Best Sales Management Software Shortlist
Here’s a shortlist of the top sales management tools I’ll talk about in this article:
- HubSpot - Best easy-scaling, user-friendly tool
- Salesforce - Best for enterprise functionality
- monday.com - Best for sales and project management
- PipeDrive - Best for simplicity and ease of use
- Revenue Grid - Best AI-driven sales management software
- Zoho CRM - Best for hybrid, small and medium businesses
- Boxxstep - Best for managing accounts with multiple decision-makers
- Gong.io - Best for analyzing deals
- Chorus - Best for enterprise teams to turn conversational data into sales insights
- Zendesk Sell - Best for closing deals through great customer service
- Salesmate – Best sales management software for automation
- Freshsales – Best software for AI-lead scoring
Sales teams are supposed to spend most of their time selling, right?
While that’s what they should be doing, sales reps often spend a good amount of time working on administrative and other non-selling tasks.
If you’re managing a sales team, you know just how challenging it can be to activate your team, improve productivity, and increase leads.
In this article, we’ll show you the 12 best sales management software in the industry so you can give your sales team more time to generate sales, improve productivity, and grow your business.
What Is Sales Management Software?
Sales management software is a tool that helps sales reps and their sales teams reach their goals. Sales managers and revenue operations managers can use this software to assign leads, store customer data, reduce administrative tasks, and improve the sales process.
Overview of the 12 Best Sales Management Software
Here’s a brief summary of the top 12 sales management software to help you see each platform’s best use case, some unique features, pricepoint, and each tool’s weak spots to help you analyze which is the best fit for your team.
1. HubSpot – Best easy-scaling, user-friendly tool
HubSpot has made a name for itself in the sales world for being super accessible and user-friendly. Founded in 2006 by Dharmesh Shah and Brian Halligan, HubSpot was one of the first companies to offer a free CRM to the sales industry.
Why I picked HubSpot CRM: HubSpot’s CRM tool is one of the best all-in-one sales management software available, in my opinion. The tool has impressive sales and marketing alignment and can be used by any business from startup to enterprise.
HubSpot CRM Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include tools to help your salespeople fine-tune their workflow, including deal tracking, simple pipeline management, meeting scheduling, email templates, real-time data dashboards, live chat, notifications when a lead opens your email, and more. HubSpot also has customizable forms, an impressive chatbot, ad management for marketing teams, a ticketing feature for customer service, productivity tools, and a prospect tracking feature.
Integrations include Gmail, Outlook, SalesForce, Zapier, Slack, Drift, Mailchimp, PandaDoc, Facebook Ads, Survey Monkey, DataBox, HotJar, OptinMonster, Wistia, Aircall.
Pricing: From $25/user/month (min two users).
Free Trial: 30-day free trial.
Pros
- Free plans make the software accessible to anyone
- Easy to navigate user-friendly interface
- Intuitive marketing automation capabilities
- Simple lead scoring and management
Cons
- Sales forecasting features are expensive
- Performance management is lacking compared to other software
- Free plan doesn’t include goal management
2. Salesforce – Best for enterprise functionality
For years, Salesforce has been one of the market leaders in sales management software. While Salesforce offers mid-to-high-tier pricing for enterprise teams, they’re one of the highest-quality platforms available for sales teams and sales managers.
Why I picked Salesforce CRM: While Salesforce can help sales teams from businesses of any size, the platform is especially favorable for enterprise teams. In my opinion, it’s one of the best CRM tools simply due to its wide range of features and apps. The ability to customize the platform for your needs is impressive.
Salesforce CRM Standout Features and Integrations:
Standout features include email marketing, audience discovery, contact management, marketing automation and workflows. My favorite feature is “Einstein,” their AI which gives tips and insights. Salesforce also features opportunity management, and the Salesforce mobile app.
Integrations include Slack, Outlook, ActiveCampaign, G Suite, Paperflite, Zoho Forms, DocuSign, MailChimp, Marketo, Clari, Calendly, Talkdesk, Quickbooks, Woopra, monday.com, Hubspot, LinkedIn, Dropbox, Gong, Zapier.
Pricing One-Liner: From $25/user/month.
