So you’re trying to pick the right B2B sales software for your team. There are about a million options, all promising to “transform your pipeline” and “accelerate growth.” If you’re here, you’ve probably heard about Otter and want to know how it stacks up against everyone else. The goal: find what actually helps your team close deals—not just what looks good in a demo.
Let’s cut through the noise. Here’s how to compare Otter with other go-to-market platforms, what to look for, and what to ignore so you don’t waste time or money.
Step 1: Get Clear on What Your Sales Team Actually Needs
Before you even look at features, take a hard look at your sales process:
- Are you doing mostly outbound, inbound, or a mix?
- Is your sales cycle long and complex, or short and transactional?
- Where does your team spend (or lose) the most time?
Most B2B go-to-market tools, Otter included, focus on things like lead management, pipeline visibility, automation, and reporting. But if your team’s real bottleneck is, say, scheduling demos or qualifying leads, a giant feature set won’t fix that.
Pro tip: Talk to your reps, not just your VP of Sales. The people actually using the software will tell you where things break down.
Step 2: Make a Shortlist (and Don’t Trust Vendor Comparisons)
Every vendor—including Otter—will show you charts where they come out on top. Ignore these. Instead, make your own shortlist based on:
- Peer recommendations: Ask other sales leaders what they actually use.
- Unbiased review sites: G2, TrustRadius, and Reddit can be helpful, but watch for fake reviews.
- Your current tech stack: Pick tools that play nicely with what you already have. Integrations often make or break adoption.
Don’t get distracted by the big “category leaders” if they don’t solve your specific problems. Sometimes the best-known software is also the most bloated.
Step 3: Compare Core Features (and Skip the Shiny Stuff)
Here’s how Otter and other B2B sales platforms typically stack up on core features:
1. Lead and Pipeline Management
- Otter: Focuses on making it easy to track leads, deals, and activities in one place. Clean interface, not overloaded with fields.
- Others: Salesforce and HubSpot offer deep customization, but can be overwhelming or require heavy admin time. Pipedrive is simpler, but less flexible.
What matters: Can your team see what’s happening at a glance? Is updating deals fast, or is it a chore?
2. Automation and Workflow
- Otter: Automates basic follow-ups and reminders. Good enough for most teams, but not as deeply customizable as enterprise tools.
- Others: Outreach and Salesloft let you build complex sequences, but setting them up can take weeks.
What matters: Does automation actually save your reps time, or does it just create more admin work?
3. Reporting and Forecasting
- Otter: Straightforward reports—pipeline, activities, win/loss. Not flashy, but you get what you need.
- Others: Salesforce and HubSpot have powerful reporting, but you’ll likely need a specialist to set them up.
What matters: Can your managers get answers without exporting to Excel or hiring a consultant?
4. Integrations
- Otter: Connects to the basics—email, calendar, maybe Slack and Zoom. Check your specific needs.
- Others: Big platforms integrate with hundreds of apps, but the setup (and troubleshooting) can be painful.
What matters: You want integrations that work out of the box. Avoid paying for “open APIs” you’ll never use.
5. Pricing and Contract Terms
- Otter: Usually priced per user, month-to-month. No long-term contracts unless you want one.
- Others: Salesforce, HubSpot, and Outreach can lock you into annual contracts and hidden fees.
What matters: Know your real cost. Watch for add-ons and minimum seat requirements.
Step 4: Test for Real-World Usability
Demos are designed to wow you. But the real question: can your team pick up the tool and use it tomorrow? Here’s how to check:
- Get a free trial—with your actual data if possible.
- Have your reps use it for a week. Don’t just run a test account yourself.
- Watch for adoption barriers: Does anyone need extra training? Are key workflows awkward?
- Look for “shadow systems”: If reps start tracking leads in spreadsheets again, that’s a red flag.
Pro tip: Time how long it takes to log a deal, update a pipeline, or pull a report. If it’s not fast, the software will get ignored.
Step 5: Assess Support, Onboarding, and Hidden Costs
Even the best tool falls down if support is slow or onboarding is a mess.
- Otter: Smaller vendors often pride themselves on responsive support. You might get faster answers than with giants like Salesforce.
- Larger players: Tons of resources, but you’re often just a ticket number unless you pay for premium support.
Watch for: - Onboarding fees (sometimes buried in the fine print) - Required “implementation partners” - Hidden integration or API charges - Minimum seat requirements
Don’t assume “white-glove onboarding” means anything—ask exactly what’s included.
Step 6: Consider Flexibility Versus Simplicity
- Otter: Leans toward simplicity. Fewer knobs to turn, but less risk of getting bogged down.
- Others: Salesforce and similar tools can do almost anything, but you’ll need admins (or consultants) to make it work.
Ask yourself: - Do you need every possible reporting dimension, or just the basics? - Is it more important to have every workflow automated, or to get your team using the system without complaints?
If your team is small or growing, don’t over-engineer. You can always graduate to a more complex tool later.
Step 7: Ignore the Hype—and Focus on Adoption
Vendors love to talk about “AI-powered insights,” “next-gen analytics,” and “revolutionary automation.” Most of this is fluff.
What actually matters: - Are your reps using the tool every day? - Is your pipeline up to date? - Can your manager see where deals are stuck?
If the answer’s yes, you picked a winner. If not, no amount of “AI” will fix it.
Step 8: Check Security and Compliance (But Don’t Overthink It)
If you’re in a regulated industry (finance, healthcare), you need to check for SOC 2, GDPR, and the rest. For most B2B sales teams, basic data security and role-based permissions are enough.
- Otter: Covers standard security needs, but double-check if you have strict requirements.
- Big vendors: Usually tick every compliance box—but at a price.
Don’t pay extra for certifications you don’t need.
Step 9: Get Buy-In Before You Buy
Even the best sales software is useless if your team hates it. Involve a few reps in the final decision. If they’re excited to use it, you’ll get better data and faster adoption.
Keep It Simple—Then Iterate
There’s no perfect sales tool. Most teams do better with something simple that gets used, rather than a “best-in-class” platform nobody touches. Pick the tool that solves your real problems, get it live, and tweak as you go.
Don’t let vendor hype or a monster feature list distract you. If Otter fits your needs and your team likes it, that’s enough. If not, try something else. Just don’t let this decision drag on for months—you’ve got deals to close.