8 Best Sales Pipeline Management Software for 2022 – Lusha

Do you remember when you first started selling? You were probably excited and optimistic about your future sales. But as time went on, you started to realize that it’s not always easy to close a sale. In fact, sometimes it can feel downright impossible. Well, don’t worry – you’re not alone! Millions of salespeople around the world are struggling to make sales every day. Fortunately, there’s a solution. And that solution is sales pipeline software. With sales pipeline software, you can easily track your progress and stay on top of you leads.

If you’re like most sales reps, you spend a significant portion of your time and energy managing your sales pipeline. This can be a challenge, especially if you don’t have the right tools to help you. That’s why we’ve put together a list of the 8 best free and premium pipeline software programs.

So whether you’re looking for something simple and intuitive, or something more complex with lots of features that can scale with your company, we have you covered. Check out our recommendations and find the perfect solution for managing your pipeline!

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What is sales pipeline software?

Sales pipeline software is any tool that a company uses to move, track, or analyze potential customers through the stages of a sale. It helps them keep track of their prospects and customers, and it allows them to see where they are in the sales funnel.

Sales pipeline management software has another important set of features: tracking, improving, and reporting on the performance of sales representatives. For example, a tool can be used to automate tasks, like sending follow-up emails or scheduling appointments. And if all that’s not enough, many software products include features that help salespeople close more deals, such as customer relationship management (CRM) tools or analytics. Clearly, pipeline software is a valuable tool for any salesperson who wants to increase their productivity and become an elite seller!

Before we move forward, let’s address any sales pipeline vs. sales funnel confusion. A sales pipeline details the steps a salesperson must take to move a lead to a close. Do they need to schedule a presentation? Or rework the proposal? A pipeline is about a rep’s sales process. A sales funnel details where prospects are in their customer journey. Do they need a tutorial on the product? Do they need to compare it to competitors? A pipeline is the rep’s view of their sales activities, while the funnel is the prospects’ view of their buyer’s journey.

What separates the elite sales pipeline software from the mediocre?

Pipeline management tool is designed to help sales teams manage their opportunities and deals more effectively. But too often, organizations pick a product that works fine in the early stages but that they soon grow out of—it no longer has all the features they need to get things done. Here are some factors to consider when choosing pipeline software:

• Easy to use and/or accessible training: The software should be intuitive and easy to use, so that your sales team can hit the ground running with minimal time spent in training. Advanced software should have video tutorials as well as online or in-person training and resources for teams.
• Functionality: The software should have all the features you need to manage and solve your specific pipeline or performance issues. If you plan to scale your business, it should have advanced features to grow with your sales team.
• Customizable: The best pipeline software lets teams customize templates, design, documents and more. For example, to do better sales pipeline analysis, you may need to measure metrics that the app doesn’t have built in. A good app will let you customize and add the metrics you need.
• Price and value: The software should be within your company’s budget, providing enough value to justify the price without taking too big a bite out of your bottom line.
• Customer support: Just in case you do run into any issues while using the software, the company should offer excellent customer support. No one wants to spend hours on hold or in a chat window only to find out the person you’re talking to can’t help you. It should also have a fair refund policy in case it just doesn’t live up to your expectations.
• Reviewed and respected by industry peers: Always check software review and ranking sites like SoftwareAdvice, G2, and Capterra to see what your peers think of the tool before making a purchasing decision.

Choosing the right pipeline software can make a big difference in the success of your sales team. If you spend time analyzing these six factors, you’re sure to find a solution that’s a perfect fit for your business.

The best free sales pipeline software

1. Lusha

Lusha is pipeline software that provides sales intelligence, lead enrichment and lead generation tools for sales professionals. Their flagship product is a Google Chrome email finder extension that allows users to find contact information for decision-makers and company data when prospecting on LinkedIn. But Lusha doesn’t stop at LinkedIn—it also supports Facebook, Twitter, Salesforce and even B2B company websites.

In just a few clicks, users can generate high-quality leads, including contact information and customer profiles. For those who need to enrich thousands of contacts, Lusha has an API so you can integrate it with your existing CMS, helping you clean and enrich your database. You can update customer and company profiles with the latest email addresses and phone numbers of key people. On top of that, you’ll receive firmographics like employee headcount, annual revenue and location. In total, this sales pipeline software can provide up to 37 data points per search!

Free version: You’ll get 5 free credits (AKA lead searches) each month for one user. This includes email addresses, direct + business phone numbers, and company firmographics. You’ll be able to use the LinkedIn email finder on B2B company websites, Salesforce and social media sites. Build targeted lists and import them to your database.

2. Zapier

Zapier is a cloud-based automation pipeline software product. With Zapier, users can automate repetitive tasks, such as transferring data from one app to another, or trigger a certain action based on events in another app. For example, you could build a “zap” that automatically creates a new contact in your CRM whenever someone fills out your lead capture form and send them a welcome email.

Zapier is known for its integrations. Over 5,000 apps are supported out of the box: Gmail, Mailchimp, Quickbooks, BambooHR, Zoom, Calendly, Trello… unless it’s very obscure, there’s probably a Zapier integration for it! But if your favorite program isn’t supported, don’t worry—Zapier also lets you create a custom integration on their platform in your browser without code.

Zapier comes with a library of pre-built zaps that are available to all users. These zaps can be customized and installed with just a few clicks, no coding or configuration needed. Whether you’re looking to automate simple tasks or complex workflows, Zapier is an incredible pipeline management software tool!

Free version: One user can automate up to 100 tasks per month and create 5 single-step zaps or workflows. The option to transfer data in bulk is available as well.

