Sales enablement integrates knowledge, data, or software into business operations to enhance sales effectiveness. By automating tasks, enhancing communication, and providing valuable insights, sales enablement tools help sales reps maximize productivity and performance.
With access to more accurate data and advanced features, sales teams are better equipped to generate more opportunities, drive sales, and boost revenue growth. We evaluated dozens of software products and identified the 10 best sales enablement software solutions.
- HubSpot: Best for analyzing payment revenue
- Freshsales: Best for AI-based guided selling
- Mailchimp: Best for digital marketing
- Apollo.io: Best for cloud-based cold emailing
- Zapier: Best for creating automations between apps
- Nextiva: Best for cold calling
- Canva: Best for designing sales collateral
- UpLead: Best for B2B prospecting
- Ambition: Best for all-around sales coaching
- Showpad: Best for centralizing enablement resources
- Top Sales Enablement Tools & Software Compared
- HubSpot CRM: Best for Analyzing Payment Revenue
- Freshsales: Best for AI-based Guided Selling
- Mailchimp: Best for Digital Marketing
- Apollo.io: Best for Cloud-based Cold Emailing
- Zapier: Best for Automation Between Apps
- Nextiva: Best for Cold Calling
- Canva: Best for Designing Sales Collateral
- UpLead: Best for B2B Prospecting
- Ambition: Best for All-around Sales Coaching
- Showpad: Best for Centralizing Enablement Resources
- How We Evaluated the Top Sales Enablement Tools
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Bottom Line
Top Sales Enablement Tools & Software Compared
| Provider | Starting Monthly PriceBilled annually. Monthly billing is available at slightly higher rates. | Free Plan |
|---|---|---|
 | $15 per user | ✓Up to 5 users |
| Visit HubSpot | ||
 | $9 per user | ✓Up to 3 users |
| Visit Freshsales | ||
 | $13 for three users | ✓1 user |
| Visit Mailchimp | ||
 | $49 per user | ✓10 export credits |
| Visit Apollo.io | ||
 | $19.99 for one user | ✓100 tasks |
| Visit Zapier | ||
 | $18.95 per user | ✕ |
| Visit Nextiva | ||
 | $10 per user monthly for annual billingAnnual billing is $120 per user, which includes a 16% discount compared to monthly billing at $15 per user. | ✓1 user |
| Visit Canva | ||
 | $74 per user | ✕Only 7-day free trial |
| Visit UpLead | ||
 | $19 per user | ✕Only 14-day free trial |
| Visit Ambition | ||
 | Contact for pricing | ✕ |
| Visit Showpad | ||
HubSpot CRM: Best for Analyzing Payment Revenue
Pros
- Free plan includes operations tools like a reporting dashboard, company insights, custom properties, health reporting, deals, and Stripe payment processing.
- It has customizable dashboards and advanced analytics for analyzing payment revenue.
- The automation and communication tools are easy to operate.
Cons
- Paid plans get expensive; there is a huge price jump from $15 per user (Starter) to $1,170 for five users (Professional).
- Useful productivity tools like eSignature and products library are locked in the Professional plan at $1,170 for five users.
- Lead scoring tools are locked in the Professional plan at $1,170 for five users.
Our Expert Opinion
HubSpot CRM offers multifunctional sales enablement capabilities for users to organize sales data, automate repetitive tasks, engage customers, and collaborate with team members in one system. It’s especially useful for businesses that use a revenue operations structure, where sales, marketing, and customer success management functions fall under one umbrella.
This is primarily because HubSpot offers sales, marketing, content management, and customer service modules. Users can create customized dashboards like gross payment revenue to analyze sales data and overall revenue performance for a specified period. Additionally, each sub-product has an intuitive interface and a free plan for five users. Read our HubSpot CRM review.
HubSpot lets you create a custom dashboard for gross payment revenue. (Source: HubSpot)
Freshsales: Best for AI-based Guided Selling
Pros
- It has a powerful artificial intelligence (AI) tool for autoengaging leads, scoring contacts, and deduplicating records.
- Free plan includes a built-in phone, chat, and email tools.
- It has native integrations to manage other functions like help desk or IT services, marketing, and customer success.
Cons
- It has a powerful artificial intelligence (AI) tool for autoengaging leads, scoring contacts, and deduplicating records.
- Free plan includes a built-in phone, chat, and email tools.
- It has native integrations to manage other functions like help desk or IT services, marketing, and customer success.
