Best Sales Management Software in 2025

Are your sales reps wasting a lot of time on data entry? Is online documentation taking up a lot of their time? Are your sales managers still using Excel for forecasting and for managing their sales pipeline? Is communication with your clients patchy and uneven, with different sales reps giving different sales pitches to them? If this is indeed the scene in your company, then you’re ready for sales management tools. Since there are many options, we have prepared this buyer’s guide to help you navigate the complex selection process, and discover the best Sales Management tools for enterprises, but also small and medium businesses.

With so many sales management software to choose from, each of which offering comprehensive suites of features and benefits, the selection process can prove to be tricky. This guide aims to provide you with the information you need to make a wise choice.

A good course of action is to sign up for at least a few free trials or demo and basic unpaid plans from leading sales management application providers. With that method, you will have the opportunity to test the important elements and you will get a good comparison of the capabilities of each app. The best thing to do when looking for the best Sales Management tools is to try platforms that currently have the highest SmartScore rankings and Customer Satisfaction Rating in our sales management software reviews: Brightpearl reviews, Infusionsoft, NetSuite ERP, Teamgate, LeadExec, and Hatchbuck.

By subscribing to free trials, you get a first-hand experience of what the top sales management software can do. You will also see whether their features and functions meet your requirements. Free trials also show which software are easier to use and adopt.

Depending on the features they need, sales management application buyers can be categorized into the following types:

• Direct sellers that sell via telesales teams and direct field reps.
• Channel sellers that sell via channel partners.
• Enterprise buyers that sell through both direct sales and channel partners.
• Small businesses that are looking to upgrade beyond storing contact and interaction details in shared spreadsheets and email inboxes.

Channel and enterprise buyers need specialized features for sending and monitoring leads across various units within the company. They would like to integrate their sales management solution with other programs like accounting, payroll, etc. Direct sellers and small businesses would also consider integrations. For example, email integration is important for all types of buyers.

All in all, any business or team that has a sales function can easily find sales management software helpful in terms of streamlining their sales processes. These software also help improve team collaboration, which leads to a unified sales operation.

• Brightpearl: An outstanding multichannel retail management system that handles orders, inventory, and customer data all from the same platform.
• Piperdrive: Another proven sales management solution with a simple but effective interface, able to organize business leads in a way that gives you the full perspective of your deals.
• Zoho CRM: A great member of Zoho’s productivity suite designed to attract, retain, and satisfy customers, track sales, and follow updates in real time.
• Infusionsoft: A smart choice for small business retailers looking to map out their sales and marketing strategies, and to centralize all customer interactions.
• NetSuite ERP: A complete, scalable sales management solution which automates both front- and back-office processes, and provides a set of key performance indicators which measure success.

There are many different types of sales management software tools, varying from free and basic solutions to ultra costly and accurate programs. Features can also be categorization criteria, as certain programs do nothing but summarize leads, while others are more robust and they allow companies to boost repeat selling, promote products on social media, track the entire sales cycle, and even do some custom branding. Deployment is also an important factor based on which there are:

• On-premise sales management systems. These are covered with a single license and are hosted on the client’s local server. They qualify as the most expensive ones, due to the fact that they require complex setup and occasionally some hardware installation.
• Software-as-a-service (SaaS) sales management systems. These are usually paid per month and are hosted on the vendor’s server. The business owner is not responsible for installation, updating, and maintenance.
• Cloud-hosted sales management systems. Most of these offer free basic plans and qualify as the most affordable ones due to their universal access and the fact that the client doesn’t need to update them or to pay for maintenance.

Different types of sales management software cater to different needs. Indeed, not all software are created the same. To know which type of sales management software is right for your business, it’s vital that you assess your requirements first. You should also evaluate your team’s technical capabilities to know which software they can use effectively and efficiently.