3. EngageBay All-in-One

EngageBay is an all-in-one marketing, customer service and sales pipeline software. Businesses use it to acquire, engage, nurture and convert leads into customers. It offers a whole suite of tools for the pipeline including email marketing; social media marketing; lead capture; and lead, contact and customer relationship management. On the web side, there’s also a platform for creating landing pages, web forms and pop-ups, and integrating them with EngageBay or your CRM of choice.

As you can see, this pipeline management software is ideal for small businesses that want to streamline their marketing and sales processes. What makes EngageBay one of the best is that it helps you engage (ahem, hence the name) leads every step of the way with the right email, presentation and proposal at the right time.

Free version: Hold up to 500 contacts in your database, send email campaigns, set up autoresponders, create landing pages and lead grabbers, and use customer service features such as live chat and helpdesk.

3. Streak

Our next pipeline software, Streak, is a CRM that’s designed to be used within Gmail. Yes, you read that right—Streak promises to let you manage leads at every step of your pipeline without leaving your inbox. There’s a variety of tools to close more deals, including email, deal tracking, client management, analytics, and creating and tracking sales pipeline stages. Users can also add notes and files to each contact record so important information doesn’t get lost.

Obviously, the appeal of this sales pipeline software is that it integrates with your existing Gmail workflow. Streak also offers a number of features to improve your team’s sales performance, like email templates and built-in task management. It even features data visualizations to help you identify trends and zoom in on the leads who need your attention or are close to closing.

Free version: For individuals, track up to 500 leads across your pipeline and use mail merge to send up to 50 emails per day. Track emails, create templates, and perform basic CRM functions.

The best premium sales pipeline software

5. Pipedrive

Pipedrive is one of the highest-rated CRMs on the pipeline software market. Users like it for its intuitive interface that keeps track of every interaction and communication point with customers. Pipedrive makes it easy to see where each deal is in the process and who’s responsible for what.

Versatile data visualization options provide a good view of numerous sales pipeline metrics, and the software has a strong list of features like email integration, task automation, and reporting. Best of all, Pipedrive helps increase transparency and communication between team members while also giving managers clear oversight of the entire sales process.

Paid version: For $19.90 per month, you can manage up to 3,000 deals, get 30 custom fields to organize and categorize leads, import data from spreadsheets or CRMs like Salesforce or HubSpot, view leads’ history, track pipeline movement and more.

6. Zoho CRM Plus

Even if you’ve never tried Zoho CRM Plus, you would probably recognize its colorful and playful logo. It’s built a solid reputation in the pipeline software space by offering a fairly complete view of the customer journey, from initial contact to post-purchase follow-up. In addition to standard contact management features, it offers sales and marketing automation as well as omnichannel support.

Organizations of all sizes use Zoho CRM Plus, from small startups to enterprises like Sodexo, Levi’s and Delta Air Lines. It’s available in both on-premise and cloud-based versions.

Paid version: For $69 per user per month, you’ll receive sales, marketing and customer helpdesk features like lead management and scoring, sales forecasting, email insights, calls, scheduling and email tickets.

7. Salesforce CRM

Salesforce CRM is one of the top cloud-based pipeline management software tools. It’s a flexible and scalable system that can be customized to meet the needs of any business. Like other elite solutions, it comes with a wide range of features: lead management, contact management, opportunity management, product management, quotes, automation… and custom applications for the times that none of its features quite meet your needs.

Salesforce CRM also plays nicely with a number of third-party apps; integrations make it easy to incorporate into your workflow. And, like we mentioned, there’s a robust set of developer tools for creating custom applications.

Paid version: For $25 per user per month, you’ll receive all-in-one sales and customer support. This has account management, email integration, pipeline forecast and management, workflow and approval automation, sales engagement and insights and 24/7 support.

8. Freshsales

Freshsales is another cloud-based CRM offering, designed to help businesses increase sales and accelerate growth. The sales pipeline software offers features such as lead capture, contact management, deal tracking, and pipeline management. Freshsales also provides real-time insights and reporting, so you can track your progress and identify areas for improvement. And not to be outdone by some of the bigger names in sales, this software also integrates with popular productivity tools like Gmail and Slack, so you can manage your sales process from start to finish in just a few browser tabs.

Paid version: For $18 per user per month, you’ll receive a beautiful visual kanban sales pipeline, sales sequences, AI-powered predictive contact scoring, up to 2,000 bot sessions per month and WhatsApp Business.

Key takeaways

• What is sales pipeline software? It’s any tool that helps teams manage their prospects and deals. It can help salespeople keep track of their activities and interactions with prospects, identify which prospects are ready to buy, and forecast future sales.
• What sets elite pipeline software apart? First, it has customizable features you need (or will need in the future) to solve your pipeline issues. Second, it’s easy to use and has accessible training and resources for sales teams. Third, the app has been tested, well reviewed and respected by lots of companies. Finally, the price is justifiable for the value and you have good customer support.
• Which pipeline software should you start with? Begin with a prospecting or lead generation tool. Lusha is a LinkedIn email finder contact Google chrome extension. Use it while you’re prospecting on LinkedIn, Facebook, B2B websites or in your Salesforce CRM and you’ll receive updated contact info (emails + phone numbers) of decision-makers. You’ll also get firmographics like company revenue, employee size and location to create full customer profiles. It’s the perfect starter tool for any rep who wants to take the next step toward elite status.

Test out Lusha’s individual plan today – it includes 5 credits per month, and it’s free forever!