5 sales acceleration tools to close faster [+Strategies]

Time kills deals.

62% of B2B sellers say indecisive buyers are a major threat to closing deals. And the longer the process takes, the higher the risk becomes. 

Sales acceleration is about keeping deals moving. And there are two essential pillars: the right tech and a solid strategy.

Why Sales Teams Need Acceleration Solutions Today

44% of millennials (now key decision-makers) prefer to avoid sales reps altogether in B2B purchases. They’re skeptical of sales claims and place less value on interactions with sellers. 

Not exactly great news for sales-led teams, huh?

Add longer sales cycles and a saturated market to the mix, and closing deals gets even harder.

Buyers aren’t anti-sales. They just want a smoother customer experience. They want to do their own research first, and when they finally talk to a rep, they expect it to be relevant and efficient—no needless communication or missed deadlines.

From a business standpoint, manual processes get in the way of this tailored experience. Juggling dozens of prospects, tailoring outreach to each one, and keeping everything moving without dropping the ball is nearly impossible without the right tech stack.

Types of Sales Acceleration Solutions

If you’re still handling a large chunk of sales tasks manually, it’s time to build a smarter automation stack.

That said, having tools in place isn’t always enough. Maybe you’ve got something already but aren’t really using it because it’s clunky, limited, or just doesn’t fit your workflow. Don't worry, that’s totally normal.

Here is a breakdown of the types of sales acceleration apps worth having in your sales toolkit, plus the features to look for if you’re evaluating new ones.

Email Automation and Outreach Tools

Sure, we all know you don’t need to send every follow-up email by hand (again, hopefully). But not every tool actually speeds up deals. Most just slap a first name into a template and call it a day.

What you need is outreach software that’s smart about timing, context, and personalization at scale. Tools that help you stay consistent and relevant so that no lead slips through the cracks and your emails actually land when it matters.

Look for the following features in email automation tools:

• Automated email sequences based on lead behavior

• Conditional logic to customize messaging flows

• Built-in A/B and multivariate testing to improve deliverability and engagement

• Email tracking with automated alerts

• Social media/email task automation in one flow

• Easy integration with your customer relationship management (CRM) system or contact database

It then uses that data to create automated messages that feel personal. No more “Dear Sir/Madam” vibes. Just the right message, at the right time.

CRM and Pipeline Management Software

Your CRM is the hub of your sales workflow—or it should be.

If it’s a pain to use (which is often the case), even the most feature-packed tool is probably doing more harm than good. The best CRMs are intuitive, centralized, and actually make selling feel smoother.

Here’s what to look for in a CRM that’s built to accelerate sales:

• Real-time sales pipeline visibility with clear deal stages and activity logs

• Integrated communication tracking (email, calls, meetings) in one timeline

• Task and follow-up reminders to keep reps on track without manual juggling

• Customizable pipelines and workflows that match your sales process

• Seamless integrations with your outreach, marketing, and scheduling tools

• Mobile access so your team can stay updated on the go

Sales Engagement Platforms

Sales engagement functionality often comes bundled with your CRM or email outreach tool, so you might not need a standalone platform.

These tools focus on making sales interactions more effective by tracking key buying signals (like on-site behavior or email engagement) and acting on them. 

They also often include playbooks and AI-powered recommendations, helping salespeople take the right actions at the right time based on the data.

Look for the following must-have features in sales engagement platforms:

• Behavior tracking that monitors buyer actions, like email opens, clicks, website visits, and social media interactions

• AI sales insights and data-backed recommendations

• Playbooks that guide sales representatives through proven strategies

• Task automation tools for routine activities like follow-ups and reminders

• Analytics and reporting features that give you insight into engagement metrics, pipeline health, and conversion rates

Artisan, for example, has all of these sales engagement features. AI BDR Ava automates the early and middle stages of the outbound sales cycle, from prospecting to email follow-up. 

Lead Scoring and Prioritization Tools

Lead scoring and prioritization tools help you focus on the most promising leads based on their likelihood to convert. Again, these tools are usually part of a broader sales solution or CRM system, but it’s best to know what you’re looking for either way.

