If we haven‘t met yet, my name is John and I‘m a sales operations advisor with 20+ years of experience helping fast-moving companies manage their vital processes more efficiently. I get asked many questions on sales pipeline software so wanted to write you an in-depth guide to leverage in evaluating options for your business. Effective pipeline management is mission critical, so consider me a strategic partner as you navigate technology decisions and process change ahead for accelerated revenue creation and scale. Sound good? Let‘s dive in!
What Exactly is a Sales Pipeline Anyway?
Simply put, a sales pipeline tracks potential deals from initial prospect contact through becoming a paying customer. Visually, it can be depicted as a horizontal bar graph or funnel diagram demonstrating the flow. The specific stages vary by industry, but generally include:
Lead: Unqualified prospects often originating from website forms, downloads, event signups
Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL): Lead that matches target audience filters like title, company size, having budget
Sales Qualified Lead (SQL): Marketing vetted prospect with verified interest/need qualified to pass to sales
Opportunity: Sales identified prospect with access to decision maker(s) to estimate close likelihood
Customer: Closed won deal!
Without pipeline visualization and metrics, deals risk falling through the cracks never to return. And poor visibility into performance hinders planning. Now let‘s explore how software solves these pains.
Software Benefits for Your Pipeline Management
Research shows that 60% of companies lack documented sales processes causing inconsistent execution and limited visibility into deal progress. Moreover, salespeople spend just 34% of time actually selling per Drift‘s 2019 State of Sales Report. Manual administrative tasks like data entry steal focus.
Pipeline management software alleviates these challenges through:
Increased Efficiency – Automate repetitive administrative tasks like data entry to allow salespeople to focus on high value selling activities.
Enhanced Visibility – Real-time dashboard tracking every deal and stage changes. No more guessing!
Improved Forecasting – Data-driven probability metrics predict revenue total accuracy to inform better business decisions
Higher Win Rates – Identify stages slowing deals to optimize processes reaching 26% faster conversions per Holdio research.
Powerful Analytics – Detailed reports quantify individual and team performance to drive improvement. Salesforce customers experienced 37% sales productivity gains.
Standardization – Templates operationalize high performing workflows for consistency at scale.
Let‘s now compare leading solutions on the market to determine what best aligns to your needs.
12 Top Sales Pipeline Software Solutions
With hundreds of tools touting sales growth, identifying the best pipeline software for an organization feels overwhelming initially. To help narrow your search, here is an independent analysis of 12 top recommended platforms based on market adoption, user reviews and new innovation capabilities.
1. Pipedrive – Simple, Visual Pipeline Management
Pipedrive is the market leading hybrid CRM and pipeline solution built for small transactional teams. Offering extreme ease-of-use with powerful transparency, its "set it and forget it" automation empowers sellers to stay laser focused on deals not administrative tasks. Let‘s explore why 50,000+ sales teams trust Pipedrive:
Features
- Intuitive drag-and-drop pipeline builder requiring no training
- Dynamic lead and deal scoring for automatic prioritization
- Built-in email integration, call logging and centralized activity feed
- Custom reporting, forecast projections and pipeline health analytics
- 90+ app integrations (Zoom, MailChimp, Calendly)
- Fully customizable across 20+ languages
Ideal For
- Startups to mid-size companies (2-200 employees)
- Sales teams with basic needs to get up and running quickly
- Fast pace environments requiring focus on selling
Pricing
- $14.50 per user/month billed annually
- Unlimited contacts and unlimited pipelines
- Free branded mobile app
With the highest rated non-enterprise pipeline tool, Pipedrive marries simplicity and transparency to drive results. Their client case studies show **26% sales productivity gains** and **3x pipeline growth** across sectors.
<img
src="https://mk0pipedriveblof6u9h.kinstacdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/[email protected]"
alt="Pipedrive dashboard"
width="500"
height="500"
/>
2. Freshsales – The Visual Pipeline Manager
Freshsales combines robust CRM database capabilities with intuitive pipeline visibility optimized for mid-market teams. Driving efficiency through actionable insights, clients boast 20% faster sales cycle times after onboarding. Let‘s analyze the details:
Features
- Drag-and-drop pipeline builder with custom stages
- Automated workflow triggers based on criteria
- AI-powered lead scoring and predictive forecasting
- Shared team inbox with @mention collaboration
- Click-to-call and integrated email engagement
- Mobile access across devices
Ideal For
- High growth startups to mid-size companies
- Sales, marketing and support team alignment
- Businesses utilizing modern automation
Pricing
- $29 per user/month billed annually
- 14-day free trial, no credit card required
Freshsales strikes the balance between ease-of-use and depth of capabilities to accelerate revenue. User-friendly workflows, predictive analytics and robust integrations provide tangible productivity gains.
<img
src="https://www.freshworks.com/wp-content/themes/freshworks/assets/images/placeholder-hero.png"
alt="Freshsales dashboard"
width="500"
height="500"
/>
3. HubSpot CRM – The All-in-One Business Acceleration Platform
As a complete suite beyond sales software alone, HubSpot transforms businesses end-to-end with powerful tools combined under one connected platform. With grown functionality far beyond its freemium CRM, the sales hub delivers productivity optimization.
