Best Inside Sales Software Shortlist
Explore the tools on my shortlist of inside sales solutions, evaluated based on how well they can help you achieve your goals. Check out what each one has to offer when you read my software summaries.
- Outreach - Best for creating and closing the sales pipeline
- Mixmax - Best for reducing missed opportunities by prioritizing high-value activities
- Numerik - Best for providing salespeople with more targeted direction
- Apptivo - Best for all-in-one solutions with sales CRM, project management, and invoicing capabilities
- Gong.io - Best for having the largest integration ecosystem on the market
- ExecVision - Best conversation intelligence platform with a proprietary AI-powered engine
- Lusha - Best ISO 27701-certified sales intelligence solution
- Apollo - Best lead database with over 200 million contacts
- Clari Copilot - Best as a single, unified platform for executives and salespeople
- Kixie PowerCall - Best for advanced sales dialing and outreach
- Front - Best for help desk and customer support solutions
- Velocify - Best for closing and managing mortgage deals
With so many tools in your tech stack already, why would you add another one? Well, inside sales software has a lot of crossover with other platforms and could streamline your tech stack, removing those with excess overlap and setting up your inside sales software to take over as general purpose CRM, contact and lead management, sales automation, call center software, and even as a predictive dialer.
Alternatively, inside sales software could also provide the final piece that’s missing from your tech stack with a purpose-built tool that can integrate bi-directionally with everything else you use. Learn what else inside sales software can do for you when you explore your options here.
What Is Inside Sales Software?
This type of software is designed to support inside sales with management for the tools you rely on every day, including email, phone, live chat, and other remote communication tools. While you might have a platform for each form of communication as a standalone app, you may prefer a multi-channel suite with all of them already integrated. Inside sales software provides all of them together, plus a few other essentials to round out its functionality.
The other half of inside sales software is lead and contact management. Anything related to information about your sales prospects is handled here, including sales history, outreach, data scraping, lead scoring, and buyer intent.
Combine both suites of tools together, and you have the bulk of inside sales software. The exact blend of features is determined by the vendor you choose and their customization capabilities.
Overviews of the 12 Best Inside Sales Software
In my overview for each of these tools, you’ll see a brief summary of the platform, why they made my list, and a breakdown of pricing, free trials, and pros and cons. I’ve also included a screenshot so you can see something of each tool’s inner workings.
1. Outreach - Best for creating and closing the sales pipeline
As a comprehensive sales management platform, Outreach strives to integrate conversational intelligence, sales engagement, and revenue intelligence all in one place. This platform was designed as a single source of truth for all sales activities. Sales reps should be able to find everything they need here, including engagement tools, mutual action plans, coaching, deal insights, and sales forecasting.
Why I picked Outreach: This platform caught my eye because of a feature called Mutual Action Plans. With this tool, Outreach aims to build buyer trust and de-risk your deals. Salespeople can use it to digitally collaborate with all stakeholders, allowing any sales plan to evolve with everyone’s needs. This space also acts as a central repository for a deal, so even if stakeholders or team members change, they can still get up to speed right away.
Outreach Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features include an inside sales team dashboard that shows active opportunities and allows the rep to edit close dates, deal values, next steps, and sales stages for every open opportunity and an engagement timeline that shows buyer and seller activities, including meetings, emails, and calls.
Integrations include Constant Contact, Copper, Gmail, HubSpot, Linkedin Sales Navigator, Mailchimp, Microsoft 365, Okta, Rippling, Robly, and Salesforce. All integrations are bi-directional.
Pricing One-Liner: Custom pricing upon request
Free Trial One-Liner: Free demo available
Pros
- Intuitive user interface for easy navigation
- Global capabilities with time zone and language options
- Comprehensive array of tools and features
Cons
- Complexity of the tool can be difficult to navigate
- Steep learning curve if you’re not tech-savvy
2. Mixmax - Best for reducing missed opportunities by prioritizing high-value activities
As a general sales productivity app, Mixmax prioritizes email communication and workflow automation with email tracking, templates, CRM sync, nurture sequences, and one-click scheduling. This platform is an online solution that provides more flexibility for email communication with leads.
