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Sales Engagement Platforms
Overview
Sales engagement platforms (SEPs) provide a single interface for sales departments to plan, optimize, and execute interactions with prospective buyers and then deliver services throughout the customer lifecycle. SEPs distinguish themselves from previous generations of sales technologies by focusing on improving the overall quality of sales interactions and the actions taken to convert prospective customers and retain permanent customers.
Powered by AI and machine learning (ML), platforms that specialize in different stages of the sales journey as well as comprehensive all-in-one sales and marketing solutions, are driving the demand for SEPs. Traditional sales tools cannot provide efficient personalized solutions at scale, while the improved ROI through increased conversion rates and elevated customer lifetime value is a key value proposition for SEP adoption.
Industry Updates
Market Sizing
The global Sales Engagement Platforms market could reach USD 7.4-16.5 billion by 2028
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Market Mapping
The largest identified disruptor, ZoomInfo, specializes in offering conversational and lead generation solutions. Other leading disruptors, such as Intercom and Salesloft offer a more complete solution, following in the footsteps of larger incumbent players that have opted for an end-to-end offering. Sales workflow and sales campaign automation disruptors are small-scale in terms of funding in comparison to other disruptors, with the exception of Aurora Solar, while sales coaching has garnered the least activity. Leading disruptors Bigtincan, Highspot and Seismic in the segment have become an integral part of sales teams to help drive growth in the number of users. Players such as Revenue Grid, VanillaSoft and Reply.io have largely bootstrapped operations while expanding their offerings.
Conversational intelligence
Sales workflow automation
Sales Campaign automation
Lead generation
Sales Intelligence
Sales coaching
After-sales service
Integrated offering
The Disruptors
Leading disruptors in the sales engagement platform (SEP) space either specialize in a particular aspect of the sales journey or provide an integrated offering, providing a collection of tools and services ranging from personalized content for account based marketing, customer relationship management (CRM) automation, conversational intelligence, coaching and guided sales tactics for sales representatives.
The industry is led by a handful of established players working on artificial intelligence-based (AI-based) solutions for customer insights and execution of sales playbooks. Publicly traded ZoomInfo has a valuation of USD 8.2 billion (June 2020), and leads the pack of well funded disruptors we have identified, which also includes Highspot, Clari, Outreach, Seismic and Gong which as of mid 2024 have also crossed the USD 400 million fundraising mark.
Funding History
Competitive Analysis
Incumbents
In-house solutions and acquisitions remain common
A majority of incumbents in the sales engagement platform (SEP) space are traditional customer relationship management (CRM) providers who have been able to either adopt rudimentary in-house artificial intelligence (AI) solutions or provide standalone sales software through acquiring startups who provide more complex, tech-enabled solutions.
Most incumbents have focused on creating integrated offerings that provide content management, communication, customer predictive capabilities, and automated data-driven guidance. An analysis of recent acquisitions by industry incumbents further highlights a key trend of moving up the stages of the customer lifecycle. Specifically, large CRM players such as Salesforce and SugarCRM lead in terms of AI-based offerings while facing competition from cloud software providers such as Adobe, SAP, and Oracle, who are also active in the space.
SugarCRM’s acquisitions have been mainly centered around natural language processing (NLP) and predictive analytics to bolster in-house solutions. It acquired CRM analytics technology provider Corvana in September 2019 ahead of the launch of its platform’s principal AI feature, “Sugar Discover”. Similarly, Adobe acquired the SEP platform Marketo for USD 4.8 billion in 2018 and Workfront for USD 1.5 billion in 2020 to complement its in-house offerings.
Over the past three years, Zendesk has built out its customer service offering using omnichannel messaging platforms, lead generation tools, and communication and reporting technologies. In March 2020, Salesforce, a leader in CRM, acquired the customer data platform Evergage to bolster its content personalization and account-based marketing solutions. Similarly, Adobe and SAP have made recent acquisitions in the content personalization and campaign management space.
Notable Investors
