You’ve got multiple tools for outreach, another stack for CRM, and a spreadsheet nightmare trying to tie it all together. Meanwhile, your pipeline isn’t filling fast enough, your reps are spending hours on manual follow-ups, and your workflows are breaking every time something “sort of” integrates.
Sound familiar?
In 2025, automation isn't a nice-to-have — it’s how you stay in the game.
Why would you need lead gen tools
Scaling is no longer reserved for hustling harder; in the era of overload communication, what brings us a mile further is scaling well-built systems. But you probably already know that, as it’s a popular topic all over LinkedIn.
The right lead-gen tools stack helps you deliver
- Volume with precision
While automation handles the repetitive tasks, the real human touch comes from the work you put in beforehand, carefully setting up your operation flow and developing your outreach strategy. Tools can give you the power to scale, but it’s your approach that turns leads into lasting relationships.
- Consistency that doesn't slip
Following up seems easy as a concept when your lead pool is small. Following up five times with the right message at the right moment across dozens of qualified leads? That’s where automation can help you .
- Data that works for you
Good tools don’t just automate one task—they collect insights. What’s working, what not, so it’s easier for you to understand when to double down or pivot.
Best lead gen tools
There’s no one-size-fits-all tool for lead generation. Choosing the right one depends on your goals, budget, and how your team operates.
The better you know your business and your audience, the easier it is to find a tool that works for you—not against you.
To save you hours of research, we've rounded up some of the top tools in the game. We've focused on LinkedIn, email, CRMs ad flow automation.
You can see the overview in the following image, and dive deep afterwards!
Smarter, not harder: LinkedIn automation
LinkedIn automation tools have become essential for B2B lead generation, with studies indicating that the platform is 277% more effective than Facebook and Twitter – if your target audience is spending time there.
HeyReach
With HeyReach, you can automate your LinkedIn outreach and scale faster by adding multiple senders to a single campaign. You’ll keep all your conversations and analytics in one place, stay aligned with your CRM, and remain fully compliant with LinkedIn’s rules—so you can generate leads without worrying about account restrictions..
Key features
- Multi-account outreach: LinkedIn sets daily limits on the number of connection requests that a single account can send. HeyReach helps you work around this, without breaking the rules. By using multiple sender accounts within the same campaign, you stay safely within LinkedIn’s limits for each account while significantly expanding your reach.
- Unibox: HeyReach comes with Unibox—a unified inbox where you can manage all your LinkedIn conversations in one place. And when you’re unavailable, a colleague can seamlessly take over the chat, so your prospects never feel ignored. It’s teamwork made simple.
- CRM integrations: Now, if you're using stuff like HubSpot, Pipedrive, or Close, you can sync HeyReach any of them.
- Security: Security’s a big deal, too. HeyReach follows all of LinkedIn’s rules, so you don’t have to stress about getting your account flagged. It uses these super-safe residential proxies for each account, keeping everything natural. It's all about staying under the radar while you work smart.
- Lead generation powerhouse: Find the right people, faster. With seamless lead imports from LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, Clay, and more, HeyReach helps you build hyper-targeted lists, qualify leads with ease, and start smarter conversations—so every message feels like it was meant to be.
Additional insights
HeyReach reporting:
HeyReach takes the complicated world of LinkedIn outreach and turns it into clean, easy-to-read reports—so you can understand what’s working, what’s not, and where to improve.
With visual dashboards and one-click access to the right metrics, you get a crystal-clear view of your outreach performance, helping you attract more qualified leads consistently.
You’ll see how many connection requests you’ve sent and accepted, track your message volume and reply rates, and even measure the effectiveness of InMails. Whether something’s off or on fire, the numbers will show you. That way, you can tweak your strategy fast and double down on what works, without the guesswork.
Pricing plans
HeyReach offers three flexible pricing plans to fit different needs:
- Starter: $79/month (per sender) — A great option for individuals or small teams looking for essential LinkedIn automation features.
- Agency: $999/month (per sender) — Ideal for agencies or larger teams that require advanced features, including CRM integrations and premium support.
- Unlimited: $1,999/month (per sender) — Best for large organizations needing unlimited outreach capacity, whitelabel branding, and a dedicated account manager.
Expandi
Expandi is your personal assistant for LinkedIn, helping you reach out to the right people without wasting time. It can automate your needs. It’s smart, safe, and designed to grow your network without getting you flagged.
Key features
- Omni-Channel Outreach: Expandi lets you reach people through LinkedIn and even emails. You can hit them up on different channels without switching apps.
