23 Best Sales Automation Tools to Streamline Your Process in 2023
In sales, there's always another phone call to make, email to send, or meeting to attend. Winning sales strategies come and go. Competitors rise and fall. It's a lot to wrap one's head around.
Fortunately, you don't have to do it by yourself. Sales automation software can streamline a variety of activities for you, giving you the chance to focus your energies on higher-value tasks, like building relationships with potential customers, closing deals, and crushing quota.
The question is, what are the best sales automation tools on the market in 2023?
We’ve got you covered! Keep reading to learn what sales automation tools are, how they can benefit 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 are Sales Automation Tools?
There are many different sales automation tools on the market.
CRM software, for example, enables users to streamline administrative tasks and schedule email communications to send at predetermined intervals, allowing reps to close more deals in less time. Some CRM platforms include sales management and lead scoring features, too.
But a CRM is just one kind of sales automation platform. There are plenty of others—many of which we'll discuss in a later section of this article. For now, know that sales automation software is key to a well-oiled, high-functioning sales funnel in 2023.
What Are the Benefits of Using Sales Automation?
I know what you're thinking. "I already have a proven sales workflow. And you know what? It works pretty well for me. 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 the options available to you.
Once you invest in a sales automation tool (or two or five!), you and/or your sales team will become more productive and make more sales. Let's take a closer look at these benefits.
Sales Automation Saves Time
The average salesperson spends 35.2% of their time selling. The rest of their on-the-clock hours are spent on a variety of random 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%. In other words, automation can help reps win back a portion of their days and do what they were hired to do: sell.
How do sales and marketing apps do this? They handle time-consuming activities (like updating CRM records) and simple outreach efforts (like sending emails at predetermined times) so that reps can spend more time interacting with the leads in their sales pipelines.
Sales Automation Results in Higher Quality Leads
It doesn't matter how good your company's products are. If you try to sell them to people who don't want or need them, you won't make sales. That's why lead quality is so important.
Some 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 then 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. Why? Because you pitched your products to the right people, i.e. the folks who actually care about what you sell.
Sales Automation Leads to Better Reporting
Detailed sales reports are essential to the success of your sales team.
Think about it, without quality reports, you won't have access to the data you need. 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 are you likely to 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.
Put simply, reports help sales teams understand what they're doing right and where they can improve. And sales automation makes sure said reports are error-free and readily available.
How to Choose a Sales Automation Tool to Close More Deals
There are a ton of sales automation tools on the market. You need to find the right ones for you and your specific sales process. But how? Follow these five simple steps:
- Automation features: First, decide which features you want your automation platform(s) to have. 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.
- 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.)
- 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.
- Solution 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?
- 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.
23 Sales Automation Tools to Increase Leads and Drive Revenue
Now that you know what sales automation tools are, why they're beneficial to sales teams, and how to choose the right apps for you and/or your organization, we can actually start reviewing automation platforms. Keep reading to discover my 23 favorite solutions.
(Note: We’ve divided this section into six different segments based on what the various tools below actually do. That way, you can easily compare them to each other. You're welcome.)
CRM Software
CRM software is a must-have sales tool in 2023. With it, sales teams can better organize lead, prospect, and customer data. Then use this information to build stronger relationships.
If you choose the right CRM platform, you'll get access to sales automation features, too, which can be super handy. The four CRM systems in this section have automation capabilities designed to make your life as a sales rep (or marketing professional!) easier.
1. Close
Best For: Speeding up the sales process
Pricing: $25 - $129 a month, billed annually
Free Trial? Yes, Close offers a 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. Minimize manual data entry tasks. Create automated email and SMS sequences. Supercharge your cold-calling efforts. Automatically score leads. Schedule customized and real-time notifications. Close will help you do all of these things (and more!)
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
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 the fact that 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
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
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.
Sales Prospecting Tools
Your CRM software is the technological foundation of your sales operation. But it's definitely not the only tool that you should invest in. You need sales prospecting tools, too. Otherwise, you won't be able to fill your CRM with qualified leads on a regular basis.
Luckily, the best sales prospecting apps include automation, which makes them much easier to use. Here are five such tools you should consider using immediately.
5. LinkedIn Sales Navigator
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 with this tool are automatically added and/or updated in your system of record.
