6 Best Lead Management Software for Small Business

Lead management software refers to a feature in customer relationship management (CRM) systems that help sales teams generate, organize, qualify, and nurture leads—as well as track their journey through the sales cycle. CRMs offer businesses a centralized solution to oversee activities related to their leads and collaborate on sales opportunities. We evaluated dozens of the best sales lead management software for small business and identified the top six options.

• Zendesk Sell: Best overall lead management software; ideal for businesses looking to automate their lead management activities
• Pipedrive: Great CRM for teams that want intelligent lead management features
• Freshsales: Excellent lead management tool with built-in telephonic capabilities
• HubSpot CRM: Best lead management system for lead nurturing through email
• Agile CRM: Solid CRM for free lead generation features
• Bitrix24: Ideal lead tracking software for teams looking for built-in quoting and invoicing

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*Based on annual billing. Monthly billing is also available at slightly higher rates.

What Is Lead Management?

Lead management refers to processes and systems involved in finding and generating potential customers, getting them through the sales process, monitoring interactions, and organizing or storing their information. In its entirety, it can include various stages or sales activities, including:

• Prospecting: Seeking out leads or potential customers who may be a good fit for your business, typically done using online research.
• Lead generation: First stage of the customer journey, where a new potential customer becomes aware and expresses interest in what a brand offers by agreeing to a presentation, demo, submitting a web form, or contacting your business.
• Lead qualification: Prioritizing and identifying the best opportunities (leads) based on purchase capabilities, needs, and how much interest the prospect has expressed.
• Lead nurturing: Reinforcing relationships with leads at various stages of the sales process, often through email or phone campaigns.

Zendesk Sell: Best Overall Lead Management Software

*Pricing based on annual billing. Monthly billing is also available at a higher cost.

Zendesk Sell is a sales-focused CRM product that offers users an easy-to-use, customizable platform for managing leads, tasks, and sales activities. There are many modular features to communicate, collaborate, and engage with sales contacts. It also has a robust system for reporting and analytics, which includes forecasting, goal tracking, and activity breakdowns by team or individual sales reps.

This software for lead management offers features for qualifying, nurturing, and tracking leads. However, the automation capabilities give it our pick for the best lead tracking software. Users can configure automated email nurturing campaigns within the CRM, detect contact duplicates, and enrich contact profiles with current information. There are also auto-lead scoring options and automated lead distribution.

Zendesk Sell’s main problem is that it lacks a free plan for its users—something generally desired by small or startup companies. HubSpot CRM and Bitrix24 are the best alternatives for that attribute as they both have a freemium plan for unlimited users.

Zendesk Sell Plan Summary

Zendesk Sell Key Features

• Enrichment and prospecting: Credit-based feature which updates contact information on lead profiles as well as creates profiles for you automatically.
• Automated lead distribution: Auto-assignment of leads, contacts, or deals using a round-robin style to ensure even distribution.
• Email nurturing: Premade email templates, automated email sequences, bulk emailing, and email tracking to design, deploy, and monitor nurturing campaigns.
• Lead and deal scoring: Criteria building to score and prioritize leads and deals based on your unique qualification system.

Zendesk Sell Customer Support

Zendesk Sell offers customer support options that include live chat, phone, and email during standard business hours. Their company website also has a wide range of articles on different topics related to setting up and using the CRM features it offers to ensure users always have the resources they need to operate the platform.

See how else Zendesk Sell can help your business track and manage sales opportunities by reading our Zendesk Sell review.

Visit Zendesk Sell

Pipedrive: Best Lead Tracking Software With Intelligent Lead Management Features

*Pricing based on annual billing. Monthly billing is also available at a higher cost.

Pipedrive is all-around, easy-to-use CRM software that allows teams to complete and track sales activities. A wide range of customization options is available, as are a few unique features, such as deal rotting to notify users if an opportunity may be losing momentum and the ability to obtain e-signatures in the CRM.

Pipedrive is most notable on this list for its intelligent lead management features. To start, there’s a lead generation chatbot that automatically communicates with web visitors to get them interested in your offerings. Next, the artificial intelligence (AI) Sales Assistant gives you suggestions on which lead tasks to focus on next. Additionally, there are “Smart” tools for gathering insights on leads and auto-filling fields using CRM data for contracts, quotes, or proposals.

