Apollo vs. IBM CPQ

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Apollo
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Apollo is a sales intelligence platform with tools to help users engage with prospects. Sellers and marketers can use Apollo to discover more customers in market, connect with contacts, and establish a modern go-to-market strategy. Apollo's B2B Database includes over 220M contacts and 30M companies. Teams can leverage Apollo’s Engagement Suite to scale outbound activity and sequences effectively. Finally, Apollo's Intelligence Engine supports the user's go-to-market processes…
$59
per month
IBM CPQ
Score 7.9 out of 10
N/A
IBM acquired their CPQ product from Sterling Commerce in 2010.N/A
Pricing
ApolloIBM CPQ
Editions & Modules
Basic
$59
per month per user
Professional
$99
per month per user
Organization
$1,188
per year per user
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
ApolloIBM CPQ
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional Details20% discount for annual billing on the Basic and Professional plans.
More Pricing Information
Features
ApolloIBM CPQ
Prospecting
Comparison of Prospecting features of Product A and Product B
Apollo
9.1
10 Ratings
17% above category average
IBM CPQ
-
Ratings
Advanced search9.810 Ratings00 Ratings
Identification of new leads9.010 Ratings00 Ratings
List quality9.110 Ratings00 Ratings
List upload/download9.09 Ratings00 Ratings
Ideal customer targeting8.910 Ratings00 Ratings
Load time/data access9.010 Ratings00 Ratings
Sales Intelligence Data Standards
Comparison of Sales Intelligence Data Standards features of Product A and Product B
Apollo
9.0
10 Ratings
16% above category average
IBM CPQ
-
Ratings
Contact information8.910 Ratings00 Ratings
Company information8.810 Ratings00 Ratings
Industry information9.39 Ratings00 Ratings
Data Augmentation & Lead Qualification
Comparison of Data Augmentation & Lead Qualification features of Product A and Product B
Apollo
8.6
10 Ratings
14% above category average
IBM CPQ
-
Ratings
Lead qualification process8.18 Ratings00 Ratings
Smart lists and recommendations8.49 Ratings00 Ratings
Salesforce integration9.05 Ratings00 Ratings
Company/business profiles8.710 Ratings00 Ratings
Alerts and reminders8.78 Ratings00 Ratings
Data hygiene8.210 Ratings00 Ratings
Automatic data refresh8.99 Ratings00 Ratings
Tags8.63 Ratings00 Ratings
Filters and segmentation8.810 Ratings00 Ratings
Sales Intelligence Email Features
Comparison of Sales Intelligence Email Features features of Product A and Product B
Apollo
9.7
6 Ratings
23% above category average
IBM CPQ
-
Ratings
Sales email templates9.76 Ratings00 Ratings
Append emails to records9.86 Ratings00 Ratings
CPQ
Comparison of CPQ features of Product A and Product B
Apollo
-
Ratings
IBM CPQ
10.0
10 Ratings
16% above category average
Quote sharing/sending00 Ratings10.010 Ratings
Product configuration00 Ratings10.010 Ratings
Configuration options00 Ratings10.010 Ratings
Pricing rules00 Ratings10.010 Ratings
Price adjustment00 Ratings10.010 Ratings
Purchase history and open contracts00 Ratings10.010 Ratings
Guided selling/Sales portal00 Ratings10.010 Ratings
CPQ reporting & analytics00 Ratings10.010 Ratings
CPQ-CRM integration00 Ratings10.010 Ratings
Attachments to quotes00 Ratings10.010 Ratings
Order capturing00 Ratings10.010 Ratings
Best Alternatives
ApolloIBM CPQ
Small Businesses
Lead411
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Score 9.2 out of 10
QuoteWerks
QuoteWerks
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Lead411
Lead411
Score 9.2 out of 10
QuoteWerks
QuoteWerks
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
SAP Sales Cloud
SAP Sales Cloud
Score 8.5 out of 10
SAP Sales Cloud
SAP Sales Cloud
Score 8.5 out of 10
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User Ratings
ApolloIBM CPQ
Likelihood to Recommend
8.9
(29 ratings)
9.6
(10 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(9 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
User Testimonials
ApolloIBM CPQ
Likelihood to Recommend
Apollo.io
Best suited for contact discovery on LinkedIn or for that matter any website, but it works best on LinkedIn. It saves tons of work, you can simply select the complete list of people you want to contact and put them directly into an email sequence. It is a little difficult to find contact info on other websites.
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IBM
Were it not for the fact that IBM CPQ lacks mobile and tablet applications, I would have recommended it 100%. However, I still have that 99% recommendation rate since this solution has saved us a lot by allowing us to close more sales within a short period by creating a channel where we collaborate with customers by offering coupons, sending price lists and orders.
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Pros
Apollo.io
  • Allows users to easily add new prospects to database without much manual effort at all
  • Allows you to make cold calls from different area codes that are relevant to where your prospect is located
  • Allows A/B testing for emails so you can figure out which ones are gaining the most traction
