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Yes, integrating Zapier with airSlate SignNow is safe. Zapier employs strong security protocols to ensure data protection and compliance. By using these tools, you can confidently automate your document signing processes while keeping your sensitive information secure.

Zapier prioritizes your security by utilizing encryption both at rest and in transit. It adheres to industry standards and compliance requirements, including GDPR, to ensure that your data is handled safely. Thus, if you're asking 'is Zapier safe,' rest assured that it is designed with robust security features.

You can easily connect airSlate SignNow to various applications via Zapier. This integration allows for seamless automation, such as sending documents for e-signature based on triggers from other apps. This functionality enhances your workflow while maintaining the security of your transactions; thus, 'is Zapier safe' becomes less of a concern.

Using Zapier may involve costs depending on the plan you select. The basic plan might be free, but more advanced features that facilitate a connection with airSlate SignNow may incur a fee. Evaluating your needs versus the plans available will help determine if using Zapier is safe and cost-effective for your business.

Absolutely! Zapier allows you to customize integrations extensively between airSlate SignNow and other applications. You can tailor the triggers and actions to fit your workflow specifically. This flexibility makes it easier to ask 'is Zapier safe' because you can ensure it aligns exactly with your business needs.

The primary benefits include enhanced productivity, time savings, and streamlined workflows. By automating repetitive tasks, you can focus on core business functions while ensuring secure document handling. Given these advantages, many users find that 'is Zapier safe' becomes a minimal concern due to the efficiencies gained.

Yes, Zapier provides options for multi-factor authentication to enhance security. This feature adds an extra layer of protection to your account, which is vital when integrating with sensitive applications like airSlate SignNow. Knowing that such measures are in place can instantly answer 'is Zapier safe' in your mind.

We arm ourselves with all of the sales and marketing tools below and our share price is outperforming all other public SaaS vendors over the last two years.Marketing AutomationFirst you need to be in the game - so you need a great marketing capability to get your name in the mix - so that buyers will contact you, so  that buyers will have heard of you before you walk in the door (obscurity is thy enemy), so that you've got messaging that resonates with the buyers you're targeting. The internet has changed everything, your buyers know more about you and your competitors than ever before, and typically contact you a lot further through their buying cycle. If you're lucky they are reading your marketing messaging but they're most definitely reading social review websites, trawling LinkedIn, analyst reports. So of course, your market capability has to get in you in the game.All the capabilities are well known, SEO, Inbound, Outbound, A/B testing, Newsletters, Events, sales e-mail tracking, mass e-mail campaigns, chat agents, WorkFlows etc.. All these can be found in good Marketing Automation tools such as CallidusCloud, Eloqua, Marketo, Neo-lane.Territory & Quota ManagementAll these leads need to be assigned, therefore Territories need to be defined. To define acceptable Territories, sales will want to know they have sufficient opportunity and a quota that is achievable in that territory.  Where you have unallocated territories (by accounts, geography or product, etc..) or over-allocated territories - you are leaking revenue and losing market share to competitors.  You will need some kind of Territory & Quota management tool such as CallidusCloud or Anaplan.Sales EnablementOnce you have the leads and the first person contact, how do you ensure maximise lead to opportunity conversion?  For this, your sales or business development team need access to the right messaging for each specific buyer (by industry, by size, by problem etc..) immediately.  This is a field known as Sales Enablement and there are Enablement tools available to help your marketing messaging find the salesperson at the right time. Well known Enablement tools are CallidusCloud, Savo, Sharepoint.Configure, Price & Quote (CPQ)Now you have an opportunity, your buyer might ask you for a price. Sales needs to put together a solution, price the solution and then send out a proposal document.  How familiar are the stories of salespeople copying/pasting proposals - not removing old customer names, getting the number of zero's wrong, selling solutions that don't exist or fit together, over-discounting - and taking a week to put together such a low quality document only to lose the opportunity.  To avoid this waste of time and opportunity, you will need a Configure, Price, Quote or CPQ tool.  Well known CPQ tools are CallidusCloud, Big Machines.Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM)Since you did a great proposal in CPQ, the customer is asking you for a contract and you may go through a substantial red-line process or you may have lots of data points in the contract that are needed to manage the contract for renewal processes, order fulfilment, upgrades, service utilisation.  To avoid creating and tracking contracts manually everytime, which can be an administrative nightmare for legal, finance and sales. You will need a Contract Lifecycle Management tool.  Well known Contract Management tools are CallidusCloud, Apttus.Incentive Compensation Management (ICM)The customer has signed the contract and happy days!!!  Your salesperson, pre-sales engineer, sales manager, product over-lay are all expecting to be paid incentives.  Gartner research found that up to 8% of sales compensation is in error.  Not only is this a bottom line expense, sales lose trust in their compensation payouts, they waste time shadow accounting, they leave earlier, you need more FTEs to process all the claims and you get less $$$ for every $ of sales comp.  You will need a Incentive Compensation tool, to control this process, increase transparency and drive behaviours that drive sales performance.  Well known ICM tools are CallidusCloud, IBM.Sales CoachingThere is a lot to a sales process. A lot of objections to ovecome. A lot to learn.  Even the best in their field have a coach.  Tiger Wood's at the peak of his golfing powers had 400 lessons in a year.  Tiger really needs a coach now but I bet you even Rory McIlroy needs a coach.  Salespeople need a coach too. The folks who wrote the challenger sales, said that "effective coaching" for 3 hours or more a month delivers a 17% uptick in quota achievement. That's great.  Trouble is, who's coaching the coaches so they're effective? You will need a Sales Performance Manager tool to help managers coach and help the managers to coach more effectively.  Well known Coaching tools are CallidusCloud SPM, iCoach.Mobile LearningTaking a salesperson out of the field for the proverbial week's training - you lose a week's selling, sales take time to get back into the rhythm when they return and then forget most of their training within 3 weeks anyway. Provide point of need training with mobile learning so that sales can refresh knowledge before they call a lead, before they walk into a meeting, as they prepare a quote in the field.  Well known Mobile LMS tools are CallidusCloud Litmos or Cornerstone.Customer ExperienceThe time from first touch on your website to first contract and then first renewal is a long time.  What is perhaps most important of all is to obtain customer feedback continuously along the way. Customer feedback helps you refine how you go to market or go to customer as they say these days.  For that you will need a Customer Survey tool.  Well known survey tools are CallidusCloud Clicktools and Survey Monkey.Thats a lot of tools and all of them are complementary to CRM. CRM is customer relationship management and is used to track activity and pipeline for management purposes - helps salespeople focus their time - but it doesn't help them sell better.  All of the above tools integrated to your CRM provide you a more complete view of the customer and sales activity.The questions for each sales and marketing organisation are:- Can your budget afford all these tools?- How many different RFPs do you want to commit to?- How many tools from different vendors do you want to integrate? - How many suppliers do you want to contract and manage with?

Basecamp.com is an incredibly useful tool for organising projects, managing files and task management. It's also a great tool for communicating with clients, both to deliver designs with version control and manage feedback with commenting and to-do lists. You can also log time spent on tasks. There are  very straightforward permissions tools to control what is visible to internal teams and external clients. It's very flexible so you can use it however you need to.Prevue.it is another tool I use a lot. It's a tool for quickly and easily creating click-throughs to preview web designs that's free and has a bunch of customisable features like enabling / disabling comments on specific areas of designs, statistics on what designs have been viewed, custom logo etc. It's a real time saver because I used to have to code them all myself!The only catch is that to get more storage space, you have to refer people to the service. If you'd like to sign up, please use my referral code (http://get.prevue.it/80906) so I can get more space!Finally, usesthis.com has interviews with a bunch of crazy talented designers, developers, illustrators, animators, podcasters, photographers, poets, professors and politicians - all talking about the tools that they use to do their jobs. There's bound to be something to inspire you in there!

