Work smarter and sell more using powerful sales management software. If you’re planning to purchase one, this guide can help you make an informed decision.
As a digital marketer for over a decade, I understand that sales management can be frustrating. Fortunately, there are handy tools available that can make the job simpler while maintaining accuracy.
Today, I’ll feature the top 7+ sales management software I’ve tested and explored, including their most popular features, pros, cons, and pricing tiers.
- What Is The Best Sales Management Software?
- 1. Pipedrive – Top Pick
- 2. Salesforce Sales Cloud – Best Value For Money
- 3. Nutshell – Most Features
- 4. Bitrix24 – Most Generous Free Tools
- 5. HubSpot Sales Hub™ – Feature-Rich Platform
- 6. Monday – Excellent Visual Management Aid
- 7. Copper – Best For Creating Multiple Sales Pipelines
- 8. Really Simple Systems – Effortless Organization
- Conclusion
What Is The Best Sales Management Software?
If you don’t have much time to spare, you can take a glimpse at my top 3 picks: Pipedrive, Salesforce, and Nutshell.
4.8 | 4.5 | 4.2 |
Best overall. Highly customizable features with company-wide sales monitoring. Starts at $12.50/month/user. | Best value for money. Centralized workspace for sales teams and with lead scoring features. Starts at $25/month/user. | Most features. Equipped with sales automation features and customizable dashboards. Starts at $19/month/user. |
Try Pipedrive | Try Salesforce | Try Nutshell |
If you want to know which software best suits your sales team, here you go.
1. Pipedrive – Top Pick
One-Stop Sales Management Software For Teams Of All Sizes [$12.50 a month/user]
Sales management software is one of the most important weapons in business.
Sales reps are its primary users. However, many companies developed the software to suit the needs of different types of users, like business owners, marketing teams, startups, etc.
Pipedrive is one of the few that remains to develop its platform entirely for salespeople.
This is intentional to prove one valuable point…
Sales management software isn’t just all about discovering sales opportunities and growing revenue. It’s also a great platform to train and guide your salespeople to do their job effectively.
They deliver it by equipping the platform with a company-wide viewing feature.
Here, you can monitor and measure your team member’s performance. You can easily identify missed targets per sales cycle and bottlenecks in the workflow.
But before you can measure anything, you need to set up a few things:
- Easy-to-achieve goals, both short and long-term
- Realistic expectations to keep your team motivated
- Build a sales dashboard that visually layout every stage of your sales pipeline
For the last part, Pipedrive provides a customizable dashboard with drag-and-drop functionality.
The best part of this feature is that you can add as many dashboards as you need. This is ideal if you want to separate the tracking of your team’s performance and sales metrics.
Inside the Pipedrive platform, you can also create your goals.
It will give you options on what type of entity and goal you want to create:
- Deal: Added, progressed, or won
- Activity: Added or competed
- Forecast: Revenue forecast
The sales reports are customizable too. You can apply custom filters to understand the pipeline metrics better or get deeper insights from the data you’ve collected.
Now that you streamline your team’s goals and activities, let’s move on to Pipedrive’s features to sort out leads.
One best to highlight is the AI chatbots. By default, it handles basic and common issues that can efficiently be dealt with even without human intervention.
They can converse in a human-like manner because its program uses text and voice.
With the correct setup, Pipedrive’s AI chatbots can also function as follows:
- Redirect prospects to the right salesperson
- Instant booking of meetings and appointments
- Familiarity and personalization
- Effortless lead gathering and management
- Qualify leads that are likely to convert
Pros And Cons Of Pipedrive
Pros | Cons |
Add-ons’ prices are designed per company and not per user | No assistance is available through phone |
Include an AI-powered Sales Assistant feature | A few triggers don’t always work. |
Supports 19 languages | Security dashboards, alerts, & rules are only available at the highest plan. |
Allows you to sign any documents electronically with no plugins needed |
Pipedrive Pricing Plan
You can purchase Pipedrive sales management software in a monthly or annual subscription plan.
There are four plans to choose from where each is designed per number of seats:
- Essential ($12.50/month/user): Provide you a feature usage limit of 3,000 for total open deals per company, 30 custom fields to create, and 15 insight reports per user. Also, provide access to Sales Assistant, API, and Webhooks.