Why I picked Mixmax: This solution is on my list because of the way it measures revenue generating activities. The interactive reports and dashboards help you track which social media and other communications are getting the most engagement and push these tactics through to the rest of your team to enhance lead generation and increase conversion rates.
Mixmax Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features include sales engagement tracking with actionable insights that help you develop a better-performing sales playbook and one-click meeting scheduling with automated reminders to ensure better attendance.
Integrations include Box, Dropbox, Giphy, Github, Gong, Google Calendar, Markdown, Salesforce, Slack, Twitter, and Zoom.
Pricing One-Liner: From $34/user/month
Free Trial One-Liner: Free plan available
Pros
- Combines scheduling, analytics, and email tracking
- Easy to learn and use
- Intuitive navigation and clean interface
Cons
- Video conferencing links are not auto-generated
- Meeting planning with outside platforms is clunky
3. Numerik - Best for providing salespeople with more targeted direction
As a performance enhancing tool designed specifically for sales reps, Numerik offers a new way to approach reaching your sales goals. With this app as part of your sales cycle, you’re empowering reps with access to live sales feeds, leaderboards, sales drill-downs, commission progress, and achievement alerts.
Why I picked Numerik: This is a unique tool that revolves around what your salespeople really need to support their entire sales process. In addition to mobile access, I also like that Numerik provides gamification and rep engagement tools, like leaderboards, motivation tools, and achievement notifications.
Numerik Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features include glanceable reports that show both live data and snapshot metrics for newsfeed-style activity updates and note recordings that ensure your reps can be completely hands-free. This is a phone-first app that allows salespeople to get the data they need from their most-used device.
Integrations are not currently included.
Pricing One-Liner: From $50/month
Free Trial One-Liner: Free demo available
Pros
- Super easy to learn and use
- Very user-friendly navigation and interface
- Mobile-first approach with responsive design
Cons
- App can lag when switching functions
- No personalized dashboard for tracking metrics
4. Apptivo - Best for all-in-one solutions with sales CRM, project management, and invoicing capabilities
As a sales and marketing tool, Apptivo strives to provide everything you need from a sales engagement platform, including lead management, contact management, campaign management, marketing automation, and an opportunity pipeline with intuitive dashboards.
Why I picked Apptivo: One unique feature that put Apptivo on my radar is the help desk. While many other platforms offer tons of management tools, Apptivo is one of the only ones concerned with customer relationship management from this angle. With these help desk features, you can continue nurturing customer relationships even after you close deals.
Apptivo Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features include CRM tools to track the complete sales process from initial sales call to deal close and expense logging and reporting that are accessible through a mobile app.
Integrations include Dropbox Business, Gmail, Google Drive, Microsoft 365, OneDrive, PayPal, Slack, Stripe, WordPress, and Xero.
Pricing One-Liner: From $10/user/month
Free Trial One-Liner: 30-day free trial available
Pros
- Very affordable solution for companies of all sizes
- Highly customizable during the implementation stage
- Outstanding customer service
Cons
- Some limited functionality in the mobile app
- Some API integrations require more work on the back end
5. Gong.io - Best for having the largest integration ecosystem on the market
As a revenue intelligence platform, Gong.io captures all customer interactions from every channel to deliver insights that are designed to help your sales representatives close more deals. With customer data from every call, email, and SMS, Gong runs all essential touchpoints through their AI revenue engine to provide strategy that improves productivity and deals.
Why I picked Gong.io: The main reason Gong caught my eye was their integration capabilities. With one of the most comprehensive integration solutions, Gong can automatically capture and update all data across your entire tech stack to improve visibility across every team and every deal. You can also connect Gong to your power dialer and collect call recordings, customer information, and phone numbers.
Gong.io Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features include a custom coaching program based on your data with actionable guidance for the team and Smart Trackers that can train Gong’s AI to pick up on essential concepts across all customer interactions.
