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My main use case for Outreach is that whenever a few of the criteria are met, especially when people are on the free version of the product and sales becomes involved, we provide them reasons to start paying for us. When we identify that they have had the aha moment and are showing signs both in actions they take inside the app and how they interact with our marketing content, Outreach gets into the mix. They become a lead inside Salesforce, allowing me to email them with very personalized and segmented emails in the name of the correct salesperson for that correct lead.

My team approaches Outreach as a sales tool, not a marketing tool. Since I sit right in the middle between both teams, the growth team, the upsell team, and the actual sales account management, it is seen as a sales tool that I am responsible for automatizing. This allows sales to really focus on making the demos, making the calls, getting the contract signed, and not so much on hunting or reaching out to them.

The best features Outreach offers that really stand out for me include how intuitive the whole tool is. A lot of other tools offer similar functions, but since Outreach is very much designed only for this purpose, it feels easier and more well thought out, giving many possibilities to tailor the message exactly to the point I need for a specific segment or person. Outreach collaboration features are also very nice; I have full control of all the sequences written there, yet sales can collaborate inside their own account, only having access to the sequences that touch their names, leads, or accounts. It is an easier tool to work with compared to others.

Outreach collaboration features and the ability to tailor messages for specific segments have positively impacted my workflow by reducing friction between teams. When sales had to give away their sequences to someone else for the first time, they were a little worried about how it might affect their quotas. However, the control they retain even over my work, combined with my access to reporting, data, and tracking, makes it easy to prove the value of outsourcing and delegation. I can only say good things about it, which has eased the collaboration between the two teams, especially after a merge years ago. The company was very focused on inbound marketing, while the other company we merged with operated on an outbound basis, impacting brand unity and the measurement of each campaign's effectiveness. Everyone's afraid of change, but Outreach as a tool played a big part in fostering nice collaboration between sales and marketing.

Outreach has positively impacted my organization, especially in terms of team collaboration. In the scenario I described after a merge, it is hard for me to gauge increased conversion rates or reduced manual work due to the changes in structure between the two companies. The only thing I can definitively say I attributed to Outreach is the improved collaboration and transparency during a stressful period of uncertainty, positively impacting the marketing and sales teams across both organizations, working together in different time zones and asynchronously.

A better native integration with Salesforce and HubSpot or a way for other tools to see engagement data from Outreach would be beneficial. I recall this being a pain point for the data team, but aside from that, there is not much to mention.

I do not remember having any problems with the reporting aspects of Outreach; it was mainly the difficulty the dev team faced accessing true engagement data from Outreach within Salesforce when combined with data from HubSpot. If my memory serves me right, it was more related to limitations on Outreach's side that affected the data team's ability to extract information uniformly and measurably.

I have used Outreach for about two to three years while I was setting up the communication from sales before the first meeting. Any lead that got into our funnel and met some criteria went from a simple nurture campaign from HubSpot to Outreach where the emails were sent by sales, pushing more for booking the demo or the first call with sales.

My advice for others looking into using Outreach is to set up everything correctly from the beginning. Having a true mental map or at least a flowchart of how everything would work together with other tools and teams, knowing where responsibilities start and stop, is crucial. Everything should be well-defined, and it is important to understand how the tool is designed to be used. Following those guidelines leads to great results, while trying to force the tool into a different use will always create a blocker. I would rate this product a 7 or 8.

I use Freshsales to manage leads for a company that has customers. I handle customer relationships in one place where I mark them under bucketing, bucketing them under different stages to check how the sales guys are doing. These sales guys and clients work for our client, and I monitor their stages on Freshsales.

What I like most about Freshsales is that it gives clarity. It provides proper visibility because it is a CRM where I can monitor everything. Without this tool, I would have to do it either in Excel or manually. I can create reports around it. It is a shared CRM where everyone has access and whoever needs to report and monitor can do so.

What I dislike about Freshsales is that it is a bit complicated and the initial setup is very difficult. It takes a lot more time to customize it according to your stages and use cases. I also require an external person to set this up for me, or I have to hire someone specifically to set up the system.

Regarding the initial setup of Freshsales, I have to mention my stages, bucketing, and set up all the processes, including how the leads will flow and what the customer's cycle looks like. It takes at least a month or 45 days to set this up, process it properly, and check whether the automations and workflows are working. Then I onboard all the team members I want to use Freshsales. Thirty to 45 days is the rough timeframe I have realized. As I start using it, if I see any flaws, I correct them.

Freshsales stability is good. These guys are stable, and it is a very renowned company. Whenever they have any maintenance downtime, they notify me before I get notifications about it, but it is very rare. I do not have such issues.

Regarding Freshsales scalability, adding a team and scaling it up is not a problem. However, setting up different processes and different life cycles is a bit complicated. If I onboard more team members and scale the team, it is not a problem at all. I can multiply it multifold very quickly and very easily. It is very simple.

Freshsales does not require any maintenance on my end, but the vendor provides maintenance.

Freshsales initial setup is a bit difficult. I have to mention my stages, bucketing, and set up all the processes, including how the leads will flow and what the customer's cycle looks like. It takes at least a month or 45 days to set this up, process it properly, and check whether the automations and workflows are working. Then I onboard all the team members I want to use Freshsales.

For the deployment of Freshsales, usually vendors do it and they have a team for different processes. For this particular company, I know there was one guy who used to do it, but he has his backup team at the back end who also does certain other things based on the requirements.

When it comes to the pricing of Freshsales, most of them are very similar. HubSpot and Zoho are the two competitors I have used. Pricing-wise, it is doing good. I can negotiate it on a case-by-case basis, but it is not very costly. These three are very nearby in terms of pricing.

I use some AI-driven insights with Freshsales. It shows some predictions based on scoring, but I do not rely on that much at the moment.

Regarding the predictive scoring in Freshsales, because I do not rely on it, there are certain other things which are answered but not on Freshsales. Not everything is marked on the CRM. For me, it is not very good. I usually do it according to my prior history and prior learnings. I do not rely on that very much, and I have not checked it properly. I just see it on the CRM, but I do not rely on or use it much.

I have used the workflow automation in Freshsales for bucketing, emails, and lead cycle. If I have to change them to a customer, I set up how I want them to onboard and what initial emails they should be getting. I have used it, and it is quite good, but it is a bit complicated. I have to set it up in great detail with what exactly should happen after each particular step.

I would rate this review 9 out of 10.