14 Awesome Salesforce Tools to Incorporate in 2018

Salesforce has been a flagman in the realm of customer relationship management software for a long time now. The CRM allows companies to streamline their operation and enhance productivity. But, it is not a cure for all, and Salesforce can only be as good as the IT system it supports. That is why it is of paramount importance to identify certain Salesforce integration tools and applications that your company will be utilizing with customer relationship management software.

Here at OMI we’ve compiled a list of 14 awesome applications that businesses can utilize to take full advantage of business process automation and take the operation performance to the next level.

In our list we’ll cover both free and paid options, so both SMB-type companies and large enterprises would find something useful here.

Salesforce Tools to Enhance Sales Productivity

Sales productivity is pretty much in the name of the CRM, therefore it’s only fair is we’ll talk about it right of the bat. When it comes to discussing best Salesforce automation tools for sales departments, it’s necessary to remember that some Salesforce tools might not be a great fit for you, due to their niche-focus. However, there are certain integrations that are universal and can be used by any business, regardless of its domain of operation.

Vision-e Scan

We couldn’t walk by Vision-e Scan. A truly unique application that lets you scan business cards with any mobile device and upload OCR (optical character recognition) data directly into your Salesforce CRM.

The application has an incredibly simple user interface, it is Salesforce1 compatible, and it’s completely free for up to 5 users.

With the latest update, Vision-e Scan can also perform voice scanning which allows you to record quick memos and send the audio files to Salesforce to create a new task. With such solution, your sales reps will have an easy and effective way to upload contacts, during trade shows, conferences, and while making outside sales calls.

 

Salesplus

Salesplus is an advanced sales intelligence app that can boost your sales department’s performance and let you improve sales coaching. The latter is what sets this application apart from the rest. Most salesforce reporting tools of similar nature only focus on your team’s productivity but they don’t provide you with any insight into gaps in skills.

Salesplus, however, lets you gather real-time feedback from prospects, giving them a voice and helping you in lead nurturing. The tool is fully native to Salesforce, so it doesn’t require any integration tools and you can use it in tandem with Salesforce Einstein Opportunity and Lead scoring.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator

There is no denying that LinkedIn has become a truly powerful and vast environment for targeting and engaging potential clients for sales reps. Sales Navigator is the tool your business can utilize to Harness the full power of the LinkedIn social network.

Looking at the integration between Salesforce and LinkedIn Sales Navigator, it is difficult not to mention all the stellar CRM widgets provided and sync capabilities. Sales Navigator lets you import contacts and accounts directly from Salesforce and uncover best opportunities through its big data analytics.

The main drawbacks of this particular platform, of course, are its requirements to have Salesforce Enterprise/Professional Edition or above, which obviously adds to the cost and limits applicability.

Customer Service Applications

Providing your customers with professional services through automation is a prescription in today’s competitive environment, not a suggestion. And there is no shortage of applications available in AppExchange store, but some stand out to us as being either unique or universally applicable.

Both are important, because a unique interaction with customers, in the vast market, can immediately give you a competitive advantage and make your business stand out from the crowd. On the other hand, some examples of Salesforce automation software is so good, that virtually everyone uses it.

Rocket Notes

We’ve talked about the usefulness of Rocket Notes in our previous blog posts already. The application can be easily put into sales category, as it provides a number of use cases to empower your sales reps. However, Rocket Notes better suits in customer relations category and it truly shines there.

Rocket notes is an API based personalization software that allows you to create and flesh out entire gifting campaigns for your most loyal customers. With only a few clicks, you can send out personalized name-mugs, gift-cards, golf balls with corporate logos, a bag of chocolates or any other gift from a selection of thousands.

The API software can be easily and quickly integrated with Salesforce Sales, Marketing, and Service Cloud platforms, making it applicable for virtually any business regardless of industry focus or scale.

Survey Force

Available for free in AppExchange, Survey Force is a powerful, simple and elegant solution for gathering customer or employee feedback. The application is a Lighting ready solution that allows your customer support and HR departments to deploy surveys and capture results natively, right in the Salesforce UI.

You can create 3 types of questions:

•    Select one answer;
•    Select multiple;
•    Free form text.

Which already makes it easy to navigate and very intuitive for users. Surveys can then be easily distributed through email campaigns and sites. Although limited, Survey Force is a great app for SMB-type companies who need simple and efficient ways to gather feedback.

Inquisium Surveys

If you are looking for a more elaborate solution, suited more for a large enterprise-level operation, then you might be interested in Inquisium Surveys. The application starts at $5,000 per company per year. But you are definitely getting what you’ve paid for.

Inquisium allows you to create really elaborate campaigns, with trigger criteria that direct participants to different branches. You can also set email/message delays that are related to triggers. So depending on the answers, you can setup a follow-up email that will be sent automatically.

On top of pushing data into your Salesforce environment, the tool can also pull data from CRM. And with robust dashboards in the app, you can really drill down into complex results-data and use it to your business’ advantage.

Project Management Tools for Salesforce CRM

Any project, no matter how big or small needs a fair bit of management. And if your internal processes don’t stand up to the task, even most skilled team of industry experts will not deliver to the customer what they need.

Loopio

A knowledge management platform that synchronizes with your Salesforce CRM and allows you to setup and launch projects. On top of that Loopio has really easy-to-use tracking and reporting system that simplifies a lot of managerial tasks.