Integrations include Apollo.io, Chili Piper, Conquer, Gainsight, Highspot, HubSpot CRM, Klue, Lessonly, Salesforce, Slack, and Zoom. Gong has over 100 native integrations with more coming soon.
Pricing One-Liner: Custom pricing upon request
Free Trial One-Liner: Free demo available
Pros
- Very easy to implement
- Quick to learn how to use
- Massive selection of integrations
Cons
- There are occasional transcription errors
- Limited training from the Gong team
6. ExecVision - Best conversation intelligence platform with a proprietary AI-powered engine
This conversational intelligence platform is an essential inside sales tool to add to your tech stack that’s designed to mine insights from customer interactions that can then be translated into performance improvements for your product, sales, marketing, and customer support teams.
Why I picked ExecVision: This platform stood out to me because of its conversation intelligence capabilities. In addition to identifying and reacting to signals in verbal conversations, this AI-driven engine also links to other essential processes, sending alerts, integrating with performance dashboards, and detecting silence, hold music, voicemail, and real human voices.
ExecVision Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features include behavioral coaching designed to enhance sales performance through real conversation insights and searchable conversation libraries that house all recorded customer interactions for future reference and training.
Integrations include 8x8, Aircall, Amazon Chime, Box, Cisco, ClearSlide, DropBox, Five9, Fuze, Groove, HubSpot, and Outreach.
Pricing One-Liner: Custom pricing upon request
Free Trial One-Liner: Free demo available
Pros
- Simple and easy to implement
- Customized coaching for each sales rep
- Coaching Academy for proactive training
Cons
- Lag between call time and appearance in the app
- Implementing Smart Alerts can be complex
7. Lusha - Best ISO 27701-certified sales intelligence solution
This web-based sales solution is designed to help your organization prospect, qualify, and reach leads with dynamic, accurate data. As the only ISO-certified sales intelligence platform, Lusha empowers your team to tap into their prospecting tools to build and update contact lists with bulk enrichment through custom filters, alerts, and rules.
Why I picked Lusha: What made this platform stand out to me is its prospecting capabilities. Using the contact searching and data verification tools, you can get a list of up to 1,000 leads that connect you directly with decision-makers.
Lusha Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features include intent reports that identify a company’s willingness and readiness to buy your product, job change filters and alerts so you can reach out to warm leads who already know your product, and data enrichment that includes company name, location, industry, size, and technology.
Integrations include Bullhorn, Gmail, HubSpot, Microsoft Dynamics, Outlook, Outreach, Pipedrive, Salesforce, SalesLoft, Zapier, and Zoho.
Pricing One-Liner: From $49/month
Free Trial One-Liner: Free trial + free plan available
Pros
- Up-to-date contact information and enrichment
- User-friendly and intuitive navigation
- Chrome extension for instant contact information
Cons
- Credit-based app use
- Limited tutorials and support
8. Apollo - Best lead database with over 200 million contacts
This platform is an all-in-one sales intelligence solution that provides you with the tools you need to find new leads and engage new prospects. With a database of over 200 million contacts and 30 million companies, all you need to do to find new leads is build your ideal buyer profile and apply those filters to search the database.
Why I picked Apollo: I like the Apollo platform because you get more than just a lead generation database. This solution takes sales a step farther with a massive template library that allows you to automate and streamline outreach while customizing emails for more personalized connections.
Apollo Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features include a pre-built suite of reports and dashboards that showcase granular insights about message effectiveness and team productivity, as well as automated CRM enrichment that ensures accurate data across your entire tech stack.
Integrations include Gmail, HubSpot, LinkedIn for Business, Marketo Engage, Microsoft Outlook, Salesforce, SalesLoft, SendGrid, and Zapier.
Pricing One-Liner: From $49/user/month
Free Trial One-Liner: Free plan available
Pros
- Massive existing lead database
- Once trained, the app is easy to use
- Zapier integration provides access to other apps
Cons
- Implementation can be challenging
- Training can take extra time
9. Clari Copilot - Best as a single, unified platform for executives and salespeople
This web-based inside sales software solution can help empower your revenue team to close more deals through conversation intelligence that provides reps and executives the information they need to spot revenue leaks, improve predictability, and align buyers and sellers. The Copilot product, specifically, powers workflows with generative AI and provides proactive, actionable alerts.
