Effective sales engineers know how to mix and match the art of sales and the science of engineering by heart. To be productive and effective at what they do, they must be equipped with the right sales engineer tools. Whether for technical presentations, product demos, or solution designs, having the right tools aids them in building client relationships and winning sales.
If you’re a current or aspiring sales engineer, this guide is for you. We’ve come up with a list of the top sales engineer tools with an overview of their uses, costs, and availability. These tools will set you up for success by helping you attract potential customers, gather customer requirements, streamline workflows, and boost your product sales.
The 10 Best Sales Engineer Tools
- Airtable
- Apollo.io
- Calendly
- Dashlane
- Dialpad Meetings (formerly UberConference)
- Hootsuite
- Microsoft Teams
- Salesforce
- Zapier
- Zoom
What Are Sales Engineer Tools?
Sales engineer tools enable professionals in sales engineering to get their work done more efficiently and effectively. Combining both sales and engineering work isn’t easy. This is why sales engineers rely on tools that automate menial tasks, manage customer relationships, generate leads, and do more.
What Are the Main Types of Sales Engineer Tools?
Sales engineers used to have simple tools, such as emails, spreadsheets, and presentations. Thanks to digital transformation, more tools are now available to help sales engineers with their tasks. Let’s take a closer look at the main types of sales engineer tools below.
Automation
Automation tools create a job alert and coordinate activities to different teams, which makes them particularly useful in saving the time of sales engineers. As their functional name suggests, these tools automate simple tasks. So, they take care of repetitive work to help sales engineers focus on high-value jobs, making their workflow more efficient.
Examples of Automation Tools
- Calendly
- Dashlane
- Hootsuite
- Zapier
Customer Relationship Management
Customer relationship management (CRM) is the tool for managing a company’s relationship to its different customer segments. It captures the customer lifecycle and gives a view of your company’s relationship status is with the customer at every point of the journey. Some CRMs use artificial intelligence to help sales engineers tailor-fit solutions to client needs.
Example of Customer Relationship Management Tools
- Salesforce
Lead Generation
Lead generation tools help businesses gather prospects for their brand and add them to their sales pipeline. After identifying leads, they also help devise a brand outreach strategy. They ensure to maximize engagement, improve credibility, and improve conversion rates.
Examples of Lead Generation Tools
- Apollo.io
Collaboration
Collaboration platforms let teams communicate, work together, and manage workflows. They’re efficient for gathering groups for meetings and streamlining work online because you can use them, even remotely. Using these platforms, you can produce presentations, sales pitches, and announcements faster.
Examples of Collaboration Tools
- Airtable
- Microsoft Teams
Video Conferencing
Video conferencing apps allow real-time and remote face-to-face meetings, which is really useful for client presentations and building relationships. With video conferencing software, you can meet different clients from anywhere in the globe, as long as you have a stable Internet connection.
Examples of Video Conferencing Tools
- Dialpad Meetings
- Zoom
Sales Engineering Cheat Sheet: A Tabular List of Sales Engineer Tools
Tool | Uses | Companies That Use It | Cost | Availability |
---|---|---|---|---|
Airtable | Collaboration | Free, Plus: $10 per seat/month, Pro: $20 per seat/month, Enterprise: Customized pricing |
Commercial | |
Apollo.io | Lead generation | Accenture, Amazon, GoDaddy, Semrush | Free, Basic: $49 per user/month, Professional: $99/month, Customized pricing quote available upon request |
Commercial |
Calendly | Meeting schedule automation | Allied Universal, Asurea | Basic: Free, Essentials: $8 per seat/month, Professional: $12 per seat/month, Teams: $16 per seat/month, Enterprise: Customized pricing |
Commercial |
Dashlane | Password management automation | accuRX, Cherre | Team: $5 per user/month, Business: $8 per user/month |
Commercial |