- Advanced ($24.90/month/user): Provide you a feature usage limit of 10,000 for total open deals per company, 100 custom fields to create, and 30 insight reports per user. Also, provide access to workflow automation, smart contact data, and important fields.
- Professional ($49.90/mo./user): Provide you a feature usage limit of 100,000 for total open deals per company, 1,000 custom fields to create, and 150 insight reports per user. Also, it allows you to organize your goals and teams.
- Enterprise ($99/mo./user): Provide all features to help multi-teams collaborate efficiently and grow your revenue.
Choose the subscription plan that works for you. Start with the free 14-day trial to test drive your preferred plan.
2. Salesforce Sales Cloud – Best Value For Money
Flexible Sales Management System That Improves Sales Efficiency [$25 a month/user]
Getting the best result is one goal that every salesperson tries their hardest to achieve, and Salesforce Sales Cloud can help you make that happen.
It also provides a centralized workspace, a smart addition because it gives you a 360-degree view of every sales pipeline stage.
You can manage your accounts, contacts, leads, customer interactions, and opportunities inside the platform. It will instantly block duplicates so that your CRM data will maintain reliability and relevance.
When it comes to finding leads, Sales Cloud provides the following tools:
- Web-to-lead capture function
- Lead registration
- Campaign influence and management
- Email templates
- Sending mass email
A rule-based lead scoring is also added to ensure you can quickly determine how engaged your prospects are with your brand.
After the lead generation, you can use the Sales Cloud opportunity management section to track critical details of each sales deal (stage, status, quotes, etc.).
If you want to improve your sales cycle further, you can use its collaborative forecasting. This is a handy tool for planning the sales cycle and managing sales expectations.
To complete the package, Salesforce Sales Cloud is equipped with a sophisticated contact management solution and distribution channels.
If you’re interested in Salesforce-life platforms, take a look at the full guide on Salesforce Alternatives so you can choose platforms that offer similar or even more powerful features.
Pros And Cons Of Salesforce Sales Cloud
Pros | Cons |
Customizable dashboard and reports | Not suitable for microbusinesses and alike |
Easy to navigate interface | Offer expensive add-ons like additional technical and admin support. |
Well-integrated sales CRM boasts a 360-degree view of customers’ sales activities, interactions, and more. | Full access to sales forecasts is only available in Enterprise and Unlimited subscription plans. |
Salesforce Sales Cloud Pricing Plan
Salesforce Sales Cloud is offered in four editions. All are designed based on specific purposes:
- Essentials ($25/mo./user): Ideal for teams looking for all-in-one sales and support software. Also, you can add up to 10 users.
- Professional ($75/mo./user): On top of the Essentials features, you can capture web leads through registration, set up automatic rule-based lead scoring, and other CRM features.
- Enterprise ($150/mo./user): Provide you tools to forecast sales more accurately and get real-time sales insights using advanced reporting features.
- Unlimited ($300/mo./user): Provide all tools that help you sell faster. Unlimited CRM power and support are included.
If you want to expand your functionalities, you can purchase add-ons. Visit their pricing page and learn more about their add-on selections.
3. Nutshell – Most Features
All-In-One Sales & Marketing Software That Promotes Smart Selling [$19 a month/user]
Nutshell’s all-in-one sales and marketing software make it easier for all sales teams to sell more and close deals faster and efficiently. On top of that, it gives the utmost convenience by providing a customizable platform.
This is intended to ensure you can create a sales process that perfectly fits your team’s needs.
The platform also boasts a drag-and-drop feature and four board view styles. Together, they can maintain a clutter-free workspace while maintaining a clear view of the latest updates on your sales pipeline.
You can also integrate it with your favorite business applications to keep everything organized in one place.
Sales automation tools are provided to save your time from performing recurring, repetitive tasks.
Automation is a common feature of all sales management software. But Nutshell has a competitive edge because it automatically moves leads through its appropriate stage on the pipeline.
This is pretty handy because it can lessen your non-selling activities and advance every lead meeting your set goals.
You also have the option to program it to auto-assign leads to the right salesperson.
Another advantage of Nutshell lies in its reporting tools.
