The 5 Best Lead Management Software in 2024: Streamline Your Sales Process

Vlad Oleksiienko 18 Apr 2024

Businesses heavily invest in consistently attracting new potential customers. In fact, there’s no other way to ensure long-term success.

But, generating leads is just the first step in converting them into customers, a process commonly referred to as lead management.

Once sales and marketing teams create effective inbound and outbound lead generation pipelines, it becomes equally important to then qualify and nurture them throughout their buyer journey.

This is where lead management software steps in, fusing all these key sales workflows and empowering businesses to make more informed decisions, and ultimately get more recurring customers and revenue.

What are the stages of lead management?

Before we jump into the tools, let’s take a moment to understand the journey of managing leads. What exactly happens from the moment someone shows interest in your product until they make a purchase?

Knowing this can really help you handle things better.

Lead generation → attracting targeted leads through inbound and outbound efforts, from generating marketing campaigns to sourcing relevant prospects in contact databases.
Lead qualification → scoring and prioritizing leads based on their purchase potential, as well as segmenting qualified leads for a more relevant and personalized buyer journey.
Lead nurturing → tracking leads throughout their buyer journey and capturing relevant data points to create personalized lead engagement sequences.
Lead distribution → assigning leads to the right sales rep or team to effectively nurture leads in different stages of their buyer journey.
Conversion → scheduling a demo or making a sale once the leads are purchase-ready and deciding on which product to choose.
Reporting → refining the lead management process based on analytics & reporting is the most important and least known stage, enabling data-driven decision-making.

How does software come into play?

It’s clear that lead management is quite multidimensional yet integrated, and businesses have to equip themselves with software that can merge the above-mentioned processes with a consistent flow of lead data. But what is lead management software, and how does it work?

Lead management software is an umbrella term for several tool categories, all of which we will cover below. Still, overall, it refers to software that helps companies generate, nurture, and convert leads.

The closest type of software would be CRMs, but lead management tools focus more on the sales pipeline and lead journey, ensuring that relevant data is acted upon quickly to increase the likelihood of a sale.

Therefore, the term ‘lead management software’ most often refers to several tools that focus on different processes of managing leads.

Lead management software automates numerous repetitive tasks, from prospecting to outreach and beyond, provides a centralized lead database updated in real-time, improved lead scoring and prioritization, enhanced communication, data analytics for better decision-making, and the list goes on.

What to look for in lead management software?

Picking the right tool or tools for your lead management software can be overwhelming, considering there are so many different options available, spanning over several categories.

As cliche as this may sound, the best lead management software will ultimately be the one that a) best suits your unique business needs, and b) integrates with your existing tool stack.

It’s also worth noting that lead management software costs vary, though in most cases, the free software or pricing plans are too limited to fully utilize the product.

Here are some other important things to consider:

customization options and flexibility → go for software that you can tweak to fit just right—it should adapt to your workflow, not the other way around.
contact database for prospecting → keep all your prospects in one spot. A solid database makes it easy to find, manage, and keep track of everyone.
feature consolidation → look for a one-stop shop that handles everything from emails to lead scoring.
user interface and ease-of-use → choose simple lead management software that’s a breeze to use—you shouldn’t need a manual to figure it out.
scalability capabilities → make sure the software can scale with your business—as you grow, it should, too.
customer support quality → good support is a lifesaver when you hit a snag. It’s essential for keeping things running smoothly. (check reviews for each tool)
pricing → find software that fits your budget and feels like a good investment for the scale of your operations; you could also find one of the best free lead management software more than sufficient for your business.

The best 5 full-scale lead management software

As mentioned before, lead management includes numerous key business activities, including lead generation, lead scoring and qualification, and lead nurturing all the way until conversion.

Therefore, sales lead generation management software comes in different shapes and sizes. Some cover multiple lead management tasks, while others focus their more advanced features on individual lead management processes.

Moreover, they can also vary by industry, considering there are dedicated lead management software for real estate, hotel sales lead management software, and tailored for sales reps lead management software options, so keep that in mind.

We will start with our overall top B2B lead management software, and then list and compare software that made our top picks for all the stages of lead management.

Without further ado, let’s get started.

HubSpot – best for comprehensive inbound marketing automation

The first is HubSpot, which definitely needs no introduction. It’s one of the most versatile software solutions on the market, and it just so happens that they have a dedicated free lead management software.

With HubSpot, businesses can create detailed customer profiles with updated and enriched data throughout the entire lead journey, making it an all-inclusive marketing lead management software.

