25 Best Sales Automation Software Tools to Save You Time in 2023
In sales, there's always another phone call to make, an email to send, or a meeting to attend.
Fortunately, you don't have to do it alone. Sales automation software can streamline tasks so you can focus your energy on building relationships with potential customers, closing deals, and crushing your quota.
The question is, what are the best sales automation tools on the market in 2023?
We’ve got you covered! Learn what sales automation tools do, the benefits for time-strapped sales reps like you, and how to choose the right apps for your organization. Then we’ll share top picks for sales automation platforms.
It doesn't matter if you're a one-man sales team at a small business in Oklahoma or the sales manager for one of the biggest B2B companies in the world. An automation platform will help you do your job more efficiently. So without further ado, let's dive in and get started!
What is Sales Automation Software?
There are literally hundreds of sales automation tools on the market.
The most common example of a sales automation tool is a CRM, which helps sales reps streamline administrative tasks and schedule email communications to send at predetermined intervals. Some CRM platforms include sales management and lead scoring features, too.
Other sales automation tools can schedule follow-ups, manage contracts, and even help you find the right time for a meeting.
For now, know that sales automation software is key to a well-oiled, high-functioning sales funnel in 2023.
The Benefits of Sales Automation Software
I know what you're thinking. "I already have a proven sales workflow that works pretty well. I don't want to add a new tool to the mix."
I get it. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right?
But here's the thing: sales automation software has the ability to completely revolutionize your sales process, from lead generation to final close. You owe it to yourself and your company to at least explore your options. Let's take a closer look at these benefits.
Save Time
The average salesperson spends 30 to 60 minutes a day selling. The rest of their on-the-clock hours are spent on time-consuming sales tasks that don't directly affect the bottom line.
That's pretty depressing, right? Don't worry; there's a solution. According to Instapage, automation can boost sales productivity metrics by 14.5 percent. In other words, automation can help reps win back a portion of their days and do what they were hired to do: sell.
Access More Qualified Leads
If you try to sell to people who don't want or need what you offer, you won't make sales. That's why lead quality is so important.
Many sales automation solutions are designed to help you score leads. That way, you always know who to reach out to. And as mentioned above, you can use other automation tools for email marketing purposes and create detailed email sequences that send on autopilot.
The result? More sales in less time—and with way less effort.
More Accurate Sales Reports
Detailed sales reports are essential to the success of your sales team. How many calls does it take for reps to reach prospects? Which cold email sequences are the most effective? Based on current results, how many sales will you close next quarter?
You won't know the answers to these questions without reports. Guess what—sales automation makes the reporting process way more accurate and convenient. The right tools will automatically collect and display critical data points for you. All you have to do is tell your platform of choice which sales KPIs you care about and when you'd like to receive reports.
23 Sales Automation Tools To Save Your Sales Team Time (and Make You More $$)
With so many different sales automation software options, which one is the right one for your business? Start by figuring out where your sales reps spend the most time, then take a peek at these top solutions.
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1. Close: A CRM for Sales Teams That Want to Speed Up the Sales Process
Best For: SMBs + startups looking to speed up their sales process
Pricing: Starts at $99/month
Free Trial? Yes, 14-day free trial
G2 Rating: 4.6 stars / 341 reviews
Close is specifically designed to help sales teams close deals faster. It does this by offering a variety of easy-to-use features—many of which include automation. It offers lead contact management, of course, but it also helps also minimize manual data entry tasks, creates automated email and SMS sequences, and supercharges your cold-calling efforts. What else? Automatically score leads. Schedule customized and real-time notifications. Put lead management on autopilot. Close will help you do all of these things (and more!) Plus, with our new app, your team can stay connected everywhere.