- Smart Sequences: A cool thing! Expandi automatically sends a follow-up based on their actions, keeping track of contact information along the way.
- Precise Targeting: Expandi narrows down your target audience by job titles, industries, and location, ensuring you're engaging the right leads in your sales funnel, not just anyone.
- A/B Testing: If you’re ever unsure about what messaging works best, you can run A/B tests. Expandi lets you test two message versions and shows which one performs better, eliminating guesswork.
- Safe and Secure Automation: It follows all of LinkedIn’s rules, so you don’t have to worry about getting flagged or suspended. It’s all automated, but it feels like you’re still in control.
Additional insights
Expandi’s AI Analyzer:
Instead of guessing what’s working, you’ve got AI backing you up with data-driven insights. It’s like having a marketing expert in your pocket!
Better Insights: It tells you exactly what’s working in your messages so you can adjust quickly.
More Replies: Helps improve your messages, boosting your response rates.
Saves Time: No need to guess—AI does the hard work for you.
Pricing plans
Expandi offers two primary pricing plans:
- Business Plan: Priced at $99 monthly, this plan includes unlimited campaigns, LinkedIn and email outreach, intelligent automation (IP warm-up, mimicking human behavior), and more.
- Custom Plan: This paid plan includes everything in the Business Plan plus extra perks like personalized roles, team collaboration features, and in-depth client reporting. Pricing is tailored to your unique needs, so you only pay for what you actually use.
Both plans come with a 7-day free trial, allowing users to explore the platform's capabilities before committing.
Waalaxy
Let’s be honest—LinkedIn outreach is a full-time job. Between finding leads, sending connection requests, following up, and trying not to sound like a robot… It’s a lot. That’s where Waalaxy, a lead generation automaitio tool, enters the chat.
Part Chrome extension, part automation wizard, Waalaxy isn’t just built to save you time—it’s built to scale your outreach like a pro, without losing the personal touch.
Key features
- Multichannel sequences: Waalaxy lets you hit them where it hurts—LinkedIn, email, profile visits, follow-ups—all in the same flow. You don’t need to manually juggle tools or pray your lead responds on one channel.
- Built-in CRM: Waalaxy’s CRM isn’t exacetly Salesforce, but gives you exactly what you need: contact status, messaging history, campaign tags, reply detection, lead filters, and actionable columns. You can segment, re-engage, or move leads through stages.
- Speed to launch = speed to pipeline: You don’t need to block a day on your calendar just to launch a campaign.
Additional insights
Waalaxy AI Writing Assistant:
Stuck on a follow-up? Waalaxy has an AI boost to help you draft quick, relevant, and non-cringe copy without losing your tone.
Write using Waami AI: It mimics natural language patterns, so your messages don’t sound like ChatGPT wrote them.
Customizes Based on Context: This AI adjusts tone and format to fit the prospect’s stage in your sequence.
Saves Time: Less time stuck writing, more time stacking meetings—without sacrificing functionality.
Pricing Plans
- Free verison: Perfect for testing the waters. 25 Email Finder credits per month to kickstart your outreach game.
- Pro Plan: For the go-getter SDR grinding solo, ready to scale their lead generation efforts without burning out.
- Advanced Plan: This one is for small teams. More automation power, 25 Email Finder credits, and everything you need to scale smartly
- Business Plan: If you are running a large team. 500 Email Finder credits + all the bells and whistles to make multi-channel outreach a breeze.
Team Plan: This is a custom pricing. You tell them what your team size is, and they tailor the plan.
Searching for full comparison on all LinkedIn automation tools out there? We've got all of them on one place, compared and sugarcoated with in-depth, not-too-biased reviews. Head over to 👉🏻 HeyReach vs competitors
Email isn’t dead — it’s modern, relatable and automated
There’s no better way to scale your business and build real relationships than with a well-crafted email. With the right email marketing tools, emails can close deals fast, cost-effectively, and at scale. Plus, email remains the most reliable way to reach prospects, no matter where they are.
Read below to find out more about the top email automation tools on the market.
Lemlist
Lemlist is an email outreach automation tool. It is designed for diverse professionals, such as salespeople, marketers, and business developers, to increase their impact in their work field.
It can automate high-quality email campaigns written by you or by the AI assistant. With open eyes, Lemlist tracks responses and improves your outreach strategy, giving you detailed reports and full control over the ship.
Key features
- Automated email sequences that work based on the outcome of the campaign. For example, based on the response (or non-response), it can send follow-ups automatically so you can’t miss the chance to close the deal.
