11 Must-Have SDR Tools to Drive More Sales

How many tools do you think an average SDR uses?

The answer is one too many!

SDR tools are designed to streamline repeatable processes and make sales reps’ lives easier. But the irony is that too many tools slow down the sales process and strain your budget.

I asked Cognism’s sales leaders for tips on streamlining an SDR’s tech stack so they can spend more time selling than switching between different tools.

I highly recommend this article for SDR managers looking to upgrade their tech stack.

Let’s start 👇

1. Cognism

Cognism is a sales intelligence platform and the best SDR tool for B2B data. You can tap into Cognism’s globally compliant database and perform company and contact searches in EMEA, NAM, and APAC markets.

Most SDRs spend 20% of their time researching prospects, and bad data causes them to waste another 30%. Cognism solves this with an extensive quality-driven database of emails, direct dials and mobile numbers. 

SDRs who use Outreach and Salesforce love Cognism’s Browser Extension. It works over both, so they don’t have to leave to enrich records.

Take an interactive tour of Cognism’s Web App and Browser Extension 👇

Key features:

• Sales Companion (Web App): Access a vast database of contacts, companies, and buying signals.
• Sales Companion (Browser Extension): Access company and contact details on LinkedIn and other platforms.
• Diamond Data®: Phone-verified mobile numbers for B2B contacts.
• Intent data by Bombora: Identify companies researching topics relevant to your business.
• Cognism AI Search: Find prospects with ChatGPT-style text or voice prompts.
• Cognism Enrich: Instant and scheduled CRM enrichment and on-demand CSV enrichment.
• Seamless integrations with CRMs and sales and marketing tools.
• International coverage: EMEA, NAM, APAC.
• Fully GDPR and CCPA-compliant data.
• Database checked and cleaned against global DNC lists.
• Fast and friendly support team.
• Unrestricted access to person and company-level data (subject to fair use policy).

What Cognism’s customers say:

“You don’t need to be tech-savvy to use the platform and it seamlessly integrates into the tools you’re using already. Best of all, it delivers fast results. Once you’ve signed up, you’ll wonder how you ever managed without it”

90%

reduction in lead list generation time

Joshua Silvera
Director of Sales Development @GWI

Pricing:

Choose a package to suit your needs:

1. Grow, which offers essential contact and company data for prospecting.
2. Elevate, which combines Cognism’s high-quality data with advanced intelligence and actionable signals.

Both packages include:

• Contact and company data, including phone-verified Diamond Data® contacts.
• Target market analytics.
• Integrations with leading CRMs and engagement tools.
• No hidden platform fees: You only pay for licenses and add-ons.
• Onboarding and training: We ensure a smooth and successful start.
• Exceptional customer support: Get fast answers via live chat (20-second average response time) from our highly-rated support team (99% satisfaction score).

2. Gong

Gong.io is one of the best tools for SDR success and one of the most popular SDR training tools.

It’s designed to help sales teams improve their performance and close more deals.

The platform uses artificial intelligence and conversation analytics to provide stats and insights on every cold call. 

Key features:

• Use AI to analyse sales conversations to identify best practices and improve their sales performance.
• Coach and train SDRs based on real-world sales conversations and let them analyse their performance.
• Access to sales playbooks on the best ways to handle common sales objections.
• Identify trends in sales performance based on metrics such as win rate, deal size, and time to close. 
• Get a complete view of sales reps’ performance thanks to integrations with other SDR tools like Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, and Pipedrive.

Pricing:

Gong.io does not publicly disclose its pricing. How much you pay depends on several factors, including the size of your sales team, the features you require, and the length of your contract. 

3. Salesforce

Salesforce is a CRM platform with a suite of tools designed to support the sales process.

It’s a powerful tool in any SDR’s tech stack, enabling your team to manage and track their sales pipeline, maintain accurate records of customer interactions, and analyse sales performance data.

Better yet, it integrates with a range of lead generation and nurturing tools, such as marketing automation platforms, to help SDRs generate more leads and drive more sales.

