Best Inside Sales Software of 2026

Inside sales software contains a wide variety of applications, drawing from a very diverse group of more traditional software platforms. For example, inside sales software functionality has crossover with:

• General purpose CRM software,

• Sales force automation software,

• Contact management and lead management software,

• Call center software,

• Predictive dialers and more.

And these days, many vendors are even throwing some artificial intelligence into the mix! As you've probably guessed by now—or may have already learned before arriving here—finding the right inside sales software for your organization's specific needs and goals can be very challenging. We've created this Buyer's Guide to help you make the right choice. In this Buyer's Guide we discuss:

What Is Inside Sales?

What Is Inside Sales Software?

Common Features of Inside Sales Software

Market Trends to Understand

What Is Inside Sales?

Inside sales refers to sales processes in which the seller contacts sales prospects from inside the seller's offices. It's defined in contrast to outside sales in which the seller travels to meet the sales prospects where they work, in their offices or wherever they conduct their business.

These days, inside sales is far more common and the distinction seems a bit outdated. Digital communication tools are so prevalent and so efficient, that outside sales is typically only used in a handful of niche industries.

For example, pharmaceutical sales still relies on the outside sales model, as pharmaceutical sales representatives often have more luck meeting up with healthcare professionals (doctors, nurses, hospital administrators) in their workplaces.

Inside sales is the preferred model for a majority of digital businesses. Software and IT solutions companies, digital services and a majority of B2B sellers rely on the inside sales model.

What Is Inside Sales Software?

Inside sales departments rely on phone, email, live chat or other remote communication tools to reach their sales prospects. Each of those communication tools can be a standalone application or part of a suite of integrated tools. These make up one half of the collection of tools provided by inside sales software.

Inside sales representatives also need to know who to reach out to, who those contacts are and any information related to their sales prospects, for example the origin of the lead, any previous communications and sales history. Again, this information can be provided by a standalone tool—lead scoring software, for example—or as a collection of integrated tools.

Together, these two families of IT solutions make up the bulk of inside sales software. The exact mix of tools included varies by vendor and the target industry. In the following section we outline a variety of these common tools and features.

Dashboard in Salesfusion giving overview of prospects, open and closed sales

Common Features of Inside Sales Software

Market Trends to Understand

Inside sales platforms are advertising artificial intelligence and machine learning tools with increasing regularity. However, in practice, these tools are still in their infancy and buyers should beware that they don't overspend on marketing hype.

Predictive analytics tools are the main real-world use of advanced machine learning technology in most inside sales platforms. These tools take the form of applications such as:

• Predictive dialers that try to match the pace of agent availability with the outbound calling queue. The goal of this machine learning tool is to maximize sales representative's use of time on the phone without making prospects wait too long.

• Playbook management, which helps guide sales representatives by suggesting the next best action (e.g., phone call, email or to send marketing materials) based on how well those actions have performed in the past with comparable prospects.