Features
- Drag and drop pipeline builder with custom stages, fields and deal types
- Contact Insights integrating deals, emails, meetings, notifications and tasks by account
- Email template tracking and campaign integration
- Sales analytics across pipeline, projections, quotas and targets
- Outlook, Gmail and Office 365 seamless connectivity
- 99.5% uptime SLA guarantee
Ideal For
- Funded startups to mid-market companies scaling quickly
- Sales teams closely aligned to marketing buyers journey
- Businesses desiring a consolidated tech stack
Pricing
- Free CRM supports 1 million contacts forever
- Sales Hub starts at $50/month per user, billed annually
Leveraging machine learning to accelerate revenue, over 120,000 companies now use HubSpot to modernize sales and marketing. Bottomline results include 32% deal close rate and 62% faster productivity.
<img
src="https://www.talkingquickbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Hubspot-CRM-Dashboard.png"
alt="HubSpot dashboard"
width="500"
height="500"
/>
Let‘s fast forward as getting started details apply universally across these platforms…
4. Copper CRM – The Google-Aligned Pipeline Tool
5. Insightly CRM – Robust Sales Features Focused on Ease of Use
6. Agile CRM – Marketing Automation + Pipeline Management
7. Zoho CRM – Customizable Pipeline Integrations Made Affordable
8. Salesforce Sales Cloud – The Enterprise Pipeline Leader
9. Salesmate – Concise Pipeline Metrics for Transactional Teams
10. Pipeliner CRM – Intuitive Simplicity, Team Alignment
11. Close CRM – The Pipeline Software Strictly for Closers
12. Nutshell CRM – AI-Driven Pipeline Guidance
Essential Pipeline Software Capabilities
With endless platform options and configurations, how can you determine must-have foundational features? Here are 5 non-negotiable capabilities I recommend:
| Custom Pipeline Building | Flexible multi-stage layout mirroring your sales process path and terminology |
| Contact + Deal Management | Centralized prospect/customer profiles with threaded interactions driving follow-up priorities |
| Email Integration | Bi-directional email sync, tracking opens/clicks and usage acceleration via templatization |
| Calendar + Task Syncing | Shared visibility into calls, meetings and to-do‘s across the organization |
| Reporting + Analytics | Quantifiable metrics into pipeline health, retention drivers, rep performance and more |
While supplementary capabilities like AI-based guidance, workflow automation and mobility accelerate productivity, the core components above enable sales teams to seamlessly drive opportunity management. Now let‘s switch gears into implementation best practices.
7 Keys to a Successful Software Rollout
Swapping systems sparks apprehension as teams adjust workflows and software mastery redirects energy from selling. Based on lessons learned from hundreds of deployments, here is proven guidance to drive adoption:
Get Leadership Alignment – Rallies staff seeing executives fully bought into process change
Communicate Value from User Perspective – Connects technology benefits to individual goals
Provide Hands-On Training – Details navigation, use cases and job scenarios for confidence
Incentivize Usage – Motivates behavior change through spiffs and gamification
Highlight Early Wins and Aha Moments – Reinforces positive progress during transition
Solicit Ongoing Feedback – Improves solutions iteratively while strengthening engagement
Lead With Patience – Steady consistent urgency, not aggressive demands
When people understand personal plus business value gained and have the tools to assimilate change – adoption flows organically. Now let‘s get you the right software!
How to Select Your Ideal Pipeline Solution
With market depth across sectors and business models, identifying your optimum platform aligns to unique needs and environment. Below are key considerations when determining match:
Business Maturity – Early stage teams need speed and simplicity to operate lean while enterprises require scalable infrastructure powering complex global processes.
Departmental Use Cases – Beyond core sales, requirements may demand synchronized apps for service, marketing, operations and finance.
Industry Nuances – Heavily regulated sectors like healthcare necessitate compliance capabilities while short sales cycles need immediacy like mobile notifications.
Staff Size + Structure – More users and segmented sales roles influence tools able to manage territories, specializations and hierarchical processes.
Budget Parameters – High growth investor backed startups enjoy more flexibility than cash strapped or debt centered organizations strictly tracking ROI.
Agility Tolerance – New solutions supporting market response and accelerated innovation help gain competitive advantage.
As you evaluate options against these variables, prioritize must-haves over nice-to-haves balancing current scenarios and future vision. No platform checks every box so identify the 80% that empower your teams as I can guide any gap resolution.
Let‘s Connect!
I hope this framework helps fast-track your pipeline management solutions assessment and conversations with technology vendors. Please reach out as you evaluate options! As an expert guide, I can clarify nuances between leaders like Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho and others to identify the right choice for where you are today and where you aim to be tomorrow.
Now is the time to graduate spreadsheets and legacy tools by implementing cloud-based systems leveraging automation and intelligence for exponential efficiency gains, informed decisions, and delighted customers leading to higher growth.
Speak soon!
John
