The Ultimate Sales Enablement Toolkit for Agencies

Sales enablement is all about providing sales professionals with the knowledge and skills they need to be successful. For agencies, finding qualified sales professionals and training them on the different products, services and processes can be a real challenge. 

The right sales enablement strategy helps solve this problem by providing your agency’s sales professionals with the resources they need to become a more effective part of the organization. To get the best results for your agency, you’re going to need the best sales enablement tools. 

To find out which sales enablement software lead generation agencies rely on, we reached out to some of our partners:

• Michael Bassin, Co-Founder & CEO at ScaleUpSales

• Shaheem Alam, Co-Founder of FiveRings Marketing

• Ryan Matonis, Founder and CEO, Leadsoft

Let’s see what’s under the hoods of their businesses.

CRM Software

Customer relationship management (CRM) is important for any company. But for agencies dealing with multiple clients, it’s an essential piece of sales enablement software. Dedicated CRM software enables agencies and large teams to keep track of key details and provide the best service possible. Here are some of the most popular CRM tools used by agencies. 

Close.com

All sorts of companies — from startups to agencies — enjoy using Close.com to grow their business. An easy-to-use interface makes onboarding quick and painless, something that’s vital when managing a larger team. You can also easily analyze your workflows and KPIs, so you can be sure you’re getting the best results for your clients. 

Prices start at $25/user for all the basic features, but the business plan (at $129/user) contains some very useful features for agencies, from call coaching to predictive dialing.

HubSpot

HubSpot is a big name in the CRM space, providing a wide range of services suitable for businesses at all stages. The free plans are ideal for those starting out, but there are also powerful features for growing agencies. 

HubSpot is actually divided into five different hubs:

• Marketing
• Sales
• Service
• CMS
• Operations

You can either purchase specific hub plans if you only need certain features, or you can save by going for the complete bundle. The CRM bundle begins at $45/month for starter versions, going up to (a rather eye-watering) $5,000/month for the enterprise versions of their different hubs.

Sales engagement

Sales enablement best practices cover many different aspects of the sales process, but one of the most important has to be sales engagement — the way you connect and interact with prospective customers. For agencies, this means being able to plan and manage that engagement across multiple clients without missing a step.

Reply

Our all-in-one sales engagement platform helps companies create new opportunities at scale while personalizing every touchpoint. This includes a package specially designed to give agencies the tools to automate their lead generation for clients and effectively manage their internal teams. 

These include: 

• Roles & Permissions – the new hierarchy where each user within a team or your organization in general can have access to specific info and perform certain actions.
• LinkedIn steps for truly multi-channel engagement with social touchpoints at scale.
• Team-wide Salesforce integration (and many more native CRM integrations) to connect your sales stack for even better results.
• Team variables that help you add contact information of different team members to your sequences so that you can collaboratively reach out to people.
• Team performance dashboard with a detailed breakdown of your team’s activity and results (including each individual member).

Yet, Reply helps with far more. From running multichannel campaigns and optimizing email deliverability, to advanced channel-specific analytics, agencies use Reply to ensure they’re providing the best sales engagement for their clients. 

Reply includes two dedicated agency plans, both starting at $60/month per email account. 

Data

As the old saying goes, knowledge is power. Today, there’s an exceptional amount of data available out there that, if used correctly, can give agencies fresh insights into their clients and their customers. 

Whether it’s finding new clients or helping your agency perform at a higher standard, data is key. The following sales enablement tools not only collect that information but do so in a format that agency staff can easily use and act on. 

Crunchbase

Crunchbase positions itself as an all-in-one prospecting solution and the leader in private-company data. You can use the software to discover companies that match your client’s ideal customer profile (ICP) and see which leads you should be reaching out to.

Alongside company-specific data, the platform also gives you general insights and analysis for different markets based on their data, enabling you to make strategic decisions. You can see featured funding rounds and acquisitions, along with trending companies and search results. 

The free version is a great way to get a taste of the product, while paid plans start at $29/user/month. 