Users can also use HubSpot Marketing Hub to create full-cycle marketing campaigns and lead magnets to generate targeted leads. As the cherry on top, HubSpot seamlessly integrates with most sales intelligence and outreach tools like Reply.

Best part? You can try HupSpot’s sales lead management software free of charge for a limited time to see it in action before making a purchase.

HubSpot key features:

Lead generation with marketing automation
Contact and campaign management
Lead qualification and scoring
Lead nurturing with real-time data updates

HubSpot pricing:

Free → $0 per month
Sales Hub Starter → $20 per month per seat
Sales Hub Professional → $100 per month per seat

Zoho CRM – best for versatility across small and medium businesses

The next is Zoho CRM, a perfect example of an all-in-one CRM system that includes most of the features required for effective lead management. It is probably one of the top free lead management software for small business teams, though it is free for a very limited trial period.

With its robust features ranging from generating leads to live website visitor tracking, Zoho is more than equipped to convert leads into a potential buyer, helping you better understand and engage them.

Zoho Sales IQ is a dedicated function of the CRM that covers lead scoring, lead qualification, and lead nurturing with data points available in the customer or company profile.

Zoho CRM key features:

Lead scoring
Lead qualification
Lead data enrichment
Reports & Analytics

Zoho CRM pricing:

Standard → $20 per user/month
Professional → $35 per user/month
Enterprise → $50 per user/month
Ultimate → $65 per user/month

Pipedrive – best for streamlined sales pipeline management

The next is Pipedrive, another great CRM/lead management platform that focuses its features on the sales pipeline, helping businesses better understand their leads and how best to engage them with the detailed customer profile data available.

You can also generate tons of targeted leads right through the platform, though it’s worth mentioning that this will cost you extra. Pipedrive is probably the best lead management software for small business teams looking for an all-in-one solution.

All in all, Pipedrive includes seamless customization features, allowing businesses to effectively manage multiple pipelines with actionable insights, ultimately driving better and more efficient decision-making.

Pipedrive key features:

Lead qualification & prioritization
Web visitors tracking
Prospecting
Rich contact data

Pipedrive pricing:

Essential → $14 per user/month
Advanced → $29 per user/month
Professional → $59 per user/month
Power → $69 per user/month
Enterprise → $99 per user/month

Close – best for inside sales teams focusing on communication

Don’t forget about Close, which ticks all the boxes when talking about an all-in-one lead management system software. While limited in generating leads, it’s definitely a powerhouse when it comes to nurturing them with data-driven actions and messaging.

As with the other customer lead management software, Close creates customizable and detailed customer profiles with actionable insights into the next best step, ensuring all leads are engaged with the right message at the right time.

Seamlessly integrated with virtually all tools on the market, Close is definitely a great addition to one’s tool stack, and it can substitute several tools with its versatility features.

Close key features:

Lead qualification & prioritization
Lead distribution & task assignment
Prospecting
Reporting & analytics

Close pricing:

Starter → $59 per user/month
Professional → $109 per user/month
Enterprise → $149 per user/month

Monday.com – best for visual sales processes and project management

Positioned as an all-in-one business operations platform, Monday.com contains pretty much everything needed to run a small—to medium-sized business. It has 4 products: Monday Work Management, Monday Sales CRM, Monday Dev, and Monday Service.

The Monday Sales CRM allows businesses to streamline the entire sales process. It keeps track of every lead interaction in one place, qualifying the most suitable leads, managing lead activity, and creating personalized email campaigns.

With its powerful reporting and analytics features, this tool can easily help every sales team refine their lead management workflow with concrete data from past interactions and conversions.

Monday Sales CRM key features:

Lead activity management
Lead nurturing
Prospecting
Reporting & analytics

Monday Sales CRM pricing:

Basic → $15 per user/month
Standard → $20 per user/month
Pro → $33 per user/month
Enterprise → custom pricing

Top lead management software for each stage

It’s also important to have the best tools at each step to help you keep everything running smoothly. So, take a look at the top lead management software for each stage and see how they can make your job a lot easier.

Ready? Let’s check them out!

Lead generation

Lead generation software comes in different shapes and sizes, which only makes sense considering that businesses generate leads through sales and marketing, inbound and outbound efforts.

For instance, tools like OptinMonster are used to capture leads through optimized marketing forms and lead magnets, while Leadfeeder (it’s Dealfront now) helps uncover highly relevant leads by identifying website visitors.

Then we have dedicated B2B contact databases such as Reply Data, containing contact and company info on over 150 million potential leads with extensive search filters, allowing teams to build targeted contact lists at scale.

