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However, before we begin with the list of top tools, we need to get one thing out of the way:
CRMs Alone May Not Solve Your Sales Pipeline Management Needs
While CRMs are key in managing sales activities, they often fall short of addressing the full scope of sales pipeline management.
Their limited customization can be restrictive for businesses with specific or changing needs. Additionally, the constant need for accurate data entry is time-consuming in fast-paced environments.
Moreover, as CRM pipeline management tools typically focus on customer relationship management, they may not effectively address different stages of the sales cycle in detail.
This can lead to critical gaps, with some CRMs lacking in-depth analytics for comprehensive sales forecasting, pushing sales teams to rely on inefficient methods like spreadsheets.
Also, the complexity of some CRM interfaces can hinder efficient data management, leading to outdated or inaccurate data. For a sales manager within a smaller business, the resources needed for CRM implementation and upkeep can be daunting.
Overall, while CRMs are vital, they often require supplemental tools and strategies to address specific sales pipeline challenges effectively — which is why you might need to consider investing in a dedicated pipeline management tool instead.
With that out of the way, let’s begin!
Top 17 Sales Pipeline Management Tools for Success in 2024
Here are the top pipeline management tools to propel your business toward success:
1. Scratchpad
Scratchpad, a transformative Chrome extension for Salesforce, dramatically enhances the capabilities of your sales teams and revenue operations.
It provides unmatched insights into sales forecasting, sales rep performance, and lead behavior, enabling you to quickly identify potential issues, offer more effective coaching, and achieve your goals with exceptional accuracy.
Key features
- Enhance efficiency with advanced views, simplifying field, object, or next step modifications in Salesforce.
- Create convenient workflow tiles so you can quickly access vital data.
- Identify gaps in your pipeline with deal spotlights and get alerts about missing fields to ensure you’re effectively closing deals in alignment with projected close dates and forecasts.
- Integrate Salesforce workflows with your notes and easily edit, share, and templatize them for future use.
- Simplify manual processes with no-code Slack automations and improve workflow efficiency.
- Automate forecast roll-ups and track pipeline changes at all levels.
- Create visual forecasts based on historical data from trends analytics to track sales opportunity progress and ensure reps reach their quota.
- Use simple keyboard shortcuts with Scratchpad Command to make updating Salesforce workflows and creating records a breeze.
- Document sales conversations seamlessly with Scratchpad’s AI Sales Assistant, an advanced sales call recording feature with AI-assisted notes.
Customer Reviews
G2 rating: 4.8/5 stars (1440 reviews)
Pricing: Paid plans start at $19 per user per month.
Now that we’ve covered how a dedicated pipeline management tool can help you, let’s go over some of the top CRMs for pipeline management today:
2. Salesforce CRM
Salesforce CRM is a leading sales pipeline management tool, and it’s easy to see why. It boasts a versatile suite of cloud services, offering exceptional customizability that empowers businesses to tailor the system to their unique needs.
Key Features
- Opportunity Management: Track and analyze each lead at each pipeline stage, ensuring better pipeline visibility and increased chances of closing deals.
- Sales Automation: Streamline sales processes with automation, from lead generation to follow-ups. This feature eliminates tedious manual work so your sales team can focus on building relationships and closing deals.
- Customizable Sales Pipelines: Tailor reports and Salesforce dashboards to your sales processes, stages, and workflows to match your specific needs.
The best part?
If Salesforce’s features fall short, they’ve got an extensive marketplace of third-party integrations to guarantee smooth data flow across teams.
Sales pros familiar with Salesforce pipeline management get why this flexibility matters so much. Because let’s face it: CRMs alone often can’t handle all your sales management challenges. Fortunately, there are ways to get over these challenges (more on this later).
Customer reviews
G2 rating: 4.3/5 stars (18,600+ reviews)
Pricing
Paid plans start at $25/month.
