10 Best B2B Sales Software Shortlist
Here's my pick of the 10 best software from the 20 tools reviewed.
Our one-on-one guidance will help you find the perfect fit.
With so many different B2B sales software available, figuring out which is right for you is tough. You know you want to support and streamline your business-to-business sales process but need to figure out which tool is best. I've got you! In this post I'll help make your choice easy, sharing my personal experiences using dozens of different B2B sales tools with various teams and accounts, with my picks of the best B2B sales software.
What Is B2B Sales Software?
B2B sales software is a tool used by businesses to manage and streamline the process of selling products or services to other businesses. It includes functionalities for customer relationship management, lead tracking, sales pipeline management, account management, and analytics. The software caters to the specific requirements of B2B sales, which often involve complex sales cycles and high-value transactions.
The benefits of B2B sales software include improved efficiency and organization in the sales process. It enables better management of customer relationships, more effective tracking and nurturing of leads, and provides insights into sales performance. The software helps in automating repetitive tasks, allowing sales teams to focus more on strategic selling and building customer relationships. Additionally, it supports the creation of accurate and professional sales proposals and contracts, contributing to more successful business transactions.
Overviews Of The 10 Best B2B Sales Software
With this information in mind, it’s time to get into my tool summaries for more specifics on which lead generation or data capture tool is right for your use case. Find noteworthy features and a snapshot of each interface for a brief overview.
Dock is a B2B sales software that provides a comprehensive platform for managing sales, onboarding, and client interactions. It offers features such as digital sales rooms, onboarding portals, and client-facing workspaces, which help businesses organize and share content with customers in a branded environment.
Why I picked Dock: I like that Dock offers a centralized space for sales teams to manage client-facing content, while also providing tools and templates to standardize sales processes. Its digital sales room particularly stands out with features like mutual action plans to guide buyers through different stages of the process. Additionally, Dock's analytics-focused customer experience tracks interactions and progress, helping sales teams gather metrics and follow up with leads effectively.
Dock Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features include buying signals, dynamic action plans, a flexible workspace editor, custom branding, pricing and order forms, secure sharing, digital signature collection, and customizable templates.
Integrations include Airtable, Pandadoc, Typeform, HubSpot, Salesforce, Slack, Zoom, and more.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Analytics for customer engagement
- Mutual action plans
- Templates for standardizing processes
Cons:
- Learning curve for new users wanting to maximize the features
- HubSpot and Salesforce integration only available for higher tiers
Forecastio is an all-in-one platform designed to enhance sales operations through its AI-powered features, like sales planning automation, sales forecasting, and sales performance insights. It integrates with HubSpot to allow CRM data and sales insights to synchronize in real time.
Why I picked Forecastio: For B2B sales, Forecastio offers powerful AI-driven forecasting and comprehensive sales planning capabilities. The software analyzes historical sales data and external factors to provide highly accurate forecasts, enabling businesses to anticipate market trends and optimize inventory management. Additionally, its advanced sales planning tools allow companies to set realistic targets, develop actionable strategies, and track performance metrics in real time.
Forecastio Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features include planning templates, AI-based sales performance insights, sales planning automation, what-if scenarios, sales capacity management, sales pipeline monitoring, goal management, capacity management, and sales quota assessment.
Integrations include HubSpot for CRM and sales data synchronization.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Robust what-if scenario analysis
- Automated sales planning features with pre-built templates
- Real-time sales insights
Cons:
- Dashboards could be more customizable
- Limited integrations
HubSpot is a comprehensive customer platform that includes marketing, sales, customer service, operations, and content management features. It offers a range of software products with both free and premium plans, as well as powerful AI tools and an app marketplace for integrations.
Why I picked HubSpot I like that HubSpot offers advanced lead management capabilities, enabling sales teams to track and nurture leads effectively. The software's AI-powered sales automation tools help in prioritizing leads and automating routine tasks, ensuring that sales representatives can focus on high-value activities. Additionally, HubSpot's sales analytics and reporting features provide insights into sales performance.
HubSpot Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features include email tracking, pipeline management, customizable dashboards, meeting scheduling, document management, deal tracking, sales sequences, predictive lead scoring, call tracking, live chat, conversation intelligence, email templates, and workflow automation.
Integrations include Gmail, Outlook, Salesforce, Slack, Shopify, WordPress, Zapier, LinkedIn, Google Calendar, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Stripe, QuickBooks, Xero, Mailchimp, SurveyMonkey, PandaDoc, and Asana.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Many customization options
- Workflow automation capabilities
- Integrates marketing, sales, and customer service tools
Cons:
- Potential learning curve when getting started
- Free plan has limited features
Pipedrive CRM is a sales-focused tool designed to help your team manage deals and relationships more effectively. It organizes your pipeline so you can track every deal’s progress and take action at the right time. With Pipedrive, you’ll get a clear view of your sales process, allowing you to focus on the most important deals.