But you don't have to take my word for it. Sign up for a free 14-day trial of Close to experience the power of our software for yourself, or watch our on-demand demo:
2. HubSpot: All-in-One Sales, Support, and Marketing Automation Sofware
Best For: Unifying sales, marketing, and support teams
Pricing: $0 - $3,600+ a month, billed annually
Free Trial? Free limited plan available
G2 Rating: 4.4 stars / 9,775 reviews
HubSpot is one of the most popular business tools in the world. Top sales, marketing, and customer support teams use it to track and communicate with leads and customers. Automation simplifies these processes. For example, HubSpot users can easily build landing pages, send email campaigns, and schedule social media posts—all with one tool. Sadly, all this power comes at a literal cost. HubSpot is expensive. Especially considering its sales, marketing, and customer support tools must be purchased separately. Still, for companies with cash to burn, and who don't want to purchase multiple apps, HubSpot is solid.
3. Salesforce: Sales Automation Software for Large, Enterprise Companies
Best For: Enterprise-level organizations
Pricing: $25 - $300 a month, billed annually
Free Trial? Yes, Salesforce offers a 30-day free trial
G2 Rating: 4.3 stars / 15,815 reviews
When it comes to CRM software, Salesforce is considered by many as the king of the hill. Why? Mostly because it's been around the longest and has the most users. But it has quality features, too, which enabled it to build such a large customer base in the first place.
As far as automation goes, Salesforce is stacked. Users can create complex sales processes, then streamline them by automating repetitive tasks. Want to schedule personalized emails to send at predetermined intervals? Done. Looking for automatic sales forecasting features? No problem. The biggest drawback to Salesforce is its steep learning curve. This tool definitely takes time to learn, and usually requires a dedicated Salesforce developer to keep it running smoothly.
4. Pipedrive: User-Friendly Tool For Pipeline Management
Best For: Visualizing your sales pipeline
Pricing: $14.90 - $99 a month, billed annually
Free Trial? Yes, Pipedrive offers a 14-day free trial
G2 Rating: 4.2 stars / 1,594 reviews
Pipedrive is another popular CRM platform. With it, users can store contact information and visually track customer relationships. They can also take advantage of the system's automation capabilities to streamline sales processes. For example, users can automate entire sales workflows and build personalized email sequences that send on autopilot.
One of Pipedrive's most notable features is its Sales Assistant, which provides users with sales tips, potential integrations, and other advice based on the data it automatically collects. There is a downside to Pipedrive, though: speed. Many users claim that the platform drags.
5. LinkedIn Sales Navigator: Lead Prospecting on Steroids
Best For: Improving your LinkedIn prospecting efforts
Pricing: $79.99 - $133.33 a month, billed annually
Free Trial? Yes, Sales Navigator offers a 30-day free trial
G2 Rating: 4.3 stars / 1,630 reviews
Sales Navigator is an uber-popular sales tool. Why? Because it helps sales professionals squeeze every ounce of juice from LinkedIn—an incredibly useful network for sales purposes. If you're unfamiliar with this Sales navigator, reps use it to find top-level sales leads and engage with them directly via InMail, LinkedIn's built-in email marketing platform.
Even better, Sales Navigator integrates with a variety of CRMs, which means the new leads you source can be automatically added and/or updated in your system of record. Say good by to manual tasks like uploading leads!
6. Zoominfo: Automate Prospect Data Collection
Best For: Discovering B2B prospect contact data
Pricing: By request
Free Trial? Yes, Zoominfo offers a 14-day free trial
G2 Rating: 4.4 stars / 6,297 reviews
Think of Zoominfo as a giant B2B database, complete with millions of direct dial phone numbers, verified email addresses, and more. Then realize that the tool is actually much more than that. Yes, you can use Zoominfo to pinpoint contact information for decision-makers. But you can also tap into its tools to analyze website traffic and sales calls, identify buyer intent, and develop multi-channel communication cadences. While Zoominfo doesn't post pricing on its website, it's known for being quite expensive. But considering the detailed information the app will give you access to, it's probably worth the sizable fees (if you can afford them).
7. LeadFuze: Get Better Quality Leads, Faster
Best For: Quickly filling your sales pipeline
Pricing: $147 - $397+ a month, billed annually
Free Trial? Yes, Leadfuze allows new users to use a limited version of its tool.
G2 Rating: 4.6 stars / 115 reviews
You can't make sales without quality leads. Enter Leadfuze. This tool allows you to "set your lead generation on autopilot." All you have to do is search for your ideal customers, using a variety of filters. The app will then find the phone numbers, email addresses, and other bits of important information you need to contact prospects and close deals.