Lusha is another example of a user-friendly contact database for generating targeted leads for your sales or marketing campaigns. You can also find numerous open-source, online lead management software that will help you generate leads directly from the internet (some even provide you with white-label services).

Social media plays a vital role in modern lead generation, given the sheer volume of users on the big platforms. For B2B, this mainly includes LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter), and tools like Hootsuite empower businesses to easily manage their social media lead magnets and conversations.

Build laser-focused prospect lists with Reply Data

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Lead qualification

While most lead generation tools will have enough data to help businesses qualify and segment leads, tools like 6sense take it a step further with automated lead scoring and qualification features, as well as identifying buyer intent signals.

Another tool is CUFinder, which leverages cutting-edge AI to combine lead generation and real-time data enrichment in one convenient solution, providing sales teams with all the information needed to qualify and prioritize leads.

Similarly, Zoominfo turns lead profiles into actionable insights by helping teams pinpoint the hottest leads based on their data points and buyer intent signals.

Lead nurturing

Here come the big guns! Lead nurturing in itself involves leveraging the available data on qualified leads to assist them throughout their buyer journey.

Sales engagement platforms like Reply.io will create multichannel engagement sequences tailored to each lead with automated touchpoints and AI personalization. AI sales assistants like Jason AI can nurture leads on autopilot by responding to queries and booking meetings on your behalf.

Revenue intelligence platforms like Gong transform organizations with an accurate understanding of customer interactions to increase business efficiency and improve decision-making.

Another tool worth mentioning here is LeadIQ. In addition to providing rich prospect data, it tracks sales intent signals such as expanding departments or job changes, ensuring businesses know exactly when leads are most ready to make a purchase during the nurturing stage.

Lead distribution

When it comes to lead distribution, precision is key, and in this case, automation is the best way to ensure that precision my matching leads with the right SDR, AE, BDR, call manager, etc.

First, we have the Distribution Engine — a Salesforce app that offers top-class algorithms to match leads with the most relevant skills-based sales reps with an easy-to-use UI and setup.

Bitrix24 is a CRM with lead distribution features that allow businesses to interpret and manage lead data and then assign leads to the most suitable professional or team, maximizing the likelihood of conversion.

LeanData, LeadAssign, and ZoomInfo Operations are all great options for leveraging custom rules and algorithms to route inbound leads to the right reps based on their intent signals and stage in the buyer journey.

Conversion

Lead conversion is challenging, and while there are no dedicated tools designed solely for this final and most crucial stage in the lead journey, there are several tools that can help sales teams.

They can utilize one of their desired CRMs (that we’ve talked about before), along with smaller, supplementing tools like Calendly for scheduling meetings with ease and Pitch with Loom for sales presentations and demos.

Similarly, sales engagement platforms like Reply.io can ensure that sales teams will know the most optimal timing to suggest booking a demo with personalized AI-generated messaging.

As an addition, PandaDoc is a great tool for creating effective sales proposals and other conversion-related documents, whereas Lavender can optimize sales emails with AI to ensure the most conversion-inducing email.

Ready to automate, scale, and personalize your sales engagement?

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Reporting

With the growing trend of software lead management consolidation over the last few years, many sales software have incorporated some sales reporting and analytics features.

For instance, here’s an example of a reporting dashboard at Reply.io, providing all the information needed to see what works and what doesn’t, allowing users to refine their lead management strategy on the go.

From the tools that we’ve already mentioned, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Close, and Monday Sales CRM all have powerful reporting capabilities, and so do other robust CRMs.

But if you’re looking for more specialized analytics, Clari and Kluster seem to have some of the most advanced analytics and sales forecasting features

Recap of lead management software

At the end of the day, finding the best sales lead management software for your team is essential for streamlining and optimizing the journey from lead generation to conversion. These tools help businesses target the right leads, determine the optimal engagement sequence, leverage lead data to create a tailored buyer experience and close more deals.

Then, rinse and repeat.

Lead management tools empower businesses to better understand their leads, as well as their purchase readiness and their unique business needs, all navigating sales teams toward the most effective pathway to a purchase. Lead management software pricing, features, and integrations vary, so it’s important to do your research before assembling your stack.

For business leaders, investing in the right software is crucial for driving efficiency and achieving sustained growth. Therefore, it’s important to choose software that aligns with their needs and integrates seamlessly with existing tool stacks.

While we’re on the subject, why not give Reply.io a shot? It’s a solid choice for anyone looking to boost their lead management (especially – lead generation) game.

With its slick integration capabilities and intuitive design, it could be the perfect addition to your sales toolkit. Check it out and see how it can help streamline your processes and amplify your outreach efforts.