All of its reports display a simple design to layout your sales performance, team productivity, and other vital insights. It’s well-labeled, too, so your team members can quickly understand what the report is all about.
All reports are presentation-ready and available in Excel and Powerpoint formats.
Nutshell doesn’t stop from these features.
You can also use any of the following features to your advantage:
- Contact management
- Email marketing solutions (e.g., sequences, templates, etc.)
- Team Collaboration platform and tools
- Marketing feature to turn subscribers into paying customers
Pros And Cons Of Nutshell
Pros | Cons |
All plans include unlimited contacts & data storage | Add more customization options. |
Built-in intelligent search function & interactive map view | Limited integration for social media platforms (Facebook & Twitter only) & website creation (Unbounce) |
Easy to admin, no need to hire IT specialists | Make the setup process more straightforward to save new users time. |
Nutshell Pricing Plan
Nutshell’s sales features are offered in two simple subscription plans. It’s also designed per number of seats.
Here’s what you can expect from each:
- Starter ($19/mo./user): Provide you tools to help your team create contact management and communication timelines, customize a single sales pipeline, and more. You can also sync email and calendar, access to drag-and-drop pipeline board and interactive lead map, and more.
- Pro ($35/mo./user): On top of the Starter features, you can use sales automation, create unlimited pipelines, and more.
Nutshell also offers Marketing plans where you can add up to 60,000 marketable contacts. The price starts at $5/month for 100 contacts.
If you have more than 60,000 contacts, reach out to a sales representative to request a personalized price quote.
4. Bitrix24 – Most Generous Free Tools
Best Sales Management Software For Small Businesses [Free]
Bitrix24 may be a collaboration software by inception, but it provides tons of impressive sales management features and tools.
There are over 35 tools available, and all are free to use.
The main goal of Bitrix24 is to automate your entire sales process like deal tracking, pipeline management, and so on. With these being taken care of, your team can focus more on other essential tasks.
You’re also provided with customizable reports to ensure you’ll get the business insights that help you make an important sales decision.
As standard, Bitrix24 sales management software includes basic features like email marketing, creating professional-looking invoices and quotes, and more.
Bitrix24 sales management tools include a fully-featured CRM platform.
Inside the platform, you can perform the following tasks:
- Add, track, and manage leads, contacts, companies, and deals
- Sync calendars
- Book a schedule
- Organize and plan product catalog
- Import and export data
- Set up currencies and taxes
It also provides a sophisticated document management system for safekeeping important information and quick search.
If you intend to monitor your sales team’s performance, sales agent management (HR) is your go-to feature. The best thing about this feature is you can set realistic goals and expectations for each team member.
Pros And Cons Of Bitrix24
Pros | Cons |
Clean and organize user interface | No direct function to simplify mass marketing campaigns (require third-party integration) |
Promote smart collaboration | Audio conferencing needs improvement (it doesn’t always operate perfectly) |
Easy automation of tasks and processes | Customer support isn’t reliable at most times. |
Excellent integration with many business management apps |
Bitrix24 Pricing Plan
Bitrix24 sales management tools are completely free to use.
However, if you want to use its other features (e.g. collaboration, website builder, etc.), you can get any of its four subscription plans:
- Free: Start with the basic plan. Add unlimited users and enjoy 5 GB worth of storage space.
- Basic ($39/mo.): Add up to 5 users, use limited sales and marketing automation, get 24 GB storage space, and more.
- Standard ($79/mo.): Add up to 50 users, provide 100 GB storage space, and additional access to administration, marketing, and online documents features.
- Professional ($159/mo.): Add up to unlimited users and get all features that Bitrix24 offers. Also, provide additional tools for sales intelligence, business process automation, and HR.
All subscription plans are payable monthly, every 3 months, annual, or every two years.
Is your business recently shifting to remote working? If so, Bitrix24 offers a promo that provides a complete package of tools that your business will surely appreciate.
Save time and money.
5. HubSpot Sales Hub™ – Feature-Rich Platform
Best Sales Software For Nurturing Customer Relationships [Free | $45 a month]
HubSpot Sales Hub™ is a sales CRM software that can skyrocket your growth – from the first time you connect with a prospect to establishing a lasting relationship.