The best part about Leadfuze is that it's equipped with artificial intelligence (AI). Basically, tell Fuzebot (the AI) what kind of leads you're looking for, and he'll do all of the heavy lifting for you. Nice!
8. Growbots: Grow Your Outbound Sales Strategy Fast
Best For: Outbound sales strategies
Pricing: $49 - $149+ a month, billed annually
Free Trial? Yes, Growbots offers a free trial
G2 Rating: 4.5 stars / 136 reviews
Looking for an outbound sales automation platform? Look no further. Growbots makes it easy to find and contact leads, thanks to a deep database of potential customers and strong email marketing capabilities.
Here's how it works: first, users select a target market and generate a list of leads. Then they select the leads they want to contact and build automated email campaigns to reach them. The final step? Optimization. Growbots includes A/B testing features and detailed sales reports so users can succeed with outbound sales.
9. Leadfeeder: Track Lead Activity On Your Site (and Zero in On Hot Leads Faster)
Best For: Learning about your best leads
Pricing: $0 - $1,049 a month, billed annually
Free Trial? Leadfeeder offers a limited free plan
G2 Rating: 4.3 stars / 673 reviews
Leadfeeder helps sales teams better understand which leads are ready to convert. Who's visiting your website? How did they hear about your company? And what products/services are they interested in? Leadfeeder will tell you. But that's not all. Leadfeeder will also use its custom segmentation feature to qualify the leads it uncovers for you, identify who salespeople should contact within those companies (a great feature for account-based marketing), and then send this valuable information to your chosen CRM.
(Worth mentioning, the price of Leadfeeder varies depending on the number of companies you'd like the service to identify for you. Looking to find 100 quality leads? You'll pay $139 a month. Does 5,000 leads feel right? You'll pay $1,049 a month. Make sense? Cool.)
10. Hunter: Top Email Finder to Connect With Prospects
Best For: Pinpointing email addresses by company domain
Pricing: $0 - $279 a month, billed annually
Free Trial? Hunter offers a limited free plan
G2 Rating: 4.4 stars / 469 stars
Hunter is one of the most well-known email finders on the market. Type a website URL into the interface, and Hunter will automatically find the associated verified email addresses. Even better, you can upload multiple URLs simultaneously and Hunter will find email addresses for each, then export them to a CSV file. It's worth mentioning, Hunter is equipped with outreach tools, too, which allow users to contact prospects ASAP.
11. ContactOut: Lead Enrichment + Email Finder
Best For: Finding email addresses with Google Chrome
Pricing: $0 - $199 a month, billed annually
Free Trial? No, ContactOut offers a limited free plan instead
G2 Rating: 4.6 stars / 88 reviews
If you use Google Chrome, you'll love ContactOut—a Google Chrome extension that enables users to dig up contact information while perusing LinkedIn profiles. Once you find someone you want to connect with, you fire up ContactOut and let it search through its database of 250 million professionals.
In all likelihood, you'll have the data you need in a matter of seconds. You can then use the reusable email templates in this tool to message your new leads, and automatically follow up with them down the road.
12. LeadGibbon: Find Lead Contact Info Faster
Best For: Finding emails on a budget
Pricing: $49 - $199 a month, billed monthly
Free Trial? Yes, LeadGibbon offers five free credits to new users
G2 Rating: 4.6 stars / 9 reviews
LeadGibbon is similar to ContactOut (mentioned above.) The main differences? LeadGibbon has a smaller database. But it makes up for this with a super simple workflow and more affordable pricing. Seriously, quality leads are easily found and then exported with a single click. Users don't have to pay annually to receive a great deal, either.
All plans are monthly, so salespeople can use the tool in January, stop using it in February and March, and then pick it back up in April—all without paying for unused months. Sweet!
13. Close Emailing/SMS Automation: Automate Follow-Ups and Lead Nurturing
Best For: Close users who want automate email outreach
Pricing: $25 - $129 a month, billed annually
Free Trial? Yes, Close offers a 14-day free trial
G2 Rating: 4.6 stars / 341 reviews
One of the best things about Close CRM is that it allows you to do way more than just organize customer data. Under one simple subscription price, you can also create complex email and SMS marketing campaigns that gently nudge prospects from one stage of the customer journey to the next.
