Outreach is a crucial element in modern sales strategies. Effective outreach helps businesses connect with more high-value prospects, drive more pipeline opportunities, and ultimately accelerate revenue growth. However, manual outreach efforts have limits. That‘s where outreach software comes in – to supercharge sales engagement.
In this comprehensive guide, we evaluate the top nine outreach platforms on the market based on core features, integrations, ease of use and more. Read on for an in-depth look at each solution along with expert recommendations so you can determine the right fit for your sales stack.
Key Capabilities to Look for in Outreach Software
When researching options, keep an eye out for these must-have capabilities:
Email Automation – Automatically send initial messages and set up workflows to trigger follow-up emails based on prospect activity and engagement. This saves reps time while optimizing outreach.
CRM Integrations – Sync contacts and seamlessly log prospect interactions for a unified view of engagement data. This connects outreach efforts to the broader sales process.
Analytics & Reporting – Get visibility into email metrics like open, clickthrough and response rates. Use this data to refine outreach campaigns for better results. Reports also help managers oversee team productivity.
Personalization – Customize email content for each prospect with merge fields, smart segmentation and more. This results in more relevant, higher-converting messaging.
With those essentials covered, here‘s an overview of nine capable solutions on the market:
1. Saleshandy – Best for Hyper-Personalized Prospecting
Saleshandy combines powerful automation with intelligent personalization capabilities that help teams maximize prospects contacted and drive more pipeline from cold outreach efforts.
Standout Features:
- Dynamic Personalization – Smart merge fields, custom CTAs and layouts tailored to each prospect
- Spam Filter-Optimized Delivery – Avoid risky triggers ensuring emails reach inboxes
- Engagement Analytics – Track opens, clicks with visual graphs and reports to refine approach
- Meetings Scheduler – One-click scheduling helps reps book meetings faster after outreach connects
Ideal For: B2B companies focused on cold prospecting looking to scale efforts and results. Mid-market and enterprise teams can benefit most from extensive personalization capabilities.
Pricing: Starts at $49/mo per user
2. Reply – Best for Multi-Channel Sales Automation
Reply stands out for its top-notch integrations and ability to execute automated, multi-channel playbooks to turn cold prospects into leads. Sync‘d workflows span email, phone, SMS and ads.
Killer Features:
- Multi-channel workflows – Orchestrate emails with calls, texts and ads for 360 prospect engagement
- Click & connect integrations – Instantly sync popular sales tech stacks (Salesforce, HubSpot, etc)
- Lead scoring – Automatically grade prospect engagement levels to help reps prioritize hottest leads
- Voicemail drops – Leave voicemails when prospects don‘t answer with automatic transcription
Ideal For: Sales development reps and account executives looking for an all-in-one sales automation command center to drive prospect engagement.
Pricing: Custom quotes
3. Lemlist – Best for Hyper-Personalized, Interactive Email
Lemlist makes it remarkably easy for teams to create beautiful, engaging emails tailored to each recipient. Interactive content keeps prospect attention while automation acts on responses.
Notable Features:
- Interactive email content – Personalized calculators, live countdowns, GIFs and more
- Smart contact data populate – Surface CRM data to segment and custom-craft messaging
- Automated engagement workflows – Trigger sales tasks, activities or emails based on replies
- Email analytics – Track opens, clicks with visual reporting to optimize approach
Ideal For: Frontline sales reps that want to deliver a highly personalized, human touch at scale across outbound campaigns.
Pricing: Starts at $84/month per user
4. Woodpecker – Best Just for Cold Email Outreach
Woodpecker stands out as a specialized cold email automation solution. The affordable platform helps streamline prospecting outreach with crucial automation while remaining easy-to-use.
Notable Capabilities:
- Email verification – Confirm address validity before sending to improve deliverability
- Sequences – Set up intricate automated workflows to trigger targeted follow-up
- Email analytics – Review granular engagement data like opens, clicks and more
- Built-in integrations – Connect popular sales stacks (Salesforce, Hubspot)
Ideal For: Lean sales teams focused squarely on leveraging cold email outreach to drive new pipeline opportunities.