3. Pipedrive
Pipedrive is a pipeline management tool that simplifies sales management through visual representations of the entire sales process in a centralized hub. With over 400+ integrations and AI-powered insights, it provides a powerful approach to managing and assessing leads and reps at every opportunity.
Key Features
- Lead Management: Keep leads and deals on track with timely notifications, color-coding, spreadsheet imports, and product catalogs.
- Sales Automation: Eliminate manual workloads with strategic, event-triggered actions to assign leads, send emails, or schedule activities when deals reach a specific pipeline stage.
- Customizable Sales Pipelines: Create custom fields and stages to generate reports and insights specific to your unique sales cycle.
Customer reviews
G2 rating: 4.2/5 stars (1,700+ reviews)
Pricing
Paid plans start at $14.90/user/month.
4. Freshsales
Freshsales is a Freshworks sales pipeline tool designed for businesses seeking an all-in-one solution to streamline workflows and capitalize on every sales opportunity.
Key Features
- 360-degree Views: Gain full, detailed views of customer data across multiple touchpoints via tables, lists, kanban boards, and chronological activity timelines.
- Multiple Sales Pipelines: Customize and manage various sales pipelines to align with different business needs. This feature allows for effective visualization and tracking of pipeline health.
- Contact Scoring and AI Insights: Utilize AI-powered contact scoring and deal insights to correctly prioritize every qualified lead.
Customer reviews
G2 rating: 4.5/5 stars (1,100+ reviews)
Pricing
Paid plans start at $15/user/month.
5. HubSpot CRM
HubSpot CRM is a dynamic and user-friendly customer relationship management platform for businesses of various sizes. Among its suite of tools, HubSpot’s Sales Hub is particularly beneficial for companies looking to streamline their sales pipeline and sales strategy.
Key Features
- Customizable Sales Pipeline: Create multiple sales pipelines, adjust stages, and set up stage properties to track vital information. This personalization lets you visualize sales processes, identify bottlenecks, and manage deals more effectively.
- Stage Tracking and Management: Use HubSpot’s Sales Hub to add, update, and move deals across every pipeline stage, assign tasks to team members, and track each prospect all in one space.
- Automation and Integration: Automate key sales tasks like email sequences, follow-ups, and assignments, saving valuable time for sales teams. It also integrates with other tools for a smooth flow of information across platforms.
Customer reviews
G2 rating: 4.4/5 stars (11,000+ reviews)
Pricing
Paid plans start at $30/month.
6. Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM unites marketing, sales, and customer success in a single, robust platform. It helps businesses easily track leads, analyze pipeline metrics, generate charts, and create forecasts.
It’s well-suited for any large or small business, offering a wide range of customizable features to cater to various sales processes.
Key Features
- Sales Automation: Automate critical sales operations, including generating, assigning, and scoring leads.
- Customizable Sales Processes: Create custom views, fields, buttons, and layouts to track the most relevant information about each prospect at every stage of your sales process.
- Advanced Sales Analytics and Reporting: Create custom reports to drill deep into your data, and use an Anomaly Detector to compare your actual sales performance with forecasted trends.
Customer reviews
G2 rating: 4/5 stars (2,500+ reviews)
Pricing
Paid plans start at $14/user/month.
7. Insightly CRM
This sales pipeline management software offers a comprehensive feature set for B2B sales teams, allowing them to effortlessly visualize pipelines, manage leads, and generate reports on crucial sales performance metrics.
Key Features
- Pipeline Management and Visualization: Manage, visualize, and customize each sales pipeline stage, track the progress of deals, and get a clear overview of your sales pipeline with Kanban views.
- Advanced Reporting and Dashboards: Utilize Insightly’s advanced reporting and dashboard capabilities to customize reports, track key metrics, and make data-driven decisions.
- Workflow Automation: Map out repeatable business processes and set up automated workflows to ensure smoother operations, enabling your sales team to concentrate more on selling and less on administrative tasks.