Dialpad Meetings | Video conferencing | Asana, HubSpot, TED | Standard: $15 per user/month, Pro: $25 per user/month, Enterprise: Customized pricing |
Commercial |
Hootsuite | Social media and marketing automation | Lewis Inc., Marketo, Zendesk, Inc. | Professional: $49 per user/month, Team: $129 for three users/month, Business: $739 for five users/month, Enterprise: Customized pricing |
Commercial |
Microsoft Teams | Collaboration | The American Red Cross, TerraCycle Inc. | Free, Essentials: $2 per user/month, Business Basic: $2.50 per user/month, Business Standard: $10 per user/month |
Open source, Commercial |
Salesforce | Customer relationship management | Amazon Web Services, Spotify, US Bank | Essentials: $25 per user/month, Professional: $75 per user/month, Enterprise: $150 per user/month, Unlimited: $300 per user/month |
Commercial |
Zapier | Workflow automation | Lorven Technologies, Zendesk Inc. | Free, Starter: $19.99/month, Professional: $49/month, Team: $299/month, Company: $599/month |
Open source, Commercial |
Zoom | Video conferencing | Autodesk, Nasdaq, Palo Alto Networks | Basic: Free, Pro: $14.99 per license/month, Business: $19.99 per license/month, Enterprise: $19.99 per license/month |
Commercial |
The Best Sales Engineer Tools, Explained
Sales engineers handle complex technical products and services, which they need to simplify and appear well-designed before clients. Hence, they need a range of tools to support them in the process. Below are the 10 best tools that can help them become successful sales engineers.
Airtable
- Type: Collaboration
- Companies That Use Airtable: Expedia, Medium, Netflix
- Airtable Cost and Availability: Free account, Plus: $10 per seat/month, Pro: $20 per seat/month, Enterprise: Customized pricing, Commercial
Airtable is a cloud collaboration service that enables teams to create, manage, and share databases. Airtable is user-friendly with its spreadsheet-like interface. It also has options for different viewing angles so that users can choose their most comfortable view. This platform can also integrate with hundreds of apps and services to improve workflows.
Apollo.io
- Type: Lead generation
- Companies That Use Apollo.io: Accenture, Amazon, GoDaddy, Semrush
- Apollo.io Cost and Availability: Free, Basic: $49 per user/month, Professional: $99/month, Customized pricing quote available upon request, Commercial
Apollo.io is a data engagement platform best used for lead generation. It helps a sales team find leads, enhance customer communications, and improve lead scoring. Its task management feature allows for research and case studies. The tool aims to improve brand credibility while also improving conversion rates.
Calendly
- Type: Meeting schedule automation
- Companies That Use Calendly: Allied Universal, Asurea
- Calendly Cost and Availability: Basic: Free, Essentials: $8 per seat/month, Professional: $12 per seat/month, Teams: $16 per seat/month, Enterprise: Customized pricing, Commercial
Calendly integrates with all calendar formats to schedule meetings and automate reminders. It replaces countless emails reminding you of an upcoming meeting with someone. It is a helpful tool for sales engineers to help organize and schedule all their meetings.
Dashlane
- Type: Password management automation
- Companies That Use Dashlane: accuRX, Cherre
- Dashlane Cost and Availability: Team: $5 per user/month, Business: $8 per user/month, Commercial
Dashlane is a password manager that lets users save their passwords from different sites and accounts. With this tool, sales engineers can save time from automatic form-filling and managing multiple accounts and subscriptions. Dashlane also secures data with its multi-factor authentication, security breach alert, and virtual private network.
Dialpad Meetings
- Type: Video conferencing
- Companies That Use Dialpad Meetings: Asana, HubSpot, TED
- Dialpad Meetings Cost and Availability: Standard: $15 per user/month, Pro: $25 per user/month, Enterprise: Customized pricing, Commercial
Previously known as UberConference, Dialpad Meetings is a cloud-based video conferencing tool for holding virtual meetings. Its features include screen sharing, file sharing, and integrating other Google apps. It offers both free and paid plans that support up to 100 callers.
Hootsuite
- Type: Social media and marketing automation
- Companies That Use Hootsuite: Lewis Inc., Marketo, Zendesk, Inc.