It can also function as a free CRM system at the same time so when it comes to being software solutions in maintaining sales and customer relationships, HubSpot takes the cake.
All its features and tools are neatly categorized based on their unique purpose. This is intended to prevent confusion.
Let’s start by connecting with your prospects.
Getting a good first impression is always the main priority when reaching out to prospects. This is why it’s essential to create an excellent email message that will pique your prospect’s interest.
If you have sales emails that have proven to convert, HubSpot allows you to turn them into templates so that you can re-use them and replicate its result.
This allows you to have a much more automated workflow when it comes to dealing with email campaigns and having the capacity to just copy and paste what works best already.
Once done personalizing the email, you can hit the send a test email button to see how it will be presented to your prospects.
Since CRM is one of its functionalities, expect to get excellent contact management and customer information profile systems. Here, you can get a clear context about your target prospects.
Other features you will find handy are the following:
- Email tracking
- Document management and tracking
- Conversation intelligence
- Call tracking and recording
Let’s assume that you successfully capture your prospects’ interest. Now let’s find out how HubSpot Sales Hub™ can establish lasting relationships.
Three popular features can make that possible, and one of them is the meeting scheduler.
This is a user-friendly free tool that allows your prospects to book meetings. Two options are provided:
- Share a group meeting link
- Use a round-robin meeting link
The latter option is ideal if you’re offering 24/7 support. Through this link, your prospect can meet the representative that works on the same schedule.
This tool also allows notifications and follow-ups to ensure that you don’t miss any meetings whether it be onboarding new business staff or just financial meetings with managers on sales data.
No matter what option you take, both will automatically save your prospects’ contacts in your database.
Once the schedule is set, it will sync to your Google or Office 365 calendar.
You can also use live chat to attend to your prospects’ concerns or inquiries quickly. HubSpot provides an intelligent routing system to ensure your prospects are directed to the right salesperson.
To complete your sales funnel, you can use any of the following tools:
- Sales management playbooks
- Generate quotes
- Sales analytics and reporting
- Mobile CRM app
- Pipeline management
- Account-based marketing
Adding into this, HubSpot also functions great for keeping customer data safe with plenty of security measures made to make sure that your account doesn’t easily get accessed. HubSpot provides you with two-factor authentication, SSO’s, and proactive password resets, allowing users more breathing room when it comes to account security.
If you want a similar platform like HubSpot, take a look at HubSpot’s alternative platforms that are quite similar to HubSpot’s features and tools.
Pros And Cons Of HubSpot Sales Hub™
Pros | Cons |
Easy connection to a website for quick identification of leads | Cost can easily pile up when expanding its functions |
Customizable pipelines to quickly gather the information you need | Must improve the search function |
The free plan allows up to 1 million contacts to add (15 million for all paid plans). | Reporting features aren’t that impressive compared to its competitors. |
HubSpot services & support are available in 8 languages & for all Sales Hub users. |
HubSpot Sales Hub™ Pricing Plan
HubSpot designed all its subscription plans with one goal in mind – only pay for what you need. They deliver it by creating three customizable plans:
- Starter ($45/mo.): Two users are included in this plan. A fee of $23/month will be charged for every user you add.
- Professional ($450/mo.): Designed for five users. You can add more for $90/month/ user.
- Enterprise ($1,200/mo.): You can add up to 10 users. You can expand it further for an additional $120/month/user.
All paid subscription plans provide a storage limit for up to 15 million contacts and 1:1 technical support.
As of writing, HubSpot offers three add-on features:
- API limit increase (1,000,000 calls): $500/month
- Reporting limit increase: $200/month for every one limit increase; not available for Starter plan
- Transcription limit increase (400 transcription hours): $250/month; not available for Starter and Professional plans
Sign up for a free account now and get started in closing deals more effectively.
6. Monday – Excellent Visual Management Aid
Intuitive Sales Management Software For Every Budget [Free | $8 a month/user]
Monday may not be a full-fledged sales management software, but it delivers impressive results for your sales team.
It’s developed flexible to ensure it can efficiently perform the following processes:
- Lead management
- Pipeline management
- Sales order tracking
- Lead handover
- Track monthly targets
Its creators also apply Monday’s outstanding project management features in building the dashboard. You can plan, organize, and track your team member’s workflows and sales pipelines inside it.
