The Top Tools & Software for B2B Consultants
The tools and software we choose to run our business on can either make managing our day-to-day a major headache or a walk in the park. With the plethora of options out there, It can be overwhelming to decide which might be best for your needs.
To filter down your options, it’s best to break down your software needs into business functions. If you’re running a consulting business, you can keep these functional areas pretty simple: Sales, Service Delivery, and Cash Management. Each of these areas can be broken down further, but keeping your major needs down to these three core areas will help you from oversubscribing to software that you don’t fully utilize. Finding a tool that is cross-functional allows you to get more bang for your buck.
Sales
When referring to Sales as a functional area, this will incorporate everything it takes to find your clients and close a sale, so we’re including inbound and outbound marketing in this category.
Ultimately, this means you need a CRM, a client relationship management system. There’s a lot to choose from and many email marketing systems will label themselves as a CRM. Personally, I define a good CRM as one that allows you to easily see where a prospect is in your pipeline, where you can quickly find contact information if you need to call or email your prospects, and where you can easily categorize your prospect based on a specific deal or service type.
To blend these needs with potential email marketing needs, you could consider:
Hubspot - overall, Hubspot is not actually my favorite tool to recommend. But I am all about keeping your expenses lean and Hubspot’s free account is pretty robust. While I wouldn’t use it for proposals and invoices, it is a great tool to track contacts, tag them to accounts/companies, and track deals through a pipeline.
Keap - Keap is an all in one tool that doesn’t come up short in many areas. You can set up your Keap account for emails, scheduling, proposals, invoices and more.
Beyond your CRM, I’d recommend a few cherry-on-top tools to up your marketing game:
LinkedIn Sales Navigator - I was resistant to upgrading my LinkedIn account for a long time. Once I did give in and try out Sales Navigator, I discovered a whole new way to identify and categorize prospects and even got more inbound leads.
Canva - From creating sales presentations to social media, Canva is a great and versatile tool to help you maintain a sophisticated brand appearance.
Loomly - Loomly makes it easy to schedule social media posts to multiple channels so you can stay on top of consistently sharing content while spending more time connecting and nurturing your prospects.
2. Service Delivery
Your software needs for service delivery could be very unique to your specific offerings and industry. While working with my clients on various projects, I’ve found that service delivery really comes down to two things: tracking proposals and contracts (as the bridge between sales and service) and project or task management.
For proposals and contracts, you want a system that is going to make it as easy as possible for your potential clients to accept and sign. You’ll also want to consider what will be easiest for you to set up and send. So systems that allow templates and automated confirmations are ideal here.
Dubsado - For proposals and contracts, Dubsado is my favorite choice because it’s cost-effective, easy to use, and provides a client portal for clients to find all their documents. You can create a proposal from a template and attach a contract and invoice so your client can get everything done with one link. It also integrates with Stripe and Quickbooks.
PandaDoc - if you’re not sold on a client portal and want your invoices to come from a separate system, PandaDoc is great alternative to get your proposals and contracts signed.
Next for service delivery, you have to consider how you will track the various deliverables for your client projects. Dubsado does offer some task management and time tracking features, but they are a bit underwhelming. I recommend a separate project management system, ideally where you can automate some tasks. Using a system like this will allow you to not only stay on top of client tasks, but also map out internal needs for your business.
Monday.com - Monday.com is my first and favorite recommendation for project management. I use it with my team to track client tasks, build out quarterly goals and action items, and share SOP’s. It also integrates with a variety of other softwares allowing you to automate your business processes.
Interested in some help setting up a monday.com account? Book a call with us.
ClickUp - Of my clients that are not on Monday.com, most of them use ClickUp. ClickUp has a similar functionality with a more simplistic organization set up.
Asana - Asana is a commonly used project management tool but arguably one of my least favorite (besides Trello). Its selling point is in its free account option and its ease-of-use.
3. Cash Management
Cash is King and managing that cash better be a top priority in your kingdom. Unless finances and numbers are easy for you, then outsourcing some of your cash management, like basic bookkeeping, could save you from a lot of headaches. For cash management with a consulting or service-based business, you don’t need much. Aside from your banks, you simply need a tool that will receive money from clients and where you can then track those funds, categorize expenses, and reconcile transactions.
Freshbooks - Freshbooks makes accounting so easy for new business owners and I recommend it over quickbooks for simple businesses that don’t have a large team. Though, since it’s not a widely popular system, some bookkeepers or accountants may not be as familiar with Freshbooks as they are with Quickbooks.
Quickbooks - I recommend Quickbooks as your business grows and expenses get more complex. It is the holy grail of accounting systems and you’re more likely to find a bookkeeper or accountant with familiarity with QBO than with freshbooks.
Choosing the right business software can make all the difference in how efficient and profitable your company runs. Consider the business functions that your company needs and look into which suites of software can best help you perform those tasks efficiently. Keep an open mind while researching, as sometimes it’s the less expected solutions that turn out to be an ideal fit for your organization. Taking control of your software management will ensure long-term success for you and your business operations.