Free Trial One-Liner: 14-day free trial.
Pros
- Wide range of integrations
- Multiple sales apps within the platform
- Impressive customization for enterprise sales teams.
- Plenty of integrations
- Great onboarding and training
- Easily monitor sales performance
Cons
- Compared to other software, pricing is a bit high
- Setup can take some time without the help of support
- Lower-tiered plans don’t have the best customer support
3. monday.com – Best for sales and project management
monday.com is best known for its project management, but it also offers one of the top sales management tools on the market. The tool gives sales teams complete control over their sales pipeline so you can easily manage numerous contacts and accounts.
Why I picked monday.com: monday.com’s platform enables sales reps and sales managers to work on sales goals and projects in a synchronized fashion. I picked monday.com because it allows you to easily organize post-sales tasks, improve sales enablement, and get a complete overview of your sales pipeline.
monday.com Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include many customizable and personalized tools, including customizable sales dashboards, no-code automation, visualization tools for customer data, and personalized notifications to streamline project management. My other favorite monday.com features are email tracking, sales forecasting by sales rep, and team goals.
Integrations include 200 third-party apps such as Mailchimp, Salesforce, Aircall, Twilio, Pandadoc, DocuSign, Facebook, Stripe, and LinkedIn.
Pricing: From $10/user/month (when billed annually)
Free Trial: 14-day free trial.
Pros
- Custom sales dashboards without the need to code
- 24/7 customer service
- Unlimited boards to organize sales processes, clients, and projects
- Easy to create seamless automations
Cons
- Reports aren’t customizable
- All plans require a three-use minimum (no solo plans)
4. Pipedrive – Best for simplicity and ease of use
Pipedrive is another leading sales tool that’s great for small and medium businesses to drive leads and close deals. The platform was built and funded by part of the original Skype team and professional salespeople and helps teams get a comprehensive overview of their sales performance.
Why I picked Pipedrive: Pipedrive is great at allowing both B2B and B2C teams to visualize their entire sales funnel, making it super easy to use. Whether you’re techy or not, this software makes it easy to see the whole process with ease so you can better understand your sales operations and improve your performance.
Pipedrive Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include automatic email and call tracking, a mobile app, sales tracking software, recurring revenue tracking, visual reports, pipeline metrics, and admin task automation. My favorite feature, though, has to be its lead generation chatbot.
Integrations include Zapier, Xero Advanced Automation, PandaDoc, Zapierr, AirCall, Trello, QuickBooks, OutFunnel, monday.com, Google Meet, Facebook Messenger, DocuSign, HubSpot, Calendly, Zendesk, and CloudTalk.
Pricing: From $14/user/month (billed annually).
Free Trial: 14-day free trial.
Pros
- Simple, user-friendly platform
- Beautiful, well-designed user interface
- Quote management for invoice tracking
- Helps new or experienced teams focus on the most important actions
Cons
- Email contact list has a low maximum
- Updates sometimes include a few glitches
5. Revenue Grid – Best AI-driven sales management software
Revenue Grid is a powerful AI-led, all-in-one acceleration platform that gives sales managers and sales teams great visibility over their sales process.
Why I picked Revenue Grid: Revenue Grid separates itself from the other sales management platforms because of its advanced AI technology. The tool features artificial intelligence that automates different engagement sequences and gives sales teams data-driven recommendations to close more deals.
Revenue Grid Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include automatic sales data capture from different channels and AI-guided selling, making it my favorite for AI-driven sales management. Revenue Grid also features seamless Salesforce integration for automated email follow-ups, pipeline visibility that helps sales managers identify relationships between sales tasks and conversions.
Integrations include Salesforce, Outlook, Gmail, Oracle Sales Cloud, Office 365, Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, SharePoint, and 360 SMS App.
Pricing: Pricing upon request.
Free Trial: 14-day free trial.
Pros
- Great value for enterprise sales teams
- Full visibility of lead/customer interaction history and deal status
- Engagement data gives insights to optimize conversations
- Automatic syncing with Gmail and Outlook
- Helpful customer support
Cons
- Not the best tool for small organizations
- Customizations can be challenging to navigate
6. Zoho CRM – Best for hybrid, small and medium businesses
Zoho CRM is one of the leading customer relationship management (CRM) tools on the market. The sales management tool is best suited for small and medium-sized businesses that are hybrid or remote to improve sales activities, optimize performance, and increase leads and conversions.