Key features: 

• Centralise and organise how SDRs manage leads and opportunities, track their progress and update their status.
• Store and manage customer and prospect information, including contact details, account information, and historical interactions, in one place.
• Create and customise your dashboards and reports to track key metrics and performance indicators.
• Score and prioritise leads based on specific criteria, such as lead source, company size, or industry, to help focus your efforts on hot leads.
• Track email and call interactions with prospects to improve your messaging.

Pricing:

Salesforce’s cost can range from a few hundred dollars per user per month for the Essentials edition to several thousand dollars per user per month for the Enterprise and Unlimited editions. You should inquire personally to get a quote for your team.

4. Chili Piper

Chilli Piper is one of the most popular sales acceleration tools. It routes leads to the right sales rep using existing forms on your website and books qualified meetings for your sales teams.

Our SDRs use this tool to access every Account Executive calendar, making booking a demo immediately on the call quick and easy. 

Key features:

• A 360-degree overview of all your prospects, customer interactions, and deal health is essential for coaching, identifying risks, and tracking pipelines.
•  Automatically qualify, and route leads to the right sales rep.
• SDRs receive leads based on geographic location or organisation size so that leads are distributed equally.
• Clients can schedule calls with reps by choosing the best available slot with just a click..
• Integrate Chilipiper with your CRM.

Pricing:

Paid plans start at $30 per user per month.

5. Outreach

Outreach is a sales development platform that lets you create and automate workflows across different channels, from email to voice messages. 

It’s a good SDR tool for engaging prospects more effectively, allowing you to close more deals and drive more revenue.

SDRs get AI-driven recommendations on customer interactions, such as tone of voice, message length, or the process’s next steps.

Key features:

• Get a 360-degree overview of all your prospects, customer interactions, and deal health for coaching, identifying risks, and tracking pipelines.
• Create more engaging messages to increase the reply rate. 
• Test various sequences against each other and identify the most effective headlines, message structure, or sequence of interactions. As a result, SDRs hit goals faster.
• Visualise your pipeline in real-time to assess its health and check whether you are on track to achieve your sales development goals.

Pricing:

Visit Outreach’s website to request a quote and receive a personalised offer.

6. Outlook

Microsoft Outlook integrates with multiple other SDR tools, making it an essential addition to the SDR’s tech stack.

When adopted consistently, it can become a centralised platform for managing customer communication and scheduling.

Outlook features can streamline sales workflows and pipeline management, increasing teams’ productivity.

Key features:

• Organise, manage, and track emails with features like flagged messages, folders, and search tools.
• You can store and manage all of your contacts in one centralised location, categorise them, add notes, and track communication history.
• You can access a calendar system to schedule appointments, meetings, and follow-up tasks. The system also provides reminders and notifications to help you stay on track.
• Create, prioritise, and track tasks, with the ability to set due dates and receive reminders.

Pricing:

Office 365 is a subscription-based service. Visit Microsoft’s website to view up-to-date pricing details.

7. LinkedIn Sales Navigator

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is an essential SDR prospecting tool.

It’s used for LinkedIn prospecting and making prospect lists. Its premium filtering options allow you to find and prioritise hot leads quickly.

Our SDRs enrich Sales Nav lists with Cognism contact data to start conversations faster.

Key features:

• Tailored list of lead recommendations based on specific criteria, such as industry, job title, location, and more.
• Search for prospects based on specific criteria, such as company size, location, etc.
• Send direct messages to prospects, even if you are not connected.
• Access recent changes to a prospect’s job title or company to help you stay up-to-date on your leads.

Pricing:

LinkedIn offers three pricing plans - Core, Advanced, and Advanced Plus. Visit its website to view precise pricing details or request a demo.

Did you know Cognism works in tandem with Sales Navigator? Here’s how it helped Monnhub save their reps invaluable time 👇

8. Spiff

Spiff is a sales motivation platform and one of the top tools needed to become a successful SDR.

It gamifies sales activities to improve reps’ performance. There’s even a mobile app for sales rep engagement. Thanks to CRM integration, it also helps SDRs track commission. 

