12 Best Sales Management Tools for 2022
Jess served on the founding team of a successful B2B startup and has used a wide range of sales and marketing tools over the course of her 15-year career. She uses her industry knowledge to deliver the best answers to your questions about sales tools and sales management.
Bianca is a staff writer at Fit Small Business who specializes in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software.
This article is part of a larger series on Sales Management.
Sales management tools provide business owners and sales managers with actionable sales process insights, helping them make better decisions and identify areas for improvement. These software or digital programs come in different forms, like customer relationship management (CRM) systems, project management tools, communication platforms, databases, dashboard builders, and sales engagement software.
In this article, we reviewed dozens of applications and narrowed down the list to the 12 best sales management tools based on pricing, ease of use, features, mobile access, and quality of customer support.
Top Sales Management Tools | Category | Best For |
|---|---|---|
CRM | Organizations wanting a sales management platform with team management and rep performance dashboards | |
CRM | Businesses wanting a visual tool to help managers and reps quickly determine the deal status | |
CRM | Businesses requiring a customer relationship management (CRM) solution with activity, forecasting, and trendline reports | |
Sales engagement tool | Teams needing a lead management platform that supports web-based calling and scripting | |
Sales engagement software | Teams wanting a web platform for managing and reporting on document and email engagements | |
Revenue operations software | People wanting an analytics-focused tool that inspects pipeline health and tracks sales goals | |
Knowledge management tool | Sales leaders looking to create an online knowledge base to supplement team performance | |
Sales coaching software | Managers wanting gamification software to create custom games and contests that motivate reps | |
Sales dashboard builder | Sales teams that want to showcase leaderboards on TVs for large group visibility | |
Database and business contact provider | Sales managers who want to provide reps with verified contact lists for prospecting | |
Project management tool | Sales managers needing a multi-purpose tool for training and communicating with reps | |
Business phone software | Organizations wanting a phone line solution that supports simultaneous call handling and reporting |
1. HubSpot Sales Hub
HubSpot Sales Hub
What We Like
- Contact management
- Contact website activity tracking
- Deals and opportunities
- CPQ (Configure, price, and quote)
- Voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP) calls
- Chatbots
- Sales analytics and forecasting
- Mobile app
- Workflow automation
- Daily multi-channel support
What's Missing
- HIDDEN
Pricing at a Glance*
- Starter: Starts at $45 per month for 2 users
- Professional: Starts at $450 per month for 5 users
- Enterprise: Starts at $1,200 per month for 10 users
- Additional user: Ranges from $23 to $120 per user, per month
*Based on annual billing. Monthly pricing is available at slightly higher rates.
HubSpot Sales Hub is a sales CRM built into the HubSpot platform. It offers contact management, sales engagement, configure, price, and quote (CPQ), and sales analytics tools. It also supports team management and provides sales managers with real-time data on team and agent productivity. Reports on reps’ meetings, calls, emails, deals, and tasks can be exported and used for coaching sessions or performance reviews.
Report showing productivity by sales rep (Source: HubSpot)
For sales managers who do not need team management features, individual rep dashboards, or workflow automation, HubSpot’s free CRM is good enough. Read our HubSpot CRM review to see if it’s a good fit.
HubSpot’s free tool includes reporting dashboards, sales activity tracking, and live chat, as well as contact, account, lead, and deal management. It also supports an unlimited number of users, making it a great option for small sales teams. In fact, it is one of our top choices for the best CRMs for small businesses.
2. Pipedrive
Pipedrive
What We Like
- Contact and activity management
- Lead and deal management
- In-app dialer
- Document tracking
- Workflow automation
- Visual dashboards
- Product catalog
- Artificial intelligence (AI)-powered Sales Assistant
- Mobile app
- 24/7 multi-channel customer support
What's Missing
- HIDDEN
Pricing at a Glance*
- Essential: $14.90 per user, per month
- Advanced: $24.90 per user, per month
- Professional: $49.90 per user, per month
- Enterprise: $99 per user, per month
- Free trial: 14 days
Add-ons:
- LeadBooster (lead generation tool set): Starts at $32.50 per company, per month
- Web Visitors (website tracking): Starts at $41.00 per company, per month
*Based on annual billing. Monthly pricing is available at slightly higher rates, except for the Enterprise plan.