Together with Salesforce, this tool provides businesses with multiple other features such as content management, team collaboration enhancement, and response automation. With all of the professional services automation capabilities available in Loopio, you can accelerate workflows across multiple departments in the company. And the best thing – it’s free.

DayBack Calendar

DayBack might seem like a simple calendar software at first that costs $96 per user (which is not cheap), but if you look closer at all the features provided by the application, it really becomes apparent why it costs that much.

The application provides managers and admins with a complete view of team’s activities and the ability to simply drag and drop items (such as tasks, assignments, users, rooms, events and other resources) for efficient workload control. Apart from Salesforce, DayBack can be synced with Google Calendars.

Although DayBack Calendar is an expensive option, the application is available for a 30-days free trial, so you can see if it is the right fit for your company.

Marketing Applications on AppExchange

Pardot

Pardot is a far more expensive option, when it comes to Salesforce automation software for lead nurturing and email marketing. It would cost $1,000 per month for your company, which is not an option for small and mid-sized companies, but it can be acceptable for enterprise-level operation.

With immense functionality, stellar UI and excellent support services, Pardot is easily one of the most effective Salesforce solutions for marketing automation. It gives you truly all-round view and control over your marketing activities. On top of that, Pardot’s closed-loop reporting provides you with actionable measurements of ROI. The application can be accessed with Salesforce1 Mobile App, making it even more flexible.

Cool Content Management Applications for your Salesforce CRM

Having a cool content that is engaging and strikes the heart of your audience can really be a difference between winning and losing. But content marketing is not the only thing you’ll need in running your business. You still need to produce routine documentation for your client such as quotes, proposals and so on. Having a set of efficient cloud-based Salesforce reporting tools can help your team speed up the process of creating, sharing and editing internal and external documentation, while eliminating the possibility of human error to a minimum.

Conga Composer

One of the most popular applications that you can find on AppExchange, Conga composer is aimed towards making document generation and productivity as simple and error-free as possible.

The application allows users to generate various types of complex documents in a manner of minutes. From quotes and proposals to accounting and shipping documents, with Conga composer you’ll be able to automate document generation through an automated workflow and pull data directly from multiple sources, including Salesforce.

The numbers speak for themselves. Companies that utilize Conga Composer see up to 95% improvement in efficiency and a significant drop in the time it takes to generate documents from scratch. Conga starts at $20 per person per month, and it is one of the best Salesforce automation tools, according to thousands of satisfied users.

COOLDOX

This Salesforce tool is essentially a Microsoft-Word Add-in that enhances document generation and editing for Salesforce users. COOLDOX simply lets you perform these tasks a little bit faster and a little bit better. Pretty simple, and COOLDOX is a completely free application, so you definitely should at least try it out to see, if it’s something your team might benefit from.

Salesforce Administration & Development Tools

Having a Salesforce administration or developer certification is a good start, but if you really want to succeed, these applications can put your skill over the top in no-time.

Zapier

Zapier can be described as salesforce automation software. It allows you to connect your CRM platform with over 600 different business applications for unified IT infrastructure. Through so-called Zaps (connections between Salesforce and other apps), this system integrates and automates your business workflow, moving data and ensuring its consistency.

One of the greatest advantages of Zapier is its scalability and flexibility. The application also provides various Salesforce developer tools as it allows creating custom objects and process data with JavaScript or Python.

Zapier starts at $20 per company and can be scaled up to enterprise levels of operation. However, the free version is also available with limited features for small businesses, to try out the system and leverage its capabilities.

Groove

If you are looking for something a bit simpler, then perhaps Groove would be right in your alley. This particular Salesforce administration platform provides you with a Single-Sign-On solution for Google Apps.

Groove provides your employees with convenience, which in turn generates greater user adoption and in eliminates time wasted with password issues and user deactivation. Moreover, with Google’s premier security technology and easy to understand setup with all apex classes included, your Salesforce admins can add extra security measures to IT environment without breaking a sweat. The application also runs well with Salesforce1 and in sandboxes.

Skuid

Looking for a more robust developer solution that provides full customization and simplicity in use? Skuid is most definitely your choice. Any certified Salesforce platform developer, worth his or her salt can tell you that Skuid can act as some of the best component libraries for creating custom components without writing a single line of code.

That’s right, this cloud-based design-and-deploy platform lets you pull data from aggregated sources, design fully custom components and even entire workflows. The price for Skuid starts at $45 per user per month, which is a bit pricey, but it comes Lightning ready and it lets you truly leverage the power of Salesforce and increase pipeline productivity in a manner that best suits your business model.

Choosing the Right Salesforce Consulting Partner

Setting up your IT infrastructure is the first step in creating an efficient workflow and therefore providing your customers with a truly superb experience that they’ll talk about. And it all starts with selecting the right applications for your CRM system.

And if you want to explore more apps or feel like this particular list didn’t hit the nerve, you can always rely on the Salesforce consulting services, here at OMI. Our team of business analysts and certified salesforce developers will go through your existing IT assets and develop an implementation strategy, specifically crafted to suit your business needs.

We are first-class experts in CRM integration and implementation services. OMI is the go-to resource for emerging mid-size companies that embrace CRM, Marketing Automation and Sales enablement platforms to grow and dominate their niche.