You can then automate said campaigns to send at the most optimal times—even if those times happen to be between 2 AM and 4 AM on Saturday morning. Once you find a winning sequence, you can easily share it with other team members, too, so your entire sales organization can benefit. For Close customers, the Close Emailer is a no-brainer!
14. Contractbook: Automate The Contract Process
Best For: Comprehensive contract lifecycle management for SMBs
Pricing: $999
Free Trial? Yes, in the form of recipient plan
G2 Rating: 4.7 stars / 63 reviews
When it comes to contract automation software, Contractbook is the only tool available in the market that offers end-to-end sales workflow automation. The platform exists to make contract data accessible and actionable. This means anyone can work effortlessly with contracts across the entire lifecycle, regardless of role or familiarity.
Contractbook is a powerful tool that enables businesses to create contracts in seconds. It boasts collaboration features such as automated trigger approvals based on contract data, making it easier for teams to work together seamlessly. Users can access multiple legally binding digital signature methods, making the signing process faster and more convenient. With a single place to store and manage all contracts and legal documents, the platform eliminates the need for multiple systems. It also integrates with more than 3000 apps, making it easy to connect with other tools that businesses use daily.
15. GMass: Easy Email Automation Right in Gmail
Best For: Gmail users who need an email marketing automation tool
Pricing: $199 - $499 a year, billed annually
Free Trial? GMass offers a limited free plan
G2 Rating: 4.8 stars / 885 reviews
If you're like a lot of sales reps, you live inside the Google ecosystem. So why not turn your Gmail account into an email marketing platform? With GMass you can. Using this tool, you can create email sequences to send to your subscribers, automate follow-up messages, and even track important metrics like opens, clicks, and replies. GMass also has a built-in email verifier so your messages never get bounced.
16. Mailchimp: Scalable Email Automation for Marketing and Sales Outreach
Best For: Email marketing on a budget
Pricing: $0 - $350 a month, billed monthly
Free Trial? No, Mailchimp offers a free plan instead
G2 Rating: 4.3 stars / 12,212 reviews
Mailchimp has been helping businesses send emails since 2001. Over the years, the platform has expanded its offerings. Now users can build landing pages, manage social media accounts, and run direct mail campaigns.
As far as automation go, Mailchimp has a lot to like. Users can build entire customer journeys, schedule emails, and run retargeting ads. All of these things help to elevate the customer experience and increase sales. Just be aware: Mailchimp offers a free plan, but many of the top features require a paid subscription.
17. Drip: Email Automation, Sales Forecasting, and Much More
Best For: Email marketing for eCommerce brands
Pricing: $39+ (Depending on list size and send volume)
Free Trial? Yes, Drip offers a 14-day free trial
G2 Rating: 4.4 stars / 452 reviews
Drip is a popular email marketing platform for eCommerce brands. Sales and marketing teams can use it to segment subscribers, craft beautiful emails, and automate messages to send at exact moments. The platform has a bunch of built-in testing and reporting tools, too, which help them close more deals.
One of my favorite things about Drip is its straightforward pricing structure. Every user can access the tool's top features. The amount they pay depends on their list size and send volume. In other words, a small business with 500 subscribers will only pay $39 a month for Drip—while still being able to access the email marketing, segmentation, and automation features the platform is known for. Awesome stuff!
18. Yesware: Email Outreach At Scale
Best For: Detailed tracking for sales emails
Pricing: $0 - $65 per user/month, billed annually
Free Trial? No, Yesware offers a free plan instead
G2 Rating: 4.4 stars / 765 reviews
According to the company itself, Yesware helps sales teams do "meaningful email outreach at scale." Sounds pretty good, right? But can it live up to the hype? It depends on what you're looking for, but generally, yes! With Yesware, users can access email templates, design drip campaigns, and automate follow-ups. They can also view detailed reporting and analytics dashboards. Which subscribers open your messages and view your attachments? What interests these people the most? Who are your warmest leads? Yesware has the answers.