Our Expert Opinion
There’s no better enablement tool than AI to complete tasks or analyze data for your sales reps. Freshsales stands out for its Freddy AI tool, which supports multiple functions within a sales operation. It can be used as an automated chatbot to engage website visitors, generate leads, and detect buying intent. As a result, sales teams can benefit from AI-based guided selling to manage more sales opportunities and close more deals.
Additionally, Freddy can conduct lead scoring for leads and provide deal insights to evaluate the best opportunities for reps to focus on. Finally, the CRM AI features assist with tedious data-related tasks like record deduplication and revenue forecasting. This gives you clean, accurate data to gain valuable insights for intelligent sales decision-making. Read our Freshsales review.
Freshsales’s Freddy AI uses contact insights for lead prioritization. (Source: Freshworks)
While sales enablement improves rep production using resources, motivation is another performance-boosting element to get the most out of your sales team. Motivation through contests and gamification is a healthy way to improve effort and input. To get some ideas, check out our article on
to motivate your sales team.
Mailchimp: Best for Digital Marketing
Pros
- It has custom triggers and prebuilt content templates for automating short message service (SMS) marketing.
- You can manage emails, social media posts, and paid ads via the platform.
- It offers a free plan with audience segmentation, surveys, behavioral targeting, and brand marketing tools.
Cons
- The startup plan, Essentials, lacks marketing features such as social post-scheduling and campaign manager.
- Generative AI features like Intuit Assist are still under beta testing; check out Freshsales’ Freddy Copilot for full-access AI support.
- Phone customer support is locked in the Premium plan at $350 per month for 10,000 contacts and unlimited users. Freshsales and Nextiva offer phone support across all plans.
Our Expert Opinion
Mailchimp uses communication and automation features like a customer journey builder to automate SMS and email marketing campaigns. Automation frees up sales rep time and ensures their pipeline is always full. Mailchimp also lets users manage social media accounts where they can publish ads and schedule posts on Facebook and Instagram.
Mailchimp even allows A/B testing and has a built-in creative assistant to maintain campaign quality. Finally, users can put their campaigns on autopilot through prebuilt custom journeys, scheduled deployments, and multistep automation based on actions like clicks, opens, or purchases.
Mailchimp’s customer journey builder automates SMS marketing. (Source: Mailchimp)
Apollo.io: Best for Cloud-based Cold Emailing
Pros
- It creates cold emails using an AI email generator for creating personalized emails.
- It uses AI sequence builder to reach more sales leads and sends follow-up emails in sequence automatically.
- It has A/B testing feature to split test subject lines.
Cons
- Basic plan’s AI-generated words per month are limited to only 5,000 at $49 per user monthly; it has a low word-count for massive email campaigns.
- Dialer feature is locked in the Organization plan at $119 (minimum of three users). Freshsales offers this feature in its Pro plan for only $39 per user monthly.
- Customizable reports and call transcription are only available in the highest paid plan, Organization at $119 per user monthly (minimum of three users).
Our Expert Opinion
Apollo.io has a built-in AI email generator that can help you create personalized emails, making it one of the best sales enablement tools for communication. You can mention a recent business achievement, the latest news about a lead’s company, or a mutual connection to catch the reader’s attention.
With Apollo’s AI sequence builder, you can launch cold email outreach campaigns to quickly reach more prospects and convert them into paying customers. Apollo can analyze email content and provide you with a score and writing recommendations to increase your reply rate. You can also split test subject lines to determine what best resonates with your audience.
Apollo’s AI writing assistant analyzes content for cold email outreach. (Source: Apollo.io)
Zapier: Best for Automation Between Apps
Pros
- It has an easy-to-use, no-code editor for creating workflow automation between applications.
- It has over 5,000 applications and can be connected with unlimited AI-powered Zaps in the free plan.
- It offers fast update times on all plans, with a maximum of 15 minutes to update data between applications.
Cons
- Premium support starts in the Team plan at $69 per month (for unlimited users); expensive for some users.
- Basic paid plan only includes email support; Premier support starts in the Team plan at $69 per month for unlimited users (Freshsales and Nextiva offer email and phone support across all plans).
- Only one user is allowed until Team plan at $69 per month (for unlimited users).
Our Expert Opinion
Zapier is a workflow connection tool that lets users easily automate between applications through “zaps.” Users can run a multistep CRM automation between tools where if a LinkedIn Ads lead submits a web form, a contact record is autocreated in HubSpot.
