Starting a business has always been a challenge. There are so many things you should be ready to tackle as a founder. Yet, running a startup in the current business climate is a whole different experience.
When money is scarce and the competition is wild, your every investment should be strategic.
In this post, we’ll explore some of the top sales tools for small businesses and startups (including some expert recommendations) to help you build an effective tech stack on a budget.
But first, let’s define the criteria for choosing the best software for your startup.
Selecting the right software for your startup is crucial for efficiency and growth. With countless options available, it can be overwhelming to determine which solution fits your needs best. Here are some key criteria to consider:
Startups often operate on tight budgets, making free or freemium plans highly attractive. These plans allow you to test the software’s core functionalities without any upfront cost. Ensure the free plan offers essential features you need and evaluate whether the premium plans provide value worth investing in as your business scales.
Many software companies also provide special offers or discounts for startups. These can include extended trial periods, reduced pricing, or bundled services. Take advantage of these offers to get premium features at a fraction of the cost. Research and compare the startup deals available to maximize your savings.
If the tools you want don’t have a free option or startup offer, assess the value of the software in relation to its cost. Consider factors like feature set, ease of use, customer support, and user reviews. Sometimes, the cheapest option isn’t the best value. Aim to find a balance between affordability and comprehensive functionality.
As a small startup, you might not need multiple licenses immediately. Look for software that offers single-seat subscriptions. This flexibility ensures you only pay for what you need, making it a cost-effective solution for solo entrepreneurs or small teams.
Automation features can significantly streamline your workflows and save time. Look for software that offers robust automation capabilities, such as task automation, workflow management, and integrations with other tools you use. This will help reduce manual effort and increase productivity.
Your startup's needs will evolve as it grows, so choose software that can scale with you. Scalable software can handle increasing workloads, additional users, and more complex operations without requiring a complete overhaul. Ensure the software provider has a clear roadmap for updates and scalability.
By considering these criteria, you can select software that not only meets your current needs but also supports your startup's growth and long-term success.
Now, let’s talk software — here are some of the top picks for startup sales stack.
The foundation of every sales org, a CRM is by far the most important part of your toolstack. It helps you manage your pipeline and orchestrate all of your sales operations connecting to the rest of your tools via integrations. Here are top 5 sales CRMs for startups.
Most popular: HubSpot
HubSpot is the most popular CRM for startups, known for its user-friendly interface and robust features that support growing businesses. Its free version offers comprehensive tools for contact management, email marketing, and sales pipelines, making it an ideal choice for startups to manage customer relationships and drive growth without upfront costs.
Best for DIY: Airtable
Airtable is the go-to CRM choice for startups seeking a flexible, DIY solution. Its intuitive, spreadsheet-like interface allows businesses to customize workflows, track customer interactions, and manage projects seamlessly. With a generous free plan, Airtable provides startups with the essential tools to build a CRM that adapts to their unique needs, promoting efficiency and scalability from the ground up.
Best for outbound-first teams: Breakcold
Breakcold is the CRM of choice for outbound-first startup teams, designed to streamline and optimize outreach efforts. With features tailored for cold emailing, lead generation, and sales automation, Breakcold helps teams efficiently manage their outbound campaigns and track interactions. Its intuitive interface and robust analytics enable startups to refine their strategies, boost engagement, and drive growth through effective outbound sales.
Best for LinkedIn: Folk
Folk is the perfect CRM for startups that use LinkedIn as their primary lead generation channel. Seamlessly integrating with LinkedIn, Folk allows businesses to manage connections, track conversations, and organize outreach efforts efficiently. Its user-friendly platform simplifies lead management and ensures that startups can leverage LinkedIn's potential to build and nurture valuable relationships.
Our pick: Attio
Attio is our top pick CRM for startups, offering a modern, intuitive interface combined with powerful data management capabilities. Designed to streamline customer interactions and enhance team collaboration, Attio helps startups manage relationships effortlessly. With features like real-time updates, customizable workflows, and deep integration options, Attio empowers startups to build and maintain strong customer connections.
Most popular: Apollo
Apollo is the most popular prospecting tool for startups, renowned for its comprehensive database and advanced search capabilities. It allows businesses to identify and connect with potential leads efficiently, providing valuable insights and contact information. With features like automated email sequences and analytics, Apollo streamlines the prospecting process, helping startups build a robust sales pipeline and accelerate growth.
Best for LinkedIn: Sales Navigator
Sales Navigator is the best prospecting tool for LinkedIn, offering unparalleled access to LinkedIn's extensive professional network. Though it comes with a higher price tag, its advanced search filters, lead recommendations, and real-time insights make it a reliable choice for businesses serious about leveraging LinkedIn for sales. With Sales Navigator, startups can efficiently identify, engage, and manage prospects, driving targeted outreach and boosting sales success.
