local phone number.

For example, my US (Chicago) 312 area code phone line rings in my pocket while connected via wifi in Athens. 

Skype Manager is a great team management tool complete with call reporting for your in-office or remote team. Plus, Skype for Business gives you online meetings and integration with Microsoft Office tools.

Outsource your cold-calling

Don't overlook UpCall.com. If you're a business owner or manager interested in finding high-quality, vetted cold-callers this service is for you.

In essence, UpCall.com is “like UpWork for cold-callers.” UpWork was formerly known as Elance.

UpCall is a growing database of cold-callers from around the globe. Select language, geographic and other preferences you require for callers. Then UpCall's search engine suggests callers who's skills best fit your requirements.

You can even listen to successful calls potential vendors have made, view training & certifications they hold and more.

Sound too risky? Callers are rated based on feedback of paying clients they call for. Just like on Ebay or UpWork, you can choose the “safest bet” to start a new vendor relationship.

Templates don't work

If you are unable to start discussions with customers you're done. No tool will help. In fact, some tools hinder.

MixMax is great at inserting templates. But if you insert templates to send out as many emails as possible you'll FAIL. Instead, use the tool to customize (and send) faster.

Need help getting good at that? Join us in our next online workshop. See you there!