Why I picked Zoho CRM: Zoho CRM allows teams in multiple locations (in the office or at home), to work together seamlessly, making it perfect for hybrid businesses. The tool offers a nifty gamification feature to stir up friendly competition between sales reps within your team, which is great for motivating sales.
Zoho CRM Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include Zia (an AI-powered assistant), a comprehensive reporting feature for pre-made sales reports, deal gamification and rewards for deals closed, simple customization as your business grows, custom dashboards, and multiple pipelines for different teams. These gamification and custom dashboard features help your salespeople stay on target and work more efficiently, even in a hybrid environment.
Integrations include over 300 third-party integrations such as Mailchimp, G Suite, Office 365, Slack, Google Workspace, Shopify, Facebook Ads, PandaDoc, Twilio, SMS-Magic, Zoom, Quickbooks, DocuSign, and Leadfeeder.
Pricing: From $23/user/month (min. 3 users, billed annually)
Free Trial: 15-day free trial.
Pros
- Great for hybrid and remote teams
- Zia (AI) helps identify prospects your team can convert
- 24/7 customer support
- Impressive security features
- Mobile app to improve communication with customers
Cons
- Difficult platform to learn
- Pricey compared to other tools
- Advanced features gated behind top-tier subscriptions
7. Boxxstep – Best for managing accounts with multiple decision-makers
Boxxstep is a unique style of sales management software that focuses intently on customers. Also known as a BRM, or buyer relationship manager, this tool helps sales managers and sales reps better manage their accounts.
Why I picked Boxxstep: Boxxstep is a great multi-tool for sales managers looking to gain insights on their customers, track sales, and improve project management. In my opinion, the platform is fantastic for managing multiple decision-makers and shortening the timeline to close deals.
Boxxstep Standout Features and Integrations:
Features that stood out to me were relationship and account mapping to understand what matters for each decision-maker, visual organizational charts for accounts, collaborative task planning for milestones, synced follow-ups, and automated feedback collection through questionnaires.
Integrations include Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics 365, DocHub, and Pleo.
Pricing: From $10.50/user/month (billed annually)
Free Trial: 14-day free trial.
Pros
- Help close multiple decision-makers
- Quick set up
- Easy to use
- Great for stacking with a CRM
- Automated feedback capture
Cons
- Analytics aren’t very comprehensive
- Double entry data sometimes required
- Not many integrations available
8. Gong.io – Best for analyzing deals
Gong.io is one of the top sales management tools available and is relied on by top brands like LinkedIn, Shopify, Slack, Sprout Social, and Paychex. The patented Gong Revenue Intelligence Platform in the platform allows sales teams to leverage customer interactions to provide in-depth insights. While it can be used by enterprise teams, it’s best suited for small and medium-sized businesses.
Why I picked Gong: This tool allows you to automatically learn what’s happening with your customers so you can improve sales functions. The platform has impressive recording technology that gives you deep insights into sales performance from real conversations with clients. Plus, it also gives you insights into your overall market to optimize your sales processes.
Gong Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include recordings of sales conversations that can be turned into training modules, which I think stands out from other software. Gong also has market insights for optimization, chat transcripts, deal management, call monitoring, file transfer, competitive analysis.
Integrations include Salesforce, G Suite, HubSpot, Teams, RingCentral, Slack, Chili Piper, Highspot, Microsoft Teams, Office 365, Outreach, Slack, Zoom, and Aircall.
Pricing: Pricing upon request.
Free Trial: Free demo available.
Pros
- Tracking email, phone, and web conference interactions
- Automatically fast-forward recording for specific people
- Transcripts to help find keywords from conversations
- Sales reps get automated emails as reminders to follow up
Cons
- Transcripts aren’t always accurate
- Can’t review how much a lead talks compared to sales reps
9. Chorus – Best for enterprise teams to turn conversational data into sales insights
Chorus is a sales management tool that was acquired by Zoominfo in 2021 for more than half a billion dollars. The AI-led conversational intelligence tool allows sales to analyze sales conversations to optimize performance.