Why I picked Pipedrive CRM: Pipedrive is well-suited for B2B sales because of its deal-driven approach, giving you control over how you track and manage deals. With its custom sales pipeline, you can map out your unique sales process and drag and drop deals as they progress. The tool also has an activity calendar, so you can schedule meetings, follow-ups, and calls with ease. Additionally, its LeadBooster add-on helps you capture leads via live chatbots and forms.
Pipedrive CRM Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features include visual pipeline management, deal rotting alerts, smart contact data, email tracking, call tracking, sales reporting, insights, custom fields, a mobile app, a built-in scheduler, and smart docs.
Integrations include Surfe, Apollo.io, Microsoft Teams, Slack, Mailchimp, Google Meet, PandaDoc, DocuSign, QuickBooks, Stripe, Asana, Trello, OneClick, and CloudTalk.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Drag-and-drop pipelines
- Customizable sales stages
- Automation of repetitive tasks
Cons:
- Lacks marketing automation beyond emails
- Accessing advanced features may incur additional costs
Groove
Best for enterprises who use Salesforce or Salesforce Industry Clouds
This sales productivity platform is designed to enable sales leaders to boost the revenue-per-rep across the entire organization by automating admin tasks, making it easier to update and access Salesforce, and generating repeatable playbooks by leveraging AI to transform complicated data into actionable insights.
Why I picked Groove: I chose Groove for this list because it’s the only current Salesforce-native market leader. With Groove, you won’t have any data latency or sync issues, you get industry-leading security and compliance, and it works with even the most customized versions of Salesforce.
Groove Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features include campaign automation through email, SMS, and calls; visibility on sales calls for better coaching; real-time insights into sales activity; and dedicated implementation and onboarding specialists.
Integrations include CloudTalk, Constant Contact, ExecVision, Gmail, Gong, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Microsoft Outlook, Seismic, Spinify, and Vidyard.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Powerful execution roadmap
- Great customer support
- Friendly user-interface
Cons:
- Not enough tutorials for combining with Zoom Phone, etc.
- Limited mass texting capabilities
This lead generation software was built to help SMBs and large organizations manage their sales workflow through account-based marketing, targeted sales generation, real-time email verification, and opportunity engagement. You can build customizable B2B lists with criteria for lead qualification that eliminates bad-fit buyers and low quality leads.
Why I picked UpLead: The reason I chose UpLead was due to their comprehensive lead filtering tools. It’s not enough to find high-quality leads, they also need to be a good fit for your product or service. Using their filtering tool, you can target leads by technology, number of employees, revenue, and over 50 other search filters.
UpLead Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features include access to over 100 million contacts with 95% data accuracy, appending key contact data from disorganized lists, Chrome extension for grabbing leads straight from the browser, and an email checker tool that helps verify valid addresses.
Integrations include Close, Copper, Dynamics 365, Insightly, Mailshake, Nimble, Outreach, Pipedrive, Salesforce Sales Cloud, and Zapier.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- CSV file upload functionality for non-integrated CRMs
- Can generate lists quickly
- Low email bounce back
Cons:
- Limited lead coverage
- Pricing isn’t as flexible
Cognism
Best for unrestricted access to information, unfettered by credit limits or geography restrictions
As a global sales intelligence platform, Cognism focuses on providing you with international data coverage through a compliant database that has a 98% phone accuracy rate. This sales and marketing automation tool can help identify ideal-fit prospects and verify a decision-maker’s contact information.
Why I picked Cognism: I chose this prospecting and lead generation tool because of a couple of special features that provide essential notifications to help you prioritize buyers who are actually ready to buy. Cognism leverages buyer intent data and lets you know right away so you can intercept potential customers at the right point in their buying journey.
Cognism Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features include prospecting tools to build targeted contact lists, list cleansing and enrichment tools, a Chrome extension for individual prospecting, intent data to intercept customers at the right time, and 98% data accuracy through manual verification.
Integrations include HubSpot, Lemlist, LinkedIn, Microsoft Dynamics, Pipedrive, Sales Navigator, Salesforce, Salesloft, and Zapier.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Amazing customer support
- Expanding the software with more features
- Comprehensive resources and guides
Cons:
- Limited filtering capabilities
- Data inaccuracy for UK phone numbers
As a cloud-based email marketing software, Hunter is a little different from the prospecting sales software above. This contact management solution helps you send cold emails, export domain search results, handle follow-ups, and insert images into email campaigns. Hunter’s secondary role is as a lead capture solution, scraping websites, social media channels, and other online sources for customer data.
