If you're responsible for wrangling a B2B sales process, you’ve probably got a graveyard of “game-changing” SaaS tools you barely use. So here’s a no-nonsense look at what Boomerang can (and can’t) do to help sales teams actually get deals closed without turning your day into a click-fest. This is for sales ops folks, heads of sales, or anyone tired of duct-taping together CRM exports and Slack threads.
What Is Boomerang, Really?
Let’s get this out of the way: Boomerang brands itself as a B2B GTM (“go-to-market”) platform that streamlines sales processes. Translation: it’s another layer on top of your CRM and sales stack, promising to make sales ops smoother and reps more productive.
The pitch is “one place for revenue teams to manage pipeline, automate grunt work, and collaborate on deals.” Sounds familiar? It should. But Boomerang tries to stand out with a focus on practical workflow automation, transparency, and (supposedly) less admin busywork.
Setup: Less Painful Than Most
Getting started with new sales software is usually a slog. Boomerang isn’t magic, but the onboarding is refreshingly straightforward:
- CRM integration is fast. Out-of-the-box connectors for Salesforce and HubSpot actually work. Importing deals, contacts, and notes takes minutes instead of hours.
- User setup is guided. It walks admins through permissions and setting up teams, so you’re not left poking around a maze of settings.
- Templates help. Boomerang offers a few decent starter playbooks for common sales motions (like outbound prospecting or renewals). You’re not building everything from scratch.
Pro tip: Don’t try to customize everything on day one. Start with the basics — pipeline stages, a few automations, and your core team.
Core Features: What’s Useful, What’s Fluff
1. Pipeline Management
This is Boomerang’s bread and butter. It gives you a visual pipeline that’s more flexible than vanilla Salesforce, with drag-and-drop stages, custom fields, and the ability to slice deals by owner, segment, or product.
What’s good:
- Kanban-style board that’s actually usable on a laptop screen (unlike many CRM add-ons).
- Inline editing — you can update deal details, add notes, or assign tasks without jumping between tabs.
- Deal activity feed centralizes emails, calls, and notes. No more hunting through Slack and Outlook.
What’s meh:
- The pipeline views can get cluttered if you don’t regularly archive or filter deals.
- Multi-product teams might find it fiddly to track different sales motions in one view.
2. Automation & Playbooks
Boomerang pushes its automation engine hard: “Automate follow-ups! Nudge reps! Send reminders!” Honestly, some of this is helpful, but there’s a fine line between streamlining and spamming.
What’s good:
- Automated reminders for next steps, stale deals, and contract renewals actually save reps from forgetting.
- Playbooks let you set up if-this-then-that workflows — e.g., if a deal enters “Negotiation,” auto-assign legal review tasks and ping the right people.
What’s overhyped:
- Lots of “AI” talk, but it’s mostly just rule-based triggers. Don’t expect ChatGPT-like magic here.
- Over-automation is real. Too many nudges and reminders, and your team will just ignore them.
Pro tip: Automate the boring, repetitive stuff. Don’t try to automate relationship-building — that’s still on your reps.
3. Collaboration & Notes
Boomerang wants to be the shared workspace for sales teams — comments, mentions, shared docs, the works.
What works:
- Deal rooms bring together everyone involved — AE, SE, legal, finance — in one thread, with all the related docs.
- You can tag teammates with @mentions, and the notifications are reasonably smart (not every update triggers a barrage of emails).
What doesn’t:
- Docs live in Boomerang, not your Google Drive or OneDrive by default. You can link out, but it’s another place to check.
- Comments can get noisy if you don’t set norms for what belongs in Boomerang vs. Slack or email.
4. Reporting & Forecasting
Every sales tool says it’ll “increase visibility.” Boomerang’s reporting is solid, but not revolutionary.
The good:
- Forecast snapshots are easy to pull, and you can quickly filter by rep, stage, or region.
- Custom dashboards for pipeline health, win rates, and velocity.
The reality check:
- If you’re already deep in Salesforce reporting, Boomerang won’t replace that. It’s more useful for quick, team-level insights.
- Advanced analytics (like cohort analysis or granular attribution) are limited.
Real-World Pros and Cons
Where Boomerang Shines
- Fast onboarding: Your team can actually start using it in a week, not a quarter.
- Reduces admin work: Reps can update deals and log activity without toggling between five tabs.
- Decent automation: For reminders and checklists, it’s reliable.
Where Boomerang Falls Short
- Not a CRM replacement: You still need Salesforce or HubSpot; Boomerang is a layer, not the system of record.
- Limited integrations: Beyond the core CRM and Slack, don’t expect deep connections to marketing, billing, or support tools.
- “AI” is mostly just rules: If you want real predictive insights, look elsewhere.
Who Actually Benefits
- Sales teams (5-100 people) who need to get their pipeline under control — especially if your CRM is a mess.
- Sales ops who want to stop being the bottleneck for pipeline updates and reporting.
- Leaders who want to see what’s happening without bugging everyone for updates.
If you’re a solo founder or a giant enterprise with 20 tools stitched together, Boomerang probably isn’t worth the hassle (or the cost).
Pricing: Straightforward, But Not Cheap
Boomerang’s pricing is seat-based, with a standard per-user monthly fee. No “request a demo” nonsense — you can see the numbers up front. For most mid-sized teams, you’re looking at a few hundred bucks a month.
- Free trial: Yes, and it’s long enough (14 days) to actually test with real deals.
- No hidden fees: But advanced integrations or extra automation “packs” can creep up.
Pro tip: Run a pilot with a real team and see if reps use it. Don’t just let sales ops play with a demo account and call it good.
Setup Tips: How to Avoid the Biggest Time Wasters
- Start small. Onboard one team, not the whole org.
- Clean your CRM first. Garbage in, garbage out — Boomerang can’t fix dirty data.
- Set clear rules: Decide what gets updated in Boomerang vs. CRM, and what goes in Slack.
- Automate only what matters: Don’t set up reminders for every task, or everyone will tune them out.
- Review after 30 days: If people aren’t using it by then, they probably never will.
The Bottom Line
Boomerang isn’t going to magically fix a broken sales process or replace your CRM. But if you’re drowning in spreadsheets, chasing reps for updates, or tired of copying notes between tools, it’s a solid way to tighten up your workflow. Focus on the basics: a clean pipeline, just enough automation, and clear rules for collaboration. Skip the hype, keep it simple, and tweak as you go. That’s how you actually see results.