- Personalisation that can scale your hard work by giving you ideas and allowing you to use custom images, dynamic text or even videos.
- Using AI-powered tools, Lemlist can help your emails to end in the right place at the right time, meaning you never miss the inbox and finish in the spam folder.
Additional insights
Lemlist is designed with cold emailing in mind. It enables you to craft deep and personalised emails that will achieve high performance rates.
Real-time analytics give you a clear overview—who clicked, read, replied, and when—boosting your team’s efficiency and overall strategy.
If you are using a CRM system as a third-party tool, that will not be a problem–but an advantage. Lemlist can integrate CRM tools (like Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, etc.), which means you can manage your contacts and campaigns in one place.
Pricing plans
Lemlist is priced on a subscription basis, with
- Essentials plan starting at $59 per month
- Pro plan at $99 per month. There are additional costs for advanced features like their Lemwarm tool or integration access.
- The Enterprise plan is available for growing teams but comes with a custom price.
Salesloft
Simply said, Salesloft helps sales teams to engage with leads and prospects more effectively. It automates repetitive tasks, streamlines the outreach strategy and closes deals.
Salesloft's purpose is to simplify communications, nurture leads, and drive sales. In the business world, success relies on clear communication, the exchange of value for value, and building real relationships.
Key features
Salesloft ensures that no lead slips through the cracks.
- Its automation handles personalised email sequences, call scheduling, and multi-touch cadences—email, calls, and social—so reps can engage leads at scale, all from one platform.
- Salesloft’s pipeline management is on a high level. The CRM integrations give the team a perfect data flow and visual advantage for adjusting activities based on the sales objectives and the strategy.
- The team collaboration feature lets sales teams share cadences and follow best practices. Granular user permissions manage email lists and data access, ensuring each member only sees relevant information.
Additional insights
Before fully diving in, invest time in Salesloft’s onboarding resources and training materials. They have a university of articles, blogs and educational resources that can sharpen your knowledge and skills.
Check your sync with the CRM you use. Make sure the data flows as it should from the very start of your journey.
If you work in a team, use the Salesloft collaboration feature. You can share cadences, notes, and strategies with team members to ensure consistency across outreach. It’s also a good idea to establish best practices early on, such as how often to follow up or when to adjust a cadence based on engagement metrics.
Pricing Plans
- Core Plan: This is Ideal for small teams or beginners; it offers email templates, task management, reporting, and CRM integrations like Salesforce.
- Advanced Plan: Includes everything from the Core Plan, plus more advanced features like cadence automation, phone dialer integration, and more detailed reporting capabilities.
- Enterprise Plan: This plan offers the full suite of Salesloft features. It’s ideal for large teams or enterprises that need enterprise-level solutions for managing complex sales processes
Apollo
Apollo is a sales intelligence that helps business and sales teams perform at their maximum potential. With a streamlined process, Apollo finds verified leads, sends highly targeted emails at scale, and tracks performance.
Key features
- AI-powered lead scoring algorithm that automatically prioritises leads based on engagement and fit. The algorithm adapts over time—so the more you use it, the smarter your targeting becomes.
- Database with over 275 million contacts with verified emails and direct dials, making prospecting insanely efficient without needing third-party tools.
- Make calls directly from Apollo and log them automatically. Call recording, voicemail drop, and real-time coaching tools are all available.
Additional insights
Apollo has deep CRM and workflow integration. Task creation, pipeline updates and managing leads will be easier than ever. It syncs seamlessly with Salesforce, HubSpot, Outreach, Slack, and more.
Your prospects live across multiple channels. Apollo’s multichannel outreach lets you hit with emails, LinkedIn messages, and calls—all in one sequence—so you stay top of mind and close deals faster.
Pricing plans
Apollo offers:
- Free plan, which is perfect for testing the waters. This plan gives you unlimited emails, LinkedIn and Gmail extensions, and basic automation with two sequences
- Basic plan, at $59/month, comes with unlimited sequences, 75 mobile credits/month, and 1,000 contact exports — all with deeper filters and intent signals
- Professional plan, at $99/month, unlocks advanced reports, A/B testing, 100 mobile credits, and 2,000 exports.
- An organisational plan is where the gods sit to taste the full offer at $149/month. 200 mobile credits, 4,000 exports, international dialing, job change tracking, Salesforce sync, and even a dedicated success manager.
The workflow automation – make your stack work together
Sales automation tools have become the secret weapon of high-performing B2B teams, boosting productivity by 14.5% and cutting marketing costs by up to 12.2%.
