7 Best Sales Management Tools in 2024

Time is of the essence when it comes to a sales team.

Contacting the right prospect at the right time. Sending a follow-up. Making a call. Hell, even research has to be done at the perfect time in order to win the deal.

With so much at stake, do sales teams need to waste their precious time over…. repetitive activities? Anyone would be frustrated!

Thanks to technology, we have sales management tools to take care of that!

*breathes a sigh of relief*

But what exactly is it? Well, let’s find out!

What is a Sales Management Tool?

Sales management tool is software designed to help sales teams manage and streamline their sales process. It gives sales reps insights into their pipeline and quotas, engagement metrics, and day-to-day activities.

Meanwhile, it helps sales managers take stock of sales pipeline and individual rep performance, plan rep onboarding, and provide data-driven coaching.

The main reasons why such tools are essential for sales teams are:

• These tools are data-driven, and so is sales.
• They allow you to experiment with different engagement or messaging strategies.
• They help you find the right channel and time to contact your prospects.

7 Best Sales Management Tools

Sales management software streamlines your sales process, increases team productivity, boosts sales revenue, makes forecasting easier, and improves sales funnel management. 

So, let’s look at some of the best sales management tools in 2024.

1. Pipedrive

Pipedrive is a lightweight CRM that helps sales teams manage and optimize their sales pipeline.

What sets Pipedrove apart is its emphasis on ease of use. As soon as you enter their platform, you’re pretty much ready to go - with their easy onboarding and helpful resources.

They offer a wide range of features to represent your pipeline visually (you can easily drag and drop deals between deal stages, too!). Pipedrive also integrates with various tools spanning the entire sales cycle, so you don’t have to worry about data silos.

Gershom Prakash, Account Executive at Freshworks, details his experience with Pipedrive, “We used Pipedrive in my previous organization. All customer details were added, making it a central place for customer information. It made the whole sales process organized and streamlined, which saved a lot of time and gave me better control of my leads.”

What we like the most: Kanban board view enables sales teams to visualize their day-to-day tasks, and tailor tasks with labels and custom fields.

Best suited for: Small and medium-sized teams

Pricing: Essential plan starts at $9.90 per user per month. They also offer a 14-day free trial.

2. Salesforce

Salesforce is the leading CRM, so it has become synonymous with the category CRM. “If [the deal] is not in Salesforce, it doesn’t exist” is a famous phrase used in sales.

They offer an all-in-one solution for different functions, including sales, marketing, service, and commerce. 

Their sales suite is powered by artificial intelligence to automate sales emails, conversation intelligence, and buyer engagement - making it an A-to-Z platform for sales teams worldwide!

However, some customers have stated one downside to Salesforce - it’s enormous and can take a while to grasp its navigation fully.

What we like the most: Extensive reporting that offers default and customization options facilitating granular performance evaluation.

Best suited for: Enterprise sales teams

Pricing: Starts at $25 per user per month. They offer a 30-day free trial as well.

3. Zoho CRM

Zoho CRM is a cloud-based CRM that offers a full suite of sales functionalities - from Salesforce automation to sales enablement.

With leads organized into views, Zoho CRM makes it easy for sales teams to manage customer data. It also integrates with Zoho One, Zoho’s ecosystem, making it highly functional and leaving no room for data silos.

Zoho CRM also offers sales forecasting and custom functions and applications.

What we like the most: Zia, Zoho CRM’s conversational sales assistant, understands commands and queries over text and voice.

Best suited for: Newly emerging businesses that need a system that will grow with them

Pricing: Starts at $23 per user per month. Offers a 15-day free trial.

4. SalesHandy

SalesHandy is a sales automation tool primarily focused on email sequences. Apart from SaaS, SalesHandy has also expanded its services to recruitment and IT services.

With features like cold email automation, hyper-personalization, deliverability suite, and unified inbox, SalesHandy helps sales teams scale their email outreach and ensures that emails land in the prospect’s inbox.

What we like the most: SalesHandy allows users to connect an unlimited number of emails at absolutely no extra cost!

Best suited for: Small to midsize companies focus on personalized email outreach

Pricing: Starts at $19 per month. Offers a 7-day free trial.

5. Freshsales

Freshsales is a sales-focused CRM that lets sales teams view and organize customer information based on demographics, previous interactions, and interests.

With powerful AI capabilities, Freshsales enables sales teams to prioritize leads based on scores. Also, it has features like call management, and email automation, and captures prospect activities. 

Integrations with various sales tools make consolidating data in one place easy. 

What we like the most: Smart suggestions from Freddy AI to detect OOO replies, manage calendars, and provide insights based on previous engagements and activities.

Best suited for: Fast-growing sales and marketing teams

Pricing: Starts at $15 per user per month, with a 21-day free trial.

6. Apollo.io

Apollo.io helps sales teams find, contact, and close ideal buyers. 

Being a data provider, Apollo empowers sales teams with 270M contacts and customizable options like personas, demographics, and industries. It also provides sales intelligence engagement capabilities with multichannel sequencing, task management, and meeting scheduling.

Shibikishore, Outbound Account Executive at FieldProxy, says, “I used Apollo for enriching (prospect) information, like what my prospects do and their verified numbers, and then putting them into a sequence. So, I bulk exported data from Apollo, imported it into my CRM, and then added them into a sequence.” 

What we like the most: Apollo provides a “best times” report highlighting the perfect time to email or call prospects - increasing call connects and email replies.