6. Zoominfo
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
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. With this tool, you can "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
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, as well as detailed sales reports so that users can succeed with outbound sales.
9. Leadfeeder
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 with lead management by teaching them about their prospects. 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 CRM of choice.
(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.)
Email Finders
You use email to connect with potential customers, right? Of course you do. Then you should definitely add a quality email finder to your tech stack. That way you can quickly source email addresses and build relationships with prospects. Here are three proven tools.
10. Hunter
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. Once you invest in this tool, you can type a website URL into the interface, and Hunter will automatically find the verified email addresses associated with it. Even better, you can upload multiple URLs at one time and Hunter will find email addresses for each, then export them to a CSV file. Worth mentioning, Hunter is equipped with outreach tools, too, which allow users to contact prospects ASAP.
11. ContactOut
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 that you want to connect with, you simply 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
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, which means salespeople can use the tool in January, stop using it in February and March, and then pick it back up again in April—all without having to pay for unused months. Sweet!
Email Marketing Apps
Is there a better lead nurturing solution than email? Probably not, which makes email marketing software a must-have tool in any sales team's tech stack. The question is, which email marketing app should you invest in? It's up to you, of course, but here's what I suggest.
13. Close Emailing
Best For: Close users who want to email their prospects
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 that your entire sales organization can benefit. For Close customers, the Close Emailer is a no-brainer!
14. GMass
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'll be able to create email sequences to send to your subscribers, automate follow-up messages, and even track important metrics like opens, clicks, and replies. GMass comes with a built-in email verifier, too, so that your messages never get bounced.
15. Mailchimp
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, too. As far as automations 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.
16. Drip
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 that the platform is known for. Awesome stuff!
17. Yesware
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.
Sales Call Solutions
Whether you're cold calling new leads or providing customer support to paying users, you want your time on the phone to be as productive as possible, right? That's why you need a sales call solution. Don't worry, I've picked out a few top-of-the-line apps for you.
18. Close Dialer
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 calls 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.
19. Aircall
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.
20. Chorus
Best For: Analyzing and improving sales calls
Pricing: To learn about Chorus pricing, contact the company
Free Trial? No, Chorus only offers free demos
G2 Rating: 4.5 stars / 2,810 reviews
You're making sales calls and achieving decent results. But decent is good enough for you, is it? You want to crush it. Unfortunately, learning how to improve one's approach to sales calls is difficult—unless one invests in Chorus, of course. Chorus will automatically record, transcribe, and analyze your phone conversations for you. Then it will use its advanced artificial intelligence tech to provide a summary of your calls, complete with insights. These insights can help you improve your phone performance and close more deals in the future.
Productivity Platforms
Remember what I said earlier? The average sales rep spends a measly 35.2% of their time selling. In other words, productivity platforms are essential to success in 2023. Guess what—the best productivity tools include automation functionality. Here are a few of them.
21. Proposify
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. Better yet, Proposify will track the way your leads interact with your proposals and report back to you automatically. That way you can make better, more engaging proposals in the future. Proposify even includes e-signature capabilities so that you can shorten your sales cycles.
22. Calendly
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.)
23. Zapier
Best For: Supercharging your current workflow
Pricing: $0 - $799 a month, billed annually
Free Trial? Yes, Zapier offers a 14-day free trial
G2 Rating: 4.5 stars / 1,034 reviews
Zapier is the ultimate sales automation platform. If you've never heard of this tool, it allows users to connect and automate 5,000+ different apps. How about an example? Let's pretend that you just installed a chatbot on your company's website. Doing so has exploded your inbound leads. The only problem is you have to manually transfer said leads from your chatbot app to your CRM software of choice, which takes forever. With Zapier, you can build custom automations (called zaps) that will handle this tedious task for you. There are thousands upon thousands of other possibilities, too. Put simply, Zapier allows users to automate their current workflows by integrating the apps they already use with each other. Brilliant!
24. Taggg
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 designed to simplify the process of finding a mutually convenient time for meetings. 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.
And with Automated Group Meetings, all you need to do is add participants, and Taggg will find the earliest time to meet. You can sign up for free to witness how Taggg works and enjoy the convenience of a seamless meeting scheduling experience.
Turbocharge Your Sales Process
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 Mailchimp. Maybe you need both.
I can't tell you exactly which automation software to invest in. What I can tell you is 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!
