In the past, we hear a lot about customer relationship management in order to better understand customers’ needs and target them effectively. Actually there are many sales tools to improve sales productivity which determines a company’s success.

Sales managers have integrated social, mobile, big data and cloud services to change the way they work, and sales representatives have to learn how the new system is operating and to quickly adapt to it. 60% of a buyer’s decision process is made online by using self-selection. This trend indicates that sales person’s role is not just providing product information any more. Gschwandtner, CEO of Selling Power, says that only those who make that transition will have a future in sales.

Currently, customer relationship management software, Salesforce, Zoho and InfusionSoft are now being used most for supporting a company’s sales team. Gartner has estimated that the customer relationship management software is now a $20 billion market, and that it will expand to be a $36 billion market by 2017. However, this kind of software may not be enough for influencing the outcome of deals. Howard Brown, founder of RingDNA, mentions that sales acceleration technology can be more powerful, because it provides sales intelligence data in a useful context and boost sales almost the same time. Notable companies making waves in this space include Yesware (providing email for sales teams), Inside View (with enhanced prospect data) and SalesLoft (offering a tool allowing for sales via social media).

Source:

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/237916

http://blogs.salesforce.com/company/2013/07/sales-technology-trends.html