These tools connect your CRM, outreach sequences, landing pages, lead generation, social media, segmentation, and follow-up flows — automating and optimising every step for maximum efficiency. Whether you're looking to generate leads, streamline processes, or scale your efforts without overspending, the right workflow automation tools can make all the difference.
Zapier
Use Zapier if:
You’re running a sales or ops team, constantly flipping between CRMs, Slack, spreadsheets, LinkedIn — and you’re sick of losing time to repetitive admin work that marketing automation should handle once and for all.
You’ll Love It Because…\
Zapier doesn’t just automate — it orchestrates and delegates. It’s the silent workhorse that connects every app in your stack. With one setup, you’ve got instant lead syncing, automated follow-ups, pipeline updates, and zero “Did you log that call?” Slack messages ever again.
Power Move
Use Zapier’s new multi-step logic to trigger entire workflows: “If demo booked + company size >50 → auto-Slack AE + enrich lead via Clearbit + trigger outbound sequence in Apollo.” No dev needed.
Pricing Plans
Zapier is budget-friendly for growing teams — the Free plan covers the basics. As you scale, the Professional and Team plans unlock powerful multi-step workflows, making it an easy choice for teams that want to move fast without breaking the bank. However, be careful as monthly price increases additionally with number of tasks you're having.
- Free plan: access to the platform, unlimited zaps, two-step zaps, AI power-ups
- Professional: starts at $29.99/month, and gives you everything in free + multi-step zaps, unlimited premium apps, webhooks, email and live chat support
- Team: starts at $103.50/month and on top of everything in professional it gives you seats for 25 users, shared workspace, shared app connections, SAML SSO, premium support
- Enterprise: starting price is unknown, and for the best deal you need to contact them directly. Besides everything in Team plan they promise unlimited users, advanced admin permissions and app controls, annual task limits, technical account manager, and 360 degree overview of everything that's happening in your account.
Make
Use Make If…
You’re leading a sales team that thrives on precision. You need your tools to talk to each other — CRM, email, follow-ups, lead gen forms, and even landing pages — without manual input or missed steps.
You’ll Love It Because…
Make lets you build intricate workflows that actually reflect how your team operates — not how the software thinks you should. You control the logic, timing, segmentation, and lead data down to the finest detail, so your team spends less time fixing mistakes and more time closing.
Power Move
Use Make to create micro-automations between your lead sources and your CRM — enriching every contact in real-time, tagging based on behavior, and routing them to the right rep with zero delay. It’s like building your own smart sales assistant, no code required.
Pricing Plans
The free plan gives you 1,000 operations/month to explore the basics. Core and Pro unlock faster execution and advanced automation features. For growing teams, the Teams plan adds collaboration, templates, and priority execution.
- Free Plan includes 1K operations, no code visual workflow builder, 2K+apps, routers & filters, customer support, 15minute minimum intervals between runs
- Core Plan starts at $10.59/month, and in addition to free plan it offers unlimited active scenarios, more control with scheduled scenarios, increased data transfer limits, access to their API
- Pro Plan starts at $18.82/month and tops Core plan with priority scenario execution, custom variables, full-text execution search, advanced automaton features like error handling, scheduling...
- Teams Plan starts at $34.12 and it adds up to the Pro plan with team roles and ability to create and share scenario templates.
N8n
Use n8n if:
You’re looking for an open-source solution that gives you complete control over your automation. You must create customisable workflows across various apps without restrictions, and your team requires flexibility to grow and scale seamlessly.
You’ll love it because:
n8n lets you self-host your workflows, ensuring complete data control, privacy, and security. Plus, it integrates with over 200 apps, providing an expansive array of possibilities to automate everything from routine tasks to complex business processes.
Power Move:
Take your automation to the next level with n8n’s scalability. As your business grows, so do your workflows. n8n allows you to start small and scale effortlessly—perfect for teams that want the flexibility to evolve without limits.
Pricing Plans:
Community Edition is free and ideal for individuals or small teams, allowing full control with unlimited workflows. The Starter Plan is perfect for small businesses, offering 20 active workflows and 2,500 monthly executions. The Pro Plan supports growing teams with 100 workflows and 10,000 executions, along with priority support.
- Community Edition: 0 $
- Starter Plan: 20 $
- Pro Plan: 50 $
CRMs: the engine behind smarter selling
CRM isn’t just a digital Rolodex. For SDRs and BDRs, it’s the tactical nerve center — where conversations become conversions, timing meets trust, and every deal lives or dies based on what isn’t written in the notes. A great CRM doesn’t just store data — it gives you visibility into buyer intent, automates the grind of follow-ups, and signals when to jump, wait, and push.
