AI promises to transform sales. More leads. Better targeting. Automated outreach.

I tested the major players for six months. Spent $2,400. Got mixed results.

What I Tested

Apollo.io: $79/month (Professional) Instantly: $97/month (Growth) Lemlist: $99/month (Email Pro) Clay: $149/month (Explorer) Lavender: $29/month (Starter)

Plus various combinations and add-ons.

Apollo.io

The most complete platform. TechCrunch covered their recent funding round.

What it does: Contact database. Email sequences. AI email writing. Intent signals.

What works: The database is genuinely useful. 275M contacts. Filter by industry, company size, tech stack. Found relevant prospects quickly.

What doesn’t: AI email suggestions are generic. I wrote better emails myself.

ROI: Generated 23 qualified meetings in 6 months. At $79/month, that’s $20/meeting. Worth it.

Instantly

Email sending at scale.

What it does: Warm-up accounts. Send thousands of emails. AI personalization.

What works: The warm-up feature actually improves deliverability. My reply rates went from 2% to 4%.

What doesn’t: AI personalization is surface-level. “Hey {first_name}, noticed {company} is in {industry}.” Not impressive.

ROI: Higher volume meant more responses. But also more spam complaints. Net positive but requires careful management.

Lemlist

More personal approach.

What it does: Email sequences with images and videos. LinkedIn integration. AI suggestions.

What works: Personalized images (your prospect’s name on a whiteboard, etc.) are cheesy but get clicks.

What doesn’t: The AI writing isn’t better than Apollo’s. And it’s more expensive.

ROI: Lower volume than Instantly, higher reply rate. About equal total responses.

Clay

Data enrichment powerhouse.

What it does: Pull data from dozens of sources. AI to synthesize it. Build custom lead lists.

What works: Finding specific signals. “Companies that just raised Series A and are hiring engineers.” Clay makes this easy.

What doesn’t: Steep learning curve. Took two weeks to get useful outputs.

ROI: Found prospects I never would have found otherwise. Worth it if you’re doing targeted outreach, not spray-and-pray.

Lavender

Email coaching.

What it does: Analyzes your emails. Suggests improvements. Predicts reply likelihood.

What works: Makes you think about email quality. The predictions are reasonably accurate.

What doesn’t: It’s training wheels. After a month, you’ve internalized the lessons.

ROI: $29/month for better emails. Worth the investment short-term. Cancel after 3 months.

What I Actually Use Now

Apollo for prospecting: $79/month. Database access alone is worth it.

Instantly for sending: $97/month. Warm-up and deliverability matter.

Clay occasionally: When I need deep research on specific segments.

Total: ~$200/month for sales infrastructure.

The Honest Truth

AI sales tools help with volume and research. They don’t help with quality.

The best AI email is still worse than a thoughtful human email. The best AI research still needs human interpretation.

What these tools really provide:

• Faster prospecting
• More efficient sending
• Better deliverability

What they don’t provide:

• Sales skills
• Product-market fit
• Compelling offers

If your fundamentals are broken, AI tools amplify the failure faster.

If you’ve built custom AI solutions with AI consultants Sydney, that’s different. Generic tools give generic results.

My Recommendation

Just starting out? Apollo only. Learn prospecting. Write your own emails.

Growing sales motion? Add Instantly for scale.

Complex sales with specific targeting? Add Clay for research.

Enterprise sales? Different tools entirely (Outreach, Salesloft, etc.)

Don’t stack tools hoping for magic. Start simple. Add complexity when you understand the value.