The dashboard consists of a customizable board. You can start from scratch or choose from its hundreds of ready-made templates.
As your work progress, your dashboard can accumulate tons of project boards.
Monday makes it easier for you to organize by choosing the primary purpose of your board upon creation. You can even set its privacy settings so you can control who can access it.
Not a fan of performing manual, repetitive tasks?
Don’t worry, you can set up automation to get everything done quicker and human error-free. You have the option to create your own or choose a ready-made automation recipe.
When you create your own, make sure to add a trigger, a condition, and an action.
Monday provides a walkthrough guide so that new users can do it within seconds.
You can also get a high-level overview of your sales progress through your dashboard by setting the suitable view styles for the board. There are nine view styles available, and recently, Monday added a new one called cards.
As standard, the cards display the campaign owner, conversations, and content status.
But of course, you can change it to fit your team’s workflows. You can also add a group title and date created.
At the same time, Monday.com also serves as a project management software. If you’re interested, take a look at how Monday.com goes toe-to-toe with Trello.
Burkhard Berger
Monday recently rolled out new updates, and one that stands out is the drag-and-drop function in the form builder for easy customization. They also added workdocs and Google Calendar two-way integration.
Pros And Cons Of Monday
Pros | Cons |
Modern interface design that’s reasonably easy to use | Cost can pile up quickly when adding more seats. |
Include customizable templates | No automatic copying of data is present when linking boards |
Offer discounts for students and non-profit organizations | Limited field options |
Monday Pricing Plan
Monday’s powerful solutions are offered in one free plan and four subscription plans. All plans allow you to create unlimited boards, documents, and workflows.
Also, the pricing plans are designed based on the number of seats (3 to 200+) to add and billing period – monthly or annual.
Here’s what you can expect to get from each plan:
- Individual: Start by collaborating with up to 2 team members and access 200+ templates and mobile apps (iOS and Android).
- Basic ($8/mo./seat): On top of the Individual features, you can also provide read-only access to unlimited viewers and add unlimited items within your boards.
- Standard ($10/mo./seat): Provide access to timeline, Gantt, and marketing calendar views. Create 250 automation actions per month, combine 5 boards in one dashboard, and more.
- Pro ($16/mo./seat): Ideal for teams that handle complex workflows.
- Enterprise (Custom pricing): Recommended for every team and business that requires enterprise-grade features. You need to contact a sales representative to request a personalized price quote.
Create your free account now and explore what Monday sales management software can do for your team.
7. Copper – Best For Creating Multiple Sales Pipelines
Sales Management Software With Zero Data Entry [$25 a month/user]
Sales management software isn’t just about discovering sales opportunities, quickly closing deals, and building effective sales processes.
It’s also a great platform to train your salespeople to become more organized and make smarter sales decisions. This happens to be precisely what Copper‘s creators have in mind when developing their sales management platform.
They design an intuitive interface that has similarities with G Suite apps.
You are probably wondering why. But the answer is simple… ease of use.
Therefore, you can expect that it won’t take you long hours (only 8 minutes or less) to learn the ins and outs of Copper.
Upon signing up for an account, you’ll immediately be redirected to your dashboard.
A walkthrough guide pop-up will automatically appear to help you get started. Follow the five steps, and you’re good to go.
Copper sales management software is renowned for providing you with an organized visual display for your sales process. It’s made possible by providing you with customizable sales pipelines.
At a glance, your project board features a Kanban-style system for flexibility and better visibility.
If you want to move any of the boards, simply drag and drop each to your preferred sales process. Visual status indicators are also provided to identify opportunities status quickly.
You can also add your Gmail account to Copper to receive alerts whenever your contacts open your email message.
Building, customizing, and managing multiple pipelines are also one strength of Copper sales management software. You can efficiently do all these under pipeline management.
View your business as it grows by creating a sales forecast and activity reports.
