Suzanne Scacca
Contributor
Ever feel like there just aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done as a sales rep? That somehow, some way, you should be able to sell more to prospects … you’re just not sure where the time goes?
Here’s the problem with sales:
Pace Productivity published the results of a time study report in 2017. After tracking sales reps’ 50-hour workweeks, they established an average breakdown of time spent on various activities:
Sales tasks for prospects comprise only 22%. What’s worse, Sales reps reported spending over half as much time traveling (which comes out to about 6.6 hours a week).
Imagine how nice it would be to steal some of that travel time, put it towards tasks you’d otherwise have to wait to do back at the desk, and give yourself more room to sell to customers.
The following is a list of the best sales apps you can download on your phone using an app store.
But this isn’t just about taking your CRM or sales team with you on the go. This is about being able to accomplish real tasks even when you’re not at your desk with a sales app. This is also about being more mindful of your sales movements.
Expect to optimize your travel and your productivity with these sales apps.
The 21 best sales apps for a more productive day on the go:
Think about how much time you spend out of the office during work hours—on the train ride to/from appointments, waiting in the lobby or coffee shop for the other person to show, etc.
Wouldn’t it be great if you could use that time to crank out some mind-numbing tasks for sales opportunities you’d otherwise do at your desk? Even if you can’t decrease the time you spend traveling, you can be more productive with it by using these sales apps.
1. The best CRM app: Copper
Okay, so we're a little biased with this mobile sales app. But the Copper mobile app lets you take your CRM with you wherever you go. This means:
- Your sales pipeline for customers and related activities never have to slow down or stop moving altogether since you can manage them from anywhere.
- The sales team as a whole can continue to collaborate even while working from different locations. Just tag them on messages or in notes to loop them in.
- Your manager never has to be left waiting on status updates since you can log details from meetings the second you leave them.
- You can prepare, edit, and send approvals even from the local coffee shop or on the Uber ride over to your next meeting.
Anything you would do with Copper while at your desk can be done when you’re out and about.
2. The best email app: Gmail
Unlike other email platforms that sales professionals can use, Gmail (and, more specifically, G Suite) is built for professional communications and collaboration.
Pro-tip: Learn about 30+ Google tips.
With G Suite (which Copper has an add-on for), you can tackle a wide variety of sales-related activities from this one platform:
- Emails to clients or team members
- Google Hangouts for live chatting with others
- Google Calendar to keep track of the day’s appointments
There’s also the integration with Google Drive that’s helpful if you need to create, edit, or collaborate with others on Google Docs, spreadsheets, or slide presentations.
See G Suite + a CRM in action:
3. The best prospecting app: LinkedIn Sales Navigator
LinkedIn is a great platform for selling. But have you given the LinkedIn Sales Navigator app a try?
Pro-tip: More on how to use LinkedIn for sales prospecting here.
4. The best productivity app: Asana
There are many ways to track your sales activities and appointments. Want to put all of that information into a color-coded calendar format and remove tasks from your list upon completion? The Asana app is a good way to manage this.
5. The best team messaging app: Slack
Rather than mix your business-related messages with your personal ones, download the Slack app to your phone. Message your sales manager, your teammates, or create channels and groups for more focused discussions between sales professionals.
6. The best business phone app: RingCentral
Leave your personal phone number to take calls and messages from your personal contacts.
7. The best document scanner app: CamScanner
There are a number of things you might encounter as a sales rep while you’re out and about that would be worth converting to a scannable PDF. For instance, if you’re at a trade show, you might want to get a snap of someone’s business card or a slide from a presentation. That's where CamScanner comes in.
9. The best accounting app: Xero
If your company uses Xero as its accounting or invoicing software, you should have this app downloaded to minimize delays in sending invoices, tracking travel receipts, and so on.
10. The best note-taking app: Evernote
Evernote, in general, is a great tool for organizing ideas and capturing your sales notes and images as they come to you. Yes, your phone probably has a notepad app already.
11. The best presentation app: Prezi Viewer
The Prezi Viewer app lets you take your presentations out of the office and on the road.
The Viewer itself is helpful for reviewing and rehearsing your pitch before a big meeting. Compared to most other presentation apps, Prezi is a more powerful tool overall—create timelines, embed PDFs, add audio or video, and more. Plus, it works just as great on your desktop and mobile devices.
12. The best storage app: Dropbox
Dropbox isn’t just an app that stores important documents like proposals and contracts. You can also use it as a mobile sales app, and to create new documents with Paper and collaborate with others on them.
13. The best mapping app: Google Maps
If you’re using G Suite to manage business communications and appointments, make sure you have the Google Maps mobile app downloaded to your device. You can easily search for contacts’ addresses and see appointment reminders on the map, too.
14. The best local search app: Yelp
When you’re on a sales call in a different part of town or a new place entirely, there’s no need to run to the first fast food joint you see. Or to the first corner shop you passed on your way in.
15. The best parking reservation app: ParkMobile
There’s nothing worse than showing up to a sales meeting late because it took you 15 minutes to find a parking spot. Use the ParkMobile app to book your spot ahead of time (and find the best deal in the process)!
16. The best ride-share app: Lyft
If you’d rather not deal with the hassle of finding parking or getting caught in traffic on your way to meetings, use your transportation time more efficiently. With Lyft, you can spend your travel time making sure your presentation is 100% ready to go and handling any last-minute preparations for it.
17. The best trip planner app: TripIt
When you travel a lot for work, it’s easy to lose track of important details and feel overwhelmed by all of the moving pieces. What gate should your Lyft driver drop you at? What time is your next meeting that’s scheduled across town? When does the hotel start check-in?
18. The best sales expense management app: Expensify
Expensify is another one of the best sales apps to have when you travel or dine out a lot. With it, you can quickly track receipts, organize expenses, and send them off to your employer for reimbursement.
19. The best news aggregator app: Feedly
Whether you’re waiting for a meeting to start or commuting to or from home, you might not be in the mood to get started on anything too serious for work. Instead, open your Feedly app and check out news stories relevant to your field for a less-intense start (or end) to your day.
20. The best audiobook app: Audible
Another great way to keep your mind sharp even when not actively doing work is to read a book. There’s a good number of sales books you can listen to on Audible, which should make this a must-have sales app for your phone.
21. The best password manager app: 1Password
Not sure you like the idea of using Google or Facebook to instantly sign into all of these sales apps? That’s okay. With the 1Password app, you can easily save all of your super-secure passwords in one place.
Stay productive both inside and outside the office with these sales apps.
Although the links above take you to the mobile app store for download, many of these are apps you already use on the desktop or web.
By adding the mobile counterparts to your arsenal of tools, you can be productive no matter where you are!
There’s another good reason to use these apps, too: not only do they help you do more with your travel time, they also give you a huge variety of automations and workflow optimizations that make more room in your schedule for selling.