Customer reviews
G2 rating: 4.2/5 stars (800+ reviews)
Pricing
Paid plans start at $29/user/month.
8. Keap
Keap, formerly Infusionsoft, is a solid sales CRM and marketing automation platform ideal for any small business.
Although it began with a focus on email marketing, Keap has since expanded to a broader range of sales management software functionalities, such as tracking leads and managing sales processes.
Key Features
- Advanced Sales Automation: Trigger automated follow-ups, appointments, payments, and more to boost overall sales efficiency.
- Customizable CRM: Tailor your CRM experience with customizable fields, tags, and pipelines. This flexibility allows businesses to adapt the platform to their specific sales processes and customer management needs.
- Robust Reporting and Sales Analytics: Assess campaign performance, forecast sales, and track customer engagement and conversions by sales pipeline stage, segment, email clicks, etc.
Customer reviews
G2 rating: 4.2/5 stars (1,400+ reviews)
Pricing
Paid plans start at $159/month.
9. Streak
Streak CRM, integrated within Gmail, offers a seamless pipeline software experience for small to medium-sized businesses and individuals relying heavily on email communication.
Its direct integration with Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) streamlines workflows, making it an ideal solution for managing sales pipelines directly from your inbox.
Key Features
- Email-Based Pipeline Management: Transform your Gmail into a powerful CRM by managing and tracking sales pipelines directly within your email interface, reducing the need to switch between applications.
- Customizable Workflow: Adapt Streak to your specific sales process with customizable views, pipelines, and fields. Streak’s flexibility allows for a tailored approach to managing leads, deals, and customer interactions.
- Collaboration and Sharing: Share emails with team members even if they’re not a part of the thread. This feature enhances team coordination and ensures everyone is on the same page regarding sales activities and customer interactions.
Customer reviews
G2 rating: 4.5/5 stars (225 reviews)
Pricing
Paid plans start at $15/user/month.
10. Zendesk Sell
Zendesk Sell is dynamic and user-friendly sales pipeline software designed to enhance management for businesses of various sizes.
It’s particularly valued for its seamless integration with customer success systems, making it an excellent choice for organizations focused on combining sales and customer service efforts.
Key Features
- Centralized Platform: Manage contacts, leads, and account information in a single place to get full customer context before your call or meeting, allowing for easy tracking and organization of deals.
- In-depth Reporting and Sales Analytics: Evaluate sales activity and deal progression, track pre-calculated sales performance metrics, and identify leaks in your pipeline.
- Workflow Automation: Create targeted prospect lists, sync your existing email to Zendesk Sell, and tailor email sequences to automatically follow up with leads.
Customer reviews
G2 rating: 4.2/5 stars (450+ reviews)
Pricing
Paid plans start at $19/user/month.
11. Close CRM
Close CRM is highly effective and user-centric sales pipeline management software designed primarily for startups and small to medium-sized businesses.
It provides a unified pipeline view with simple customization and drag-and-drop workflows, making it an ideal choice for companies seeking powerful yet straightforward CRM software.
Key Features
- Integrated Communication Tools: Communicate efficiently with prospects and customers without leaving the CRM through Close’s unified calling, emailing, and SMS capabilities.
- Robust Sales Automation: Capitalize on past work to create templates and Smart Views, automating outreach workflows that align with your most important lead data.
- Opportunity Funnel Report: Generate reports that track key metrics like conversion rates and sales velocity while accounting for variables like job title, industry, or source, and promptly identify bottlenecks.
Customer reviews
G2 rating: 4.7/5 stars (830+ reviews)
Pricing
Paid plans start at $49/month.
12. Nutshell
Nutshell is flexible CRM software for small businesses and B2B sales teams. It stands out for its simplicity, ease of use, and comprehensive feature set tailored to enhance sales efficiency and productivity.
Key Features
- Pipeline Management: View, track, and organize your hottest leads with list, map, chart, and board views.
- Advanced Reporting Tools: Compare current sales against previous periods and drill down by rep, lead source, and product to identify what’s driving success and forecast sales.
- Sales Automation: Set up automated drip sequences or integrate with MailChimp in just one click to move and follow up with each prospect at just the right moment.
Customer reviews
G2 rating: 4.2/5 stars (900+ reviews)
Pricing
Paid plans start at $16/user/month.
13. ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is robust marketing automation and pipeline management software best suited for small to medium-sized businesses.
It combines email marketing, workflow automation, and sales CRM functionalities, offering a comprehensive solution to nurture each customer relationship and streamline your sales processes.
Key Features
- Contact and Lead Scoring: Utilize ActiveCampaign’s contact and lead scoring system to prioritize and track contacts based on how they interact with your business.
- Sales and CRM Automation: Segment and nurture leads, assign tasks, and trigger notifications automatically when lead scores change for increased sales productivity.
- Outbound Sales Sequences: Connect every touchpoint by sending automatic one-to-one emails that span the entire sales funnel.
Customer reviews
G2 rating: 4.5/5 stars (10,500+ reviews)
Pricing
Paid plans start at $49/month.
14. EngageBay
EngageBay is comprehensive and affordable pipeline software for small to medium-sized businesses looking to streamline their sales, marketing, and customer success processes.
Known for its ease of use and all-in-one platform, EngageBay efficiently integrates various aspects of business management to enhance customer engagement and sales effectiveness.
Key Features
- Integrated Sales and Marketing Suite: EngageBay combines CRM, marketing automation, and sales tools into a single platform. This integration streamlines team collaboration and the nurturing process from initial contact to closed sale.
- Deal Management: Gain complete visibility into your deals, sort by sales stage or expected close date, and drag and drop tasks with ease, all in one simple dashboard.
- Email Tracker: Receive alerts for all email interactions, including opens, unsubscribe requests, document downloads, landing page visits, and more.
Customer reviews
G2 rating: 4.6/5 stars (200+ reviews)
Pricing
Paid plans start at $11.04/month.
15. Copper CRM
Copper CRM sales pipeline management software is designed for small to medium-sized businesses that rely on Google Workspace.
Key Features
- Google Workspace Integration: Work directly within Gmail, Google Calendar, and other Google apps. This integration simplifies workflows, reducing the need to switch between applications.
- Data Entry and Tracking Automation: Minimize manual data entry, as Copper automatically tracks and inputs data from emails, calendar events, and other interactions, so your sales pipeline stays up to date with minimal effort.
- Robust Reporting and Sales Analytics: Use customizable reports and dashboards to track key metrics.
Customer reviews
G2 rating: 4.5/5 stars (1,100 reviews)
Pricing
Paid plans start at $29/month.
16. Salesmate
Salesmate is a versatile and user-centric CRM platform designed to boost sales efficiency and customer engagement for all types of businesses.
It stands out for its ease of use, customizability, and a wide range of features aimed at streamlining the sales process and improving team productivity.
Key Features
- Multiple Sales Pipelines: Create multiple customizable pipelines for every product or service and tailor each sales stage, deal card, and field accordingly.
- Sales Activity Automation: Automate repetitive tasks and workflows within Salesmate to save time and increase efficiency, such as letting it manage drip campaigns, lead scoring, and playbooks — no matter their complexity.
- Visual Sales Pipeline: Get a clear, bird’s eye view of all deals and their status, and see what needs urgent attention so nothing falls through the cracks.
Customer reviews
G2 rating: 4.6/5 stars (50+ reviews)
Pricing
Paid plans start at $29/user/month.
17. Monday
Monday is highly adaptable pipeline software that helps businesses of all sizes build pipelines without the need for a developer. You can track all contact interactions, automate manual work, and easily drag and drop deals between stages, all from one place.
Key Features
- Customizable Sales Pipelines: Create and tailor sales pipelines to fit your specific business needs, edit each sales stage, manage multiple sales pipelines, and add as many columns as you want.
- Automation and Integration: Get notifications when leads open emails, assign leads to reps and set sales activity reminders. You can also integrate your email to automatically log interactions and create templates.
- Advanced Reporting and Sales Analytics: Increase visibility with custom dashboards that report team performance, status of deals, and sales figures in an instant. You can then leverage reports to compare actual sales with the predicted trend.
Customer reviews
G2 rating: 4.7/5 stars (9,900+ reviews)
Pricing
Paid plans start at $24/month.
Now that you’re familiar with the leading sales pipeline software in the market, let’s delve into how to select the best sales pipeline tool for your business needs.
How to Choose the Best Sales Pipeline Management Tool for Your Business
Your selection process should involve seven major considerations:
1. Consider Your Business Needs
You can’t effectively narrow down the list of tools if you don’t have a clear understanding of your specific business requirements.
Most CRM solutions have different priorities, whether it’s lead management, collaboration, or automation. Some are designed with specific areas in mind, extending beyond sales to include early-stage marketing, lead generation efforts, or customer service functionalities.
Ensure the CRM you choose aligns closely with your specific needs. This approach helps you avoid investing in products prone to feature creep, preventing unnecessary costs and wasted time.
2. Assess Your Budget
Evaluate if the CRM’s pricing aligns with your expected returns.
Determine what you can realistically afford without compromising on essential features and compare pricing structures to find a reasonable subscription plan. If there are budget constraints, look out for free trials or freemium tiers.
3. Evaluate Features
Ensure you thoroughly assess CRM features and their potential impact on sales performance.
Ideally, your chosen CRM will be an all-in-one solution, as it needs to cover your sales management while reducing reliance (and costs) on additional tools.
4. Data Security and Compliance
Opt for CRM software that guarantees robust data security and adheres to relevant regulations. Given the paramount importance of protecting sensitive customer information, seek out features such as encryption and compliance with data protection laws.
5. User Feedback and Reviews
Delve into user reviews and feedback for insights on the CRM platform.
Learn from the experiences of other businesses to gauge the software’s performance, reliability, and overall user satisfaction.
While individual experiences can vary, the collective sentiment and trends found in user feedback and reviews offer valuable insights to inform your decision-making process.
6. Ease of Use & Adoption
Given that sales teams are often pressed for time, the CRM learning process must be simple and straightforward.
Investigate whether the CRM provider offers accessible learning resources and onboarding support. Take advantage of any available assisted onboarding services, video tutorials, or online courses to ensure a smooth transition for your team and effective use of the CRM system.
Even more importantly, determine if your team can easily adopt the sales pipeline management tool on their own. The less time it takes to ramp, the more likely your team is to actually use the software instead of reverting back to their old ways of recording and relying on information outside of the CRM.
7. Ensure Integration Capability & Scalability
Choose CRM software that not only integrates smoothly with your current applications but also has the potential to scale with your business. Ensure the sales CRM offers options for upgrading or expanding features as your needs grow.
While CRMs with native support for third-party software tend to offer superior efficiency and functionality, avoid overwhelming your sales team with excessive tools.
However, a CRM alone may not suffice as comprehensive pipeline management software.
Consider the CRM’s compatibility with additional tools and add-ons that can extend its capabilities. Opting for a system with well-integrated, native third-party software support can greatly enhance the versatility and effectiveness of your CRM solution.
Become Pro Sellers With the Right Sales Pipeline Management Software
Sales pipeline management tools are essential for any business looking to streamline its sales process, enhance team efficiency, and drive revenue growth.
However, selecting the appropriate tool is key.
Look for ones that align with your specific business needs and complement your CRM system — like add-ons such as Scratchpad.
This way, you can overcome common challenges and optimize every aspect of your sales strategy and operations.
So, why wait any longer?
Give Scratchpad a try for free or schedule a demo and experience a transformation in your Salesforce pipeline management and sales forecasting.