Best for capturing inbound leads: RB2B
RB2B is the best tool for inbound prospecting, providing detailed insights into website visitor behavior. It helps businesses identify and track potential leads who visit their site, offering valuable data on their interests and interactions. With RB2B, startups can tailor their outreach efforts, engage visitors effectively, and convert them into loyal customers, making it an essential tool for maximizing inbound sales opportunities.
Our pick: Clay
Clay is our top pick for startup prospecting, offering an innovative approach to lead generation and engagement. Its powerful data enrichment features, combined with customizable workflows, enable startups to efficiently identify, qualify, and reach out to potential leads. Clay's intuitive interface and automation capabilities streamline the prospecting process, helping startups build strong sales pipelines and achieve rapid growth.
Best video personalization: Sendspark
Sendspark is the best video personalization tool in the sales enablement category for startups, offering a unique way to engage prospects and customers. It allows startups to create personalized video messages quickly and affordably, helping them stand out in competitive markets. With its user-friendly platform, customizable templates, and seamless integrations, Sendspark enables teams to produce high-quality videos without needing extensive resources or expertise.
Best meeting recorder: Grain
Grain is a great call recorder for startups, offering seamless recording and transcription of sales meetings. With its easy-to-use interface and integration capabilities, Grain helps startups streamline communication, enhance collaboration, and ensure that important information is accessible and easily shareable across the team. Its affordability and efficiency make it a perfect fit for startups looking to maximize productivity without significant investment.
Best recorder for Google Meet users: Bluedot
BlueDot is an ideal meeting recording tool for Google Meet, designed to capture and store your video calls effortlessly. It offers seamless integration with Google Meet, enabling users to record meetings with a single click. BlueDot's features include automatic transcription, searchable archives, and easy sharing options, making it simple for teams to revisit important discussions and share key insights.
Best for scheduling: Cal.com
Cal.com is an exceptional scheduling tool for startups. Its highly customizable platform allows users to create personalized booking pages, integrate with popular calendars, and set availability preferences effortlessly. Its ability to handle various meeting types and time zones makes it ideal for teams working remotely or across different regions. The platform’s affordability, ease of use, and powerful integration capabilities make Cal.com a perfect fit for startups.
Best meeting copilot: Oliv
By providing real-time assistance during meetings, Oliv helps teams stay on track, capture key points, and generate actionable insights effortlessly. Its advanced features include automatic note-taking, task assignment, and follow-up reminders, which ensure that no important detail is overlooked. For startups, Oliv offers a significant advantage by reducing the administrative burden associated with meetings, allowing teams to focus on strategic discussions and decision-making.
Best contact center software: Dialpad AI Contact Center
Dialpad's AI Contact Center enhances sales enablement by equipping sales teams with AI-driven insights and real-time assist features that allow for more personalized and effective customer interactions. The platform supports omnichannel communication, ensuring that sales reps can seamlessly engage with prospects across various channels, while automated call summaries and analytics help refine strategies and close deals faster. This integration of AI tools not only streamlines the sales process but also improves overall efficiency and effectiveness.
Best for full-cycle buyer enablement: Flowla
Flowla is an end-to-end platform to guide customers seamlessly from initial engagement through to onboarding. For startups, Flowla offers a comprehensive platform that integrates sales and customer success into a cohesive system, ensuring every interaction throughout the buyer journey is personalized and effective.
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Key features include interactive flows that captivate potential clients, real-time collaboration capabilities that facilitate smooth communication between teams and customers, and detailed analytics offering actionable insights into buyer behavior and content performance.
By centralizing all buyer interactions and touchpoints, Flowla helps startups maintain consistency and efficiency, driving higher conversion rates and customer satisfaction. Flexible and scalable, it’s an ideal fit for growing businesses aiming to enhance their buyer journey and achieve sustainable growth.
Best interactive demos: Storylane
Storylane is the go-to product for creating interactive demos, enabling startups to showcase their offerings in an engaging and immersive way. With its intuitive drag-and-drop interface, businesses can easily design and customize product tours that highlight key features and benefits. Storylane's interactive demos can be embedded on websites, shared via email, or integrated into marketing campaigns, providing a dynamic and effective tool for lead generation and customer education.
Best for LinkedIn: Expandi.io
Expandi.io is a reliable and effective tool for LinkedIn automation and lead generation, designed to help startups scale their cold outreach efforts efficiently. With advanced features like personalized messaging, automated connection requests, and smart campaign management, Expandi.io streamlines the process of engaging with potential leads on LinkedIn. Its robust analytics provide valuable insights into campaign performance, enabling startups to optimize their strategies and drive better results.
Best for multichannel engagement: Reply.io
Reply.io is a powerful sales engagement platform for startups, streamlining outreach across multiple channels including email, phone, and social media. Its AI-powered automation capabilities allow businesses to build targeted lists and scale personalized communication, nurturing leads through customized sequences and follow-ups. With features like A/B testing, real-time analytics, and CRM integrations, Reply.io helps startups optimize their sales processes, improve engagement, and drive higher conversion rates.