  • You can also find prospects based off of title, company, technologies, etc
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IBM
  • Firstly, IBM CPQ makes it easy for customers to make rapid products purchases through configuration, pricing and ordering processes.
  • Centralizing selling procedure in one platform by communicating products pricing to clients.
  • Improving ROI by attracting customers when discounts are introduced on products as well as offering coupons.
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Cons
Apollo.io
  • Their customer service is just terrible. You get an assigned account manager but 9/10 times they wouldn't know what you wanted and/or how the product works or how to fix it. Vast majority of the time it was a canned response that made you question if they read the message, or if they read it and did not understand a word.
  • The software was relatively buggy and lacked features that were promised upon signup. They seem to have some large corporate clients and if you aren't one none of your bug submissions, feature requests, or concerns will be addressed.
  • Their growing quickly so they seem to be very understaffed which I believe caused many of the issues above.
  • The data, while good, can quickly run out if you're looking for specific types of leads. If you're looking for something generic like Managers at companies between 10-5000 people, you can pull leads all day every day. However if you're looking for a specific industry, specific title, and specific location - don't count on having an endless supply of leads (or even really enough to use month after month).
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IBM
  • Unfortunately, IBM CPQ does not have on-premises applications to use while not connected to the internet. This is no more a challenge since we have a robust WIFI connection in our organization premises.
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Support Rating
Apollo.io
I received excellent support at any time I opened up a ticket. But I would add to it that the tool was very self-explanatory, so there wasn't much need for support. With Outreach, we have a closer relationship with our CSM because of the intricacy in things like SFDC task mapping.
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IBM
Timely and courteous response time from IBM Support any time there was a request that needed to be made.
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Alternatives Considered
Apollo.io
I have also looked into and tried Hunter.io and Lusha, and to be honest, I shouldn't compare them with Apollo. I have found Apollo to be so easy to integrate and use with all of my prospecting that I haven't really even tried out the other two. I bet I could find some useful things by using Hunter.io or Lusha as well, but there is honestly no need since I can do everything I want and more with Apollo. I would just be wasting time trying to figure out another platform when I can be focused on growing my own business with Apollo.
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IBM
There are tons of Configure, Price and Quote software, but I have not used a lot of them. However, unlike IBM CPQ, HubSpot Sales Hub isn’t operated in compliance with any ISO standards and secured in a data center making it easy to leak customer sensitive data such as payment details.
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Return on Investment
Apollo.io
  • Generated a lot of expectations that were not real when we needed them
  • The ROI was positive but we decided to stop using the tool
  • We loved how easy to use it was and how easy it was to interact with the Support team
  • There is room for improvement in the video tutorials - they were from old versions of the software that would not be useful for the version at hand
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IBM
  • IBM CPQ-Salesforce integration makes it easy, effective, and cost-effective to create quotes for customers.
  • Since no hectic selling procedure is undertaken, then our organization is able to generate high revenue by developing, managing, and negotiating quotes with clients.
  • Centralizing selling process makes it rapid and effective to communicate any amendment on pricing of our banking services.
  • Automating selling process helps guide clients through selection, configuration, quoting, and ordering procedures of products and services.
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ScreenShots

Apollo Screenshots

Screenshot of Find every prospect. Uncover high-intent contacts in your market.Screenshot of Connect with every contact. Orchestrate multi-step sequences at scale.Screenshot of Optimize your sales strategy. Unlock efficiencies and opportunities across your entire workflow.Screenshot of Apollo B2B Lead Database - Access data on more than 250M people and companies.Screenshot of Apollo Engagement Suite - Automate personalized messages across your entire pipeline.Screenshot of Apollo Intelligence Engine - Improve your revenue strategy across your workflow and boost efficiencies.