LinkedIn Sales Navigator

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is one of the most popular tools for salespeople, allowing customers to tap into the vast amounts of data on the LinkedIn platform to find their next prospect. 

One of the key benefits is the number of filters available, with over 40 different criteria you can use to narrow down your search. Companies and individuals freely share plenty of information on the social media site and Sales Navigator collates that all into an easily digestible format. 

The software includes plans for individual salespeople, but agencies with 20+ reps will want to check out their advanced plus plan. 

SalesIntel

SalesIntel prides itself on providing accurate and reliable sales data. Their research team verifies and validates the accuracy of all their data, personally calling phone numbers and sending emails to ensure everything is correct. All data is then reverified every 90 days. 

One particularly interesting feature is their on-demand research packages. You can get SalesIntel’s team to verify existing CRM contacts and find details for any accounts you want to target. 

Individual plans start at $99/month, but you’ll have to reach out for a team quote. 

GetProspect

If your agency uses LinkedIn to engage with potential customers, you’ll want to check out GetProspect. In just one click, you can bulk extract emails and profiles from LinkedIn for your sales team, taking advantage of their B2B database of over 200 million contacts.

GetProspect is also built for teams, allowing colleagues to work on contact lists simultaneously while you compare every team member’s results. All plans allow unlimited users, with pricing based on how many emails you need. Try it out with their free plan for 50 emails, with paid plans going up to $279/month for 50,000 valid emails.

Process automation

There is no shortage of tasks on any agency’s to-do list. Process automation allows agencies to spend less time on repetitive, mundane tasks. This means they can focus their efforts on high-touch tasks without any distractions, providing the best service possible to your clients. The following sales enablement tools allow businesses to streamline their processes and improve service delivery while keeping costs down.

Zapier

One of the most well-known names in the integration space, Zapier currently supports over 5,000 apps (including Reply). Users can create multistep workflows with up to 100 steps, using conditional logic to build automations that are as simple or as complex as needed. Whether it’s onboarding new clients or making sure your whole team is notified of key events, chances are Zapier will connect the tools you need to make it possible. 

Zapier comes with a free plan for individuals, but agencies will want to take advantage of the team plan that allows unlimited “Zaps” (aka automations) and unlimited users, starting from $399/month.

PhantomBuster

PhantomBuster is specifically designed to streamline lead generation processes, from extracting leads and enriching data to creating compelling outreach campaigns. The software comes with over 100 prebuilt automations and workflows, making it easy to capture LinkedIn profiles, connect with them, and more. 

PhantomBuster includes integrations with popular CRMs Salesforce, HubSpot, and Pipedrive, so you can send your new leads directly where you need them most. You can start a free trial to check it out with team plans coming in at $320/month. 

Salesflow.io

Salesflow.io is another LinkedIn automation platform that you can use to grow your network and generate more leads. It also helps users get more out of another of our popular sales enablement tools for agencies, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, by adding specific workflows to maximize results. 

The software is designed for agencies, allowing you to generate fresh leads for your clients with a white-label dashboard and advanced client reports. Team plans start at $79/user/month, while you have to get in touch for agency pricing. 

Coaching and meeting management

Whether it’s getting on a sales call or communicating with your team, agencies need to make the most of every meeting. These tools go far beyond simple communication tools and enable you to track meetings, coach your sales team more effectively and optimize your processes.

Gong

Describing itself as a revenue intelligence platform, Gong enables you to track and analyze your frontline interactions. This means you can see what topics are most important to your target audience and make data-driven changes to your sales process. 

After capturing your phone calls, video calls, emails, and more, Gong’s AI can process those conversations to see popular questions, different subjects, and relationship dynamics. This allows you to build a coaching program that takes into account what really happens on a sales call. 

Avoma

Avoma’s AI assistant is designed to help with meetings – before, during, and afterward. For example, the software can help you schedule meetings for the best time, transcribe the call, then generate notes and topics for that meeting. 

The Activity Dashboard is particularly useful for agencies, giving you a consolidated summary of conversations across the organization. You’ll also get insights into your interactions from most used filler words to any long monologues devoid of customer interaction.