HubSpot
Why It Matters:
HubSpot CRM gives sales leaders complete visibility into rep activity, pipeline health, and deal movement — without needing three dashboards and a morning sync to get aligned.
With 74% of CRM users saying they improve access to customer data, HubSpot is the tool that turns scattered touchpoints into strategy.
What It Does Best:
- Zero-friction rep adoption – The UI is so intuitive that your reps use it. No more ghost records, missed follow-ups, or “I forgot to log the call.”
- Live activity feed – Know when a lead opens your email or clicks a link and trigger the next step while the iron’s hot.
- Built-in automation – Create workflows that assign leads, score prospects, send follow-ups, and even update deal stages — all hands-off.
- Sales Playbooks (Pro feature) – Create dynamic, step-by-step frameworks for your team to follow in calls and outreach, improving consistency and win rates.
Use HubSpot’s lead rotation + task queue automation to distribute inbound leads based on rep performance or workload — not just round-robin. This keeps top reps fed, balances the pipeline, and ensures no deal dies in a queue.
Teams using automated lead distribution see up to 33% faster response time.
Pricing plan:
- CRM: This is Great for tracking contacts, deals, and basic reporting.
- Sales Hub Starter ($20/month/user): Unlocks email tracking, task automation, and custom fields — it’s where the real time-saving starts.
- Sales Hub Pro ($90/month/user): This adds powerful deal workflows, custom scoring, and full sales automation.
Keep in mind: HubSpot’s CRM is free forever, but the real ROI kicks in when automation replaces repetition.
Pipedrive
What It Does Best:
Pipedrive is built with a “sales-first” philosophy. Designed by salespeople for salespeople, it lets you visualise your pipeline like a storyboard.
- Pipedrive lets you drag, drop, and dominate your deals with a crystal-clear visual flow.
- It automates lead capture forms and post-meeting follow-up emails.
- Real-time pipeline forecasts let you see your revenue projections.
Where It Truly Saves You:
Forget about manual data entry — Pipedrive automates follow-ups, logs activities, and nudges you when deals need attention.
- Monday morning forecast meetings: Your VP of Sales is grilling the pipeline status — and with Pipedrive’s live dashboards, you’ve got it in one click. No scrambling through spreadsheets or Slack messages.
- New rep onboarding: A junior BDR joins the team. Instead of walking them through dozens of tools, you drop them into Pipedrive’s clean visual board, and they’re productive within a day — not a week.
- Follow-up fatigue: You had 12 calls yesterday, and 7 prospects asked for a “ping next week.” Pipedrive auto-schedules reminders and even pre-fills templated emails. You don’t drop the ball — or the deal.
Pricing plans
Pipedrive starts at $14/month per user, but its real value comes in time saved and deals recovered.
- Advanced Plan: 39 $
- Professional Plan: 49 $
- Power Plan: 64 $
Zoho
What It Does Best:
Whether you’re handling 500 leads a month or scaling to 50,000, Zoho molds itself to your workflow — not the other way around. With built-in multichannel outreach (email, phone, chat, social), it’s your entire engagement system in one screen.
Fact: Companies using Zoho report a 48% increase in lead conversion rates after the first 6 months.
Where It Truly Saves You:
No more “Who should take this?” Slack messages or missed hot leads – you can auto-assign leads based on geography, deal size, or rep skill.
With AI-powered sales assistance (Zia), you get predictions on which deals are most likely to close without spending hours on pipeline analysis.
Real talk: It’s the system that nudges you before a lead goes cold.
How Zia helps you:
- Lead Scoring & Predictions: Zia analyzes your leads and provides an AI-driven score, predicting which leads are more likely to convert.
- Email & Task Automation: Zia helps automate routine tasks, such as sending follow-up emails or scheduling meetings based on context, significantly reducing manual work.
Cost vs. Value:
Scalable Plans: Zoho offers cost-effective plans with scalable features, so you pay only for what you need as your business grows.
All-in-One CRM: It combines multiple tools into one package, offering high value at a competitive price.
Wrapp It Up:
If you're serious about scaling your lead generation in 2025, automation isn’t optional—it’s essential.
Every decision needs time to be made, but the most successful decisions have a tendency to be fast, efficient and smart. For further help, feel free to schedule a strategic call with our team and learn more.
Still piecing things together? Let’s simplify it.
Book a quick strategic call, and we’ll help you find the tools (and flow) that actually move the needle.Lead generation today isn’t just noisy — it’s chaotic.
