The sales process in 2025 isn’t easy. This is where sales tools come in handy. They help salespeople understand which prospects need their product or service, when and where to reach out to them, what to discuss, and how to improve the processes. Most importantly, sales tools save time on complex and time-consuming administrative tasks, and optimize sales with data-driven insights.
However, there are thousands of sales tools on the market, all targeting different needs and goals: customer relationship management (CRM), sales intelligence, sales compensation, and sales acceleration. The Cybernews research conducts in-depth testing of all tools across various use cases to help you find the exact tool for you.
Although the testing process varies depending on the type of sales software, our research team sticks to an established methodology with rigorous criteria to rank and evaluate all tools fairly. Ultimately, we always put ourselves in customer’s shoes and consider the following factors and features:
- Workflow automation and integrations
- Prospecting and list-building
- Data collection and enrichment
- Contact and outreach data
- Lead management and prioritization
- Performance analytics and forecasting
- Collaboration and team management
- Scalability
- User experience
So, let’s delve into more detail about how we test the best sales tools.
Workflow automation and integrations
One of the main reasons why salespeople implement sales tools is workflow automation and integration. Hence, our research focuses on robust sales platforms that connect with CRMs and marketing automation systems to unify data across your sales team and eliminate any silos.
We also look for the best automated data enrichment tools that keep the information about your prospects up-to-date and enable personalized outreach. Multi-channel outreach automation is another crucial criteria we look for so that you can include email and contact syncing to streamline your sales engagement.
Additionally, our research team priotizes sales tools that automate repetitive tasks, like data entry and scheduling. This cuts time for your selling reps and helps them focus on core selling activities instead of manual clerical work. We also explore whether our chosen tools have automated commission and payment processes, as this ensures accuracy and compliance.
Altogether, these features and criteria help to shorten sales cycles. Ultimately, we carefully check for each of these features because they help sales teams focus on strategic selling, improve data accuracy, enhance collaboration, and boost revenue growth.
Prospecting and list-building
As sales tools need to help the sales team with targeting and efficient lead management, we also test for prospecting and list-building features. With this in mind, we focus on various functionalities and applications.
One of the main features we search in all of the sales tools is multi-layered search and segmentation. This means that the tool should analyze geography, company attributes, and real-time activity to enable specific and extra personalized lead targeting.
We also investigate whether the tools offer access to real-time data updates, which is crucial for sales teams to work with the most current information and act fast.
AI-powered lead scoring and prioritization are also crucial. Therefore, we carefully review if our chosen sales tools leverage predictive analytics, helping you focus on high-value prospects.
Last but not least, we assess each sales tool for automated list generation. It’s based on preset criteria and dynamic updates, reducing manual workload. As a result, you’ll be able to enhance your prospecting efficiency, which is why it makes our must-have criteria list.
Data collection and enrichment
The next aspect that we carefully investigate and base our testing methodology on is the data collection and enrichment of sales tools. Basically, in order for the tool to be effective, it needs to rely on vast yet accurate data.
First of all, we check whether the sales tool has an extensive lead database with verified and updated contact information. This will help you identify your most prominent prospects with ease. Also, we look for advanced verification methods, such as AI validation and real-time email checks. This ensures the reliability of prospects’ data and minimizes time spent on outdated info.
Another important feature that’s part of the data enrichment is the firmographic and technographic data. This enables you to make precise segmentation and develop tailored messages according to the company attributes of your target customers.
Also, sales tools need to implement intent data and buying signals. As this improves targeting by identifying the right prospects, we always make sure our sales tools employ such a feature. This also optimizes the outreach timing.
Lastly, we check whether our chosen sales tools provide you with seamless data export and CRM syncing. This is crucial for a unified workflow and high data consistency.
Contact and outreach data
So far we mentioned outreach and reliable contact data across many features. That’s a crucial criteria that we delve deeper into to make sure that our chosen sales tools offer essential data-cenrtic features to help you reach out to your prospects at the best time.
First, we check out the direct contact information availability of each sales tool. This is one of the most important features, as strong sales tools should provide direct phone numbers, verified email addresses, and LinkedIn profiles. That’s why we also check the tools’ ability to reach out via multiple verified channels, which improves response rates.
We give high ratings to sales platforms that enrich contact profiles with engagement history, social media activity, and content interactions. This gives you insights into the prospect’s behavior, such as recent LinkedIn posts or webinar participation, which you can leverage for personalized outreach. That said, you can craft custom messages for a more human touch.