Pricing: Starts at $15/month per user
5. Outreach – Well-Established, Full-Featured Choice
Outreach remains an industry leader that‘s trusted by enterprises like Adobe, DoorDash and Cisco. The platform offers a polished set of capabilities for executing orchestrated sales plays across channels.
Robust Capabilities:
- AI-Based automation – Work smarter leveraging AI to handle manual tasks
- Predictive analytics – Surface insights to refine plays and strategy
- Sales coaching – Hone team skills with in-app training content
- Custom reporting – Visually track KPIs aligned to your process
Ideal For: Mid-market and enterprise sales teams looking for a powerful, scalable solution for high-volume outbound processes.
Pricing: Custom quotes
6. Salesloft – Top Choice for Conversation Intelligence
Salesloft stands apart with its leading conversation intelligence features. This allows teams to surface deep insights from emails and calls to optimize future interactions.
Key Strengths:
- Conversation intelligence – Analyze past discussions to improve strategy
- Predictive lead scoring – Use engagement signals to prioritize hottest prospects
- Custom objects sync – Extend platform‘s data model to capture specialized entity data
- Sales coaching content – Leverage in-app training to sharpen team selling skills
Ideal For: Mid-market and enterprise teams focused on honing sales methodology through data-driven optimization.
Pricing: Custom quotes
7. Gong + Mailshake – Best Integrated Email + Conversation Intelligence
Gong‘s leading conversation intelligence solution paired with Mailshake‘s excellent email capabilities offers a powerful sales tech stack for data-driven outreach.
Top Benefits:
- Surface insights from prospect calls, emails, texts to guide strategy decisions
- Build automated outbound email campaigns for one-to-many prospecting
- Log all interactions and engagement signals in integrated history
- Leverage conversation intel to craft hyper-targeted messaging
Ideal For: Innovative sales teams looking to operationalize insights from prospect discussions to drive more pipeline. Requires manual integration.
Pricing: Gong – $65+/mo per user, Mailshake – $50+/mo per user
8. PersistIQ – Great for Emerging Teams
PersistIQ offers an easy-to-implement sales engagement platform tailored to the needs of small, rapid-growth sales teams. Straightforward automation empowers reps to scale efforts as effectiveness ramps up.
Key Attributes:
- Simple 5-minute setup – Quickly launch first campaign
- Power dialer – Click-to-call enhances rep productivity
- Easy-to-use UI – Enables reps to instantly leverage capabilities
- Affordable plans – Optimized for small, emerging revenue teams
Ideal For: Early-stage startups focused on growth seeking simple but capable automation to scale prospect engagement.
Pricing: Starts at $65/month per user
9. HubSpot + Mailshake – Top Integrated Stack for SMBs
Together, HubSpot Sales and Mailshake offer small businesses on a budget an integrated solution for executing automated outbound campaigns while leveraging CRM‘s robust contact database for personalization.
Key Integrated Features:
- Sync contact database from HubSpot CRM
- Configure email automation rules and workflows in Mailshake
- Log all campaign analytics and engagement data back to HubSpot Sales
Ideal For: Growing SMBs seeking straightforward stack to combine CRM database and outreach automation. Requires manual integration.
Pricing: HubSpot Sales – $50/month per user, Mailshake – $50+/month per user
Choosing the Right Software for Your Sales Team
All platforms highlighted excel at core outreach capabilities like email automation, analytics and seamless CRM integrations. However, certain solutions stand out based on specific focus areas, ideal customer profiles and ease of use.
Here‘s a quick run-down of expert recommendations for sales teams at different stages:
Early-Stage Startups – PersistIQ offers the fastest time-to-value with easy onboarding and straightforward feature set.
High-Growth B2B Teams – Saleshandy provides exceptional capabilities to personalize, automate and track cold outbound.
Mid-Market & Enterprise Orgs – Consider “Cadillac” solutions like Outreach or SalesLoft to support complex, high-volume use cases.
No matter which solution you select, be sure to leverage available expertise and best practices when rolling out campaigns to maximize effectiveness. With the right outreach software powering prospect interactions, your sales team will be primed for revenue growth and success.