Best suited for: B2B companies focus on outbound sales

Pricing: Starts at $49 per user per month, with a 14-day free trial

7. LeadSquared

LeadSquared is a CRM tool designed for sales and marketing automation, providing services for EdTech, Insurance, Healthcare, and many more industries.

It helps sales teams automate mundane tasks and spend more time selling - with features like field force automation, detailed reports, integrations with 100+ platforms, and a mobile app with on-the-go services.

Sales managers can set up workflows to monitor progress and visualize the team's performance using dashboards. 

What we like the most: Filters, analysis, and tracking of call times and dialouts.

Best suited for: Companies with heavy focus on inbound leads

Pricing: Starts at $25 per user per month.

3 Bonus Tools to Empower Your Sales Process

We’ve got a taste of the various sales management software in the market today. But multiple other factors also play into the success of your sales strategy. 

Here are some tools that are must-haves to improve the efficiency of your sales strategy.

Starting with…

1. Storylane

Storylane is a no-code platform that builds interactive demos in minutes!

With interactive demos, give your prospects a taste of the product without them having to log in. Create a story and guide them through how to use your product - showcasing unique benefits and value.

These demos can also be shared via email for prospects to play around with. In fact, Upland saw a three times increase in sales velocity after employing Storylane’s interactive demos as sales leave behinds.

What we like the most: Guided demos are fully customizable, with HTML recording

Best suited for: Sales teams of all sizes to share tidbits of their product with prospects

Pricing: Offers a free plan with one published demo. Paid plan starts at $40 per user per month. 

2. Lavender

Reflecting the colorfulness and joy of their website, Lavender enables sales teams to fancify their emails.

With the power of artificial intelligence, Lavender writes, edits, scores, and personalizes emails - a complete email intelligence tool.

Shibikishore tells us how he uses Lavender, “Whenever I was writing an email to a C-Suite executive, I looked them up on Lavender. It gives them a personality score, telling me what kind of a person they are - for example, whether they’re straightforward or a storyteller. It’ll show me the exact wordings I need to use to make the email catchy.”

What we like the most: The personalization feature pulls up the prospect’s LinkedIn profile so sales reps can find relevant information.

Best suited for: Any team that wants to up their email game

Pricing: Plans start at $29 per month, with a 7-day free trial period.

3. Gamifier

Gamifier aims to increase CRM engagement by gamifying routine tasks.

Sales leaders can foster a more productive sales culture by stimulating healthy competition between sales reps and quitting micro-management.

It integrates with various sales tech stacks, enabling leaders to gamify over 300 sales metrics, like deal size and sales cycle length. 

The goal is to enhance team morale and elevate productivity.

What we like the most: Creative avatars and progress bars make everyday sales activities fun!

Best suited for: Sales teams of all shapes and sizes

Pricing: Starts at $5 per user per month.

How to Select the Right Sales Management Software

At the end of the day, it all comes down to the right tool for you. Choosing the right sales management software is crucial for streamlining processes, improving productivity, and boosting sales performance.

So, here are a few factors you need to take into consideration:

• Goals and Requirements: Define your sales goals and needs. Do you need a system to automate mundane tasks? Or do you need a system to track the performance of individual reps? What features are essential for your sales team? Answers these questions.
• Scalability: Business growth leads to growth in your sales team, customer count, and data. Pick a tool that will grow with your business.
• Customization: Each business is unique. So, you may need more than a one-size-fits-all solution to meet your requirements. Your tech needs to adapt to your individual use case.
• Automation: This goes without saying, but technology is here to take the load off your shoulders. Don’t choose a heavy-weight tool that doesn’t offer at least some automation capabilities.
• Integrations: Make sure your software integrates with your existing tools to make your workflows easier.
• User-friendly Interface: You don’t want to spend too much time understanding how to navigate the platform. Ensure the tool you pick is easy to understand and can be up and running in less than a day.
• Customer Support and Training: Consider a tool that provides adequate training and timely customer service assistance.
• Cost and ROI: Consider the total cost of ownership - subscription fees, implementation charges, and other hidden fees and compare it with the Return on Investment (ROI) to make a thoroughly informed decision.
• Company/Team Size: Different team sizes have different needs. For example, if you’re a small team or startup, your primary focus will be affordability and quick implementation. For medium-sized teams, balancing affordability and scalability is crucial. Comprehensive systems that can handle complex sales processes, large datasets, and integrations are essential for large teams. Moreover, if your team functions in a remote setting, collaboration features, and cloud-based availability are some things that should be considered.

In Summary

The perfect sales tech stack is a superhero toolkit for your sales cycles. From super-smart CRMs to cool email wizards to gamified helpers, these tools make sales more efficient and, dare we say, fun!

Armed with power-packed sales management tools, get down in the field and conquer your quotas like never before.

Q1. What is Sales Management CRM?

Sales teams employ sales management software or CRM (Customer Relationship Management) to streamline sales processes, manage sales pipeline, track prospect data and engagement, and automate administrative tasks to concentrate on more value-adding activities.

Q2. What is the Most Important Tool for Sales?

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is probably the most important tool in your sales arsenal. It serves as the backbone of customer engagement and business growth, providing a centralized location for managing and organizing customer data, interactions, and transactions.

Q3. What is the Difference Between CRM and Sales Management?

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Sales Management serve distinct yet interconnected purposes. CRM encompasses the big picture - taking into account all interactions with customers via sales, marketing, and customer success. Sales management focuses more on the sales part of the picture - dealing with activities like finding potential customers, managing deals, and tracking rep performance.