Sales engagement platforms: The ultimate checklist to choose the best one

Sales leaders are no longer deciding if they need a sales engagement platform. They’re deciding the best sales engagement platform for their organizations.

Sales engagement platforms are built to optimize sales. According to The Forrester Wave: Sales Engagement Platforms, Q3 2022, “There is a sales engagement platform available to support every seller in every industry, regardless of the buying motion.”

This checklist will help you make the best decision for your B2B sales team.

What do you need in a sales engagement platform?

In short, sales engagement delivers a higher quantity and quality of selling time.

Sales engagement tools guide sales reps through a consistent, repeatable process that streamlines workflows to create meaningful, personalized interactions with prospects and customers throughout the revenue lifecycle. 

Here are some questions to ask yourself as you evaluate the functionality of each software and each provider:

• What are the most inefficient processes in our business?
• What operational processes and workflows need to be improved?
• Which internal teams will be using the platform? (sales, customer support, marketing, etc.)
• Which part of the sales cycle do I need the most help with? (generating sales pipeline, managing deals, engaging clients)
• What kind of a customer support is offered?
• How quickly will my team be up and running?
• Will the platform integrate with my existing sales technology? (CRM, sales enablement, Gmail, Microsoft Outlook, etc.)
• What functionality will my team members need in the future?

Checklist to select sales engagement software

Every organization has a different customer journey, so naturally, selection criteria will vary. This checklist will guide you to consider how your revenue organization operates and ensure you select the best solution for your team.

Sellers can do everything in one place

It’s a colossal waste of time for sales professionals when they are bouncing between a cold email tool, a dialer, forecasting software, and more. Plus, you’re not getting the insights available with data consolidation. Choosing an all-in-one sales engagement platform increases selling time while reducing costs, integration headaches, and time-consuming training.

Product innovation is continuous

Choosing the best sales engagement partner for the long term is important. Look for a vendor who is in a position to improve products even as tech funding drops. Without an innovation roadmap, the sales engagement platform you choose today could be obsolete before your contract expires!

Artificial intelligence (AI) provides a personalized customer experience

Look for a sales engagement tool that uses AI and machine learning to surface the next best action for every buyer. When data such as customer engagement and interactions, analyzed conversations, and opportunity details are in one platform, models can make advanced predictions. For example, sellers can get a notification when they’re not reaching out to a member of the buying group or if a buyer has stopped opening emails.

Analytics you need to close deals

Selling is more data-driven than ever. Some of the most popular sales intelligence tools include engagement scoring, sentiment analysis, trend identification, messaging performance, sales productivity, and identification of deal gaps. Choose a sales engagement platform that takes analytics to the next level, turning data and metrics into actionable insights to increase revenue.

Offers mobile access

In today’s world, a mobile app is essential to shorten the time between a prospect engaging with email marketing and the seller engaging them. Look for a sales engagement platform with an app that enables sellers to take action as they complete tasks, send follow-up email outreach, make phone calls, send SMS messages, and more.

Automation that improves efficiency

Sales automation should improve the sales process, giving salespeople more time to sell. The best sales engagement platforms offer automation tools that save time by importing contacts from your CRM and aligning account ownership. Look for automation that moves contacts between sales cadences based on engagement — or lack of engagement.

Meets the needs of all team members

The best sales engagement platforms include everything from prospecting and managing sales pipelines to deal management and customer interactions. Choose a platform the marketing team can use for lead generation and inbound leads, where SDRs and AEs can build their sales pipelines, and sales managers can use it to coach. With everyone working on the same platform, with the same data and insights, it’s easier to align and achieve goals.

Integrates with your CRM

Modern sales teams are looking for platforms with a robust list of continuously growing integrations – especially the list of CRM integrations. Keep in mind that all customer relationship management integrations are not created equal. Look for one that automatically records sales activities and updates both platforms in real-time with no manual work needed.

Integrates with sales enablement tools, LinkedIn, and more

Review your sales tech stack – and what you might use in the future – to ensure the sales engagement platform you’re evaluating integrates with the sales enablement tools you use. These applications provide content management, usage analytics, and resources that complement sales engagement. With so many buyers now on social media, integration with LinkedIn Navigator is also crucial.

Ability to forecast within the platform

When forecasting is part of your sales engagement platform, you can drill into the deal data directly from the forecast and take action. Plus, with more comprehensive data and the addition of AI, you have a better chance of forecasting accuracy and accelerating the sales cycle. 

Salesloft Vs. Outreach: Who checks all the boxes?

Salesloft earned the highest possible score in 26 of 30 criteria in The Forrester Wave: Sales Engagement Platforms, Q3 2022. That’s more than any other sales engagement provider evaluated, and Salesloft is top-ranked in the current offering and strategy categories.

Salesloft simplifies and streamlines your tech stack from outbound sales to customer support. Sellers can spend most of their workday in a single system, automate workflows, and craft multichannel customer experiences without sacrificing integration, flexibility, visibility, or sales productivity. With an easy-to-use mobile app and 150+ sales tech partners, including integrations with Salesforce, HubSpot, Microsoft Dynamics, and other leading CRMs, it’s no surprise Salesloft is a leader.

Take your sales strategy to the next level. Contact us today to see Salesloft’s comprehensive platform in action.