No prospects, no leads, no deals! And getting them has become tougher.
A 2024 research from Salesforce found that 53% of sales professionals say selling is more challenging now than it was in 2023.
This is the reality, even with countless sales prospecting tools on the market. Yet, with the right tool, you can automate lead outreach, find prospects faster, and drive revenue.
But what is the right tool for your business?
To help you answer that, I tested about 20 sales prospecting tools over the past few weeks. I was able to narrow the list down to the six absolute best.
I will review each tool with its key features, pros and cons, and pricing plans. Then I’ll talk about how you can choose the right sales prospecting tool for your business.
Let’s go!
Best Sales Prospecting Tools Compared
6 Best Sales Prospecting Tools
1. Apollo.io
We will start this list of the best sales prospecting tools with Apollo.io. It helps you find people or companies and sends a series of automated messages to them (sequences).
There are many ways to search for prospects on Apollo. One of them is by creating your persona, and you can do that manually or with AI.
But if you’re rather interested in finding companies, there are many filters you can use for your search. It can be the number of employees, the industry, the location, or website visitors.
Now, let’s say you’ve been chasing a lead for some time, especially because of their job position. But along the line, their company promoted them to a different position.
The question is, how would you know?
When using the Data enrichment feature, you can access such insights.
And if your sales team mostly deals with cold calls, they can use the Calls feature. It helps them make, answer, record, and transcribe calls.
Features I admired
1 . People
The first feature you'll likely come across after you sign up for Apollo.io is the People. As its name says, it lets you search for people using your preferred filters.
To use it, you will first need to locate it in the sidebar menu.
As I mentioned earlier, there are many filters I could use before launching the search: Persona, job titles, company, location, or industry, among others.
Let's try the Persona filter.
I had two options: creating my persona with AI or doing it manually.
I created mine with AI. But I could still edit it before confirming.
The search gave me a long list of contacts with their names, job titles, company, and email addresses.
2 . Companies
Similar to the People feature in terms of search, but it focuses on companies. It also lets you select filters to make the search more relevant.
Let's try it!
You will find Companies right below the People feature.
For filters, you have industry & keywords, employees, company, account location, and many more.
Still on the filters, I spotted “AI filters” and decided to try them.
I could start with a template or run a custom AI prompt.
There were many pre-built templates I could choose from.
This is what I selected: “Research and evaluate a company for fit”.
After entering the company's name, Apollo will tell you whether it's a good fit.
In case they are disqualified, the reasons will also appear below.
3 . Data enrichment
Having data is good. But having richer, more accurate data is better, and that is what the data enrichment feature on Apollo.io is for.
It fills in automatically missing or outdated information and also shows you a dashboard with more insights.
Find it in the sidebar menu.
Like I said earlier, the dashboard shows a lot of insights. For instance, you can see the job change rate, missing emails, enrichment job activity, and CRM status.
Let’s go a bit further. Under Job changes, you can click “View contacts”.
You will see the contact who had that update. For more details, click on that contact’s name.
It showcases the contact’s information with their new position, email, and the exact date and time the update took place.
The right side of the interface shows the company’s insights. You can see if they’re a good fit for you, their score, job postings, and employee trends, among others.
Best for
- Sales teams seeking software for Lead generation and sales engagement.
Pricing
- Free: $0/month
- Basic: $49/month
- Professional: $79/month
- Organization: $119/month
2. nRev.ai
Our next best sales prospecting tool is nRev.ai, a no-code agent operating system(AgentOS) that sales teams can use to automate outreach, track sales, and easily convert prospects.
You simply describe what you need in plain English, and nRev builds, auto-tests, and runs the workflow for you.
Integrations with third-party apps are essential for sales prospecting tools. They allow you to connect with CRMs, email platforms, and workflow tools so that your data stays accurate.
nRev offers connections to help you work more efficiently. Just search your preferred category: CRMs, communication, productivity, or security, among others.
A few examples are Slack V2, Apollo.io, Lusha, Instantly AI, HubSpot, and Gmail. You can connect them all when using nRev.
No need to switch tools.
Also, nRev makes it easy to search for company or people data.
The amazing thing about our Plays is that you don’t need to create them from scratch. There are many templates already made for you.
For instance, you can choose templates for lead finder, LinkedIn outreach, LinkedIn engagement, or email monitoring.
In case you run a lot of workflows, it’d be good to keep track of each one. At least, you should be able to view them all, their execution time, start time, and even their status.
Features I admired
1 . Workflows
Let’s start with the Workflows feature. You can just go straight and describe the process briefly, and the AI builder will create a perfect workflow.
Alternatively, you can also start from scratch, and this is what we will do.
Even inside the workflow builder, you can still choose to build with AI by clicking the icon at the far top left of the interface.
But since we’re doing it manually, you will first go to Configure Input, then click “Choose manually.”
Now, add a step by selecting your trigger. For this tutorial, we will go with “People Data”, then Search People.
Before the search, you can enter a couple of details like company domain, title keywords, seniority, person & organization locations.
Once done, click “Run.”
Your trigger is ready! You can still edit or delete it.
But let’s allow it to run.
The results will appear beautifully with all the details you need.
And the amazing thing is, you can directly download your prospect list when you click the “Download” button on the far right side of the interface.
2 . Plays
Plays are simply pre-built strategies to help you reach your leads faster using AI-driven insights. We offer a lot of templates to make your job easier.
For example, there’s Lead Finder, LinkedIn Outreach, LinkedIn Engagement, Zero Touch CRM, and Persona Search, just to name a few.
Let’s go with “LinkedIn Outreach” and choose the “Automated ICP Prospecting Workflow on LinkedIn”.
That’s it! Like I said, the template was already built for you.
You can simply edit, delete, or run it.
But now, let’s do something a bit different so it doesn’t seem like a repetition of the first feature I shared with you.
We will use the AI Builder to enter a prompt and wait for it to do its magic.
The prompt is pretty simple: I want it to act as a LinkedIn sales assistant, and its job is to search for potential prospects based on the filters I add.
Before it creates the workflow, it will propose a plan to help you get there. If you’re okay with it, click “Approve Plan and Create Workflow.”
Your workflow is fully ready, and you can still add other steps.
3 . Run logs
It’s always important to keep track of everything you do or create.
The Run logs feature displays all the workflows you create and even adds important details like the execution time, start time, number of nodes, credits, and status.
If you click on one, you will see the number of times you’ve run that workflow.
You also have access to more execution details, such as the node, workflow status, completion time, duration, and items, among others.
What impressed me vs What fell short
Best for
- Sales teams, GTM managers, and B2B SaaS companies who want to automate lead outreach and qualify prospects fast.
Pricing
- Free: 1,000 credits
- Nudge: $15/month, 2,500 credits
- Surge: $100/month, 10,000 credits
- Growth Hack: $500/month, 50,000 credits
- Custom: Contact for pricing