Recently, Copper added more reporting tools. A few of the tools included are listed as follows:
- Report templates
- Custom dashboards and reports
- Cross-record reporting
- Report sharing
On top of the sales management features and tools, you can also leverage Copper’s CRM solutions. A few of these are listed as follows:
- Lead management
- Opportunity management
- Forecast management
Pros And Cons Of Copper
Pros | Cons |
The intuitiveness of the platform is similar to G Suite apps. | Limited native integration options for business apps |
Easy to use & setup | Response time of customer support needs to get quicker |
Fairly flexible database | No available phone support |
Copper Pricing Plan
Copper is also offered in three monthly subscription plans (all billed annually):
- Basic ($25/mo./user): It provide a 3-seat limit and 2,000 contacts.
- Professional ($59/mo./user): No set seat limit, and you can add up to 15,000 contacts (people and leads).
- Business ($119/mo./user): You can store unlimited contacts and get complete access to all Copper’s features.
You can test your desired subscription plan for free by signing up for its 14-day trial version. Or, contact a sales representative and request a free demo.
8. Really Simple Systems – Effortless Organization
CRM Sales Management Software With Solid Contact & Pipeline Management Solutions [Free | $14 a month/user]
Here is another sales CRM software that can help your sales teams focus more on tracking customers’ and leads’ interactions at every stage of the sales process.
As the name implies, Really Simple Systems makes every process simpler so that your team can do their job right and stress-free. It comes with various tools designed for effortless organization, and one great to highlight is its centralized hub called the sales dashboard.
The dashboard includes standard widgets for you to start with. You can add, edit, or delete any of the widgets to fit your team’s needs.
Once you’re done setting it up, you can start tracking and monitoring all the details and interactions of your leads, customers, and even suppliers. You can also sync contacts from your email through integration (Microsoft Outlook 365, Gmail, etc.).
To stay up-to-date with all the tasks, activities, and opportunities within your team/group, you can set up your calendars.
If you have tasks added to your Google calendar, you can easily sync them into your account.
Really Simple Systems also has an opportunity management section. Here, you can track and manage all your potential sales and closed deals.
This feature also includes opportunity probability and weighting features to help you determine your chance of winning a sales deal.
The opportunity probability allows you to set an estimated percentage to represent your chance of winning and losing a sales deal. You can always start with 10% upon adding a new opportunity and then change it as it progresses through the sales funnel.
While the opportunity weighting predicts your potential sales, multiply the opportunity value by the probability of closing then you’ll get your actual sales figure.
You can start creating a quotation and send it directly to your customers or prospects when you create an opportunity.
Really Simple Systems provide you with a customizable template so that you can make a professional and standard design. All your team needs to do is upload and add the following:
- Company logo
- Organization details
- Bank account
- Taxation information
There are more features included in the software. Feel free to explore it.
Pros And Cons Of Really Simple Systems
Pros | Cons |
The platform is designed for remote working as well. | Adding custom chart widgets for dashboards is only available at the highest plan. |
Automatically adjust the screen view when accessed on mobile browsers | Customer support provided will depend on your purchased subscription plan. |
Effortless creation and management of sales pipeline |
Really Simple Systems Pricing Plan
The software’s simplicity is also reflected on its subscription plans. Currently, there are four plans available, and it started with a free plan.
The free plan is created to support up to 2 users and includes the following limits:
- 100 company records
- Unlimited contacts
- 100 MB document storage space
If you want higher limits, you can choose from the three paid plans:
- Starter ($14/mo./user): Provide all free features with an increased limit for company records (1,000) and document storage (1 GB).
- Professional ($30/mo./user): Include all Starter features with an increased limit for company records (5,000) and document storage (5 GB).
- Enterprise ($46/mo./user): Unlimited limits provided and complete access to basic and advanced features.
Really Simple Systems also offer add-on tools for marketing and service. Visit its pricing page and take a closer look at each CRM tool available.
Conclusion
Managing pipelines efficiently, extending and fast-tracking your sales cycles, and building lasting relationships are just a few of the benefits you can get using top-quality sales management software.
Having all these factors in mind, I will stick with my top pick, Pipedrive, as the best software to use.
Ease of use and value for money are my top reasons. It’s a plus that it also offers:
- Unlimited sales pipelines to create
- Over 215 integration apps are available
- Lastly, it supports multiple languages
Sales professionals are the primary users of this software. However, Pipedrive developed its platform to suit the needs of teams of all sizes and types.
Feel free to explore all the sales management software mentioned above. Particularly those that offer a free plan or trial version.