Why I picked Hunter: Hunter was a top option in my opinion because of its website and email monitoring tools. You can track open rates and generate reports to manage campaigns with unlimited recipients, combining lead generation and campaign management into one tool.
Hunter Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features include email finder to aggregate contact information on every website you browse, domain search to help find emails for any company name or website, email verifier to check address validity, and outreach campaign management with email templates, personalization, and tracking.
Integrations include Airtable, Close CRM, Copper, Gmail, HubSpot, Outlook, Pipedrive, Salesforce, Zapier, and Zoho.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Powerful email validation tool
- User-friendly interface
- Free option
Cons:
- Can’t find contact information if the site doesn’t have it
- Email verification isn’t 100% accurate
As a sales intelligence platform, Lusha focuses on helping you find the decision-makers at any organization by allowing you to build custom lists using intent filters, job change alerts, industry filters, revenue specifications, and recommended profiles based on past searches to find useful and accurate contact information and sync them into your CRM right away.
Why I picked Lusha: I chose to include Lusha on this list because they say they’re the only sales intelligence solution with an ISO 27701 certification. This certification guarantees that any information you scrape complies with the EU’s GDPR, California’s CCPA, and every other data privacy requirement.
Lusha Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features include prospecting tools based on your ideal customer, buyer intelligence tools based on intent data, information security and privacy with ISO certification, and free sales template script generator.
Integrations include Bullhorn, Gmail, HubSpot, Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce, Salesloft, Outlook, Outreach, Pipedrive, and Zoho. Lusha offers one-click integration in 60 seconds.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- LinkedIn focused prospecting
- Available Chrome extension
- Simple tool functionality
Cons:
- Limited customer support
- No bulk download options
This unique software is designed to be the best sales solution for online reservations, box office sales, reserved seat ticketing, park and campground reservations, donations, and online memberships. This software can extend the NCR Counterpoint business system to fulfill all ticketing, management, and reporting needs.
Why I picked Outbound: I chose this tool because of its unique use case, as it targets solutions for museums, zoos, art galleries, aquariums, and other ticketed venues. With branded, customizable solutions, you can ensure a seamless customer experience from ticketing through arrival and adventure.
Outbound Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features include custom online reservations that are mobile-friendly, ticketing for general admission, timed events, and unlimited pricing levels, reserved seat ticketing based on custom seat maps, and dynamic maps for park and campground reservations.
Integrations include Counterpoint POS, Counterpoint Customer List, NCR Counterpoint SQL, Raiser’s Edge, and all the best CRMs.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Browser-driven reporting tools
- Intuitive interface
- Easy to learn
Cons:
- Limited self-training tools
- Limited integrations
Tools | Price | |
---|---|---|
Dock | From $49/user/month | Website |
Forecastio | From $119/month (billed annually) | Website |
HubSpot | From $15/month (billed annually) | Website |
Pipedrive CRM | From $14/user/month (billed annually) | Website |
Groove | From $15/user/month | Website |
UpLead | From $99/month | Website |
Cognism | Pricing upon request | Website |
Hunter | From $49/month | Website |
Lusha | From $29/month/user | Website |
Outbound | Pricing upon request | Website |
Compare Software Specs Side by Side
Use our comparison chart to review and evaluate software specs side-by-side.
Compare SoftwareOther Options
I chose a few more tools that were on my radar but didn’t make the final list to provide a truly comprehensive selection of B2B sales software for you to explore.
- BookYourData
For pay-as-you-go B2B prospecting
- SalesQL
For prospecting potential customers through LinkedIn
- PartnerTap
For finding new opportunities through partner overlap
- LeadIQ
For improving prospecting for SaaS sales teams
- Leadinfo
For tracking which companies are visiting your website
- Enlyft
For discovering what technologies your prospects are already using
- CRM Creatio
For 360-degree contact views
- Snovio
Email finder and verifier to help your emails land in a lead’s inbox
- Rocketreach
For the most accurate database of emails and phone numbers
- ZoomInfo SalesOS
For aligning and engaging your sales and marketing teams
What To Consider When Choosing B2B Sales Software
When you're in the market for B2B (business-to-business) sales software, it's like picking out the right tool for a very important job. You want to make sure it's the perfect fit for your company, now and as you grow. Let's break down what you need to keep in mind into three main points.
Important Features
Think of features like the Swiss Army knife of your sales software. You want tools that cover all your bases:
- Contact management: This is your Rolodex, but smarter. It keeps track of who you’re selling to and remembers your last conversation or deal.
- Sales forecasting: Imagine a weather report, but for your sales. It predicts the sunny days and the storms, so you can be prepared.
- Analytics and reporting: These are your magnifying glass and measuring tape. They help you see the details and measure your success.