Why I picked Clari Copilot: This solution stood out to me because it highlighted the need to unite execs and reps in one place. Their platform provides sales leaders with real-time pipeline status and executives with reporting tools for the board of directors.
Clari Copilot Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features include real-time monologue and battlecards alerts that help sales reps navigate objections from prospects and enterprise grade security that’s SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Integrations include BlueJeans Meetings, Freshsales, Google Meet, HubSpot CRM, Microsoft Teams, Outreach, Pipedrive, Salesforce Sales Cloud, Slack, and Zoom Meetings.
Pricing One-Liner: Custom pricing upon request
Free Trial One-Liner: Free demo available
Pros
- Highly collaborative tool for top-down execution
- Intuitive navigation and learning experience
- Visual tool for better understanding data
Cons
- Limited information in error messages
- Data updates can lag
10. Kixie PowerCall - Best for advanced sales dialing and outreach
A cloud-based sales engagement platform, Kixie PowerCall is meant to enhance sales rep performance with reliable, automated calling and texting through your CRM. As a solution for customer-facing teams, Kixie also offers a Chrome extension that has an advanced suite of outreach features that boost productivity through phone number recognition, one-click calling, and automatic call recording.
Why I picked Kixie PowerCall: This platform made my list because it ensures your auto dialer has comprehensive crossover with your CRM to automatically update customer information and eliminate manual data entry. With bi-directional CRM integrations, your team can find the right information every time and work more efficiently.
Kixie PowerCall Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features include an outbound auto dialing and power dialing to make more calls per minute, inbound call routing that helps customers reach reps faster, and customer support software that monitors calls and coaches sales reps.
Integrations include ActiveCampaign, Anaconda, Capsule, Gong, HighLevel, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Pipeline, Salesforce, and Zoho CRM.
Pricing One-Liner: From $35/month
Free Trial One-Liner: 7-day free trial available
Pros
- Great customer support team
- Easy to implement and learn
- Increases outbound and inbound connections
Cons
- Chrome updates can cause issues with Kixie
- Cannot trigger automated calls from the integrated CRM
11. Front - Best for help desk and customer support solutions
If you’re looking for an inside sales software to support customers and provide help desk solutions to your team, Front is the platform designed to enable sales, support, and account management teams that deliver service at scale. With this software, your team can streamline customer communication, as it combines the efficiency of a help desk with the visual and navigational elements of email.
Why I picked Front: While Front may seem like an after-sales software that’s focused on customer nurturing, it actually also provides an inbound sales solution with centralized, multi-channel communication and automated routing that ensures leads and prospects can connect with the right people.
Front Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features include collaboration functionalities that allow you to quickly loop in team members or bosses for faster solutions and approvals, as well as customer history and data pulled from bi-directional integrations with your CRM.
Integrations include Asana, DropBox Business, Gmail, HubSpot, Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Slack, Trello, WhatsApp, Zapier, and Zoom Meetings.
Pricing One-Liner: From $19/seat/month
Free Trial One-Liner: Free demo available
Pros
- Easy to learn due to the familiar visuals of an email inbox
- Intuitive navigation for basic features and functionality
- Versatile pricing for small businesses and enterprise needs
Cons
- Complex features have a steeper learning curve
- Limited keyword search functionality
12. Velocify - Best for closing and managing mortgage deals
As a cloud-based CRM application that incorporates email marketing, telecommunications, sales management, scheduling, and customer management, Velocify offers a massive array of tools in one platform. Currently, Velocify has Pulse® for Salesforce integration, LeadManager Enterprise™ for outreach management, and Dial-IQ® as your outbound sales dialer.
Why I picked Velocify: I added this platform to my list of inside sales software because they bill themselves as a solution for today’s modern mortgage market. They offer their software as part of the ICE Mortgage Technology® Platform to enhance your sales automation, keep your team organized, and prioritize the activities that help your sales reps close more deals.
