GTM AI Index
September 2026 Edition · The permanent record of this edition. The unqualified address always carries the latest edition.
Index Sales Lead routing › Small business September 2026 Edition

Lead routing and management for small business buyers

Asked as “lead routing and management tool”, and as “lead assignment and lead-to-account matching tool”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 53 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Contested
26% of first choices, contested.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01HubSpot Sales Hub26%11%44accepted challenger
02HubSpot CRM13%0%10accepted challenger
03Zoho CRM11%4%26accepted challenger
04Pipedrive9%9%32accepted challenger
05RevenueHero8%8%24accepted challenger
06Freshsales8%0%16accepted challenger
07Kubaru6%8%13accepted challenger
08LeadAngel4%21%19accepted challenger
09Cal.com2%10%10accepted challenger
10Chili Piper2%50%38criticized challenger
11Salesforce Lead Assignment Rules2%63%19criticized challenger
Show the three products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
14LeanData0%74%34criticized challenger
12Default0%13%15accepted challenger
13Distributely0%0%10accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its vendor page.

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
C09
10
11
12
13
14
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative40%
Key
01HubSpot Sales Hub26%
02HubSpot CRM13%
03Zoho CRM11%
04Pipedrive9%
05RevenueHero8%
06Freshsales8%
07Kubaru6%
08LeadAngel4%
09Cal.com2%
10Chili Piper2%
11Salesforce Lead Assignment Rules2%
12Default0%
13Distributely0%
14LeanData0%

02What they warned about

Zero of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, GLM 4.7 FlashX and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
LeanData
74%
25 of 34 labels negative · 9 of 12 models · 7 hard negative
“Best suited to large, complex Salesforce environments ... so it may be too much for a small business with basic routing needs.” Perplexity Sonar, negative prompt
Chili Piper
50%
19 of 38 labels negative · 9 of 12 models · 5 hard negative
“Enterprise (avoid for small teams) ... **Most avoidable for small teams** | Chili Piper (due to 15-seat minimum)” Kimi K2, comparative prompt
Salesforce Lead Assignment Rules
63%
12 of 19 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 7 hard negative
“tools that may not be suitable for small businesses include Salesforce, Pardot, and Keap, as they are considered over-engineered, marketing-heavy, or have an SMB ceiling” Llama 4 Maverick, negative prompt
Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
100%
5 of 5 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 5 hard negative
“include Salesforce, Pardot, and Keap, as they are considered over-engineered, marketing-heavy, or have an SMB ceiling” Llama 4 Maverick, negative prompt

03What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: four of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

20 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 4 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 6 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 178 links across 69 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page. The other 8 models searched through a gateway that returned no source list on this edition.

vendor site · LeadAngel9 answers · 13 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Improvado7 answers · 10 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Salesforce6 answers · 7 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Default6 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
vendor site · WorksBuddy5 answers · 8 citations · 2 models
vendor site · BIGContacts5 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Cal.com5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
vendor site · MarketBetter5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
4 answers · 5 citations · 1 model
vendor site · LeanData4 answers · 5 citations · 3 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