19. Close Dialer: Automation Software to Speed Up Outbound Calling
Best For: Close users who want to call their prospects on the phone
Pricing: $89 - $129 a month, billed annually
Free Trial? Yes, Close offers a 14-day free trial
G2 Rating: 4.6 stars / 341 reviews
When it comes to sales call solutions, it doesn't get much better than the Close Dialer—especially if you already use our CRM platform. Use our Power Dialer to double your outbound call volume and easily make 300+ calls a day. Use our Predictive Dialer to call multiple numbers at once and talk to the first person who answers. That way, you never waste time listening to dial tones.
Not convinced? Try these features on for size: Close can make outbound calls to 200 different countries, record calls so that you can listen back to them and critique your performance, leave pre-recorded voicemails with simple automation, and get detailed sales reports regarding your efforts. Sales managers can even jump on live calls with reps and coach them in real time. Simply put, if you use the phone to sell, you need Close.
20. Aircall: Improve Sales Calls With Power Dialer, Sales Training Tools, and Call Tracking
Best For: Sales managers who want to coach their reps
Pricing: $90 - $150 a month, billed annually
Free Trial? Yes, Aircall offers a 7-day free trial
G2 Rating: 4.3 stars / 729 reviews
Aircall is a cloud-based call center tool that sales teams can use to better connect with leads and customers. It includes a power dialer to make calls in rapid succession, a click-to-dial feature that reduces the amount of time reps spend dialing numbers, and recorded voicemail functionality. Its best feature, though, in my humble opinion, is called Call Whispering, which allows sales managers to speak to their reps during sales calls, without prospects knowing.
21. Zapier: Build Customizable Sales Automation Workflows
A list about sales automation software wouldn't be complete without mentioning Zapier. This handy tool connects your favorite tools (no matter what they are) and helps you build flexible, automated workflow–without needing to know how to code.
Got a new lead via Facebook or Linkedin? You can use Zapier to send that lead to your CRM automagically, add it to a Google Sheet, or even send a message in Slack. Check out a few other ways Zapier can automate your sales process
22. Proposify: Automation the Proposal Process
Best For: Streamlining the proposal process
Pricing: $49 per user/month, billed annually
Free Trial? Yes, Proposify offers a 14-day free trial
G2 Rating: 4.6 stars / 896 reviews
You've scoured the internet for viable leads, crafted an amazing cold email sequence to get their attention, and spent countless hours building relationships on the phone. Now what? It's time to close the deal, baby! This is much easier to do with a tool like Proposify, which will help you make eye-catching, mistake-free proposals to send to your leads.
Proposify will also track how your leads interact with your proposals and report back to you automatically. That way, you can create better, more engaging proposals in the future. Proposify even includes e-signature capabilities so that you can shorten your sales cycles.
23. Calendly: Automate Meeting Scheduling
Best For: Booking your next sales call or video conference
Pricing: $0 - $16 per user / month, billed annually
Free Trial? No, Calendly offers a free plan instead
G2 Rating: 4.7 stars / 1,577 reviews
When it comes to meeting scheduling, it doesn't get any better than Calendly. Join 10,000,000 other users and get access to Calendly’s top-level feature set, which includes personalized booking links, automated follow-ups, and integrations with popular tools like Close, Zoom, Slack, Stripe, and Zapier. (I'll talk more about Zapier below.)
24. Taggg: Automate the "When's a Good Time For You?" Process
Best For Groups scheduling
Pricing: $6/mo (billed monthly) or $60/yr (billed annually)
Free Trial? Yes, Forever free for individual calendars
G2 Rating: 4.6 stars / 7 reviews
Taggg is a powerful group meeting scheduling software that simplifies finding a mutually convenient meeting time. With its innovative calendar overlays, Taggg allows you to schedule meetings quickly without the need for voting or polling.
You can easily select meeting participants, share your availability, and book meetings instantly, regardless of whether you use Google or Microsoft as your calendar.
Taggg also lets you share your calendars with people both inside and outside your organization, making it easy to find a mutual time and book instant meetings with each other. With flexible options for your Group Bookable Link, including Shared Availability, Round Robin, or booking with the First Available person, Taggg easily accommodates your needs.