- Integration: Your sales software should play nice with other tools you use, like email or customer support platforms.
Always think about what tools will make your life easier and help your team close deals faster.
Budget Considerations
Money matters, and so does finding software that fits your budget:
- Understand the total cost: Look at not just the price tag, but also any extra costs like installation or training.
- Consider ROI: Think about how the software will help you make more money in the long run. It's not just a cost; it's an investment.
- Don't overbuy: Just like you wouldn't buy a giant truck when you only need a scooter, don't pay for bells and whistles you won't use.
Scalability and Flexibility
Your business will grow, and your sales software should grow with you:
- Scalability: Make sure the software can handle more customers, sales, and data over time without hiccups.
- Flexibility: Sometimes you need to tweak things. Your software should let you customize features or add new ones as your business evolves.
Picking the right B2B sales software is about finding the balance between what you need today and what you will need tomorrow. Keep these three areas in mind, and you'll be on your way to choosing a tool that not only fits your business right now but also helps it thrive in the future.
Selection Criteria For B2B Sales Software
Here’s a short summary of the main selection and evaluation criteria I used to develop my list of the best B2B sales software for this article.
Core Functionality
I really focused on B2B sales tools that delivered accessible avenues to capturing quality leads. You have so many ways to connect with potential buyers but you only want to reach out to the ones that are actually interested in your product. Here are a few of the things I was looking for:
- Prospect data capture that’s accurate and consistent
- Customizable curated lead database
- Flexibility and adaptability for growing organizations
Key Features
With the functionalities listed above come some really important features that I was looking for in each software option, including:
- Sales and marketing accessibility: Both these teams may need to use your B2B sales software to better streamline their collaboration and communication, as well as get data and insights to inform and align their strategies.
- Buying or building lead lists: Some tools allow you to buy lists and sort them yourself, while others focus on providing you with data accuracy. Some even help you source lead data from specific locations, like LinkedIn.
- Low barrier for entry: All the tools on my list are relatively easy for anyone on your team to learn and utilize. You can start leveraging most software features right away, without excessive onboarding and training.
- Scalability: I’m just as optimistic about your business growth as you are, so I looked for tools that would grow with you to accommodate increasing lead volume, more complex workflows, new team members, and other B2B business needs.
Usability
I briefly mentioned above that I chose tools that didn’t have a significant learning curve to ensure you can adopt and incorporate them into your workflow right away. This also means I explored options with supportive onboarding and extensive guides for the more complex platform features.
Pricing
There is some variation in pricing based on what these tools can do. When you’re buying records and data, you’re usually paying a flat rate for a list, which could be as low as $0.04 per record. However, some tools are based on a monthly usage fee, which may range from $30 to $150 per user per month.
Integrations
I know you have other tools that make up your tech stack, so the options on this list need to integrate with them for better data sharing and decision-making. You’ll see the most popular integrations for every tool on this list to ensure better collaboration with CRMs, email marketing, and other sales tools.
People Also Ask
Have more questions? Here are answers to some common FAQs.
What are the benefits of B2B sales software?
Using tailored B2B sales software has a number of benefits, including higher quality lead generation, simplified scalability, and automation of manual tasks to free up time for more important work.
How does B2B software work?
Most of the software listed here is related to lead generation, so the method depends on the tool. Some of these tools help you capture the information of website visitors, others aggregate data from social media and other public profiles, and some provide ready-made lists for a flat rate.
Most options also operate on a data accuracy guarantee that helps you check the validity of phone numbers, email addresses, and other publicly available information before reaching out to new contacts so you don’t waste time on inaccessible leads.
How do you build a B2B sales pipeline?
Building your sales pipeline is all about making it easier to drive a consistent sales strategy. Here is an outline that can help you take a contact and transform it from a marketing qualified lead to a sales qualified lead, and finally, to a customer.
- Generate leads from social media, public profiles, or referrals
- Whittle down your leads to those most likely to be interested in your product
- Reach out to a qualified lead to gauge their interest
- Continue building a relationship by scheduling a call with the best point of contact
- Have an official sales call to give your pitch to the right person
- Negotiate and close the deal with the final price, terms, and contract management
Other B2B Sales Software Reviews
This type of B2B sales software may be only one piece of the search to build a workflow of the right software for your organization. Check out some other B2B sales software options that might be a good fit:
- Sales Forecasting Software
- Sales Automation Software
- Sales Enablement Software
- CPQ Software In 2023
- Sales Reporting Software
- Free CRM Software
- Sales Automation Software
Conclusion
Lead generation for your B2B sales is an essential part of your sales pipeline and creating a thriving, growing business. Whether just one of these tools fills the gap in your workflow or you need a couple more to help complete your tech stack, the entire RevOps Team is here to help.
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