“Customer acquisition nightmare”Hacking an effective way of getting your first paying users, needs a sound strategy, planning, and intelligent execution. Selling your first SaaS product is one of the hardest challenges any SaaS startup has to beat. However, the idea of making a sale anytime, anywhere you are (even when you are asleep) gives the providers such a liberating feeling.Here are Hot 9 strategies to lock in Initial Saas product customers:1.Focus on sales explorationStart with your network. Tap into the network of the people you know. Your acquaintances, friends, friends of your friends, co-workers, alumni, past employees. Remember to ask for introductions before banging them with your product.What is the objective of doing this?You are not aiming to close a deal at this point (there is no pain if you close one too). The essence is to focus on early stage sales exploration and sales engagement. Take your time to listen and understand your customers better. Make sure you get what their pain points are.2.Figure out who your customer is and where to find themIdentifying your real customer is not an accident. Don’t just be a product or service guy. B2B selling is harder and a little bit complicated. Look for forums where people are looking for your product. Here is a list of platforms where you can find your customers. You can also hit freelancing websites (Up work, Guru, etc) and look job postings that are relevant to your niche.3.Leverage on targeted traffic.We are talking about the power of advertising. The competition is stiff. Lots of noises out there. If you need to go through the clutter, you have to pay. Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Adwords, Facebook or any other method of airing traffic that works. To be on the safe side, start off small and make sure you measure the progress of your campaign. Otherwise, you’ll lose a lot of money and achieve nothing out of it.Put up a landing page and drive targeted traffic there.Now that you have a good source of traffic. Put up a landing page. You can use a different domain name than the one your product is hosted on. Do a great sales copy, not a vague one-liner. Make the copy a bit long and describe in details all of the benefits and the features. Most importantly, the pain points it seeks to resolve. If you don’t have an exact pricing, mention that would be a premium product. Otherwise, let the readers know what your pricing plan is. Provide email opt-in form at the end to get in on the launch and secure a spot in the free beta.4.What to do with the list(Email ids)Personally, email each one of them and schedule phone calls to dig into exactly how they expect your solution to help them. During the first 2-3 months of using the free software in beta, send your list about 3-4 emails and simply update them on the progress of your team and let them say what they need. Let them know that by joining the free beta, they will enjoy a lifetime 10%, 20%, 30 % discount later when you launch publicly with paid plans.After 2-3 months, send an email to your beta users and give them a 30-day window to log in and upgrade to a paid plan, with certain percentage discount locked in for life.Why this option works.It is open and up-front about where we were at every step of the way.The customers will have sufficient time to fully evaluate your customer support, the product, and the rest.Personalized service and over-delivered every step of the way.A lifetime discount to take advantage of it is a good incentive to make those first sign ups happen.5.Cold emailing and calling.Check if you have a mailing list? Use it to get paid users. Craft a winning cold email and sent it to your list. Do not expect lots of positive response from the emails you send. Sometimes you have to send more follow up emails to get them responding. Prospects’behavior tracking tool would be a booster for your sales team. Schedule a call, if possible. Personally, I have seen many startups close deals with calling. If done well, you can’t fail to close several sales.6.Referral programsMany SaaS providers get their customers from referrals. If you have paying users, you can request them to refer their friends or acquaintances to your software. You can give them a link and let know what percentage they will earn once they refer new users to your site. Your first 4-6 users can bring in another 4-6 users and you’ll be looking at around 18-12 users. However, not all users go for such arrangements. If you are not sure how to do it, you can use something like referralsnip.comto help you get it out there quickly.7.Capitalize on 3rd Party IntegrationsIt is difficult for startups to make a mark on the noise-filled, mass-appeal marketplace like the Google Apps store. To beat that challenge, most upcoming applications have resorted to creating their own ecosystem play. Now they are coming with their own APIs and directories of integration partners. As a SaaS start up, invest your time and resources on where you can be discovered: that means integrating with other smaller apps than with Google App store. Some companies, for instance, integrate Evernote via its API and use it a platform to advertise with. Below is a list of other apps you may be interested in integrating with.BufferiContactEventbriteZendeskBasecampCampfireShopifyConstant ContactHighriseWufooFormstackYammerZohoMailchimpFreshbooksHubspotStocktwitsMiteYou can dig up for more.8.Media, Blog mentions & Expert “Endorsements”This is about getting expert social proof, a very effective way of getting your 11 paying customers. Blog mentions by industry leaders or expert “endorsements’ can generate the trust customers need to take up your product. As a result of the trust, many targeted users will come looking for your site.What you need to do:Offer a case study for industry top analysts.Be awesome and get on mixedenergy.com. This applies mostly to founders.Guest post on KISSMetricsConnect with industry insiders, be awesome and get mentioned or featured on industry rags.For more information about expert endorsements, you can take a look at this post.9.Give out freebiesBefore you ask for anything from your customers, be on the first line of giving. You don’t have to give ‘just anything’. Give out VALUE that people will want to use or share.Mirasee.com does this beautifully with their, 10 Rules of the VISIONARY BUSINESS e-book. You’ll see a call to action box on their first page. They update it regularly and it’s one of best free e-books on list building. The Benefit is not to convert their first-time visitors into paid subscribers. Their target is getting the brand out to many peopleFreebies accomplish several goals.Deliver value and demonstrate knowledge on what you are doing.Freebies build trust in your brand or product.If the freebies are good, they are shared across different networks, giving your product more exposure.Give out these freebies if you want to signNow out to many people.Beginner’s Guides,InfographicsWebinars,Free consultations,Interviews,Podcasts,E-booksBlog PostsWhite Paperstwitter.comDid you know giving your #SaaS product free for use at the beta stage is also a strategic freebie?CLICK TO TWEETStart with your launch with a private beta which is free. This is a common strategy adopted by many SaaS startups. And, it is very effective. Launch your product in private and offer it free for use to select few who you are targeting for use.Another way is offering free sign up for up to 3 months. This gives ample of time for brands to interact with your software solution and the support team before letting them upgrade to paid subscriptions.Summing up…Simply developing an awesome SaaS product is not enough. You need to put up solid strategies to make it stand out and close the first few sales. However, this is not a cheap task. It requires meticulous planning, crafting killer cold emails, making cold calls and aggressively looking for expert endorsements. Where possible, you may come up with a referral program that can help bring on more and more user to your product.Now, over to you…What strategies have you used (you are using) to get the first few paid users?

One of the most productive people are CEOs. Every day, the average CEO must contend with numerous issues competing for the limited amount of time at their disposal. Since time has no backward button, energy spent on unproductive, distracting or low priority activities cannot be recovered.What’s the secret of their productivity? Personal organization. The good thing is there’s a wide range of productivity apps that can help today’s CEO get there. Let’s take a look at some of the best below.Email ManagementBoomerangBoomerang has to be one of if not the most effective productivity applications for managing the correspondence of CEOs and other C-suite executives who typically receive a fairly large volume of emails on any given day. Boomerang is built to make it easier to follow up and resolve high priority correspondence.Mark an email to send you a reminder in the event a party fails to respond, schedule follow-ups well in advance and time an email to coincide with the working hours of the recipient (useful for international correspondence).SparkEvery CEO knows that not all emails require a full reply if at all. Sometimes, an ‘Ok’ will suffice. Spark takes this into account with its Quick Reply tab where you can send an instant reply with as little as an emoji, an action that simultaneously archives the message.Spark works even better with appointment setting. As opposed to an ordinary meeting invite email, Spark provides a preview of the event as seen in your calendar with Reject and Accept buttons. Tapping Accept adds the event to the calendar, notifies the sender that you’ll attend and archives the mail all at once.Newton (formerly CloudMagic)Newton has all the features one would expect from the most widely used email apps. Read notifications, scheduled sending, snoozed messages, detailed contacts and app integrations all help keep your inbox more focused. Newton is an intuitive and versatile productivity tool that is compatible with Apple Watch.You can also go through your emails as you make your morning coffee thanks to Alexa integration. Issue verbal commands for Alexa to tell you who just mailed you and whether you want the message archived or snoozed. A companion calendar app helps further enhance overall productivity.CommutingOvercastOvercast’s minimalist and sleek design makes it stand out from other podcast apps which often have a more cluttered, chaotic interface. When you launch the app, you are first met with a list of podcasts you follow. Browse for new podcasts by topic and category including business, technology, news, and politics, all of which are things CEOs regularly keep a keen eye on.Other than that, there isn’t much to Overcast which is perhaps a key reason why it’s best suited for the busy executive. Its simple appearance can be deceiving though. Overcast has extra features many podcast apps lack such as 3D Touch for previewing episode details and Voice Boost for ensuring consistent speech volume.Pocket CastPocket Cast combines function and style with a catchy design that displays in tile format the podcasts you are subscribed to. Tap a square to bring up download options and an episode list. The smart playlist feature allows you to categorize and sort downloads for ease of listening. The app also comes with automatic storage cleanup, auto-downloading, and video podcast support.Useful playback features include quick-skip back and forward buttons, a sleep timer and configurable intervals. It’s a cross-platform app that can be synced between OS’s and devices which is great for CEOs who own any combination of iOS, Android and Windows devices.PodbeanPodbean appears more like an app store than a podcast app. With featured shows, top episodes, recommendations and many other categories on the home screen, Podbean prioritizes curation. That being said, Podbean has all the essential features of a podcast app and more.The playback controls are head and shoulders above the competition. You can specify the number of seconds to skip when fast-forwarding which is useful for CEOs who are keen on getting to the meaty part of a podcast quickly. You can also set up automatic downloading of new episodes of a podcast you follow.Day PlanningMetataskMetatask is a simple tool to organize and control internal processes that lets normal users quickly build and execute business workflows.It can be used to break down elaborate business processes into simple tasks, then automatically assign them to individuals or departments. You can set due dates and populate employees' "My Tasks" lists, all without having to assign work manually. Create consistency with a directory of internal processes and tasks that's available to the whole company. Metatask also lets you track task completion progress, as well as share task-related files and comments in real time.AsanaAsana is not your average to-do app. One of the things that set Asana apart from the competition is its project and team orientation. You can add colleagues or other collaborators, and tasks can be divided among sections or projects. All these are crucial for a CEO since oversight and coordination is one of their core functions.You can also set permissions for a project by marking it as either private or public. Private projects are only visible to project members. Tasks have a comment section and you can even upload attachments as needed. You can add task dependencies where action on one task is contingent on the completion of another task. The advanced search makes it easy to find any task you are looking for.WunderlistWunderlist is a step above a good old notepad because you always have it with you. Wunderlist is a cross-platform, easy to use task management application. There is no effort required to keep your lists in sync across all your platforms and devices. It is also well-designed and dead simple to use.But probably the best advertisement for Wunderlist would be that Christian Reber, the founder, and CEO of Wunderlist, uses the application himself for personal stuff and to run the company.TodoistTodoist’s simplicity and ease of use are one of its strongest selling points. It works well on different platforms and devices which is a valuable advantage for users who are always on the go as most CEOs are. It integrates well with numerous apps including Zapier, Slack, Dropbox and Google Drive.Like Asana and Wunderlist, Todoist allows you to share projects or lists with team members. It has an intelligent reminder system that can be tied to a specific location. For example, every time you visit your branch in a different city, the app can remind you of some location-specific questions you need to ask local managers. With the paid plan, you get access to advanced analytics and reports.Organizing DocumentsDropboxDropbox has been an industry leader in the cloud storage space thanks to its ability to keep documents in sync across platforms and devices. Stored files could be documents, videos, and images. There’s no limit to the number of files and folders you can create from right within the Dropbox app.The automatic upload feature allows you to automatically save photos on your device to your cloud Dropbox profile. The 5GB space limit on the free plan is unlikely to suffice for most CEOs. Subscribing to Dropbox Plus with its 1TB storage limit will be the way to go.GoodReaderGoodReader is both a file manager and a PDF reader. It can read PDF and MS Word files as well as play audio, videos, and images. The markup features are particularly useful for CEOs. You can draw on PDF documents, highlight sections and sign documents.The GoodReader app can connect to the internet or enterprise servers and retrieve documents not already available on your smartphone or tablet. You can organize files into folders as well as share zipped files or folders with team members.EvernoteEvernote is one of the more established productivity apps and has remained popular over the years for good reason. You can create new notes in multiple ways including sketching, text, audio, and video. Embed PDF files to your notes collection and capture physical documents with your phone camera.Evernote has a powerful search feature that enables you to find text in any saved document including handwritten items. It facilitates collaboration allowing CEOs to share collections, notes, comments and feedback with their teams. It syncs seamlessly between devices and platforms.MeetingsSkype for BusinessSkype is one of the oldest and best-known video conferencing apps. Despite the proliferation of dozens of popular video calling applications over the years, Skype has maintained its lead over the years, especially in the enterprise space. This familiarity is why most CEOs will feel right at home with this meeting app.Its strong compatibility with Microsoft’s ubiquitous ecosystem is a definite advantage. For instance, one can join an ongoing video call from right within MS Outlook. Use a digital whiteboard to keep track of meeting minutes, decisions and agreed targets. Meetings can involve as many as 250 people. Skype for Business allows desktop and file sharing.GoToMeetingAlmost as established a video conferencing app as Skype, GoToMeeting, however, has a much lower limit on the maximum number of people that can participate in one meeting i.e. 25. The user interface isn’t as appealing as that of other apps in the video conferencing space.However, what GoToMeeting lacks in terms of a friendly user interface it more than makes up for in its features and capabilities. You can record meetings for future reference, mute attendees and, like Skype, share your desktop with participants.RingCentralRingCentral may not be as well-known as Skype and GoToMeeting but it has the all-round communications features that put it up there with the best meeting apps in the market. In fact, RingCentral is not just a meeting app but rather a blend of a comprehensive VoIP solution and a software client.With MS Office compatibility, team collaboration tools, call logging, a robust backbone of servers and smart video conferencing capabilities, this is an app that’s purpose-built for business leaders. Like other proprietary apps, the features available will depend on the plan you subscribe for.Keeping FocusedRescueTimeRescueTime is a practical tool for people who work with little or no day-to-day supervision, a category that naturally includes CEOs. Whereas smartphones, tablets, and laptops help you stay connected with the goings on of the organization, they can also be a time-wasting distraction.It’s easy to waste hours of precious time that would otherwise be used in getting work done. Working behind the scenes, RescueTime gives you valuable insights on the apps and websites that take up the minutes and hours of each day. The best part is that the free version will be sufficient for most CEOs but a paid plan is available for more in-depth analysis.ForestThe Forest app is a tool that you can use to focus on the completion of one task without getting distracted. It encourages you to stop dabbling in other apps while you are working. You set a timer (say 10 minutes) and lay down your phone. You should not browse the internet, answer calls or check messages during this period.If you successfully stay away from the phone for the set time (in this example, 10 minutes), you grow a virtual tree. If you do get distracted, the tree dies. If you consistently grow trees due to always meeting your focus goals, you’ll eventually have a forest of trees (hence the app name). You can always look back and see how productive you’ve been.AppBlockForest app is great when you want to spend a relatively short time focusing on one task. For a CEO though, ignoring all phone calls for hours is neither practical nor prudent. You may need to respond to an urgent call that has implications on closing a major deal or avoiding a catastrophic event.AppBlock is a longer-term solution than Forest. As the name implies, it prevents you from accessing distracting apps for a specified time period. You can still receive calls and access other essential features of your phone. Create different profiles for different days and situations. For instance, you could block certain apps when you are with the family, and block a different set of apps when you are in the office.ExerciseMyFitnessPalMyFitnessPal is a popular dieting and exercise app that does a fairly good job combining your healthy food and fitness needs. With an expansive database of food items, you can keep tabs on the foods you eat including the calorie count.It integrates well with other health and fitness apps, has an inventory of exercises you can engage in and provides access to a community where you can exchange ideas with like-minded people.MomentumMomentum is fairly similar to Forest in the sense that it’s geared to keep you focused on doing one task at any given time. Whereas it can be used for managing general tasks, it is most commonly used to encourage healthy habits such as going to the gym.The rationale is that the longer you can keep a habit going, the easier it becomes to do it. Once you break a habit’s momentum, you may find it difficult getting back on your feet again. With the Momentum app, you’ll be regularly reminded and encouraged to make time for a healthy habit. You can set targets, schedule reminders and append notes as necessary.StridesStrides, like Momentum, is an app that encourages the practice of good habits. If one of your New Year resolutions is losing weight, building bulk, morning jogging or quitting smoking, Strides allows you to create these as goals and keeps track of your progress in realizing them.One of the apps greatest strengths is the statistics that show how well you are doing and help you quickly spot areas of weaknesses.HealthSleep CycleSleep management requires a delicate balance. Too much, too little or low quality sleep can all leave one feeling groggy, lethargic and unproductive. Standard alarm clocks are static and inflexible. Sleep Cycle is a dynamic alarm app that sets a range (30 minutes is the default) as opposed to a specific time interval within which you must wake up.It relies on the smartphone’s microphone to monitor the movements that characterize the lighter phase of sleep which in turn triggers the alarm. It also has a sleep tracker that makes it easy to analyze your sleeping habits.MindfulnessThe CEO role is a high intensity, high-pressure job. Every day, such top-level executives must make decisions that could change the direction of the business for the worse thus jeopardizing their career and reputation. Taking a step back every so often certainly helps. Few things are more effective in achieving this than meditation.Meditation has been relied on by millions of people to slow things down and focus on the things that really matter. The Mindfulness app makes it easier to manage your meditation sessions via a schedule that fits your workday activities. Mindfulness will send reminders throughout the day to ensure you stay the course.NoisliWhite noise is a powerful sleep inducer. It’s also a great way to put your mind at ease and stay level-headed. The Noisli app plays productive and calming tones that put you in the zone, lower your stress levels and keep you focused on the task at hand.Sounds including crashing waves, rain noise, coffee shop chatter, swaying trees and instrumental music, will block out distracting noise and ensure your mind is singly applied to what needs to be done.ConclusionThe above productivity apps are invaluable in helping business executives exert the maximum amount of effort on the things that matter both at a personal and professional level.Of course, all CEOs do not face identical challenges so the relevance and applicability of each productivity tool will vary from person to person. That’s why it’s important that each CEO takes a step back and identifies the areas of their life that are in most need of greater efficiency and focus and adopt the appropriate productivity applications.

I’m not sure if there’s one thing I could single out. You can’t increase the sales productivity by changing one thing in your company. It’s always a combination of issues that should be approached from different perspectives. My recipe for increasing sales productivity is this: give your team the tools and help them build the right mindset.The right toolsLet’s start with the tools. Some business owners think they are saving money by having a single employee do multiple tasks at work with free tools (like Google spreadsheets) when in fact they lose more than they save. Imagine two sales reps working in different companies. One sales rep spends the shift mostly talking to prospects; he uses a call center software and a CRM. Another sales rep does talking and administrative tasks, dials numbers manually, and keeps client data god-knows-where in one’s PC. Which business generates higher numbers?Unless you are selling to the same 20 people in your neighborhood, the minimum set of tools that your team needs is a comprehensive CRM system and a compelling call center software. If you want to increase your team’s productivity, you need to make friends with technology. Once you reduce your salespeople's time spent on routine tasks and administrative work, you’ll enable them to focus on what’s really important.It’s so much easier to work with a prospect if you have all the necessary information in front of you during the conversation. So invest in a solid CRM and a call center software. Apart from that, make it your responsibility to provide your sales reps with pre-made lead lists and all the necessary marketing materials. Don’t make your best closers create a cold base on their own.If you need any help with implementing a call center software feel free to contact our team, we’ll be glad to assist you. Our Voiptime Cloud call center software really increases the productivity of your sales team.A culture of support and trustNow let’s talk about mindset. You can buy all the tools in the world but they won’t help if your people don’t feel comfortable doing their job. It is so important to create a supportive and trustful atmosphere in the team. Spend some time figuring what difficulties your sales reps encounter and help them fix it. What’s getting in the way of their work? Are they feeling anxious making cold calls? Are they having trouble closing? Familiarise yourself with your team’s metrics, find out the weak spots, and help each and every person in your sales department solve their issue.Conduct training sessions to help them develop lacking skills. Make sure that your agents receive a regular performance analysis, a feedback from the head of a sales department and one’s help in handling difficult cases. It’s also important that your agents get psychological support because sales process can be stressful, you should know.So the best thing that you can do to increase the sales productivity of your team is to provide them with effective tools and help them build the right mindset. Try it and the results won’t make you wait.Good luck!

Here are the 14 sales tools we at Tint use to manage our sales/customers/marketing. I hope that we can help you by sharing our personal list of "must-haves" if you are managing your SaaS tool :)As Tint's first hire, my main goal was to bring in 100k by the end of 2013.  With the tools listed below, I was able to bring in $128,914 by NYE of 2013.  Now that we are on pace to hitting 2MM by 2014, my next goal is to streamline our sales team to set our sales vision higher: How to hit 20MM.  Now, I am firm believer of the saying “under commit, over deliver” but I also believe in setting high expectations that even if I’m shy of the goal, I’ll still be happy with the results.For example in November, I committed 50k to Tim (our CEO) but with 37 web-to-lead inquiries given to me, I was able to get 36 leads to show up to an appointment, which helped me close 21 accounts in 30 days.  I closed the month with $43,300 and was happy with results.  My key performance metrics include a 97% show ratio and 58% closing ratio. This is an average key performance metric for Tim and I, and we are now strategically working to scale it.  However before we do,  I would like to share the 11 tools for our sales success:Basic Marketing Tools for Lead Generation:Social Media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+Context, Blogging & ContentWord-of-mouth/ReferralsEmail Newsletters & Promo CodesSEO & Blogs w/ Content MarketingPowered by Tint logo for free users  1) Olark is an effective way to talk to your customers for sales and support in real-time on your site.If the web visitor doesn’t fill out a form, they usually send a quick question with Olark’s chat box. Because we focus so much on customer happiness, our web visitor will instantly get connected to our CEO, Tim Sae Koo.  He will immediately answer sales questions or help with support inquiries. You’d be surprised at how many closed customers you can achieve by just answering a few questions when the lead/visitor is most interested with your product. If he isn’t around, the inquiry will go straight to sales@tintup.com which our sales team can immediately answer.  9 times out of 10, Tim and I are able set appointments through Olark. If more than 12 hours pass and we still haven’t responded to an inquiry, then the lead loses interest. Time kills deals and Olark is a great solution to nurture your leads, in real time, and let them know that they are very important.2) Hubspot is an inbound marketing software platform that helps companies attract visitors, convert leads, and close customers.When a visitor/lead visits www.tintup.com, we use Hubspot to create forms and CTAs that track, score and nurtures leads.  Hubspot has tons of features that we weren’t able to use because we only signed up for a 30 day free trial. But for the most part, we used their a/b testing landing pages, CTA, and Signals.  Signals is Hubspot’s real-time notifications that tell you when and how to follow up with your leads and customers.  The 30 day trial did generate an additional $30k for Tint though!  Although, the results are great, we are eager to learn more about other similar softwares like Pardot, Kissmetrics, and Marketo. 3) Mailchimp is an easy and effective way to send better email newsletters to your customers.Since we never use our blog to advertise ourselves or announce new features (because we believe our readers want to learn more than hear our news), we use Mailchimp to send out our new feature releases, promotions, and our blog posts we write. It’s super easy to import your email lists, set up a template for your email campaign, and time your send outs by bulk or time zone. The email newsletters we send out is a great way to ensure that our customers know we are still working hard for them and communicating with them in mass what we’re up to. We will also segment lists by what plans our customers are so we can send out targeted promotions to them or get them back onto our site to see new developments we’ve released.Sales Tools – Lead Opportunity Stages:Vetting & QualifyingSetting the AppointmentFollowing Up or Closing CallVerbal AgreementClosed WonClosed LostDo not call list4) Rapportive is a Gmail plugin to vet who you’re communicating with and if they are a decision maker you need to close.Ever wonder when a lead comes in if they are just a random person in a company doing research or an actual decision maker? Rapportive is your key to determining who you’re speaking with and the kind of actions you need to take. It’s all super easy to find out as well. After installation, all you need to do is hover over the email address that emailed you and the sidebar of your Gmail will show you the full name, location, title, and social networks from the person you’re speaking with. With that information, you can change your tone/urge to set up a demo to close a deal quicker.5) Boomerang is a Gmail plugin to manage your email responses and remind you when to answer.When I open my gmail, I would typically have around 50 unread messages ranging from inquiries to leads belonging in all of the above ‘opportunity stages.’  My inbox can get overwhelming rather quickly and that is why I use multiple tools to nurture leads.  It took awhile for me to get used to Boomerang because I’m such a Salesforce advocate but as soon as I applied the tool, I was able to cut down my workload by 2 ½ hours.  At my last job, I was conditioned to log all my notes/emails to salesforce and create events, and tasks to remind me who to follow up and which leads need attention – these tedious steps would add 1-2 minutes/lead to my 60-100 lead/day routine.With Boomerang, I can efficiently work all my stages. Whether it’s to set an appointment, to send a summary & proposal, to follow up with a lead, or to set an automatic reminder… it is easy to set up with only 2-3 clicks all within my Gmail. Imagine what you would have to do if 7 clients all asked to follow up with them after 1 week during different parts of the week…I now have a tool that I can set emails to remind me to answer back in 2 days, or 12pm on Thursday afternoon; no more guessing games and no more leads falling through the cracks. 6) Cirrus Insight helps you keep Salesforce in sync with Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Contacts.When a lead completes a form on our website or emails us directly, we create an account on Cirrus Insight and convert the lead into an ‘opportunity.’ I use this add-on as much as I use Gmail. It made Salesforce easy to teach and keep up with.  I no longer have to copy and paste everything into salesforce; I can simply ‘log a call’ through ‘activities’, set an appointment through ‘event’ and respond to emails using Salesforce templates through the ‘quick send and add’ plugin.  I’ve watched Tim receive 50 emails (support & inquiry) and respond to all 50, log complete notes on sfdc and get tons of confirmed appointments before he goes to lunch at noon.  The best part about this plugin is its ability to sync your google calendar and Salesforce calendar every 30 minutes.7) Yesware is an email productivity service for salespeople.If Boomerang and Cirrus insight had a child, it would be Yesware.  I just installed Yesware this month and it has similar features like email management, and SFDC/Gmail synchronization.  What I really like about Yesware is being able to send emails at later time.  For instance Fridays are the worst follow up days because everyone is getting ready for the weekend.  However, I also have a lot of time on Friday and so I’ll write my follow up emails and schedule them to be delivered on Monday at 8:30am, which will help me get seen first thing in the morning.  Another feature I like about Yesware is there templates.  Once my templates are setup, it takes 2 clicks to load them and send.  With Cirrus Insight, I will need to click on the icon, then choose the template folder, then choose a template, then look for a contact, then look for an account and send.  Yesware saves me another 2-3 minutes which I can substitute for my tea break.8) Salesforce is best known for it’s customer relationship management product.Salesforce help me keep track of all my leads, where they are in the decision making process, and help me generate reports on performance metrics. Salesforce is important because it will streamline all the information gathered about an account and a lead from beginning to end.  If a lead has support issues, or unpaid balances, your marketing, sales, operations and account management teams should be able to get the full story just by looking at the Salesforce notes.  If an account manager has to ask for more details from your salesperson about a client, this means notes are incomplete.  Incomplete notes will create inefficiencies, miscommunication, wasted time and ultimately, money lost.Salesforce will also give management valuable insights to the type of employees in your company.  It will help you find and gauge the A players from the B players.  Most importantly if your data is clean, Salesforce will help you streamline, track retention rates, churns, lifetime value of a client and projections.My Salesforce calendar is synchronized with Cirrus Insight, which is connected to my Google Calendar. I also have my Gcal set up with text notifications to give me real time reminders on appointments.  Salesforce help me nurture my pipeline and it help me forecast my numbers.  A lot of the tools I’m suggesting can actually be customized through Salesforce however I found that the more apps you need within salesforce, the more fees are added.  Also, my eyes don’t get burnt out looking at the same page all day and I appreciate the emotive variety of each tool. 9) Join.me, GoToMeeting or Skype – VOIP Conference Calls & Screen-sharingOnce I set an appointment, my go to screen sharing app is Free Screen Sharing and Online Meetings because it is easy to send and pretty to look at.  My prospect doesn’t need to download a file like Skype or GoToMeeting, which is time consuming.  They only need to take 3 steps:Click on the Free Screen Sharing and Online Meetings linkClick on the phone icon to connect via internetConnect a headsetSome client’s prefer GoToMeeting or Skype.  I don’t like GoToMeeting because it feels archaic, it’s interface is bulky and sending an invite takes too much time.  I don’t like Skype because I have to send an invite or wait for an invite to get connected which is inefficient. While Skype can’t do conference calls for free and half my calls are conference calls.  Both these tools require an installation and a signup. 10) Stripe is a company that provides a way for individuals and businesses to accept payments over the Internet.Once a demo is complete, we expect to close the business within 1-14 days.  I can use Stripe to create promo codes and track real time revenue. Not to mention managing (full or partial) refunds, recurring subscriptions, and custom payments. Tint also uses Stripe for self-service signups located on our pricing page: www.tintup.com/pricing.  The Plus and Pro signups go through our stripe account.  Our self serve page generates about more than half of our revenue every month.11) Zapier enables you to automate tasks between other online services (services like Salesforce, Basecamp, Gmail, Mailchimp, Olark, Hubspot and Stripe).I use this tool to synchronize Stripe with Salesforce so our self serve clients are also in our Salesforce database to keep track of all our customers. Zapier has  hundreds of other recipes you can create that will make your life easier and save you time from connecting apps together (like send all Gmail emails into Evernote automatically). We always strive for clean data because they tell the best stories.  We would love some suggestions or successful tools to help us consolidate and maintain clean data. Account Management Tools & Circling back to Lead Generation:Orientation CallHappy Client ProgramTint Support & Best PracticesSave Calls, Credit, Collection & InvoicingCase Studies, UpsellsWorking with brand advocates12) Ballpark for invoicing and referral programs.I typically use Ballpark to send invoices and accept payments.  However, they also have referral programs that I think we should definately use and they released a feature with Stripe for credit card payments.  It seems like they have tons of features that I have not used yet and so I will be downloading the Ballpark app to take advantage of all these awesome features.13) Trello is a collaboration tool that organizes your projects into boards. In one glance, Trello tells you what’s being worked on, who’s working on what, and where something is in a process.Trello is our drawing board, our to-do list; the board that keeps us accountable and innovative.  Everyday we talk about urgent challenges, tasks we completed, and what we are working on.  We are constantly looking for ways to improve, to strengthen our culture and our product.  Trello helps us stay true to one of our core philosophy, “Transparency is key.”  We are able to see what project each person is in charge of and what they have accomplished.  We are able to work together closely and give feedback to improve on our methods, which I find incredibly valuable for a startup company. This is where you can put sales goals on individual cards so your team knows what you are aiming for and can give you feedback on your steps. You can read more here on how we organize our Trello.14) Intercom is your best friend for account management and talking with customers.Tint uses intercom for “Churn, Retention and Re-Engaging Customers.”  One of our current challenges is to increase our monthly recurring revenue.  And to reduce our churn, we want to make sure we talk with our customers so they know we’re here to help and are up to date with new features, blog posts, etc. Intercom makes this SUPER easy by allowing us to communicate with our customers when they are in the Tint app. This is smart because this is when they are focused on our app and willing to chat with us. We are still learning to use Intercom effectively to create strong relationships with visitors and customers alike through automated messaging to scale our touchpoint communications.Read more at our blog post here: http://www.tintup.com/blog/14-sales-tools-tint-used-to-signNow-1m-revenue-in-1-year/

From the apps that have helped me tame my inbox to those that help me keep track of my schedules and to-do lists, some of the most useful iPhone apps of all time have been those that helps me get work done on the go.Here is the list:TeamViewerWith over one billion installations, TeamViewer is certainly a popular choice for online meeting, remote support and access. This nifty app allows you to not only communicate with your team effectively, but also take control of a team member’s desktop if they’re having issues.If your support team is struggling to convey fixes or topics over the phone, or even with screencasting, you can’t go wrong with TeamViewer.If your support team is struggling to convey fixes or topics over the phone, or even with screencasting, you can’t go wrong with TeamViewer.ProofHubProofHub is a task and project management app with inbuilt time tracking which puts teamwork and organization at top priority. Coming with an internal chat system, calendar, proofing, task and project creator and manager, along with various views for your team means that everyone will know what they should be doing and when. You can even track the progress of your and also of your teammates by tracking every min/hour they spent on any task.ProofHub also provides a 30 day free trial and a free demo to help you understand the app. So sign up, give it a try.DropboxDropbox is a handy cloud storage service which is ideal for users who want to keep things simple. Their file layout is similar to that of a desktop, making it easy to get to grips with, and you can gain a signNow amount of free space (up to 16 Gb) if you successfully invite other users to the service.Admittedly, when compared to its competitors, Dropbox can be found a little lacking for high-end users, but for anyone who wants to keep things simple and just back up a few files to the cloud for safekeeping, you can’t go wrong with Dropbox.BufferIf you’ve ever considered an app for social media management, chances are thatBuffer came up in your search. The premise is simple; you don’t always have time to post content to your social media accounts, especially if you have multiple, so why not schedule your posts instead?Buffer allows you to easily do this for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Instagram and (if you’re a premium account) Pinterest. Needless to say, it’s insanely helpful to be able to spend a half hour queueing up 10 or so posts, then just leave it be until the next batch you want to release comes along. You can even queue up posts from your iOS or Android device whilst you’re on the go!IFTTTIFTTT (If This Then That) allows you to automate simple processes easily. It operates on a simple model; if a specific event happens (eg, you receive an email), an action is performed (eg, all attachments are saved into Google Drive).Whilst it isn’t quite as powerful as Zapier, the simplicity of IFTTT, along with the ready-to-use automations submitted by other users, make it perfect for simple processes and personal use. For example, whilst our team loves Zapier, using IFTTT’s mobile apps make it incredibly easy to create a note in Evernote from your mobile device, or save an image of a receipt.I hope my answer helps you to be more productive!!!

Here are the 14 sales tools we at Tint use to sell and market our SaaS product. Most of them have free plans, and if our numbers are to tell the story, we have certainly been able to scale sales!As Tint's first hire, my main goal was to bring in 100k by the end of 2013.  With the tools listed below, I was able to bring in $128,914 by NYE of 2013.  Now that we are on pace to hitting 2MM by 2014, my next goal is to streamline our sales team to set our sales vision higher: How to hit 20MM.  Now, I am firm believer of the saying “under commit, over deliver” but I also believe in setting high expectations that even if I’m shy of the goal, I’ll still be happy with the results.For example in November, I committed 50k to Tim (our CEO) but with 37 web-to-lead inquiries given to me, I was able to get 36 leads to show up to an appointment, which helped me close 21 accounts in 30 days.  I closed the month with $43,300 and was happy with results.  My key performance metrics include a 97% show ratio and 58% closing ratio. This is an average key performance metric for Tim and I, and we are now strategically working to scale it.  However before we do,  I would like to share the 11 tools for our sales success:Basic Marketing Tools for Lead Generation:Social Media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+Context, Blogging & ContentWord-of-mouth/ReferralsEmail Newsletters & Promo CodesSEO & Blogs w/ Content MarketingPowered by Tint logo for free users  1) Olark is an effective way to talk to your customers for sales and support in real-time on your site.If the web visitor doesn’t fill out a form, they usually send a quick question with Olark’s chat box. Because we focus so much on customer happiness, our web visitor will instantly get connected to our CEO, Tim Sae Koo.  He will immediately answer sales questions or help with support inquiries. You’d be surprised at how many closed customers you can achieve by just answering a few questions when the lead/visitor is most interested with your product. If he isn’t around, the inquiry will go straight to sales@tintup.com which our sales team can immediately answer.  9 times out of 10, Tim and I are able set appointments through Olark. If more than 12 hours pass and we still haven’t responded to an inquiry, then the lead loses interest. Time kills deals and Olark is a great solution to nurture your leads, in real time, and let them know that they are very important.2) Hubspot is an inbound marketing software platform that helps companies attract visitors, convert leads, and close customers.When a visitor/lead visits www.tintup.com, we use Hubspot to create forms and CTAs that track, score and nurtures leads.  Hubspot has tons of features that we weren’t able to use because we only signed up for a 30 day free trial. But for the most part, we used their a/b testing landing pages, CTA, and Signals.  Signals is Hubspot’s real-time notifications that tell you when and how to follow up with your leads and customers.  The 30 day trial did generate an additional $30k for Tint though!  Although, the results are great, we are eager to learn more about other similar softwares like Pardot, Kissmetrics, and Marketo. 3) Mailchimp is an easy and effective way to send better email newsletters to your customers.Since we never use our blog to advertise ourselves or announce new features (because we believe our readers want to learn more than hear our news), we use Mailchimp to send out our new feature releases, promotions, and our blog posts we write. It’s super easy to import your email lists, set up a template for your email campaign, and time your send outs by bulk or time zone. The email newsletters we send out is a great way to ensure that our customers know we are still working hard for them and communicating with them in mass what we’re up to. We will also segment lists by what plans our customers are so we can send out targeted promotions to them or get them back onto our site to see new developments we’ve released.Sales Tools – Lead Opportunity Stages:Vetting & QualifyingSetting the AppointmentFollowing Up or Closing CallVerbal AgreementClosed WonClosed LostDo not call list4) Rapportive is a Gmail plugin to vet who you’re communicating with and if they are a decision maker you need to close.Ever wonder when a lead comes in if they are just a random person in a company doing research or an actual decision maker? Rapportive is your key to determining who you’re speaking with and the kind of actions you need to take. It’s all super easy to find out as well. After installation, all you need to do is hover over the email address that emailed you and the sidebar of your Gmail will show you the full name, location, title, and social networks from the person you’re speaking with. With that information, you can change your tone/urge to set up a demo to close a deal quicker.5) Boomerang is a Gmail plugin to manage your email responses and remind you when to answer.When I open my gmail, I would typically have around 50 unread messages ranging from inquiries to leads belonging in all of the above ‘opportunity stages.’  My inbox can get overwhelming rather quickly and that is why I use multiple tools to nurture leads.  It took awhile for me to get used to Boomerang because I’m such a Salesforce advocate but as soon as I applied the tool, I was able to cut down my workload by 2 ½ hours.  At my last job, I was conditioned to log all my notes/emails to salesforce and create events, and tasks to remind me who to follow up and which leads need attention – these tedious steps would add 1-2 minutes/lead to my 60-100 lead/day routine.With Boomerang, I can efficiently work all my stages. Whether it’s to set an appointment, to send a summary & proposal, to follow up with a lead, or to set an automatic reminder… it is easy to set up with only 2-3 clicks all within my Gmail. Imagine what you would have to do if 7 clients all asked to follow up with them after 1 week during different parts of the week…I now have a tool that I can set emails to remind me to answer back in 2 days, or 12pm on Thursday afternoon; no more guessing games and no more leads falling through the cracks. 6) Cirrus Insight helps you keep Salesforce in sync with Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Contacts.When a lead completes a form on our website or emails us directly, we create an account on Cirrus Insight and convert the lead into an ‘opportunity.’ I use this add-on as much as I use Gmail. It made Salesforce easy to teach and keep up with.  I no longer have to copy and paste everything into salesforce; I can simply ‘log a call’ through ‘activities’, set an appointment through ‘event’ and respond to emails using Salesforce templates through the ‘quick send and add’ plugin.  I’ve watched Tim receive 50 emails (support & inquiry) and respond to all 50, log complete notes on sfdc and get tons of confirmed appointments before he goes to lunch at noon.  The best part about this plugin is its ability to sync your google calendar and Salesforce calendar every 30 minutes.7) Yesware is an email productivity service for salespeople.If Boomerang and Cirrus insight had a child, it would be Yesware.  I just installed Yesware this month and it has similar features like email management, and SFDC/Gmail synchronization.  What I really like about Yesware is being able to send emails at later time.  For instance Fridays are the worst follow up days because everyone is getting ready for the weekend.  However, I also have a lot of time on Friday and so I’ll write my follow up emails and schedule them to be delivered on Monday at 8:30am, which will help me get seen first thing in the morning.  Another feature I like about Yesware is there templates.  Once my templates are setup, it takes 2 clicks to load them and send.  With Cirrus Insight, I will need to click on the icon, then choose the template folder, then choose a template, then look for a contact, then look for an account and send.  Yesware saves me another 2-3 minutes which I can substitute for my tea break.8) Salesforce is best known for it’s customer relationship management product.Salesforce help me keep track of all my leads, where they are in the decision making process, and help me generate reports on performance metrics. Salesforce is important because it will streamline all the information gathered about an account and a lead from beginning to end.  If a lead has support issues, or unpaid balances, your marketing, sales, operations and account management teams should be able to get the full story just by looking at the Salesforce notes.  If an account manager has to ask for more details from your salesperson about a client, this means notes are incomplete.  Incomplete notes will create inefficiencies, miscommunication, wasted time and ultimately, money lost.Salesforce will also give management valuable insights to the type of employees in your company.  It will help you find and gauge the A players from the B players.  Most importantly if your data is clean, Salesforce will help you streamline, track retention rates, churns, lifetime value of a client and projections.My Salesforce calendar is synchronized with Cirrus Insight, which is connected to my Google Calendar. I also have my Gcal set up with text notifications to give me real time reminders on appointments.  Salesforce help me nurture my pipeline and it help me forecast my numbers.  A lot of the tools I’m suggesting can actually be customized through Salesforce however I found that the more apps you need within salesforce, the more fees are added.  Also, my eyes don’t get burnt out looking at the same page all day and I appreciate the emotive variety of each tool. 9) Join.me, GoToMeeting or Skype – VOIP Conference Calls & Screen-sharingOnce I set an appointment, my go to screen sharing app is Free Screen Sharing and Online Meetings because it is easy to send and pretty to look at.  My prospect doesn’t need to download a file like Skype or GoToMeeting, which is time consuming.  They only need to take 3 steps:Click on the Free Screen Sharing and Online Meetings linkClick on the phone icon to connect via internetConnect a headsetSome client’s prefer GoToMeeting or Skype.  I don’t like GoToMeeting because it feels archaic, it’s interface is bulky and sending an invite takes too much time.  I don’t like Skype because I have to send an invite or wait for an invite to get connected which is inefficient. While Skype can’t do conference calls for free and half my calls are conference calls.  Both these tools require an installation and a signup. 10) Stripe is a company that provides a way for individuals and businesses to accept payments over the Internet.Once a demo is complete, we expect to close the business within 1-14 days.  I can use Stripe to create promo codes and track real time revenue. Not to mention managing (full or partial) refunds, recurring subscriptions, and custom payments. Tint also uses Stripe for self-service signups located on our pricing page: www.tintup.com/pricing.  The Plus and Pro signups go through our stripe account.  Our self serve page generates about more than half of our revenue every month.11) Zapier enables you to automate tasks between other online services (services like Salesforce, Basecamp, Gmail, Mailchimp, Olark, Hubspot and Stripe).I use this tool to synchronize Stripe with Salesforce so our self serve clients are also in our Salesforce database to keep track of all our customers. Zapier has  hundreds of other recipes you can create that will make your life easier and save you time from connecting apps together (like send all Gmail emails into Evernote automatically). We always strive for clean data because they tell the best stories.  We would love some suggestions or successful tools to help us consolidate and maintain clean data. Account Management Tools & Circling back to Lead Generation:Orientation CallHappy Client ProgramTint Support & Best PracticesSave Calls, Credit, Collection & InvoicingCase Studies, UpsellsWorking with brand advocates12) Ballpark for invoicing and referral programs.I typically use Ballpark to send invoices and accept payments.  However, they also have referral programs that I think we should definately use and they released a feature with Stripe for credit card payments.  It seems like they have tons of features that I have not used yet and so I will be downloading the Ballpark app to take advantage of all these awesome features.13) Trello is a collaboration tool that organizes your projects into boards. In one glance, Trello tells you what’s being worked on, who’s working on what, and where something is in a process.Trello is our drawing board, our to-do list; the board that keeps us accountable and innovative.  Everyday we talk about urgent challenges, tasks we completed, and what we are working on.  We are constantly looking for ways to improve, to strengthen our culture and our product.  Trello helps us stay true to one of our core philosophy, “Transparency is key.”  We are able to see what project each person is in charge of and what they have accomplished.  We are able to work together closely and give feedback to improve on our methods, which I find incredibly valuable for a startup company. This is where you can put sales goals on individual cards so your team knows what you are aiming for and can give you feedback on your steps. You can read more here on how we organize our Trello.14) Intercom is your best friend for account management and talking with customers.Tint uses intercom for “Churn, Retention and Re-Engaging Customers.”  One of our current challenges is to increase our monthly recurring revenue.  And to reduce our churn, we want to make sure we talk with our customers so they know we’re here to help and are up to date with new features, blog posts, etc. Intercom makes this SUPER easy by allowing us to communicate with our customers when they are in the Tint app. This is smart because this is when they are focused on our app and willing to chat with us. We are still learning to use Intercom effectively to create strong relationships with visitors and customers alike through automated messaging to scale our touchpoint communications.Read more at our blog post here: http://www.tintup.com/blog/14-sales-tools-tint-used-to-signNow-1m-revenue-in-1-year/

Here are the 14 sales tools we at Tint use to market our SaaS product. Although SaaS is different than selling cars, I believe that all sales and marketing starts with building a relationship, and these tools certainly make it easier to build a relationship with any type of customer. Hopefully this helps you sell more cars :)As Tint's first hire, my main goal was to bring in 100k by the end of 2013.  With the tools listed below, I was able to bring in $128,914 by NYE of 2013.  Now that we are on pace to hitting 2MM by 2014, my next goal is to streamline our sales team to set our sales vision higher: How to hit 20MM.  Now, I am firm believer of the saying “under commit, over deliver” but I also believe in setting high expectations that even if I’m shy of the goal, I’ll still be happy with the results.For example in November, I committed 50k to Tim (our CEO) but with 37 web-to-lead inquiries given to me, I was able to get 36 leads to show up to an appointment, which helped me close 21 accounts in 30 days.  I closed the month with $43,300 and was happy with results.  My key performance metrics include a 97% show ratio and 58% closing ratio. This is an average key performance metric for Tim and I, and we are now strategically working to scale it.  However before we do,  I would like to share the 11 tools for our sales success:Basic Marketing Tools for Lead Generation:Social Media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+Context, Blogging & ContentWord-of-mouth/ReferralsEmail Newsletters & Promo CodesSEO & Blogs w/ Content MarketingPowered by Tint logo for free users  1) Olark is an effective way to talk to your customers for sales and support in real-time on your site.If the web visitor doesn’t fill out a form, they usually send a quick question with Olark’s chat box. Because we focus so much on customer happiness, our web visitor will instantly get connected to our CEO, Tim Sae Koo.  He will immediately answer sales questions or help with support inquiries. You’d be surprised at how many closed customers you can achieve by just answering a few questions when the lead/visitor is most interested with your product. If he isn’t around, the inquiry will go straight to sales@tintup.com which our sales team can immediately answer.  9 times out of 10, Tim and I are able set appointments through Olark. If more than 12 hours pass and we still haven’t responded to an inquiry, then the lead loses interest. Time kills deals and Olark is a great solution to nurture your leads, in real time, and let them know that they are very important.2) Hubspot is an inbound marketing software platform that helps companies attract visitors, convert leads, and close customers.When a visitor/lead visits www.tintup.com, we use Hubspot to create forms and CTAs that track, score and nurtures leads.  Hubspot has tons of features that we weren’t able to use because we only signed up for a 30 day free trial. But for the most part, we used their a/b testing landing pages, CTA, and Signals.  Signals is Hubspot’s real-time notifications that tell you when and how to follow up with your leads and customers.  The 30 day trial did generate an additional $30k for Tint though!  Although, the results are great, we are eager to learn more about other similar softwares like Pardot, Kissmetrics, and Marketo. 3) Mailchimp is an easy and effective way to send better email newsletters to your customers.Since we never use our blog to advertise ourselves or announce new features (because we believe our readers want to learn more than hear our news), we use Mailchimp to send out our new feature releases, promotions, and our blog posts we write. It’s super easy to import your email lists, set up a template for your email campaign, and time your send outs by bulk or time zone. The email newsletters we send out is a great way to ensure that our customers know we are still working hard for them and communicating with them in mass what we’re up to. We will also segment lists by what plans our customers are so we can send out targeted promotions to them or get them back onto our site to see new developments we’ve released.Sales Tools – Lead Opportunity Stages:Vetting & QualifyingSetting the AppointmentFollowing Up or Closing CallVerbal AgreementClosed WonClosed LostDo not call list4) Rapportive is a Gmail plugin to vet who you’re communicating with and if they are a decision maker you need to close.Ever wonder when a lead comes in if they are just a random person in a company doing research or an actual decision maker? Rapportive is your key to determining who you’re speaking with and the kind of actions you need to take. It’s all super easy to find out as well. After installation, all you need to do is hover over the email address that emailed you and the sidebar of your Gmail will show you the full name, location, title, and social networks from the person you’re speaking with. With that information, you can change your tone/urge to set up a demo to close a deal quicker.5) Boomerang is a Gmail plugin to manage your email responses and remind you when to answer.When I open my gmail, I would typically have around 50 unread messages ranging from inquiries to leads belonging in all of the above ‘opportunity stages.’  My inbox can get overwhelming rather quickly and that is why I use multiple tools to nurture leads.  It took awhile for me to get used to Boomerang because I’m such a Salesforce advocate but as soon as I applied the tool, I was able to cut down my workload by 2 ½ hours.  At my last job, I was conditioned to log all my notes/emails to salesforce and create events, and tasks to remind me who to follow up and which leads need attention – these tedious steps would add 1-2 minutes/lead to my 60-100 lead/day routine.With Boomerang, I can efficiently work all my stages. Whether it’s to set an appointment, to send a summary & proposal, to follow up with a lead, or to set an automatic reminder… it is easy to set up with only 2-3 clicks all within my Gmail. Imagine what you would have to do if 7 clients all asked to follow up with them after 1 week during different parts of the week…I now have a tool that I can set emails to remind me to answer back in 2 days, or 12pm on Thursday afternoon; no more guessing games and no more leads falling through the cracks. 6) Cirrus Insight helps you keep Salesforce in sync with Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Contacts.When a lead completes a form on our website or emails us directly, we create an account on Cirrus Insight and convert the lead into an ‘opportunity.’ I use this add-on as much as I use Gmail. It made Salesforce easy to teach and keep up with.  I no longer have to copy and paste everything into salesforce; I can simply ‘log a call’ through ‘activities’, set an appointment through ‘event’ and respond to emails using Salesforce templates through the ‘quick send and add’ plugin.  I’ve watched Tim receive 50 emails (support & inquiry) and respond to all 50, log complete notes on sfdc and get tons of confirmed appointments before he goes to lunch at noon.  The best part about this plugin is its ability to sync your google calendar and Salesforce calendar every 30 minutes.7) Yesware is an email productivity service for salespeople.If Boomerang and Cirrus insight had a child, it would be Yesware.  I just installed Yesware this month and it has similar features like email management, and SFDC/Gmail synchronization.  What I really like about Yesware is being able to send emails at later time.  For instance Fridays are the worst follow up days because everyone is getting ready for the weekend.  However, I also have a lot of time on Friday and so I’ll write my follow up emails and schedule them to be delivered on Monday at 8:30am, which will help me get seen first thing in the morning.  Another feature I like about Yesware is there templates.  Once my templates are setup, it takes 2 clicks to load them and send.  With Cirrus Insight, I will need to click on the icon, then choose the template folder, then choose a template, then look for a contact, then look for an account and send.  Yesware saves me another 2-3 minutes which I can substitute for my tea break.8) Salesforce is best known for it’s customer relationship management product.Salesforce help me keep track of all my leads, where they are in the decision making process, and help me generate reports on performance metrics. Salesforce is important because it will streamline all the information gathered about an account and a lead from beginning to end.  If a lead has support issues, or unpaid balances, your marketing, sales, operations and account management teams should be able to get the full story just by looking at the Salesforce notes.  If an account manager has to ask for more details from your salesperson about a client, this means notes are incomplete.  Incomplete notes will create inefficiencies, miscommunication, wasted time and ultimately, money lost.Salesforce will also give management valuable insights to the type of employees in your company.  It will help you find and gauge the A players from the B players.  Most importantly if your data is clean, Salesforce will help you streamline, track retention rates, churns, lifetime value of a client and projections.My Salesforce calendar is synchronized with Cirrus Insight, which is connected to my Google Calendar. I also have my Gcal set up with text notifications to give me real time reminders on appointments.  Salesforce help me nurture my pipeline and it help me forecast my numbers.  A lot of the tools I’m suggesting can actually be customized through Salesforce however I found that the more apps you need within salesforce, the more fees are added.  Also, my eyes don’t get burnt out looking at the same page all day and I appreciate the emotive variety of each tool. 9) Join.me, GoToMeeting or Skype – VOIP Conference Calls & Screen-sharingOnce I set an appointment, my go to screen sharing app is Free Screen Sharing and Online Meetings because it is easy to send and pretty to look at.  My prospect doesn’t need to download a file like Skype or GoToMeeting, which is time consuming.  They only need to take 3 steps:Click on the Free Screen Sharing and Online Meetings linkClick on the phone icon to connect via internetConnect a headsetSome client’s prefer GoToMeeting or Skype.  I don’t like GoToMeeting because it feels archaic, it’s interface is bulky and sending an invite takes too much time.  I don’t like Skype because I have to send an invite or wait for an invite to get connected which is inefficient. While Skype can’t do conference calls for free and half my calls are conference calls.  Both these tools require an installation and a signup. 10) Stripe is a company that provides a way for individuals and businesses to accept payments over the Internet.Once a demo is complete, we expect to close the business within 1-14 days.  I can use Stripe to create promo codes and track real time revenue. Not to mention managing (full or partial) refunds, recurring subscriptions, and custom payments. Tint also uses Stripe for self-service signups located on our pricing page: www.tintup.com/pricing.  The Plus and Pro signups go through our stripe account.  Our self serve page generates about more than half of our revenue every month.11) Zapier enables you to automate tasks between other online services (services like Salesforce, Basecamp, Gmail, Mailchimp, Olark, Hubspot and Stripe).I use this tool to synchronize Stripe with Salesforce so our self serve clients are also in our Salesforce database to keep track of all our customers. Zapier has  hundreds of other recipes you can create that will make your life easier and save you time from connecting apps together (like send all Gmail emails into Evernote automatically). We always strive for clean data because they tell the best stories.  We would love some suggestions or successful tools to help us consolidate and maintain clean data. Account Management Tools & Circling back to Lead Generation:Orientation CallHappy Client ProgramTint Support & Best PracticesSave Calls, Credit, Collection & InvoicingCase Studies, UpsellsWorking with brand advocates12) Ballpark for invoicing and referral programs.I typically use Ballpark to send invoices and accept payments.  However, they also have referral programs that I think we should definately use and they released a feature with Stripe for credit card payments.  It seems like they have tons of features that I have not used yet and so I will be downloading the Ballpark app to take advantage of all these awesome features.13) Trello is a collaboration tool that organizes your projects into boards. In one glance, Trello tells you what’s being worked on, who’s working on what, and where something is in a process.Trello is our drawing board, our to-do list; the board that keeps us accountable and innovative.  Everyday we talk about urgent challenges, tasks we completed, and what we are working on.  We are constantly looking for ways to improve, to strengthen our culture and our product.  Trello helps us stay true to one of our core philosophy, “Transparency is key.”  We are able to see what project each person is in charge of and what they have accomplished.  We are able to work together closely and give feedback to improve on our methods, which I find incredibly valuable for a startup company. This is where you can put sales goals on individual cards so your team knows what you are aiming for and can give you feedback on your steps. You can read more here on how we organize our Trello.14) Intercom is your best friend for account management and talking with customers.Tint uses intercom for “Churn, Retention and Re-Engaging Customers.”  One of our current challenges is to increase our monthly recurring revenue.  And to reduce our churn, we want to make sure we talk with our customers so they know we’re here to help and are up to date with new features, blog posts, etc. Intercom makes this SUPER easy by allowing us to communicate with our customers when they are in the Tint app. This is smart because this is when they are focused on our app and willing to chat with us. We are still learning to use Intercom effectively to create strong relationships with visitors and customers alike through automated messaging to scale our touchpoint communications.Read more at our blog post here: http://www.tintup.com/blog/14-sales-tools-tint-used-to-signNow-1m-revenue-in-1-year/