Pipedrive is a simple CRM that uses visual sales pipeline tools to find the information you need quickly. It features drag-and-drop Kanban boards that are easy to navigate. You can generate CRM reports on sales activities, revenue forecasts, and expected commissions. It also has live dashboards with real-time sales metrics and workflows that allow you to automatically assign leads and tasks to your reps.
Kanban-style boards give users a simple visual representation of deal statuses and assigned tasks (Source: Pipedrive)
Visit our Pipedrive review to gain in-depth knowledge of its features and capabilities.
3. Freshsales
Freshsales
What We Like
- Contact and account management
- Deal and pipeline management
- Product catalog
- CRM renaming modules
- Website integration
- Built-in dialer
- AI-powered sales assistant
- Role-based access
- Mobile app
- 24/5 multi-channel customer support
What's Missing
- HIDDEN
Pricing at a Glance*
- Free: Unlimited number of users
- Growth: $15 per user, per month
- Pro: $39 per user, per month
- Enterprise: $69 per user, per month
- Freshsales Suite (Sales + Marketing): Ranges from $0 to $69 per user, per month
- Free trial of paid plans: 21 days
Add-ons:
- CPQ: $19 per user, per month
- Workflows: $5
- Phone credits: Starts at $25
*Based on annual billing. Monthly pricing is available at slightly higher rates.
Freshsales is an easy-to-use CRM with robust contact management, sales automation, and cloud telephony features. This platform also includes reporting on sales activities, sales forecasts, and business trends. Its artificial intelligence (AI)-powered sales assistant, Freddy AI, provides you with deal insights, predictions, and recommendations for your next actions. It also automates tasks like lead generation and qualification.
Freshsales’ sales forecasting feature (Source: Freshsales)
Take a look at our Freshsales review for more information on its features and benefits.
4. VanillaSoft
VanillaSoft
What We Like
- Lead management
- Queue-based lead routing
- Scripting
- Real-time activity dashboard
- Customized web reporting
- Customized email templates and drips
- Appointment setting
- Web lead integration
- Team-based multi-level selling
- Phone and email support (M-F 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern Time and Sat 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern Time)
What's Missing
- HIDDEN
Pricing at a Glance*
- $80 per user, per month ($100 for the first user)
Add-ons:
- Dialing: $30 per user, per month
- Call recording: $30 per user, per month
- VoIP: $33 per user, per month
- SmartCaller ID: $2 to $4 per area code, per month
*Based on monthly billing. Annual pricing is also available at slightly lower rates.
VanillaSoft is a sales engagement and lead management platform that simplifies sales calls using dynamic call scripts. It allows sales managers to coach reps using phone calls with prospects and customers. You can create custom scripts reps can follow to provide information or respond to customer objections. This platform also offers lead and routing management, a real-time activities dashboard, and custom reporting.
Scripting example (Source: VanillaSoft)
5. Saleshandy
Saleshandy
What We Like
- Email scheduling
- Unlimited email open tracking
- Team activity tracking
- Mail merge
- Email templates
- Campaign performance report
- Email analytics data
- Email support
What's Missing
- HIDDEN
Pricing at a Glance*
- Free: 1 user
- Regular: $9 per user, per month
- Plus: $22 per user, per month
- Enterprise: $49 per user, per month
- Free trial: 14 days for Plus plan
Add-on:
- Email verification: $20 per 10,000 recipients
*Based on annual billing. Monthly pricing is available at slightly higher rates.
Saleshandy is a sales engagement platform that helps sales leaders manage and view reports on shared content, documents, and email engagements. It provides you with the number of views, average view length, and total visit length. You can use this data to coach sales reps on the right documents to use to stimulate the interest of their prospects.
Team activity dashboard (Source: Saleshandy)
6. Clari
Clari
What We Like
- Forecasting
- Pipeline management
- Revenue intelligence
- Sales analytics
- Automated workflows
- Account engagement data
- Email and phone support
What's Missing
- HIDDEN
Pricing at a Glance
- Custom pricing and free demo available upon request
Clari is a revenue operations management platform that provides sales managers with granular reporting on pipeline health and sales forecasts. This analytics-focused tool allows you to track sales goals, generate reports, and see where deals get stuck or lost in the pipeline. It uses AI and automation to provide sales and marketing engagement data so you can better understand where your team should focus their efforts.