Then, an email is automatically sent to the contact, and a notification is sent to a sales rep in Slack. Automation streamlines your operations, and Zapier lets you both build and connect automations.
Furthermore, Zapier can even integrate CRM systems with social media. For instance, the best Facebook CRM integrations like Freshsales and Pipedrive use Zapier to manage leads.
A few examples of the integrations available in Zapier (Source: Zapier) 
Zapier shows how a “zap” (connecting tools) works. (Source: Zapier)
Nextiva: Best for Cold Calling
Pros
- It has unlimited high-definition (HD) voice and video calling on all plans.
- It has features for video conference meetings, texting, meeting scheduling, and team collaboration.
- It has 24/7 customer support via phone, webchat, and email.
Cons
- Chatbot feature is locked in the Engage plan at $40 per user monthly. Freshsales offers a chatbot builder and chatbot analytics in its free plan.
- It has limited customization options and no custom fields and labels for boards, user interface, and other visual elements.
- It lacks marketing tools like ad management, unlike HubSpot and Freshsales with robust marketing features.
Our Expert Opinion
Nextiva is a voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) and communications system. As a phone system, sales teams can centralize their cold calling activity by making, logging, and tracking calls on one platform. Nextiva also comes with calendar sync and meeting scheduling for reps to easily get sales meetings on the calendar after successful introductions.
Additionally, the product comes with shared contact management, notes, and internal chat tools to help team members collaborate effectively. Users can also adopt Nextiva to deploy short message service (SMS) campaigns and manage video calls. Read our Nextiva review.
View call logs in the contact record on the Nextiva dashboard. (Source: Nextiva)
Need standardized calling scripts for your next outbound introduction campaign? Check out our guide on
how to write a cold calling script
plus free templates to get you started.
Canva: Best for Designing Sales Collateral
Pros
- Free plan offers a complete design platform with more than 1 million professionally-designed templates and at least 3 million stock photos and graphics.
- It has highly intuitive tools and an easy drag-and-drop editor.
- It has AI-generated writing and design tools.
Cons
- Social media content scheduler is not available until Pro plan at $10 per user monthly (billed annually).
- Only one brand kit or brand template is available on the Free plan; 1,000 brand kits start in the Pro plan at $10 per user monthly (billed annually).
- Custom integrations with third parties such as Asana, Meta, and Dropbox are only available in the highest paid plan, Enterprise (custom pricing).
Our Expert Opinion
Canva is a designer website where users can create presentations, social media posts, logos, printed materials, and marketing assets. It’s one of the best sales enablement services, particularly for small sales teams that need a quick and simple process to design their own materials for networking events, trade shows, and other meetings.
Canva’s AI-powered features include Magic Design (describe a design and watch it come to life) and Magic Write with brand voice (generate personalized and on-band text). These capabilities streamline designing sales materials. On top of its broad design capabilities, Canva has a free plan and it’s easy to use, even for those without any graphic design experience.
Canva provides free design templates. (Source: Canva)
In addition to designing sales materials, Canva is one of the best websites for creating a company logo. Find other robust tools you can use in our guide to the
.
UpLead: Best for B2B Prospecting
Pros
- It lets users easily purchase contacts with verified emails and phone numbers based on company, industry, and job position.
- It includes technographic features that show what technology stack a lead has.
- It integrates seamlessly with popular CRMs like HubSpot, Zoho CRM, Close, Salesforce, and Insightly.
Cons
- It offers only one user for the free trial, unlike HubSpot CRM which offers freemium for five users and Freshsales for three users.
- Data enrichment is not available until Plus plan at $199 per user.
- Buyer intent data, all search filters, competitor intelligence, team management, and priority phone support are not available until the Professional plan (custom pricing).
Our Expert Opinion
UpLead is an online database for purchasing B2B leads. It is one of the best B2B sales enablement tools on the market, saving sales reps time by not having to spend hours on online research to find prospects. It uses a credit-based system where, depending on the subscribed plan, users can use a credit to unlock a contact data record.
The online service also allows teams to purchase multiple leads at once, then download the list as a spreadsheet or export it into a CRM system. Once added, reps can begin cold calling or doing email introduction campaigns. Read our UpLead review.
UpLead’s B2B contact search for prospecting via cold emailing (Source: UpLead)
Are you looking for other online resources to find leads? Leads can be sourced from social media, company websites, and through referrals. Find more high-quality leads by checking out the
best places to buy business leads
.