The free basic plan allows for unlimited users, but to get the best features and unlock unlimited meetings you’ll need the plus plan at $35/user/month. 

Team and content management

With so many moving parts, agencies need to have clear team and content management in place. Without it, your teams may inadvertently end up working at cross purposes or giving mixed messaging in your sales collateral. These tools will help you manage the process and keep your team on the same page. 

Process Street

Process Street allows agencies to easily manage recurring work, transforming complex tasks into clearly defined workflows. Their no-code interface is simple to use, while quick-start templates make it easy to optimize popular tasks such as employee and client onboarding, daily task management, and content marketing

You can try Process Street and create one workflow for free with the paid plan kicking in at $25 per full member per month for unlimited workflows. 

Help Scout

Whether it’s with your client or on their behalf, customer conversations are at the heart of any agency. Help Scout offers agencies the tools they need to respond to customer requests and collaborate on resolving any issues as soon as possible. 

The standard plan allows up to 25 users and starts at $20/user/month with the plus plan at $40/user/month including advanced collaboration features and team management. 

Better Proposals

If you’re still sending clients Word documents that need to be printed, signed, and scanned, it’s time for an upgrade. Better Proposals allows you to digitize your document management, so you can quickly send, track, and request signatures on your documents 

Despite the name, Better Proposals isn’t just about proposals. Whether it’s a quote, contract, statement of work, or brochure, you can manage your most important documents. Better Proposal also includes useful features for larger teams, allowing you to monitor your agency’s pipeline and improve individual performance.

The starter plan allows you to send five docs each month for $13, while the premium plan costs $21 and allows you to send 50 documents.

Slite

Slite is a workspace designed for agencies and teams to connect and work asynchronously. Whether you want to build a company wiki or track projects, you’ll be able to use Slite to create and collaborate with shared documents. 

The platform includes valuable templates for everything your agency might need, from employee handbooks and weekly reviews to product planning and creative briefs.

The free plan offers a generous 50 documents and discussions for unlimited users, while the standard plan starts at $6.67/user/month with unlimited documents and discussions. 

Notion

On the surface Notion is a note-taking platform but, in practice, it’s far more. From in-house wikis and company docs, Notion allows you to connect your teams with shared documents that are as simple or complex as you need them to be. Documents can automatically update based on other connected documents, so nothing is left behind or out of date.

There’s a free personal plan to try out, but agencies will benefit the most from a team plan at $8/user/month, with unlimited team members, uploads, and guests, all with a collaborative workspace. 

Airtable

Airtable brings the best parts of spreadsheets and databases together, radically upgrading your Excel and Google Sheets with powerful database features. Agencies can build apps that connect every aspect of their work, allowing them to track important details and manage their clients more effectively. 

Airtable comes with templates for research, marketing, recruiting, and practically anything else your agency might need. Smaller teams might be happy enough with their free plan, while larger agencies will likely get the most out of the Pro plan at $20/seat/month.

Final thoughts

Whether it’s finding new clients or managing sales on their behalf, having a clearly defined sales enablement strategy is essential for agencies. While this includes sales training, tactics, and procedures, you’ll still need the right toolkit to make it all work smoothly. 

However, picking the right tools out of the hundreds of available options can be overwhelming. We’ve covered plenty of sales enablement tools that are great for agencies in this post, but where should you start?

Walk through your current sales process and make an honest assessment of the areas that need the most attention. Maybe you’re struggling to keep track of all your clients and would benefit from a smarter CRM. You might have noticed a lack of consistency in your sales procedures and need a better team management solution. 

Circle back through the main categories in this post and see what resonates with you. Most of the apps we’ve looked at include trials and free starter plans, so there’s no excuse not to give them a try. As you gradually find the tools and software that work best for your agency, you’ll soon discover that your sales teams are more productive, collaborate more effectively, and close more deals.

Want to improve your agency’s sales enablement toolkit? Reply helps automate your sales engagement across multiple touchpoints and integrates with all of your favorite sales tools. Try it out for free today.