Software can help companies manage their customer relationships and inbound leads. Whether you are looking for customer relationship management (CRM) or marketing automation software, this guide will help you choose which type of software to use based on your business objectives.
The benefits of using a management software have long only been heard by big name companies with big budgets. But with the PerceptivePlan interface we recognize that small companies are just as worthy. We are an affordable software with a user-friendly approach. Believe it or not, small businesses too can use management software to overcome the typical traffic jams that most of today’s businesses face.
Cloud-based service costs can add up. So how to get the most for your money?
Selling Management Software
1. Close
Best Feature: Seamless communication from all touchpoints, automatically recorded
Best for: SMBs, startups, and remote sales teams
We built Close to be the ultimate sales management software tool for small and medium businesses who want to close more deals in less time. This means we’ve focused on creating a clean UI that highlights the features your sales team uses every day to contact leads and close deals.
Close combines a powerful CRM with built-in calling, emailing, and automation to help speed up and improve your sales team’s productivity, and sales leaderboards to motivate your team. It also includes powerful reporting features to keep you on track to hit your sales KPIs, as well as live coaching features. If you’re a high-volume sales team focused on closing deals, Close is the tool for you.
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2. Pipedrive
Best Feature: Simple interface that’s easy to learn
Best for: Very small teams
Pipedrive tries to cut out the clutter and provide a simple selling experience. The software is built around a customizable pipeline that visually represents your leads as they move through your funnel.
For outreach, you’re limited to just a built-in inbox on the cheapest pricing plans, with a built-in caller only available on Professional and Enterprise plans. However, Pipedrive integrates with a number of third-party apps to bring in the functionality you need to run your sales team.
See how Pipedrive stacks up against Close.
3. Hubspot
Best Feature: Integrated marketing and sales tools
Best for: Medium to large sales teams
Hubspot is one of the easiest tools to get started with, offering a free (albeit limited) CRM software sales management in small teams. In their free offering, Hubspot automatically logs your sales activities (including emails, calls, and meetings) and gives you a high-level overview of your full pipeline.
However, while it’s a good standalone CRM, it quickly becomes overly expensive (and complicated) to make Hubspot work beyond that, plus it’s considered a bit more of a marketing tool at the end of the day. With no bulk email sending or inbound calls and an expensive “setup” fee, Hubspot isn’t the best choice for dedicated or high-volume sales teams, despite having a free CRM offering that attracts a lot of early sales teams.
See how two top sales management software tools compare: Hubspot vs Close.
4. Salesforce
Best Feature: Powerful integrated AI features
Best for: Enterprise sales teams
It’s impossible not to mention Salesforce in any roundup of cloud-based sales management software. As a major player in the space, Salesforce provides pretty much every feature you could ever want (at a price) from calling to email to CRM to in-depth reporting and sales forecasting.
Unfortunately, after years of adding features and plans, Salesforce’s offering has become incredibly complicated and its ease of use has suffered. Pricing is complex and there are hidden costs and add-ons, even for some of the most basic features. Due to its complicated nature, you’ll most likely need weeks with a dedicated consultant to get your team up to speed and ready to work.
Check out some of the major differences when comparing Salesforce vs Close.
5. Freshworks
Best Feature: Integrated live chat features
Best for: This type of sales team (medium, enterprise, etc.)
Freshworks is all about leads. Their main dashboard is built around moving people through your sales funnel and displays information like demographics, social profiles, touchpoints, and notes and info on any conversations you’ve had with them.
This sales management tool is also more than just a CRM, however. Freshworks CRM integrates calling and emailing and even has some automation options that allow you to schedule emails, create templates, and follow up with your prospects. Plus, it’s built to integrate seamlessly with the entire Freshworks ecosystem, including tools for success, marketing, customer service, help desks, and more.
6. Ambition
Best Feature: Seamless communication from all touchpoints, automatically recorded
Best for: SMBs, startups, and remote sales teams
Ambition is a sales team management software that allows you to track your reps’ activity better and even gamifies the sales process. This product integrates with your CRM and other tools to pull rep KPIs and turns them into actionable insights for the whole team.
This is a great tool for remote sales teams that miss the buzz of the sales floor and are looking to bring that energy back to their team. Sales managers can set up dashboards, build leaderboards, generate healthy competition with sales games, develop coaching plans, create rep scorecards, and more.
7. Copper
Best Feature: Built to work seamlessly with G Suite
Best for: Teams that are highly email-focused
Copper is a CRM that works inside your Gmail inbox, meaning the UI is easy to get started with for anyone who is currently using G Suite. Their Projects feature is also great for agencies and other teams who continue to work with clients after the deal is closed.
Where this CRM software for sales management fails to reach the bar set by its peers is with calling: there are no integrated calling features in Copper. If your sales team is heavily-focused on calling, this probably isn’t the software for you.
8. Troops.ai
Best Feature: Automated workflows to deliver the right data to the right people
Best for: Remote sales teams with lots of deals
This sales team management software integrates directly with your favorite CRMs and communication tools, and helps you connect the dots between your data and your team. Troops gives your team access to real-time updates and insights without switching to another window. It also allows you to automate important workflows to get more done in less time.