This is the list of main features to expect from your next sales management system:

• Reporting. Ideally, your new online sales manager should be enabled to generate accurate and robust reports, based on database information and imported data instead of manual entries. Simple but effective, reports should be based on key performance indicators, and organize data in a comprehensive way, namely, graphs, charts, pies, etc.
• Collaboration. Together with sales performance management, sales management software ought to enable sales collaboration, namely to design a private network for employees to access information and to share opinions.
• Predictive analytics. Advanced sales managers are usually designed with predictive analysis suites, used to grow sales efficiency and make smarter data mining solutions. At the same time, these features enable companies to capture and follow trends.
• Pricing optimization. Pricing optimization refers to centralizing price management and price strategy in order to create a single source of pricing truth, and adjust different products/services to it. The practice drives sales and margins to grow and facilitates approval and workflow management.
• Sales forecasting. Sales forecasting belongs to the group of predictive analytics tools and refers specifically to developing realistic demand expectations and adjusting the stock supply to them.
• Email integration. The online sales management tool has to be integrated with leading email services in order to enable companies to track and manage leads and to promote their content. Needless to say, email integration is an invaluable source of database material which can be used for reporting on a later stage.
• Lead/contact management. Some sales managers do, and some don’t offer lead and contact management, but in case you’re still having doubts about it we recommend you to choose one that does. Detailed customer profiles and customer satisfaction can be nothing else than beneficiary for your sales management process.
• Opportunity management. With this feature, a sales management software can identify and track potential sales opportunities.
• Security. Sales management software that have sufficient security features are able to monitor the team’s permissions and sign-on, allowing for better management of confidential sales information and data.

Our detailed comparisons show that these are what a good sales management tool can do for your company:

• It provides feedback on sales reps’ performance. The sales management software should help you evaluate the performance of your sales reps. It should provide information such as average task completion time, lead contact time, and conversion rate. This will help you identify top performers whom you can reward, and laggards, to whom you can provide extra help.
• It boosts repeat selling. The sales management software should offer information on existing customers that you can use to create selling opportunities. For instance, data on a particular client’s buying patterns can reveal what products they are interested in. You can let your existing customers know when you launch a new product. This can act as an advertisement for the product. In short, the sales management system should help you capitalize on existing customers to boost repeat sales as well as customer satisfaction.
• It improves social media marketing. The sales management software should help you boost your marketing efforts on social networks like Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. You can track social media campaigns, identify the networks that are sending the most traffic to your website, gauge customer opinion about your brand, and understand the overall client experience. You can keep up with trends and make adjustments to your marketing efforts to improve your brand’s image on the Web.
• It gives you access to technical support. The vendors offer 24/7 support through phone, live chat, and email to help you with the on-boarding process as well as to resolve any technical issues that may arise. This can save you a lot of trouble as you transition towards using the software to improve your sales processes.
• Reduced training and implementation time. Most sales marketing systems are simple and have an intuitive interface that can be used easily even by non-savvy users and beginners. Training is not required (even if most vendors offer it), and implementation and maintenance times are minimal since most sales management systems are SaaS or cloud-based.
• It helps simplify sales data and document management. Sales management software helps teams stay organized, especially when it comes to data and document management. It provides a unified platform where sales personnel can store, share, track, and analyze sales data and documents.
• It is designed to automate workflow. With the help of sales management software, your team can focus on the important aspects of the sales process while the software handles routine tasks such as sending reminders and follow-ups.

There are several trends currently shaping the sales management software market. Knowing about these trends will help you make a sound decision when choosing a software to use for the long term.

• Software-as-a-Service. Cloud technology is not anything new. However, SaaS is still seen to dominate the industry as these offer cost and time efficiency. The percentage of SaaS in sales management will likely continue to rise.
• Mobile capabilities. More sales professionals demand mobile capabilities to allow them to utilize their sales management software even while on the go. Because of this, more software will also be designed to offer improved mobile functionalities.
• Social integrations. Sales teams now use social media to get in touch with their customers and support their sales efforts. The ability to integrate social media into your sales management software will further consolidate sales processes.
• Artificial intelligence. As with other types of software, the addition of AI technology will make sales management software even more effective in generating predictions, estimates, and analytics.

Sales management software surely offers a number of benefits. However, they are not perfect. Here are the potential issues that you may encounter as you explore this kind of online sales tool.

• Cost. Most sales management software come with a hefty price tag that might be too steep for small businesses and startups. After all, this kind of software is an important business investment.
• Lack of complete control. Sales management software work based on how they are designed. As a result, you are practically limited by the software’s features and functions.