04How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ModelDirect“What is the best lead routing and management tool for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which lead assignment and lead-to-account matching tool would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top lead routing and management tools for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best lead routing and management tool for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a lead routing and management tool. What should we look at?”Negative“Which lead routing and management tools should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5no first choicePipedriveChanged
Two alternativesHubSpot Sales Hub, LeadAngel
HubSpot Sales Hub
Two alternativesCalendly, Salesflare
against: Chili Piper
HubSpot Sales Hub
Three alternativesBitrix24, Calendly, Zoho CRM
no first choicenothing named
GPT-5.4 miniHubSpot Sales Hub
One alternativePipedrive
against: LeanData
HubSpot Sales Hub, Salesforce Lead Assignment RulesChanged
One alternativeLeadMatch
HubSpot Sales Hub
Four alternativesFreshworks / Freshsales, LeanData, Pipedrive, Salesforce Starter / Small Business editions
HubSpot Sales Hub
Three alternativesMapsly, Pipedrive, Zoho CRM
against: LeanData, Salesforce Lead Assignment Rules
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashRevenueHero
Four alternativesCalendly, Default, HubSpot Sales Hub, Pipedrive
against: Chili Piper
KubaruChanged
Four alternativesChili Piper, HubSpot Sales Hub, Insycle, RouterJet
against: LeanData, Traction Complete
HubSpot CRM, Pipedrive
Five alternativesChili Piper, Distributely, Kubaru, RevenueHero, Zapier
against: LeanData
Zoho CRM
Four alternativesEngageBay, Make, NextUp, Zeeg
against: Chili Piper, HubSpot Sales Hub, LeanData, Pipedrive
RevenueHero
Four alternativesHubSpot native workflows, Kubaru, PowerRouter, Routera
against: Calendly, Chili Piper, LeanData, Traction Complete
against: Chili Piper, LeanData, Mautic, Salesforce Advanced Flow/Apex
Perplexity SonarHubSpot CRM
Two alternativesChili Piper, RevenueHero
against: LeanData
HubSpot Sales HubChanged
Two alternativesCal.com, LeanData
HubSpot Sales Hub, Pipedrive
Five alternativesChili Piper, Default, LeadAngel, RevenueHero, Salesforce Lead Assignment Rules
Zoho CRM
Five alternativesDefault, Distributely, HubSpot CRM, LeadAngel, Pipedrive
no first choiceagainst: Chili Piper, LeanData, Salesforce Lead Assignment Rules, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
Grok 4.1 FastHubSpot CRM, Pipedriveagainst: Chili Piper, RevenueHero, Salesflare, Salesforce Lead Assignment Rules, Zoho CRMHubSpot Sales HubChanged
Three alternativesApollo.io, Kubaru, Pipedrive
HubSpot Sales Hub
Five alternativesCal.com, Freshsales, Pipedrive, RevenueHero, Zoho CRM
against: Chili Piper, LeanData
HubSpot CRM
Three alternativesFreshsales, Pipedrive, Zoho CRM
against: Salesforce Lead Assignment Rules, monday CRM
no first choice
Three alternativesChili Piper, HubSpot Sales Hub, LeanData
against: Chili Piper, Drift, Keap, LeanData, Salesforce Lead Assignment Rules, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement, Salesloft, ZoomInfo Operations
Mistral SmallPipedrive
Two alternativesHubSpot Sales Hub, Salesflare
against: LeanData, Salesforce Lead Assignment Rules
FreshsalesChanged
Two alternativesHubSpot Sales Hub, Zoho CRM
HubSpot Sales Hub
Four alternativesDefault, Freshsales, RevenueHero, Zoho CRM
against: Chili Piper
Freshsales, HubSpot CRM
Two alternativesPipedrive, Zoho CRM
against: Lead Distro AI, Salesforce Lead Assignment Rules
HubSpot Sales Hub
Five alternativesActiveCampaign, Freshsales, Pipedrive, Salesforce Lead Assignment Rules, Zoho CRM
against: Salesforce Lightning/Sandbox
against: Chili Piper, HubSpot Lead Routing, LeadAngel, LeanData, Pipedrive, Salesforce Lead Assignment Rules
DeepSeek V4 FlashFreshsales, HubSpot CRM
Three alternativesChili Piper, Pipedrive, Zoho CRM
against: Default, Distribution Engine, Kubaru, LeadAngel, LeanData
HubSpot Sales HubChanged
Six alternativesDefault, Distributely, LeadAngel, Pipedrive, RevenueHero, Zoho CRM
against: 6sense, Chili Piper, Demandbase, LeanData, ZoomInfo Operations
Freshsales, HubSpot Sales Hub, Zoho CRM
Three alternativesCal.com, Pipedrive, RevenueHero
against: Chili Piper, Default, LeadAngel, LeanData, Openprise
HubSpot Sales Hub, Zoho CRM
Two alternativesBitrix24, Routera
against: Chili Piper, LeanData, RevenueHero
Freshsales, HubSpot Sales Hub, Zoho CRM
Two alternativesChili Piper, Salesforce Assignment Rules + Flows
against: LeadAngel, LeanData
against: Angi/HomeAdvisor, Boberdoo, HubSpot Sales Hub, LeadProsper, LeanData, Phonexa, Salesforce Lead Assignment Rules, Thumbtack
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceLeadAngelChangedHubSpot Sales Hub
Three alternativesCal.com, Keap, Openprise
HubSpot Sales Hub, Zoho CRM
Two alternativesFreshsales, Pipedrive Essential
Kubaru
Four alternativesChili Piper, LeadAngel, LeanData, monday CRM
against: Cal.com, Keap, Salesforce Lead Assignment Rules, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
Qwen 3.7 FlashHubSpot Sales Hub, Pipedrive
Four alternativesChili Piper, LeanData, Salesflare, Zoho CRM
HubSpot Sales Hub, RouteraChanged
Two alternativesApollo.io, LeadAngel
against: Chili Piper, LeanData
HubSpot Sales Hub
Three alternativesChili Piper, LeadAngel, RevenueHero
GoHighLevel
Three alternativesDistributely, HubSpot CRM, PowerRouter
no first choiceagainst: Distributon Engine, LeanData, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement, Salesforce Sales Cloud, Traction Complete
Kimi K2HubSpot native workflows, RevenueHero
Two alternativesLeadAngel, Salesforce Native Flows & Territory Management
against: Chili Piper, LeanData
RevenueHeroChanged
Two alternativesDistributely, LeadAngel
against: HubSpot Sales Hub, LeanData
RevenueHero
Three alternativesCalendly, Default, HubSpot Sales Hub
against: Chili Piper
HubSpot CRM
Two alternativesDistribution Engine, Zoho CRM
no first choice
Ten alternativesCalendly, Chili Piper, Distributely, Distribution Engine, Freshsales, HubSpot Sales Hub, Kubaru, LeanData, RevenueHero, Zoho CRM
against: Chili Piper, HubSpot Sales Hub, LeanData, Salesforce Sales Cloud
GLM 4.7 FlashXPipedrive, Zoho CRM
Three alternativesClose, Freshsales, HubSpot Sales Hub
Chili PiperChanged
Two alternativesHubSpot Sales Hub, LeadAngel
HubSpot Sales Hub, RevenueHero
Three alternativesChili Piper, Default, Kubaru
against: Pipedrive
HubSpot CRM
Three alternativesFreshsales, Streak, Zoho CRM
HubSpot Routing
Eight alternativesBIGContacts, Bitrix24, Chili Piper, FlowRouter, LeanData, Pipedrive, RevenueHero, Zoho CRM
against: Salesforce Lead Assignment Rules, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
MiniMax M2.5Cal.com, HubSpot Sales HubLeadAngelChanged
Four alternativesDistributely, HubSpot's native lead routing, Kubaru, PowerRouter
RevenueHero
Three alternativesApollo.io, Cal.com, Default
against: Chili Piper
Kubaru, PowerRouter
Three alternativesDistributely, LeadAngel, RevenueHero
against: HubSpot Sales Hub
no first choice
Five alternativesHubSpot Sales Hub, Leadangle, LeanData, Pipedrive, RouteAPI
against: Salesforce Lead Assignment Rules
against: LeanData
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