Pay attention to the following features in lead scoring tools: 

• Customizable lead scoring that ranks potential customers based on your criteria, such as engagement, company size, and job title

• Behavior tracking to adjust lead scores based on actions like website visits, email opens, or product interactions

• Automated lead qualification and prioritization that pinpoints leads that are most likely to close

• Integrations with CRM and outreach tools 

The Best Sales Acceleration Tools to Keep You Ahead

So, which tools actually do all this? Let’s look at five of the best tools currently on offer. 

1. Artisan

Artisan is a full-cycle sales automation platform that puts AI assistants to work as your team’s SDRs and BDRs. Instead of juggling tools for research, enrichment, and outreach, Artisan handles it all—so your reps can skip the grunt work and focus on closing faster.

These AI-powered assistants take over your entire outbound workflow, from finding and enriching leads to sending personalized messages across channels. By the time an account manager steps in, the lead’s already warm and ready.

Key Features

• Lead discovery and profile enrichment

• Behavior tracking and high-intent account identification

• AI-driven outreach personalization based on the most relevant lead details

• Automated multichannel sequences (email and social media)

• AI-generated insights and sales playbooks

• Background A/B testing and campaign optimization

• Integration with major CRM systems (including Salesforce and HubSpot)

Pricing 

Get in touch for a custom pricing plan.

Automate your outbound with an AI BDR

Meet Ava—your AI BDR who handles prospecting, outreach, and follow-ups, so your team can focus on closing.

Book a demo

2. HubSpot

HubSpot is the Swiss Army knife of CRM tools. It works just as well for small teams looking for a free, easy-to-use CRM as it does for large enterprises that need a fully integrated system across sales, marketing, and customer service.

Most importantly, it’s easy to get up and running with HubSpot CRM. Between the clean interface, tons of built-in integrations, and a massive library of help resources, HubSpot makes adoption feel smooth, which is exactly what you want in a CRM.

Key Features

• Email sequences and automated follow-ups

• Deal pipeline and activity tracking

• Meeting scheduling and task automation

• Lead scoring and contact enrichment

• Reporting dashboards

Pricing

• Free foundation CRM tools are available

• Starter: $20/month/seat

• Sales Hub Professional: $100/month/seat

• Sales Hub Enterprise: $150/month/seat

3. Salesforce

Salesforce is just as powerful and widely used as HubSpot, but it’s better suited to large companies with complex workflows.

It can do nearly everything, but it comes with a learning curve. It’s ideal for teams with dedicated RevOps support or more structured sales processes. Customization is the big draw here, though you’ll likely need help setting things up.

Key Features

• Customizable CRM and pipeline management

• Advanced automation with Flow Builder

• AI-powered insights through Einstein (add-on)

• Sales engagement and task automation

• Detailed reporting and forecasting tools

• Access to a wide ecosystem of native tools and add-ons

Pricing

• Salesforce Sales Cloud (core CRM suite) packages for small businesses start at $25/user/month

• Sales Cloud solutions for enterprises start at $165/user/month

4. ZoomInfo

ZoomInfo is best known for its large contact database, but it also has sales engagement and workflow automation features.

The system is built around one of the largest collections of company and contact data out there, and it lets you put together entire workflows on top of that intel.

It’s a very powerful sales intelligence platform, but with that comes a steep learning curve and a high price tag to match.

Key Features

• Access to over 600 million professional profiles and 100 million company records

• Real-time lead intent tracking

• WebSights feature to uncover anonymous website traffic

• Chrome extension for on-the-fly contact capture from LinkedIn and company websites

• CRM and sales tool integrations for easy data syncing

• Built-in phone dialer and email tools for multi-touch outreach

• Automated workflows for lead enrichment, routing, and outreach

• Rep conversation analysis with Conversation Intelligence

Pricing

Customized pricing plans are provided upon request.

5. Apollo

Apollo blends a rich contact database with built-in sales engagement features. But unlike ZoomInfo, it’s popular with startups and small teams thanks to more affordable paid tiers.