Similar to Zendesk Sell, Pipedrive is solid lead tracking software but does not offer a free plan. On the other hand, Freshsales is a great alternative that has sales-focused features compatible with Pipedrive’s with a free-forever plan available.

Pipedrive Plan Summary

Pipedrive Key Features

• Smart contact data: Auto-populates insights on leads from web sources and LinkedIn.
• Smart Docs and e-signature features: Feature for sending tailored contracts, quotes, and proposals as well as signing and obtaining signatures on documents directly from the CRM.
• Meeting and video call scheduler: Meeting availability system with video calling options through Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet.
• Sales Assistant: AI suggestions, based on performance and behaviors, on where improvements can be made and which tasks or opportunities to focus on next.

Pipedrive Customer Support

Pipedrive offers 24/7 support through live chat and email. Additionally, their website contains other resources such as a help center, blog, tutorials, a community forum, and an academy dedicated to enhancing CRM software and sales skills.

Check out our in-depth Pipedrive review covering pricing, usability, and best-for scenarios.

Visit Pipedrive

Freshsales: Best Lead Management Tool With Built-in Telephonic Capabilities

*Pricing based on annual billing. Monthly billing is also available at a higher cost.

Freshsales gives teams solid lead management capabilities with features for organizing contact information, tracking activity timelines, managing appointments, and nurturing leads through email. The advanced AI features also can score qualified opportunities and generate new leads by automatically communicating with website visitors to get them to submit forms of interest.

A built-in, native telephone in a CRM is extremely valuable for connecting with, generating, and nurturing leads. Freshsales has a voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) phone system in the CRM for placing, receiving, routing, and logging calls. This feature is a powerful tool for communicating with leads and is available on the free-forever plan.

Automated profile enrichment, a feature important for lead management as it keeps contact information up to date, is not offered by Freshsales until the high-cost Enterprise plan. Zendesk Sell is a solid alternative that offers this feature on the Growth plan for $49 per user, per month.

Freshsales Plan Summary

Freshsales Key Features

• Built-in telephone: Module for placing and receiving calls directly from the CRM as well as being able to route, transfer, log, and record calls.
• Freddy AI: Built-in AI feature for lead scoring, conversing with leads, finding deduplicate data, auto-answering live chat questions, and providing insights on pending deals and sales forecasts.
• Tasks, appointments, and notes: Ability to create and track tasks, set appointments with leads, and document notes on contact records and calls.
• Email sequences: Automated email design and deployment for personalized and bulk emails.

Freshsales Customer Support

Freshsales offers 24/5 phone, live chat, and email support. There are also online resources like a blog, product updates page, tours, and video tutorials. Users can also read published case studies or utilize a community forum for questions and answers.

Check out our in-depth Freshsales review for detailed information on pricing, features, and what users say about the software.

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HubSpot CRM: Best for Email Nurturing Features

*Pricing based on annual billing. Monthly billing is also available at a higher cost.
**CRM Suite includes sales, marketing, customer service, content management system (CMS), and operations software. Individual modules can be purchased for lower monthly costs.

HubSpot CRM is a powerful, marketing-focused CRM system that helps teams design and distribute content on their website through email or in online advertisements. The Sales Hub, in particular, is excellent for lead management through lead scoring, meeting scheduling, and automated lead rotation features. HubSpot customers generally also like the freemium option available for an unlimited number of users.

The lead management feature that stands out the most for HubSpot CRM is the email capabilities. Users can automate email sequences, schedule email deliveries, track opens and replies, and store premade templates in the CRM system for everyone to access.

Whether you choose the CRM suite, which includes sales, marketing, customer service, CMS, and operations modules, or just the Sales Hub, this CRM software gets expensive on the paid plans. Agile CRM is the best option on this list for low-cost, scalable pricing options.

HubSpot CRM Plan Summary

HubSpot CRM Key Features

• Comprehensive email features: Full range of email design and deployment with premade templates, email scheduling, tracking and notifications, reply tracking, and team inbox.
• Basic and predictive lead scoring: Lead qualification features that assign scores based on preset criteria for list segmentation and automating tasks.
• Auto-lead assignment: Configurable system for automatically assigning and rotating new leads to various reps based on product line, deal size, or region.
• Meeting scheduler: Built-in system allowing leads to easily book appointments with sales reps based on schedule openings.

HubSpot Customer Support

In addition to phone, email, and live chat support from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern Time, HubSpot has an array of online resources. This includes the HubSpot Academy, a community page of platform users, and an online library of tutorials and guides.