Ambition: Best for All-around Sales Coaching
Pros
- It comes with gamification tools to set up sales contests and improve rep motivation.
- Coaching modules include insights, check-ins, goals, and setting action plans for rep improvement.
- It offers free templates for performance reporting and coaching.
Cons
- It lacks transparent pricing; you need to provide contact details to download pricing info.
- It has only 13 total third-party integration options; others require application programming interface (API) connections.
- It has limited customer support; only help center and web request form are available; no company phone number on the site.
Our Expert Opinion
Ambition is a complete sales performance management system that includes sales gamification, performance tracking, and coaching features on one platform. Managers can view metrics, such as outreach activity, revenue closed, and behavior trends, to gain insight into how individuals and teams are doing.
In terms of enablement, Ambition improves production through knowledge transfer and coaching. This sales enablement technology’s coaching orchestration module is equipped with tools to monitor sales metrics, manage one-to-one meetings, create coaching agendas, set goals, and execute plans of action for reps to improve.
Ambition’s sales coaching software for one-on-one and team coaching sessions (Source: Ambition)
Read our
top sales gamification software solutions
, which include Ambition. It is a full sales management system with coaching, key performance indicator (KPI) analysis, and gamification features.
Showpad: Best for Centralizing Enablement Resources
Pros
- It acts as a full sales enablement solution with coaching, content management, and video recording tools in one product.
- It has a clean and intuitive interface to operate.
- Full coaching and content library can be used to onboard sales reps, improve their skills, and boost performance.
Cons
- CRM integrations are limited to Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, and Systems, Applications, and Products (SAP) software.
- It lacks transparent pricing and plan details; you must contact the provider for all plans.
- CRM integration and automatic content syncing for cloud file sharing start at Ultimate, the third tier plan.
Our Expert Opinion
Showpad is built as a sales enablement platform that stores and centralizes critical sales resources. One of the modules, for instance, is the Showpad Content system, where users can store sales and marketing assets for reps to use for outreach and nurturing. It’ll even make content recommendations based on insights from other team members and machine learning technology.
Sales managers can also use the Showpad Coach module to help train and assess sales reps. With the tools, managers can upload and assign courses, develop training programs, and track improvements on one platform. These capabilities are important in various aspects of sales management, especially during onboarding.
Showpad sales coaching courses on upselling and cross-selling (Source: Showpad)
How We Evaluated the Top Sales Enablement Tools
Sales enablement encompasses a variety of resources, including software, intelligence, or knowledge. Hence, it cannot be evaluated apples-to-apples, so we made a more direct comparison.
- Pricing: This covered the costs of using the sales enablement technology, free plan availability, and scalable pricing options that could support growing businesses as their capacity and need for features change.
- Sales Enablement Features: Most sales enablement tool examples include capabilities, either through built-in features, third-party integrations, or additional services. Hence, we evaluated the availability and comprehensiveness of these features to compare the platforms included in this list.
- Customer Support: When evaluating top sales enablement tools, this criterion touched on the accessibility of customer support by each provider, evaluated in terms of availability hours and channels such as phone, email, chat, and self-service resources.
- Expert Score: We looked into how real users feel about each product or service provider in terms of how they like the features, product ease of use, and the value they felt they gained by using the above sales enablement tool examples.
Frequently Asked Questions
The best sales enablement platform depends on your needs. For instance, HubSpot is our top recommendation if you’re looking for revenue operation features because of its multifunctional sales enablement capabilities. Apollo.io is a good choice for cold emailing, whereas Nextiva is best for cold call outreach.
Sales enablement tactics refer to strategies sales teams implement to close more deals and boost revenue. The ultimate goal is to improve sales rep productivity and overall sales performance by accessing helpful content (like knowledge base resources, intranet, AI-generated scripts, etc.), coaching, and training throughout the sales cycle.
Sales enablement software systems help salespeople improve their productivity and performance by using centralized tools for content management, reporting, coaching, and training. Some of the best features include automation tools like predictive analytics and AI forecasting to tackle repetitive tasks so salespeople can focus more on selling.
Bottom Line
Sales teams engage in many daily activities that sales enablement software can streamline, saving time and effort. With sales enablement, sales managers can focus more on coaching underperforming sales reps, and salespeople can concentrate on improving their selling strategies. This technology boosts efficiency, analytical thinking, creativity, and client relations, contributing to sales quotas and overall revenue growth.