25. CloudTalk: Automate Call Data Collection + Improve Outbound Calling Success
Best for:
Pricing: $25 - $50 a month/billed annually + custom options
Free Trial? Offers a 14-day free trial
G2 Rating: 4.3 stars / 627 reviews
CloudTalk is a VoIP phone system that has been created specifically for modern businesses. CloudTalk is trusted by over 2,500 companies, including well-known names like DHL, Yves Rocher, and Glovo, due to its exceptional call quality and comprehensive set of features.
With more than 70 advanced calling capabilities, access to 160 international phone numbers, and the ability to integrate seamlessly with your existing Helpdesk, CRM, and eCommerce systems, CloudTalk provides an ideal solution for small and medium-sized businesses that want to grow. Automation features include a power dialer, workflow automation, and after-call automation features.
26. Automation 360 by SendPulse
Best for: Transactional messages automation
Pricing: $9 / 10000 emails
Free Trial? Yes, 12000 free emails per month
G2 Rating: 4.6 / 269 reviews
SendPulse is one of the go-to platforms for transactional emails like welcome, purchase confirmation or abandoned cart notifications. However, they went further and combined several channels like SMS, social media chatbots as well as good old email campaigns to better suit customers' preferences.
Automation 360 allows users to mix and match these channels to send triggered messages based on the customer's activity. It’s worth mentioning that SendPulse also provides a free CRM so that users can have all the customer data in one place to efficiently manage future interactions.
How to Choose the Right Sales Automation Tool For Your Business
There are a ton of sales automation software options on the market. You need to find the right ones for you and your specific sales process. But how? Follow these five simple steps:
- Consider What Automation Features You Need: Do you want to track customer relationships, send follow-up emails, and report on specific metrics? Do you need something to help you source quality leads? Maybe you're looking for a way to automate the proposal process. Determine what you need your automation tool(s) to do before you do anything else.
- Check Out Platform Integrations: Next, make sure that the sales automation platforms you're considering integrate with your current tools. You don't want to rebuild your entire sales workflow, do you? Then you need to find automation solutions that will fit into your current setup. (Note: most tools integrate with Zapier, but always check before buying.)
- Read Customer Reviews: A company can tell you that their automation platform does X, Y, and Z. But does it really? Customer reviews will help you find out. What do past and current users think of these tools? Are they universally loved? Do people complain about the same features? Reviews are a valuable resource. Use them.
- Think About Scalability: You might work for a brand-spankin' new startup today. At this point, you're doing whatever you can to meet customers, move products, and keep the lights on. In five years, your business will be in a different place. That's why I suggest researching the scalability of your automation tools. Will they grow with your company? If not, are you prepared to invest in (and learn how to use) new solutions?
- Consider Your Budget: Finally, how much money do you have to spend? Some automation platforms are expensive, with a capital "E". They might be worth it. But you won't know unless you can shell out for the startup costs and monthly fees. Don't fall in love with a tool if you can't afford it. Also, realize that there are multiple ways to automate sales processes, which means you may need to invest in multiple tools. Don't spend all of your money on automated lead gen software, for example, if it means you won't be able to afford a quality CRM platform to organize and store your new leads.
Do More With Less Using Sales Automation Tools
Whew, you made it!
We just dumped a ton of information on you, but you made it out unscathed (we hope!) Congratulations, you're now a verifiable expert on all things sales automation.
If you're feeling overwhelmed, don't worry. Scroll back up to the section titled "How to Choose a Sales Automation Tool to Close More Deals." Then examine each tool in this article using the five-step process described. I'm confident you'll be able to find the best apps for you.
Not convinced? Here's the bottom line: the best sales automation software is the tool that will help you close more deals in less time. For some companies, it's a CRM tool like Close. For others, it's an email marketing software like NotifyVisitors or Mailchimp. Maybe you need both.
I can't tell you exactly which automation software to invest in. I can tell you that automation will turbocharge your inbound and outbound sales processes. So don't delay. Do your research, pick a tool or two, and then use it to dominate. Good luck!