Apollo is one of the most popular outreach tools on the market. But it has drawn criticism, with users citing low quality data as a big concern. 

Key Features

• B2B database with verified emails and phone numbers

• Email sequencing, LinkedIn task automation, and dialing from one platform

• Buyer intent signals and lead scoring 

• CRM integration and enrichment 

• Email and call analytics 

Pricing

• A long-term free plan is available

• Basic: $59/user/month, up to 5,000 credits per user

• Professional: $99/user/month, up to 10,000 credits per user

• Organization: $149/user/month, up to 15,000 credits per user

Designing a Sales Acceleration Strategy That Actually Works

You won’t rebuild your process and boost your pipeline overnight, but you can start taking steps toward implementing sales acceleration right now.

1. Start with Micro-Wins to Build Momentum

Don’t over-engineer your sales acceleration strategy. Begin by streamlining the small stuff, especially the manual tasks slowing your team down and the outdated email sequences that never get replies.

2. Align Sales and Marketing Teams

True sales acceleration happens when marketing and sales work as one team. In fact, sales reps convert up to 65% more prospects into pipeline when marketing actively contributes, compared to going in cold.

But misalignment between the two is still one of the biggest blockers to growth, especially when it comes to lead quality.

What marketers consider marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) often aren’t anywhere near ready to talk to sales. Reps end up chasing leads that were never a good fit to begin with.

Fixing this starts with agreeing on what MQLs and sales-qualified leads (SQLs) actually look like. Define shared criteria like job title, company size, buying signals (e.g., demo requests, pricing page visits), and overall fit. Then, build lead scoring workflows that reflect this vision.

You can also set shared KPIs to encourage tighter collaboration. When marketing focuses on quality leads and sales gives regular feedback, you get better leads, faster handoffs, and more closed deals.

Automate your outbound with an AI BDR

Meet Ava—your AI BDR who handles prospecting, outreach, and follow-ups, so your team can focus on closing.

Book a demo

3. Map the Buyer Journey, Not Just Your Pipeline

It’s easy to build your sales process around internal stages—demo booked, contract sent, deal closed. But your buyer really doesn’t care about your sales funnel. 

To drive sales velocity, you need to map the journey from their point of view: 

• What triggers their search?

• What information are they looking for at each stage? 

• What objections do they have before committing?

Once you understand how buyers move through their decision-making process, you can match your content, messaging, and outreach accordingly—and remove friction before it slows things down.

4. Turn Feedback Loops into Strategic Advantage

Your sales team talks to prospects every day. They hear real objections, missing features, and reasons deals stall. But these insights hardly ever get back to marketing, product, and leadership.

Set up tight feedback loops. Make it easy for reps to share what they’re hearing, and just as easy for other teams to act on it.

Here are three “low-lift” ways to capture sales insights:

• Create a shared doc or Slack channel where reps can drop common objections or questions they’re hearing in real time.

• Add a quick “deal lost” note field in your CRM to log reasons deals haven’t worked out.

• Run monthly syncs between sales, marketing, and product to review patterns and prioritize responses.

Here’s how to “close the loop” between sales and other departments:

• Marketing can use input from sales to improve messaging and build better nurture campaigns.

• Product can spot gaps in the roadmap and prioritize UX fixes that remove buying friction.

• Sales leaders can realign strategy based on actual buyer behavior during the marketing and product stages.

It can take time to bring sales on board. Reps are busy. But a little perseverance will pay dividends in the long run. 

Follow-Ups That Build Relationships, Not Frustration

Sales acceleration shouldn’t feel like rushing someone through a decision. The goal is to make the buying process feel easy and like the next step is obvious.

To do that, reps need to focus on real conversations with warm leads instead of getting buried in cold outreach.

Artisan takes the manual work off your plate and improves your sales cycle with personalized messages, well-timed follow-up, and ongoing campaign optimization.

Automate your outbound with an AI BDR

Meet Ava—your AI BDR who handles prospecting, outreach, and follow-ups, so your team can focus on closing.

Book a demo