Learn more about how this CRM helps sales teams manage leads, track conversations, collaborate, and manage marketing campaigns in our HubSpot CRM review.

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Agile CRM: Best for Free Lead Generation Features

*Pricing based on annual billing. Monthly billing is also available at a higher cost.

Agile CRM is a solid, scalable CRM option in terms of pricing as they offer a free plan and low-cost paid plans. Users also have access to sales, marketing, and customer service modules that give them a full range of capabilities to manage those business functions. Though it can take some technical skill to get started, this platform ultimately becomes intuitive when navigating the interface and using the features after the setup stage.

This CRM offers robust lead management features on its free plan, including lead scoring, appointment scheduling, and custom data fields. It’s the lead generation tools, however, that make Agile CRM valuable to new or small businesses. In addition to free email campaigns, users can design web forms, landing pages, and pop-outs on the website. This helps to engage website visitors and capture lead data into the CRM.

The restrictions on automation capabilities are a huge characteristic that may prevent users from choosing Agile CRM. Zendesk Sell is the best alternative for automation, specifically when automating lead management activities and processes.

Agile CRM Plan Summary

Agile CRM Key Features

• Form and landing page builder: Customizable pages and forms for company websites as well as dynamic website pop-up builder to increase visitor engagement.
• Web-to-lead capture: Web form designer for online websites and Facebook to capture leads and automatically add their details to your CRM database.
• Lead scoring: Automated lead scoring to quantify the top-quality leads and auto-distribute them to specific sales reps.
• Campaign design and tracking: Multichannel marketing design, deployment, and tracking using email marketing, social media, web landing pages, videos, SMS texting, and phone marketing.

Agile CRM Customer Support

In addition to online resources provided by Agile CRM, all users get email support from their service reps. Additionally, the paid plans allow users to receive phone support, and Enterprise customers get a dedicated account rep and onboarding coach.

Learn more in-depth about Agile CRMs pricing, features, and usability scores by reading our Agile CRM review.

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Bitrix24: Best for Quote & Invoice Management

*Pricing based on annual billing, reflecting a 20% discount compared to monthly pricing. Monthly billing is available at a higher cost or save 40% off monthly pricing by committing to a two-year subscription.

Bitrix24 is an all-in-one business management solution with CRM, project management, human resources management, and even ecommerce modules. The free plan is available for unlimited users and plans aren’t expensive considering how many users are allowed on each tier.

This CRM mostly separates itself from competitors with its quoting and invoicing capabilities to help teams quickly get leads through the sales funnel. Users can create and email these documents directly from the CRM and within a lead, deal, or company record. Additionally, an easy click-to-convert feature lets you move objects such as leads, companies, and deals to invoices or quotes in just one click.

Bitrix24 tends to have a tricky interface to navigate, particularly for new users. HubSpot CRM is the best alternative for that attribute and is comparable with Bitrix24, as it also offers a free plan for unlimited users.

Bitrix24 Plan Summary

Bitrix24 Key Features

• One-click conversions: Ability to convert records or objects into new modular objects such as lead-to-deal, deal-to-quote, or quote-to-invoice in one click.
• Built-in product catalog: Free system for creating and tracking products and services within the CRM.
• Quoting and invoicing: Quotes, proposals, invoices, and bills can be created and distributed by email directly from the platform.
• Client profile view: Full contact and customer view with general information and tab organization for deals, invoices, orders, quotes, and activity history.

Bitrix24 Customer Support

All paid plans provide live chat and email support options from 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. during Universal Standard Time business hours. There are also online tools like a help desk and online training options.

Check out our comprehensive Bitrix24 review for an in-depth analysis of its pricing, features, and usability.

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How We Evaluated the Best Lead Management Solutions

To determine the best lead management CRMs, we evaluated features relevant to organizing and nurturing sales leads with communication systems like email and telephone. Additionally, tools such as lead scoring that help qualify opportunities were considered. We also evaluated general product attributes such as price, ease of use, and customer support.

We found that Zendesk Sell is the best overall lead management CRM as it offers robust capabilities for automating lead nurturing, qualification, and contact data entry activities. Additionally, it has CRM features relevant to managing opportunities, including round-robin lead distribution and prospecting credits. This engagement tool will create new lead profiles using online information for your business through the Reach feature.

The tabs below offer insight into our evaluation process of the best lead management CRMs: