In today’s issue, I’ll share my top 5 sales tools for remote sales. There are over 5.529 sales tools in 25 sub-categories available to help us sell more. Finding the right tool for your need has become incredibly time-consuming. Most tools now claim to revolutionize how we sell with AI (spoiler alert: they don’t).

That’s why I’m going to share 5 tool categories (and examples) that you can’t afford to ignore if you’re selling remotely.

Let’s dive in:

Category 1: Sales Engagement tools

A sales engagement tool helps you structure your prospecting efforts. They can range from a simple sequencer to a full suite of prospecting tools, including lead research, sequencing, auto-reply, AI-assisted lead engagement, etc.

Here are 3 tools I recommend (I’ve tried all of them):

• Amplemarket: If you’re looking for an all-in one sales engagement tool, then Amplemarket is the one for you. That’s the tool I use every day to manage my prospecting, and it has absolutely everything you need. Ideal if you’re a sales leader with a big team.
• Reply.io: If you’re looking for a simple sales engagement tool, Reply.io does a lot of what Amplemarket does, but with a simpler setup and a lower price. Ideal if you’re prospecting by yourself.
• The Prospecting Tracker: The Prospecting Tracker is a simple Notion tracker I have created for salespeople who cannot choose their engagement tool (when their employer don’t want to switch tools). Ideal to get started.

Category 2: A CRM

A CRM is the most important sales tool to help you keep track of your deals. Most remote companies use Salesforce or Hubspot, but here are two simpler CRMs I recommend:

• Pipedrive: If you need a simple system to keep track of your deals, with a simple learning curve.
• Monday.com: Fully customizable CRM. A bit harder to set up, but ideal if you’re managing a team and want fully control on your data.

Category 3: A calendar link

A calendar link is a tool that allows prospects to book some time with you, without having to go back and forth. Here are 3 that I recommend:

• Calendly: I personally use Calendly since 5 years. Really simple, straight to the point, and you can even integrate with Stripe to get paid.
• Chili piper: The best platform to convert demand into pipeline. More complicated to set up, but a must for sales teams with more than 1 person.
• Built in links in Google: A recent feature Google has added to its calendar. Ideal when you’re getting started.

Category 4: A data backup

When using email and phone to prospect, you’ll find a maximum of 70% of the email addresses and phone numbers if you use one provider only. That’s why I recommend using at least one additional data provider to help you find the right data (especially if you’re selling outside of the US).

• Kaspr: The best tool to find mobile phone numbers. I’ve been working with them for a while and they never disappoint.
• Dropcontact: A great tool to find accurate emails, especially if you’re selling in EMEA.

Category 5: An e-Signature tool

Finally, an e-signature tool is a must if you’re selling remotely. Instead of sending contracts, getting prospects to print them, scan them, and send them back, you can use one of these tools to get the contract signed. They often have features for automatic follow-up with prospects.

• Pandadoc: The ideal tool to get contracts signed today. Really simple to set up.
• Docusign: The Enterprise solution you need if you’re selling to traditional verticals.

And these are the tools I recommend when selling remotely. You won’t need much more than that to do what matters in sales; prospecting, managing your deals, speaking to customers, and signing contracts.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Thibaut Souyris

In today’s issue, I’ll share how I manage my time as a remote sales guy. When selling remotely, it can get really hard to create a clear physical and mental boundary between your professional and your personal life. You end up working when you should be with your family, or doing chores when you should be working.

I’ll tell you about what you should focus on, how to set boundaries when working remotely, and what tools you can use to protect your time.

Why managing your time is so hard when selling remotely

Back in 2020, I got forced (like everyone else) to work from home. I wasn’t expecting to have difficulties managing my time, but after a few weeks running in circle, I started getting anxious.

At first I didn’t realize it, but the creeping anxiety came from not having a strict routine and no boundary between my work and my personal life. I was sleeping, working, eating, doing sports in the same place, and it drove me crazy.

That’s when I decided to build a routine to build a mental boundary between the important aspects of my life.

Here’s how, step-by-step:

Step 1: Focus on critical activities first

When working in sales, you have different types of tasks and activities. Some are proactive (like prospecting), some are reactive (like taking an impromptu call with a prospect). I recommend listing all the activities that you typically do in one day, and rank them by priority.

Here are my typically sales activities during the day, ranked from most critical to least critical:

• Prospecting
• Running discovery calls
• Following up with active opportunities

First thing I do in the morning is prospecting. I spend 30 to 60 minutes following up with prospects, finding new prospects, and contacting them. Then I have a slot where I group all the discovery calls of my day (typically after the prospecting block). When it’s done, I focus on moving deals further (and disqualifying).

Step 2: Set clear boundaries

When I know what my critical activities are, I create a daily ritual to make sure I’m not getting distracted by other reactive tasks.

For example, I’ll block 60 minutes from 8AM to 9AM for prospecting. I also have a “Sacred Hour” block every day from 11AM to 1PM so I can focus on deep work tasks (the ones where I need to be ultra-focused). Here’s what my calendar looks like:

In today’s issue, I’ll share 3 simple steps to build a solid prospecting routine, using Claude (or ChatGPT). Many salespeople are trying to scale their outreach with the AI tools that are available to them. As a result, prospects get SPAMMED with tons of soulless cold emails, LinkedIn messages, or even LinkedIn comments. It’s tiring for everyone, and we end up asking ourselves if this AI thing is not just a bubble.

Here’s are 3 concrete steps you can follow to build your prospecting routine with Claude:

Step 1: Explain your problem to Claude

When working with an AI, your first step is to explain what you want from this AI. A good way to explain your problem is to follow this 4-step framework:

• Context: Give context about your situation, and what’s your problem
• Role: Give the AI a specific role
• Task: Give a task to the AI
• Format: Format the way the AI will ask you questions

Here’s an example I used, to help me build a prospecting routine if I was an AE who got asked to start doing outbound: