6 Free but Powerful Apps for B2B Sales Reps in 2024

The rise of virtual selling and digital-first buyers has made sales technology mastery a critical skill set. According to Salesforce, high-performing B2B sales reps are 10x more likely to identify as "heavy tech adopters" compared to their underperforming peers.

But you don‘t need to break the bank on expensive software to level up your results. Here are 6 categories of free and low-cost apps that can make a huge impact on productivity, effectiveness, and ultimately quota attainment:

1. CRM & Sales Automation

A CRM (customer relationship management) system is the cornerstone of a high-functioning sales stack. Research from Nucleus shows that CRM pays back $8.71 for every dollar spent, when used effectively.

Free CRM platforms like HubSpot CRM and Freshworks offer robust feature sets that can save reps up to 5 hours per week on manual data entry and routine tasks. These tools allow you to:

• Centrally manage your database of contacts, companies, opportunities, and activities
• Set up email notifications when prospects open emails or click links
• Use pre-built email templates and cadences to scale outreach
• Log sales call notes and easily search interaction history
• View deal pipelines and get reminders on next steps
• Track key metrics like activity levels, pipeline velocity, and win rates

For example, Jill, an enterprise account executive, uses HubSpot CRM to keep tabs on over 50 active opportunities across multiple deal stages. She has set up workflow automations to create tasks when an opportunity moves to a new stage, so nothing falls through the cracks. She also uses the mobile CRM app to quickly log notes after onsite meetings, ensuring her records are always up-to-date.

While basic CRMs are sufficient for most reps, some advanced features worth exploring include:

• AI-powered lead scoring and chatbots
• Two-way email and calendar sync
• Custom objects and reporting
• Predictive forecasting

To get the most from your CRM, make a habit of capturing key data points after every prospect interaction and referencing your CRM insights to tailor your engagement.

2. Social Selling & Prospecting

Did you know that 78% of social sellers outsell peers who don‘t use social media? Or that social selling leaders create 45% more opportunities than those with basic or no social selling skills? (source)

LinkedIn is the top social network for B2B selling and prospecting. With over 900 million members, including 65 million decision-makers, LinkedIn is a goldmine for finding and engaging potential buyers.

Free LinkedIn features to leverage include:

• Advanced Search filters to identify prospects by title, company, location, etc.
• Saved searches and alerts for key accounts and leads
• Posts, articles and newsletters to share thought leadership content
• Direct messaging to send personalized outreach

Pro tip: save your LinkedIn searches and monitor them regularly for new prospects that match your ideal customer profile.

For example, Maria, an SDR, has a saved search for VPs of Finance at companies with 500+ employees in the Northeast US. She checks it every Monday morning and sends personalized connection requests to new matches, with a note mentioning their shared background or interests. Once connected, she sends a short message to introduce herself and share a relevant company resource.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator, the premium offering, can supercharge your prospecting with:

• Lead recommendations customized to your preferences
• Additional filters like headcount growth, years in position, and seniority level
• Ability to view profiles of members outside your network
• Notifications on job changes and other key sales triggers

To measure the ROI of your social selling efforts, track KPIs such as SSI (Social Selling Index) score, connection request acceptance rate, number of appointments booked, and pipeline sourced or influenced by social.

3. Email Tracking & Optimization

Despite the growth of social selling, email is still the workhorse of B2B sales communication. The average B2B sales rep spends over 20 hours per week on email activities (source).

Free email tracking tools like HubSpot Sales, Yesware, and Mailtrack show you real-time alerts and analytics on your sent messages, including:

• Email opens and link clicks with date/time stamps
• Desktop and mobile device breakdown
• Average time spent reading email
• Replies and forwards

This engagement data allows you to spend your time on the leads most likely to convert. You can also split test subject lines and calls-to-action to optimize response rates.

For example, Raj, a sales manager, noticed that his reps‘ emails were getting opened but not replied to very often. He had his team start split testing two versions of each email – a shorter one focused on painting a picture of the buyer‘s challenge, and a longer one with more product details. The shorter emails boosted response rates by 25%.

App	Real-Time Notifications	Daily Open Summaries	Link Click Tracking	Attachment Views	CRM Integration
HubSpot Sales	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
SalesHandy	✓	✓	✓	✓
Mailtrack	✓		✓		✓
MixMax	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Yesware	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓

To choose an email tracking tool, consider which features matter most for your workflow and existing tech stack. Also, be sure to adhere to email tracking regulations and privacy best practices such as using tracking disclaimers.

4. Meeting Scheduling

Back-and-forth emails and phone tag to schedule meetings are a huge drain on selling time. 60% of B2B buyers say that waiting on follow-ups is one of their biggest frustrations with sales reps (source).

Enter meeting scheduling apps. Tools like Calendly, Chili Piper and YouCanBook.me eliminate friction by allowing prospects to instantly book a meeting in your available time slots. Simply define your availability and preferences, then share a personalized scheduling link via email or your web channels.

Calendly, the leading scheduling solution, offers these key features in its free Basic plan:

• Unlimited meetings and event types (e.g. intro call, demo, negotiation)
• Booking page customization
• Automated event notifications and reminders
• Integration with popular calendars and video conferencing

Say goodbye to the dreaded "what times work for you?" emails. With smart scheduling, you can accelerate your sales cycles and deliver a seamless buying experience.

For example, Priya, an account manager, includes her Calendly link in her email signature with the call-to-action "Book 15 mins to discuss your 2024 renewals". This makes it dead simple for her clients to get a meeting on the calendar without the usual inbox volleyball.

To level up your scheduling, try these tips:

• Create meeting buffers to avoid back-to-backs and allow prep time
• Use intake forms to collect key info before the meeting
• Automatically send reminder and follow-up messages
• Set availability windows for different meeting types (e.g demos only on Tuesdays)

By automating your scheduling, you can save hours each week and make every meeting more productive and impactful.

5. Video Messaging

Video is eating the world and sales is no exception. 69% of B2B sales professionals now use video for prospecting and engagement, with 70% claiming that video performs better than other content (source).

With free video messaging tools like Vidyard GoVideo, Loom and Soapbox, you can easily record, send and track personalized sales videos. Just fire up your webcam or screen recorder and deliver your message in a more engaging and expressive format than plain text.

Videos can be used across the sales cycle for:

• Prospecting: Break through the noise with a 30-60 second intro video that puts a face to your name and piques curiosity.
• Presentations: Walk through slides via screen share with a voiceover to add color and context.
• Demos: Show your product in action with a brief tour of key features and benefits.
• Proposals: Summarize your recommendation and next steps in a quick video recap.
• Check-ins: Send a personalized video to stay top-of-mind and build rapport with buyers.

One study found that prospecting emails with video had a 300% higher response rate than emails without video (source).

Here‘s a sample framework for a prospecting video:

• Attention-grabbing opening: "Hi Sarah, Jeff here from Acme with a quick 30-second video message for you."
• Context and personalization: "I noticed on LinkedIn that you recently started a new role as VP of Ops. Congrats on the promotion! I‘m reaching out because…"
• Value proposition: "We‘ve helped other leaders like you to [benefit 1], [benefit 2] and [benefit 3]. I think there could be a great fit to explore."
• Call-to-action: "Are you open to a brief chat to discuss further? If so, just reply to this email with some times that work for you. Talk to you soon!"

Keep your videos concise and conversational. Use tactical pauses, dynamic inflection and hand gestures to draw the viewer in. Include captions for accessibility and make sure your thumbnail image is visually compelling.

Video analytics will show you which prospects watched your video, how long they watched, and if they re-watched certain parts. Follow up with your most engaged viewers to continue the dialogue.

6. Note-Taking & Document Management

Effective sales requires meticulous organization and knowledge management. Reps need to capture key details from every interaction, access the right collateral at the right time, and frequently collaborate with other team members.

Unfortunately, many reps haphazardly store important info across their laptop, phone, email and even physical notebooks. This leads to lost insights, version control nightmares, and wasted time hunting for content.

Centralized apps for sales notes and document management can solve this. Popular options include:

• Evernote for capturing meeting notes, saving web clips, and creating to-do lists
• Microsoft OneNote for typed, handwritten and voice-recorded notes
• Google Keep for quick notes, lists and reminders
• Dropbox and Box for cloud content storage and sharing
• Google Drive for real-time document collaboration

These apps sync across all your devices so you can access information anytime, anywhere. They also offer advanced search capabilities to quickly find what you need by keyword, tag, and more.

For example, Samir, a sales engineer, uses Evernote to take detailed notes during discovery calls. He creates a note for each deal and uses the tagging feature to categorize them by product line, competitor, and sales stage. This helps him quickly find relevant notes to prepare for follow-up meetings.

Get the most out of your note-taking system with these best practices:

• Use a consistent template for meeting notes with fields like attendees, agenda, key discussion points, action items and next steps
• Create a logical notebook and folder structure for easy organization
• Integrate your notes app with your CRM for a unified view of customer interactions
• Set up note sharing for seamless handoffs between team members
• Use mobile scanning and OCR (optical character recognition) to digitize and search physical docs

Good documentation habits ensure that key deal intel doesn‘t get lost in the shuffle. It enables you to truly listen during meetings and ask great follow-up questions based on the specifics of previous conversations.

The Power of Technology Mastery

The impact of the tools covered here is not just additive, it‘s multiplicative. Sales reps who use 3+ technology categories are 57% more likely to forecast accurately than reps who use 2 or fewer (source).

As buyers increasingly demand digital-first experiences, sales technology mastery will only become more critical. Reps who embrace tools to automate admin work and elevate their engagement will consistently outperform their tech-averse counterparts.

But tools alone aren‘t a panacea. Success requires the right combination of strategy, process, training, and adoption. Before adding a new tool to your stack, get clear on the specific problem you‘re trying to solve and the metrics you‘ll track.

Commit to learning the key features and integration points of your core tools. Set aside time for regular training and experimentation. Don‘t be afraid to suggest process tweaks that will turn your technology into a true force multiplier.

The best reps make time to work on their craft, not just in it. They treat their tech stack as a key competitive differentiator. As sales leader John Barrows puts it:
"The reps who will survive and thrive in the future are the ones who use technology to do more creative, valuable and impactful work. They see tools as a way to enhance their skills, not replace them."

So here‘s my challenge to you: Take a hard look at your current toolkit. Which parts are working well and which need an upgrade? Pick one new tool from this list and commit to mastering it over the next month.

Share your favorite sales tech recommendations, tips and success stories in the comments. Together, let‘s usher in a new era of technology-powered selling!