Best for inbound engagement: Crisp
Crisp is a startup-friendly alternative to Intercom, offering a robust platform for inbound lead engagement. It provides features like live chat, multi-channel messaging, and automated responses, enabling startups to interact with website visitors in real-time. Its user-friendly interface, affordable pricing, and powerful integrations make Crisp an ideal choice for startups looking to enhance their customer support and engagement without breaking the bank.
Best for DIY: Rows
Rows.com is the best DIY tool for sales automation, offering a unique combination of spreadsheet functionality and powerful automation capabilities. It allows startups to design custom workflows, automate repetitive tasks, and integrate data from various sources with ease. Its flexibility and robust feature set make Rows.com an ideal solution for startups looking to streamline their sales operations and boost productivity.
Best for email deliverability: Mailivery
Mailivery is the must-have tool for startups relying on email outreach to generate the pipeline. It ensures that your emails land in your recipients' inboxes rather than their spam folders. Mailivery's advanced technology monitors and improves email sender reputation, providing detailed analytics and actionable insights.
The tools listed above make a pretty solid startup sales toolstack already. However, considering the abundance of options on the market and specific needs/preferences every team might have, it still might be hard to pick. Especially if you don’t trust our judgement or think it might be biased.
So we reached out to a few sales thought leaders out there to ask for their recommendations. Here are some more helpful sales tools for a startup, vetted by trusted experts.
The founder of CharpStrat, Cedric brings nearly 20 years of diverse experience in sales and marketing, spanning from finance to a decade specializing in B2B sales. As a fractional sales leader, he offers hands-on guidance in reshaping sales strategy, restructuring processes, and implementing tech-driven solutions, with a proven track record in achieving transformative outcomes.
Mafalda has extensive global sales experience across B2C and B2B sectors, including roles in media, tourism, tech, and SaaS. As the Director of Growth at Wonderway, managing Marketing, Business Development, and Customer Success, she also hosts two podcasts: "A Day In the Life Of..." and "Sales Training DReadly Sins."
Will is a seasoned professional specializing in partner relationship management. With a career marked by three successful exits, he leverages extensive experience in building and scaling enablement programs, driving substantial revenue growth across various roles in tech and sales leadership.
David is a top-performing revenue leader, startup advisor, and deal coach known for his strategic impact on organizations seeking substantial growth. He is the author of several influential sales guides, including "Your Definitive Sales Career Guide" and "The Sales Tactician's Playbook." David has a proven track record of achieving double-digit revenue growth tied to multimillion-dollar goals.
Tania is an all-round B2B marketer with 8+ years of experience in the tech and SaaS space, specializing in methodologies like social selling, ABM, Inbound Marketing, and RevOps. Currently, she helps B2B companies like yours build their revenue-generating machine through strategic ABM and DemandGen tactics.
Michael is recognized for his pioneering B2B sales strategies, challenging traditional approaches with a focus on understanding customer goals and fostering deep, respectful relationships. He co-founded the COSMIC sales framework, enhancing sales effectiveness through emotional and spiritual connections with buyers.
With extensive C-suite enterprise selling experience, Leslie spent 15 years opening doors and building partnerships with major corporations including AT&T, KraftHeinz, Walmart, ExxonMobil, JPMorgan, Verizon, and Target. As a three-time Head of Sales, Leslie excels in strategic leadership, consistently driving revenue growth and over-achievement.
Felix is the Founder of StackOptimise, specializing in building supercharged sales-tech systems. Certified as a Clay Expert, Felix harnesses tools such as workflow automations, AI personalisation, and intent data to empower sales teams and boost growth. Previously, he held roles at StreamNative and Confluent, accumulating extensive experience in enterprise sales and sales development.
Currently VP of Growth at Reply.io, Vlad has a strong background in sales, having led the company’s SDR team for over 3 years. He specializes in personalization at scale and has a proven track record of building creative outreach strategies. Vlad crowdsources and shares SaaS growth tips in his newsletter - SaaS Hill.
Michel is the Founder & CEO of ColdIQ, a leading sales prospecting agency specializing in B2B organizations, including SaaS companies and agencies. ColdIQ leverages cutting-edge sales technologies to execute highly effective outbound campaigns that generate significant prospect interest.
James is the Founder and Host of SayWhatSales, dedicated to empowering sales professionals with essential skills and best practices for success. He engages daily with industry experts on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter to elevate the sales profession through insightful content and live sessions.
According to James, every sales tech stack should have 3 layers:
Additionally, he also recommends Vidyard (Loom, Fathom), Replicate Labs, and Oliv (for meeting prep & notes).
Wrapping up, when it comes to setting up your startup’s tech stack, every choice counts, especially in today’s competitive landscape. Prioritizing tools that fit your budget, offer free trials or discounts, and scale with your growth is key.
Hope our recommendations and expert advice, will help you build a solid foundation that supports your sales efforts without breaking the bank.
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