The worst part about my job is talking to a customer who we can’t completely serve. I find myself conflicted when I think of the early days in Sales Engagement. On one hand, our category has helped hundreds of thousands of sellers generate pipeline and create revenue opportunities for growth. On the other hand, we haven’t gone far enough to help those same sales professionals close deals.
As a lifelong seller and creator of the Sales Engagement category, admitting that stings.
Fortunately, we are righting this wrong. Sales Engagement isn’t just about generating pipeline. It is about all the people who engage with customers and prospects throughout their journey.
We are working with our customers to constantly evolve what sales engagement can do for them. It now represents the complete workflow application for sellers. It’s a giant leap towards solving the sales challenges I hear from revenue leaders all the time.
They need transparency into deals and performance. Their sellers need guidance on managing their portfolio of deals to close.
They need one place for all sellers to start and end their days.
They need less costly, more streamlined tech stacks and easier paths to revenue.
We are thrilled to deliver the solution that meets these needs.
How? By offering the only Sales Engagement platform that meets the needs of all sellers. That’s why I’m thrilled to announce we have acquired opportunity management and guided selling software provider, Costello.
Why Costello?
Last year we released a packaged integration with Costello, as part of our world-class integration partner program.
Customers loved it. Here’s a snapshot of their G2 reviews page:
Everyday our own sellers use Costello natively integrated with Salesloft. They love it for the same reason our customers do — coaching, pipeline reviews, sales activities, playbooks — is all in one place they already live.
“Salesloft is the best prospecting tool I’ve ever seen. I think Costello could be that for deal management.”
– Eric Sparks, Director of Inside Sales @ OneCause
Costello gives AEs, AMs, and their managers a single place to manage their work and collaborate. It triggers the actions they need to guide deals across the finish line.
“First impression I got of Costello was the Deal View, which is awesome! Update Opportunities with 1 or 2 clicks vs 4 or 5. It’s a huge time saver.”
– Matt Tenney, Pact Safe Sr. Solution Engineer
Adding Costello to the Salesloft suite of products solves 4 key challenges:
What’s Next?
I’ve spoken with hundreds of our customers this year. They tell me consistently that Salesloft is different for two reasons that are critical to their success.
- A product that delights
- A team dedicated to putting customers first.
That’s what we will keep doing and nothing makes me happier. That’s what gets me and every other Lofter out of bed every morning, inspired to keep innovating and driving the future of Sales Engagement.
You can count on us to keep serving you with relentless passion and commitment.
We’re going to remember today as the day Sales Engagement leveled up. We are excited to share more at REV2020. I look forward to raising a glass and seeing you there!
With #saleslove,
Kyle
P.S. Keep scrolling for the full press release or contact us to learn about early access.
Salesloft Acquires Opportunity Management Provider Costello
Acquisition Strengthens #1 Sales Engagement Platform for Account Executives and Sales Management
Atlanta — November 4, 2019 — Salesloft, provider of the #1 Sales Engagement Platform, today announced its acquisition of Costello, a provider of opportunity management software with quick deal updates, guided selling playbooks, pipeline collaboration, and real-time sync to CRM. The acquisition furthers Salesloft’s mission to help account executives not only prospect and build pipeline, but manage their day and their deals, from creation through close.
Salesloft’s Sales Engagement platform is a critical solution for more than 2,300 companies, helping global sales teams close more revenue and deliver better buying experiences at scale. With the acquisition of Costello, Salesloft will better serve revenue professionals of all levels, including sales development reps, account executives, and sales leaders, with features including deal management, dashboards, guided-selling playbooks, and dynamic note taking.
“Combining Costello and Salesloft gives all sellers, whether they’re pipeline builders, closers, or responsible for upsells and renewals, a platform to deliver the ultimate buyer experience and close more revenue. Sales engagement is now the place all reps can start and end their days,” said Kyle Porter, CEO and co-founder, Salesloft. “We are thrilled to incorporate Costello’s capabilities for all Salesloft customers.”
“Integrating with Salesloft’s platform allows us to take our vision to the next level,” said Frank Dale, CEO of Costello. “This is the perfect time to combine our opportunity management capabilities with Salesloft’s best-in-class Sales Engagement platform and expertise. Together we can deliver more value to our current and future customers.”
Costello announced an enhanced API integration with Salesloft last year, which allows joint customers to proactively manage opportunities from within Salesloft. The companies have many joint customers.
“We are thrilled about the Salesloft acquisition of Costello. Our sales teams have been using the integrated solution for the last year and love that they can drive prospect and customer communication cadences, and manage opportunities from lead to close, all in one place,” said Adam Weber, VP of Enterprise Sales, Emplify. “This is a big step forward for revenue teams everywhere. We’re excited to keep partnering with Salesloft.”
The companies will continue to support existing Costello customers, invest and enhance product capabilities, and natively integrate Costello capabilities into the Salesloft platform.
“Sales Engagement platforms have started to make significant progress with sales organizations. When we look across our dataset of high-growth early-adopters, 69% are leveraging a Sales Engagement platform today” said Craig Rosenberg, Co-founder and Chief Analyst of TOPO. “As the sales engagement platform market looks to expand to the more widespread market of sales reps, we expect the platform’s feature set will also expand beyond traditional prospecting channels to serve all the day-to-day needs of the sales rep including enablement, planning and forecasting and productivity.”
The acquisition comes on the heels of a year of explosive growth and recognition for Salesloft. In addition to growing recurring revenue by more than 1000% over the last three years, the company expanded its team to more than 450 employees and opened its EMEA headquarters in London, England. This year the company was also awarded:
- #1 Sales Engagement Platform and Category Leader by G2 for the 5th consecutive quarter
- G2 Best Products for Sales 2019
- #1 Best Place to Work in Atlanta 2 years in a row
- Best Company Outlook, Best CEOs for Women, Best Leadership Team, and Best Company for Professional Development by Comparably
- 2019 Top-Rated Sales Engagement Platform by TrustRadius