Revenue intelligence (Source: Clari)
7. Guru
Guru
What We Like
- Knowledge card manager
- Content migration
- Duplicate detection
- AI-powered suggestions
- Knowledge card analytics
- Q&A with internal experts
- External access
- Ticket linking
- Mobile app and browser extension
- Daily multi-channel customer support (8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern Time)
What's Missing
- HIDDEN
Pricing at a Glance*
- Free: Up to 3 Core users and unlimited Light users**
- Builder: $10 per user, per month
- Expert: $20 per user, per month
- Enterprise: Contact sales for custom pricing
- Free trial: 30 days for Builder plan
Add-on:
- Additional users for Free plan: $5 per user, per month
*Based on annual billing. Monthly pricing is available at slightly higher rates.
**A Light user is a limited functionality role that has read-only capacity. Core users have access to the full suite of Guru’s features.
Guru is knowledge management software that supports employee-facing knowledge bases that sales teams can use for training and serves as a basis for performance standards. It features knowledge cards with searchable content about company information, plus AI-powered suggestions about topics related to open cards. It also provides sales managers with analytics on how often specific users access the content.
Collections, Boards, Groups, and Cards help keep company information organized (Source: Guru)
8. Ambition
Ambition
What We Like
- Automated sales alerts and insights
- Sales performance management
- Sales gamification
- Goal tracking
- Rep scorecards
- Leaderboards
- Individual and team coaching
- Help center
What's Missing
- HIDDEN
Pricing at a Glance*
- Recognize: $570 per month
- Gamify: $750 per month
- Coach: $750 per month
- Pro: $1,200 per month
- Enterprise: Contact sales for pricing
*Based on annual billing for 30 seats. Monthly pricing is available at slightly higher rates.
Ambition is a sales management and gamification software that allows sales managers to create custom games and contests that incentivize sales reps. You can customize automated scorecards, helping reps focus on the sales activities that drive them toward their sales goals. You can also attach coaching programs to key metrics and see how they impact the overall performance of a rep or the whole team.
Sales management dashboard provides real-time insights into individual and team performance (Source: Ambition)
9. Geckoboard
Geckoboard
What We Like
- 60+ code-free data sources
- Real-time data
- Shareable dashboard links
- Send scheduled dashboard snapshots to Slack
- Access restriction
- TV or wall-mounted screen display
- Mobile-friendly
- 24/5 email and chat support
What's Missing
- HIDDEN
Pricing at a Glance*
- Free: 1 spreadsheet-powered dashboard + 1 user
- Starter: $20 per month (1 dashboard + 1 user)
- Team: $125 per month ( 5 dashboards + 10 users)
- Team Plus: $219 per month (10 dashboards + 20 users)
- Company: $479 per month (50 dashboards + 100 users)
- Free trial of paid plans: 14 days
*Based on annual billing. Monthly pricing is available at slightly higher rates.
Geckoboard offers a dashboard software that lets small business sales teams customize their own leaderboards and share them on large-screen displays for group visibility. It allows sales managers to showcase top-performing reps within a given time frame. This also motivates other reps to improve their performance to maintain standard team performance.
Group widgets on the company dashboards show the relationship between metrics (Source: Geckoboard)
10. UpLead
UpLead
What We Like
- Lead prospector
- Data enrichment
- Chrome extension
- Email verification
- Email finder
- Lead qualification
- Email and phone support
What's Missing
- HIDDEN
Pricing at a Glance*
- Essentials: $74 per month (2,040 credits per year)**
- Plus: $149 per month (4,800 credits per year)
- Professional: $299 per month (12,000 credits per year)
- Enterprise: Contact sales for custom pricing
- Free trial: 1 user + 5 credit valid for 7 days
Add-on:
- Additional credit: Ranges from 40 cents to 60 cents per credit
*Based on annual billing. Monthly pricing is available at slightly higher rates, except for the Enterprise plan.
**1 credit is equivalent to 1 contact downloaded to Excel or exported to your CRM. You can also use 1 credit to unlock that contact’s email and mobile number.
UpLead is a business-to-business (B2B) business contact provider that gives sales organizations access to a searchable database of verified contacts and leads for prospecting. This is a great sales enablement tool for teams who want to export their new contacts to spreadsheets or CRM software. You also pay only for the leads that match your prospect list, allowing you to maximize the use of your credits.