Why I picked Chorus: The tool is led by artificial intelligence technology that automatically records sales conversations and then provides insights into what behaviors lead to conversions. In my opinion, it’s an impressive tool for sales managers from enterprise businesses to improve team performance.
Chorus Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include automatic interaction capture and AI analysis from calls for deal-closing insights. My favorite Chorus feature is the ability to silently notify colleagues during sales calls for help. Chorus also can have recordings that can be converted to onboarding training or 1:1 coaching, which I think is impressive. It also has automatic transcriptions, recommended next steps, automated email reminders, and the ability to send quick video recordings to prospects or colleagues.
Integrations include RingCentral, Zoom, G2, Slack, Zoho CRM, NeverBounce, Pipedrive, Engage, HubSpot, Salesforce, and Marketo.
Pricing: Pricing upon request.
Free Trial: 7-day free trial.
Pros
- Easy file sharing
- Great for enterprise businesses
- Impressive team collaboration during live calls
- Synchronizes with Salesforce and Zoom
Cons
- Doesn’t include editing tools to piece together video clips
- Transcriptions aren’t super accurate
- Can be hard to find analytics for specific recordings
10. Zendesk Sell – Best for closing deals through great customer service
Zendesk was originally launched as a customer support tool, but, in 2018 branched out into the sales game with Zendesk Sell. The tool allows sales reps and managers to manage their sales pipeline with ease and build relationships with leads.
Why I picked Zendesk Sell: This sales management platform is great for closing deals because it helps sales teams close more deals by offering great customer service functions. Sales reps can accelerate their sales performance by improving their relationships with prospects and customers.
Zendesk Sell Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include meeting scheduling, deal history monitoring, developing targeted lists of verified records, an auto-dialer to help sales reps with cold calls, and a mobile application, so salespeople can close deals on the move..
Integrations include Microsoft Outlook, G Suite, Hubspot Marketing, Quickbooks, Mailchimp, Dropbox, Google Drive, PandaDoc, Microsoft 365, and Xero.
Pricing: From $19/user/month (billed annually)
Free Trial: 14-day free trial.
Pros
- User-friendly tool
- Enables great customer service for your customers
- Easy onboarding
- Centralized dashboard for all sales activities
- Great customer support
- Impressive relationship-building features
Cons
- Limited pipeline visibility
- Mid and top-tier plans are quite pricey
11. Salesmate – Best sales management software for automation
Salesmate is a powerful CRM tool that’s fueled by its automation features. With this sales management software, you can easily stay in touch with prospects, nurture leads, and close more deals thanks to its user-friendly platform.
Why I picked Salesmate: Salesmate gives sales managers an automated forecast summary they can use to identify top sales reps and track their team’s overall performance, which is super impressive, and makes it a standout choice for anyone wanting to use automations. You can set specific sales targets for your team right from the dashboard to help motivate reps and boost performance.
Salesmate Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include all of the standard features that make sales management software most effective, including automated emails, follow-ups, a sales motivator, notifications, lead scoring, call tracking, a softphone, task scheduling, task tracking, and pipeline management.
Integrations include Quickbooks Online, Zendesk Suite, Zapier, Slack, ActiveCampaign, WordPress, Microsoft Outlook, Mailchimp, and Docusign.
Pricing: From $12/user/month (billed annually)
Free Trial: 15-day free trial.
Pros
- Quick onboarding
- Auto-assign leads to reps
- Automated, personalized emails
- Automated follow-up emails
- User-friendly platform
- Great security
Cons
- No free plan
- Customer support isn’t the best compared to other tools
12. Freshsales – Best software for AI-lead scoring
Freshsales is a CRM that enables sales teams to quickly and automatically identify leads to help them identify their best sales opportunities.
Why I picked Freshsales: I love Freshsales because it’s led by an AI tool named Freddy, who helps sales managers and teams find the top leads to invest in to generate more sales. Freddy gives sales teams an in-depth view of customers based on sales data, engagement, and activities to help improve sales cycles.