Most importantly, our research team pays special attention to compliance and privacy regulations. We ensure that tools comply with GPRD, CCPA, and other relevant compliance standards, depending on the application. This is vital for legal and ethical sales operations.
Also, we evaluate whether sales tools offer opt-in data collection methods and provide transparent data sourcing. The ability to manage do-not-contact lists and suppression lists ensures regulatory compliance in outbound sales.
Lead management and prioritization
Managing your leads and prioritizing them is another crucial aspect to ensure your sales strategy is effective. Therefore, this aspect also makes it to our must-have list of features.
First of all, we look for lead scoring and prioritization. In other words, tools must offer lead scoring systems to rank prospects based on predefined criteria such as engagement, buying intent, and firmographics. This helps you allocate resources effectively by focusing on the most promising leads. Lead prioritization ensures you can precisely target high-value opportunities.
Dynamic lead assignment is another critical feature that we make sure the highest-ranked sales tools offer. More precisely, this feature helps you automate the assignment of leads to sales reps based on factors such as geography, expertise, or availability. This ensures fair distribution of leads and reduces response time. It also improves operational efficiency.
Lastly, we test the sales tools for pipeline visibility. This helps you monitor the progress of leads through various stages. You can easily identify bottlenecks and optimize processes for quicker conversions. Transparent pipelines enable better forecasting and decision-making.
Performance analytics and forecasting
Without any feedback, you won’t know how well your sales are performing or whether you need to improve workflow. Therefore, a sales tool must provide performance analytics and forecasting features.
One of the features that plays a huge role in our selection process is the real-time compensation dashboards. This provides users with real-time earnings visibility, including commissions, bonuses, and quota attainment. Also, it tracks payout history and helps you understand how the performance impacts your earnings.
Earning forecasting and scenario planning is another essential functionality. We make sure our chosen sales tools offer it because it can help you estimate future earnings based on different performance scenarios. The system should allow you to assess your financial impact. Forecasting also helps you align compensation costs with your company revenue goals.
Additionally, we focus on advanced reporting and insights. As a result, we search for customizable reports on commission payouts, sales performance, and compensation ROI. Thus, you can analyze compensation effectiveness by team, role, or product line.
Our testing procedures also include checking whether the sales tools have reports with actionable insights. This is crucial for optimizing compensation structures and improving sales performance.
Collaboration and team management
Some users specifically seek sales tools that enhance collaboration and team management, which is why we also test for this aspect.
Shared workspaces are one of the first things that we check if sales tools offer. With it, you can collaborate on deals, share updates, and assign tasks. This feature fosters teamwork and keeps all stakeholders aligned. Ultimately, shared workspaces improve transparency and accountability within sales teams.
Furthermore, we look at training and coaching features, such as video tutorials, AI-driven recommendations, or performance benchmarks. These tools help you refine your skills and adapt to evolving sales strategies. Continuous training ensures all of your team members remain competitive and efficient.
To conclude, sales tools should offer team performance metrics. The team performance evaluation includes total deals closed, average deal size, and activity levels. These insights allow you to identify high-performing reps and areas for improvement. Performance metrics also align your team efforts with organizational goals.
Scalability
In terms of features, the last aspect that’s part of our testing methodology is scalability. Sales tools need to support your business growth, which is why we consider a few essential features that will help you achieve this.
More precisely, in order for us to ensure that sales tools are scalable, we search for multi-currency, multi-region, and taxation compliance for global organizations. Also, these tools need to accommodate country-specific compensation regulations and handle complex payout structures for distributed teams.
User experience
When testing sales tools, user experience is one of the key aspects to pay attention to. We assessed how intuitive the tools are, what’s the learning curve, and how easy it is to onboard users of different levels of engagement.
This means that if the tool is beginner-friendly, we prioritize intuitive interfaces. More precisely, we check how easy it is to access all features within the app, search for tutorials, and see whether there are simplified configuration settings. We also analyze the layout so we can ensure the tool isn’t cluttered.
On the other hand, for tools that are suitable for advanced users, we search for robust configuration options and detailed setups. This is crucial so they can gain in-depth control and customization.
Our researchers
Cybernews research team unites leading tech experts to test, evaluate, and review top sales tools on the market using established methodologies and industry standards. We go beyond user experience and dive deep into international compliance, must-have features, and granular tech details that either make or break the top sales tools.
We strive to provide accurate and current information for our readers. If you spot a mistake or outdated information, please contact us.
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