05The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 00:07no04 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 01:11yes36 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 01:36yes1125 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 03:25yes2017 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 02:01yes08 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 03:03yes09 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 03:28yes019 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:56yes02 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:47yes042 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:22yes049 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 03:38yes024 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 23:11yes012 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 23:49yes1510 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 00:45yes34 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 23:35yes1420 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 04:45yes205 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 04:22yes09 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 01:55yes08 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 00:57yes062 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:57yes02 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 03:34yes064 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 00:59yes033 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:12yes070 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 23:48yes015 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 00:16yes78 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:28yes513 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:05yes1124 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-14 23:23yes2010 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-14 23:59yes010 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 04:05yes011 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 02:02yes023 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 01:02yes01 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 04:23yes049 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:03yes059 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 02:12yes044 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:34yes015 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 03:35yes98 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 00:20yes56 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:49yes1622 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 04:07yes204 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 02:39yes04 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 03:23yes09 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 05:01yes018 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 03:05yes01 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 22:53yes047 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:13yes020 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 01:30yes022 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 01:16yes017 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 23:19no07 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:46no07 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 23:42yes1729 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 03:22yes209 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 00:58yes06 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 23:16no07 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-14 23:08yes056 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 01:12yes02 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 01:16no038 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:43yes054 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 00:27yes083 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 03:21no013 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 04:54yes168 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 02:41no04 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 05:03yes1918 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 02:36yes156 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 03:45yes09 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:03yes011 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 03:52yes032 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-14 23:23yes02 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 04:20yes031 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:04yes076 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 00:42yes034 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 04:10yes019 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

Category-scoped readings
HubSpot read as HubSpot Sales Hub
HubSpot (Native Matching) read as HubSpot Sales Hub
HubSpot (Native Workflows) read as HubSpot Sales Hub
HubSpot (free tier) read as HubSpot Sales Hub
HubSpot Native read as HubSpot Sales Hub
Salesforce read as Salesforce Lead Assignment Rules
Salesforce (Sales Cloud or native routing) read as Salesforce Lead Assignment Rules
Zoho read as Zoho CRM
Unresolved, counted raw
Angi/HomeAdvisor
Avoma Scheduler
Calendly Routing Forms
Distributon Engine
FlowRouter
Freshworks / Freshsales
HubSpot Lead Routing
HubSpot's native lead routing
HubSpot's routing modules
Lead Prosper
LeadMatch
LeadProsper
Leadangle
NextUp
Ortoo Q-Assign
Pipedrive + LeadBooster
Pipedrive Essential
RouteAPI
Salesforce Advanced Flow/Apex
Salesforce Assignment Rules + Flows
Salesforce Lightning/Sandbox
Salesforce Native Flows & Territory Management
Salesforce Starter / Small Business editions
WorQ
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
← Sales roomsScheduling →