Key features:

• Get insight into your commission statements without calculating your commission manually.
• Customise your reports and see how you and your colleagues perform in sales and who gets the most commission.
• Predict the future commission based on the previous history of an SDR’s successes in sales.
• Manage the sales content, such as contracts, signatures, and storage.

Pricing:

Spiff.com’s pricing is not publicly available on its website. You must submit a form to get a personalised quote.

9. Seismic

Seismic is a sales enablement platform that lets SDRs manage content, analytics, personalisation, and enhance their sales enablement strategies.

This sales development software improves efficiency by allowing users to easily find, customise, and share the right content with prospects and customers. 

Key features:

• Access a centralised repository for sales content such as presentations, case studies, proposals, and more.
• Personalise content for each customer, increasing relevance and engagement.
• Use real-time insights into content usage, customer engagement, and SDR performance.
• Access guided selling, sales playbooks, and interactive content.
• Integrate it with nearly a hundred other sales and marketing tools for a seamless experience.
• Manage user access, permissions, and content sharing.

Pricing:

Seismic doesn’t publicly disclose pricing plans on its website. 

10. SalesScreen

SalesScreen is a sales performance management tool for SDRs. It visualises data to motivate reps to achieve their goals and boosts their performance through competitions, celebrations, and rewards.

Cognism SDRs say it motivates them when they compete with each other and a sales celebration soundtrack plays. You can also see when anyone globally books a meeting or signs a deal. 

Key features:

• Track sales performance in real-time, allowing sales teams to monitor their progress against targets and quickly identify areas for improvement.
• Motivate and engage sales teams with various interactive games and challenges designed to encourage friendly competition and drive performance.
• Customise dashboards to view and analyse key performance metrics, including pipeline progress, win rates, and deal values.
• Centralise your workspace so that sales teams can collaborate, share information, and work on deals together.
• View automated reports with detailed insight into sales performance and activity, including pipeline reports, activity reports, and sales performance reports.
• Integrate it with various sales development software, such as Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, and Pipedrive.

Pricing:

SalesScreen doesn’t disclose pricing on its website. 

11. Scratchpad

Scratchpad is a great AI SDR tool for improving collaboration across your sales team. Reps can use it to stay organised and reduce sales stress.

It helps prevent poor handoffs by ensuring reps do basic housekeeping, maintain their sales notes, and document everything they need for account management.  

Key features:

• Use AI coaching to streamline quality updates and enhance sales fundamentals.
• Combine familiar tools like notes, sheets, docs, Salesforce, tasks, calendars, notifications, and search to easily manage your pipeline.
• Organising opportunities into columns according to their forecast category or stage allows for easy summarisation of dollar amounts and customisation of views at the field level.
• A central area for monitoring and managing the tasks required to progress your deals through the pipeline.
• Display's warnings and gaps in your open pipeline, allowing you to take action and make updates before your manager or operations team reminds you.

Pricing:

Scratchpad offers three plans: Free, Standard, and Business. Paid plans start at $19, depending on whether you choose to be billed annually or monthly. 

How to choose an SDR tool?

Choosing the best SDR tools for your business can be a complex decision, as there are many factors to consider and a wide range of tools to choose from.

Here are some key factors you should consider when choosing:

1. Integrations

Consider the tools SDRs already use and ensure that they integrate seamlessly with your new software.

2. Lead management

Look for sales development software with robust lead management features, such as lead scoring, lead nurturing, and lead distribution.

3. Email and outreach

Consider the tool’s email and outreach capabilities, such as personalisation features, templates, and data quality of email providers.

4. Data management

Ensure that your B2B contact data is up-to-date and accurate. The best SDR prospecting tools provide lead enrichment, lead verification, and intent data.

5. User-friendliness

Choose a sales development tool that offers flexible workflows and is easy to adopt. 

6. Pricing

If a platform you’re considering doesn’t disclose pricing plans, get a quote that matches your specific needs.

💡 See how much ROI you can achieve with Cognism with our free ROI calculator.

What is the best SDR tool? 

Cognism is a leading SDR tool. Choose it if you want:

• More mobile numbers that go through to the right contacts. 
• More confidence when prospecting. 
• More targeted leads.
• And more incoming revenue.

Click 👇 to book your demo today!