Freshsales Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include the aforementioned Freddy, the AI tool for lead scoring, the Freshchat messaging tool, personalized email marketing campaigns, contact management, predictive sales performance, revenue forecasting, and simple deal management.
Integrations include Fresconnect, Freshcaller, Freshmarketer, Freshdesk, and third-party apps like Zapier, HubSpot, Quickbooks, Office 365 Calendar, and Mailchimp.
Pricing: From $15/user/month (billed annually)
Free Trial: 21-day free trial.
Pros
- Automated lead scoring with AI
- Automated AI sales insights
- Great Customization
- Several built-in tools
- Access to all Freshsales integrated apps
- Industry-specific solutions
Cons
- Free plan doesn’t come with reports
- Configuration updates are quite frequent
Other Sales Management Software Options
Here are a few more notable options that didn’t make this Sales Management Software shortlist but should still be considered:
- Plaky - Best free sales management software
- Copper - Best for beginners
- Act! - best visually-driven sales pipeline software
- Microsoft Dynamics 365 - best for sales tracking analytics
- Uplead - Best for easy lead management
- Clari - Best for identifying leaks in your sales pipeline
- SalesHandy - Best for managing leads through email
- Ambition - Best for motivating sales reps
- Netsuite - Best for ecommerce companies
- Less Annoying CRM - Best low-cost CRM for small businesses
- EngageBay - Best for startups
Selection Criteria For the Best Sales Management Software
Here's a short summary of the selection criteria I used to establish my list of the best sales management software for this article:
Core Functionality
When analyzing the best sales management tools in the industry, one key consideration I kept in mind was their multi-functionality. The tools that are considered “all-in-ones'' and those with seamless integrations were at the forefront.
Key Features
There were a few main features that I kept in mind, recommending different tools based on specific use cases and needs. Most of the tools on the list are CRMs, which include these key features:
- Customer Interaction History: Having a customer or lead communication record in your business can help you create relevant sales messaging in future conversations.
- Customer Segmentation: You can segment your leads and customers based on various factors, like geographic location, last contact date, industry, or even lifetime value, can help you craft highly personalized messaging to help move leads through your pipeline.
- Automatic Emails: The best sales management platforms should include a variety of communication automation such as trigger-based emails or SMS messages to nurture your leads and customers on autopilot.
- Reporting & Analytics: Every sales management software should include different data broken down into easily-digestible reports and analytics dashboards to give you key insights like where different leads are at in the pipeline, whether or not leads are qualified, how many deals you’re closing in a given month, and if you’re hitting your sales targets
Price
I assessed each tool’s pricing structure and marked down information on their different plans. I gave preference to platforms with pricing models that show you exactly what features you get at the different price points. While a few of the platforms listed have custom pricing, $10/month per user was pretty common for a basic plan, while pricier software with advanced features can cost $100+ per month. I also gave preference to software that has a free trial.
Usability
Since most sales managers and sales teams are using dozens of different marketing tools, it’s important that a platform added to a tool stack is quick to learn, easy to use, and highly efficient. Since one of the main benefits of using a software management platform is to save time on repetitive tasks, it’s important that a platform doesn’t take up much of your time in the learning process.
Software Integrations
A great platform packed full of features just doesn’t fit well if it doesn’t work within your current tool stack. For most teams, pre-built integrations with other tools are beneficial, if not expected with modern sales tech. Most sales management software should integrate with the Google Suite, the Microsoft suite, communication apps like Slack, and CRM tools like Salesforce.
People Also Ask
If your team is considering working with a sales management platform, you probably have a few questions on your mind before you’re ready to pick a tool. Let’s look at some FAQs about sales management software:
What is the most important tool for sales?
Is CRM a tool or strategy?
Which system is an example of a sales management system?
Which sales data software is the most widely used?
Other Sales Management Software Reviews
Here are a few other tools that may pique your interest.
Did you find the right tool for you?
One of the essential tools sales professionals are investing in today is sales management software. You can leverage this platform as a sales rep, sales manager, or Sales Ops manager to streamline your sales operations, optimize prospecting, and improve productivity for a bigger bottom line.
Looking for more information about improving your sales performance? Here are some of our other top posts:
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