Velocify Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features include broker and seller portals that allow you to collaborate with wholesale customers, automated underwriting solutions with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and an online customer portal that allows them to fill out an application, engage with their loan officer, and e-sign documents.
Integrations include Adobe Commerce, Constant Contact, Eventbrite, Gong, GoTo Webinar, HubSpot, iContact, Keap, Mailchimp, and Marketo Engage.
Pricing One-Liner: From $60/month
Free Trial One-Liner: Free demo available
Pros
- Comprehensive customization options for every need
- Competitive pricing when compared to similar software
- User-friendly learning process and intuitive navigation
Cons
- Dialer option has a lag when used remotely
- Takes a lot of effort to custom configure the software
Other Options
You have a lot of options when it comes to inside sales software, so here are a few extra that didn’t make my list but might still be a good fit for you.
- DialedIn CCaaS - Best inside sales software for call center-focused solutions
- Freshsales - Best all-in-one option with CRM, outreach, and lead management features
- Salesforce Sales Cloud - Best sales software driven by AI and GPT features
- Pipedrive - Best sales software for small companies with pipeline-focused initiatives
- Bitrix24 - Best for custom workspaces with replacements for other SaaS solutions
- Really Simple Systems - Best CRM-focused sales software for small teams
- SalesLoft - Best sales software with AI-driven predictability insights
- LeadSquared - Best software for lead management and sales tracking features
Selection Criteria For Inside Sales Software
I used a series of selection and evaluation criteria to develop my list of the best inside sales software for this article. Here is the breakdown of the main requirements:
Core Functionality
I wanted to highlight those inside sales tools that replaced other tools in your tech stack and lightened the bloat. Their core functionality needed to address multiple needs, including CRM, sales tracking, outreach and follow-ups, and analytics.
- Find and validate leads and prospects
- Open lines of communication and personalize your messages
- Manage incoming and outgoing communication
- Track sales progress and completion
- Provide analytics and predictions for better decision-making
Key Features
To meet the needs outlined above, most of the tools on my list had these essential features:
- Lead scoring: Organizes your sales prospects to help you prioritize those that are ready to buy and fit your buyer profile.
- Contact lists and histories: Provides basic information and profiles on each of your contacts with a history of your communications.
- Dialers and call handling: Handles frontend telephony needs, including dialing, routing, and transferring incoming calls.
- Auto followup: Follows a variety of rules and triggers to send automated emails and texts to follow up with leads.
- AI chat bots: A real-time communication tool that utilizes scripting to manage customer needs.
- Predictive analytics: Gathers and analyzes historical data to predict future trends and recommend a course of action.
Usability
Since one of these platforms will likely be replacing several of your standalone tools, it needs to be easy to integrate into your workflow and simple for your sales team to learn. I chose tools that had intuitive navigation and a streamlined dashboard that had a low barrier for entry.
Software Integrations
Even though this tool may be replacing your dialing or CRM software, it still needs to communicate with the remaining platforms in your tech stack. I prioritized tools with high integration capabilities and listed the most popular integrations in the tool summary.
Pricing
Generally, inside sales software pricing follows a per-user per-month model with a wide variety of price ranges dependent on your needs. Some platforms also offer completely customized plans where you pay just for the tools you use.
You can expect to pay anywhere between $10 and $100/user/month for most tools. There are also some free options for small businesses and solo operations.
People Also Ask
Need to know more? Check out this FAQ for answers to common concerns.
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What are the 7 stages of inside sales?
Other Sales Software
Whether or not inside sales software is the right fit for your sales process, there are tons of other tools that could be exactly what you need. See some other recommendations from the RevOps team below:
- Sales Acceleration Software
- Sales Forecasting Software
- Sales Training Software
- Revenue Intelligence Platforms
- Revenue Operations Software
Final Thoughts
Inside sales software can streamline your sales process and increase your team's efficiency with its varied features. I hope this overview of the best inside sales software helped you narrow down your options and pick the right fit for your team.
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