The Prospector shows a list of leads and prospects in real time (Source: UpLead)
11. monday.com
monday.com
What We Like
- Unlimited boards, documents, and seats
- File storage
- Data dashboards
- Activity log
- Shareable forms
- Task automation
- Time tracking
- Work performance insights
- Mobile app
- 24/7 phone and email support
What's Missing
- HIDDEN
Pricing at a Glance*
- Individual: Free (up to 2 seats)
- Basic: $24 per month (3 seats)
- Standard: $30 per month (3 seats)
- Pro: $48 per month (3 seats)
- Enterprise: Contact sales for custom pricing
- Free trial of paid plans: 14 days
- Additional seat: Ranges from $8 to $16 per seat, per month
*Based on annual billing. Monthly pricing is available at slightly higher rates.
monday.com is a multi-purpose project management tool that allows sales managers to consolidate training and communication with their reps in a centralized platform. It also lets you manage tasks, leads, contacts, deals, and team performance. Aside from that, it features email templates, phone scripts, and product notes you can use to create shareable knowledge bases.
monday.com’s team collaboration tools (Source: monday.com)
12. Nextiva
Nextiva
What We Like
- Unlimited voice and video calling
- Auto-attendant and toll-free numbers
- Unlimited internet fax
- Team calendar
- Voice analytics and voicemail transcription
- Sales productivity and pipeline management
- Automated surveys
- Customer journey analytics
- Mobile app
- 24/7 multi-channel customer support
What's Missing
- HIDDEN
Pricing at a Glance*
- Essential: Starts at $23.95 per user, per month
- Professional: Starts at $27.95 per user, per month
- Enterprise: Starts at $37.95 per user, per month
- Ultimate: Starts at $67.95 per user, per month
- Free trial of Essential plan: 7 days
*Based on annual billing. Monthly pricing is available at slightly higher rates, while two-year and three-year contracts are available at lower rates.
Nextiva is a business communications platform that provides sales companies with a phone line solution with call handling and reporting capabilities. Managers can play back calls and view call analytics to identify opportunities for coaching or training. This software also offers call routing, voicemail, fax, auto-attendant, voicemail transcription, and business texting features.
Call pop feature displays a customer’s information and interaction history whenever they call {Source: Nextiva)
To learn more about how this communication platform can help your business, read our Nextiva reviews page.
How We Evaluated the Best Sales Management Tools
Sales managers’ responsibilities typically include sales planning, sales analysis, implementing and supervising strategies, making decisions, and establishing sales quotas. They are also in charge of hiring and onboarding new staff, motivating the reps in their team, and identifying opportunities for coaching. Sales management tools help manage and automate some of these responsibilities and provide reliable data needed to make informed sales decisions.
There is no single best tool that helps you accomplish all of your sales tasks, so you might need more than one software application. To narrow down the list to the top 12 sales management tools, we evaluated several applications based on the following criteria:
- Pricing: We evaluated the subscription options offered by each provider in our list, including the availability of a free plan and monthly billing option. We also considered the costs of its paid options, customizations, onboarding, and maintenance fees.
- Customization: We looked at the customization options offered by each solution. These features include customizable reports, fields, pipelines, and integrations.
- Ease of use: The best sales management software does not require technical skills to understand and use. Moreover, they should have an intuitive interface. Each solution on this list was evaluated on how easy it is to set up and operate, as well as to integrate with other apps.
- Mobile apps: Most teams prefer sales tools that have mobile apps or mobile-optimized websites. This way, they can monitor the status of their sales processes, view reports, or engage with their team even when they are out of the office.
- Reporting and analytics: Sales leaders need to make decisions based on reliable data, insights, and recommendations. We checked each solution to see how robust their reporting tools are and how easy it is to pull data from a variety of sources.
- Customer support: We assessed the solutions to see the quality of help and support they offer. Most of them provide access to self-help resources, but a few stand out by offering support 24/7. Some include customer support via phone, live chat, and email during business hours.
Bottom Line
Sales management tools come in varying forms, but they all help businesses monitor sales activities, performance, pipeline health, and trends. They also facilitate easier communication within the team and centralized access to company databases. In addition, they automate repetitive tasks to create a seamless sales process and ensure nothing falls through the cracks.
You Might Also Like…
- Ready to formulate your own sales objectives and strategies? Follow these steps in creating a sales plan and download our free template.
- Want to know the secret to a successful sales team? Read our tips for training a high-performing sales team.
- Check out our article on how to get more referrals to generate new customers for your business.