- Hootsuite Cost and Availability: Professional: $49 per user/month, Team: $129 for three users/month, Business: $739 for five users/month, Enterprise: Customized pricing, Commercial
Hootsuite helps with automatically scheduling posts on different social media networks. It has a simple and user-friendly calendar view for easier management of social posts. Hootsuite also allows team collaboration, so you can respond to comments faster, ask someone for fact-checking, and resolve other concerns before publishing.
Microsoft Teams
- Type: Collaboration
- Companies That Use Microsoft Teams: The American Red Cross, TerraCycle Inc.
- Microsoft Teams Cost and Availability: Free, Essentials: $2 per user/month, Business Basic: $2.50 per user/month, Business Standard: $10 per user/month, Open-source and Commercial
Microsoft Teams is a business communication platform that offers workspace chat, video conferencing, storage solutions, and app integration. It allows efficient remote work, so a lot of business teams and teachers worldwide use it. Recently, it added new features such as whiteboard, live transcript, breakout room, and presenter mode in PowerPoint Live.
Salesforce
- Type: Customer relationship management
- Companies That Use Salesforce: Amazon Web Services, Spotify, US Bank
- Salesforce Cost and Availability: Essentials: $25 per user/month, Professional: $75 per user/month, Enterprise: $150 per user/month, Unlimited: $300 per user/month, Commercial
Salesforce is a CRM tool that helps businesses manage relationships with their target market. This tool gives sales and marketing teams an overview of the customer purchase journey. It specifically guides sales engineers by providing insights into where prospective customers are in the sales funnel and recommending follow-throughs and next steps.
Zapier
- Type: Workflow automation
- Companies That Use Zapier: Lorven Technologies, Zendesk Inc.
- Zapier Cost and Availability: Free, Starter: $19.99/month, Professional: $49/month, Team: $299/month, Company: $599/month, Open-source and Commercial
Zapier allows its users to integrate applications and centralize their workflow for efficiency. It automates tasks like filtering emails, sending out automatic responses, and converting data into different formats. Zapier supports more than 3,000 apps to automate business end-to-end.
Zoom
- Type: Video conferencing
- Companies That Use Zoom: Autodesk, Nasdaq, Palo Alto Networks
- Zoom Cost and Availability: Basic: Free, Pro: $14.99 per license/month, Business: $19.99 per license/month, Enterprise: $19.99 per license/month, Commercial
With Zoom, you can work with your teams in a virtual environment. You can conduct webinars, live chat, record meetings, and do audio and video conferences. It allows up to 100 participants in one meeting, but you can pay for an add-on if you want to accommodate more.
Why Sales Engineer Tools Are Important
Sales engineers patiently bridge gaps between stakeholders, simplify complex technologies, and recommend products based on client needs. This type of scope only proves that a sales engineer’s job is highly stressful. However, with tools helping them to play their integral role in their company, it becomes easier for them to reach their sales goals.
If you’re looking into a sales engineering career, the employment projections are very promising. The wage estimates of sales engineers are above-average. It has a steady and healthy 50 percent employment growth projection between 2020 and 2030. The median wage for a sales rep with a degree in engineering is $108,830 annually, depending on their technical knowledge, sales skills, and level of experience.
Sales Engineer Tools FAQ
A sales engineer combines sales techniques and engineering skills to provide the right products and solutions to prospective customers. They innovate products, study product configurations, create compelling sales presentations.
Generally, a good sales engineer needs a strong educational and technical background in engineering or a related field in computer tech, science, math, or business. They must have technical experience, periodically study the market, be abreast of the latest technological innovations, and makes data-driven decisions. Since this role interacts a lot with potential customers, a good sales engineer must have great customer service and communication skills.
Automation, collaboration, CRM, lead generation and video conferencing apps, and software are important tools for sales engineers. These tools enable them to find the right clients, maintain professionalism, and be on top of their game. Sales engineers use these tools to achieve their ultimate goals: close a deal and reach their sales targets.
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Yes, a technical sales engineer may do some low-level coding if the job requires it, but this is seldom. They also do mathematical calculations and programming as needed. As with many other professions, learning to code can make a sales engineer stand out in the job market. If you are interested in acquiring this in-demand skill, Enki and CodeHub are some of the best coding apps for beginners out there.
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