Most sales professionals today come equipped with a smartphone, tablet or both and should be using them effectively to help them increase their sales. There are plenty of apps that can help but with thousands available aimed at the busy professional, it can be hard to know which ones to use. The best apps will help your salesforce be more effective by saving them time and helping them stay organized and on top of all their information. It is recommended that you choose a standard set of apps for your company and get your whole team using them. When everyone uses the same apps, you’ll be able to reduce training, allow data to be shared easier between sales professionals and reduce the number of technical issues. To help you choose which apps you recommend your team uses we’ve collected 3 of the best apps that sales professionals need.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) App

A CRM app is the most essential tool a salesperson can have. A great salesperson needs to keep track of a lot of information about their customer beyond just their names and addresses and forgetting one bit of crucial information can be the difference between making a great impression and losing a sale and damaging a relationship. There are several different CRM systems you could consider using with two of the most popular being Salesforce and 37 Signals. Any good CRM system should come with a fully functional app that can be used on a phone or tablet and using one of these CRM apps will enable your sales professionals to have all their data to hand. By not trying to store all their information in their own memory, they’ll also have the added benefit of releasing some brainpower to focus on selling more of your products.

Evernote

With your sales professionals constantly traveling from one meeting to the next, it is essential they take excellent notes of what they’ve said to each client as they are unlikely to remember everything that has been said. Evernote can’t be beaten as a tool for taking notes in meetings with team or with clients, trumping any system of handwritten paper notes by keeping everything you write safe in the cloud and easily searchable – your data will never be lost and your sales professionals will never waste time searching for a note or piece of information again. Those that still like to create notes by hand can use the Penultimate add-on app for Evernote, which integrates digital handwriting functionality. Instead of typing notes can be written and diagrams drawn by hand and saved into Evernote.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn remains one of the best ways for your sales professionals to communicate within their professional network. The status updates from business people and companies you are connected to can help you keep up-to-date with your clients and give you insight into how their businesses work. While data about what people are working on and whom they’re working with can help you pinpoint the real decision makers within each company to avoid wasting time pitching to the wrong person. LinkedIn can also be used to reach out to new potential clients by searching for contacts in specific industries or locations.

These 3 apps are just a few of many excellent and useful apps your sales professionals could be using to make their lives easier. No matter how many apps or how much technology they use, your sales professionals must remember that ultimately it is their ability to understand their client’s needs and provide them with solutions that will govern their success as a salesperson. While the technology is useful, it is still only a tool to be used and will never be more important than building excellent working relationships with customers.