Did you know that, according to 40% of sales reps, prospecting is the most critical and complex part of a sales journey? The stat doesn't make your day easier, but sales engagement tools can.

Sales software is only growing its popularity and profits with time, proving its effectiveness. If you've been looking for the best sales engagement platform for your business, you've reached the right destination.

This article will discuss how sales engagement platforms can help you grow your business. We have also listed the best 7 tools in 2024 to make your job easier.

Let's get started.

Sales Engagement Platforms: A Brief Introduction

Sales engagement tools are software that helps businesses interact with their customers faster and more efficiently. This software helps align the marketing and sales tasks altogether, which is beneficial for the business and the customers.

Engaging and keeping track of numerous interactions within a large organization is difficult. That's where sales engagement tools come in. You can integrate your CRM with stand-alone sales engagement tools to better manage sales and marketing efforts.

Here's what sales management tools do:

• Sales action automation: e.g., sending follow-up emails
• Customer Outreach
• Customer insight data collection
• Analyzing sales data and forecasting
• Sales activity and task tracking

Differences Between Sales Engagement Platforms and CRM

You must have come across CRMs while searching for sales engagement tools because both of these platforms share some similarities. Fundamentally, both of these serve different purposes.

• CRM software is usually used for contact or lead management. CRMs store customer and sales data in a centralized database. In comparison, Sales Engagement Tools are used to analyze sales trends, customers' intentions, and sales forecasting.
• Customer Relationship Management tools help businesses keep track of their marketing campaigns and generate fresh leads. On the other hand, Sales Engagement tools help track campaigns' responses and schedule meetings & calls.
• CRMs work as task management software related to customer interactions. In contrast, Sales Engagement Tools are used to track sales teams' performance. These also help create sales forecasting, pipeline, and sales funnel.
• CRMs are sales reporting tools, whereas Sales Engagement Tools are more inclined toward opportunity management and pipeline management.

Why Do You Need One?

Sales engagement tools are software solutions designed to help sales teams automate, streamline and optimize their sales engagement activities. Some standard sales engagement tools include:

✅Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems: CRM tools help sales teams manage customer interactions, track customer data and behavior, and monitor the sales pipeline. They typically include contact management, deal tracking, task management, and reporting.

✅Sales Enablement Software: Sales enablement tools provide sales reps with the resources and information they need to engage effectively with prospects and customers. This can include content management tools, sales training materials, and analytics to track the effectiveness of different sales resources.

✅Sales Prospecting and Lead Generation Tools: These tools help sales teams identify and generate leads, build targeted lists of prospects, and automate outreach efforts. They can include web scraping, email scraping, and social media prospecting tools.

✅Sales Automation Tools: These tools automate repetitive, administrative tasks such as email outreach, follow-up, and lead nurturing, freeing up sales reps to focus on more strategic tasks such as building relationships and closing deals. This can include tools for automated email campaigns, lead scoring, and scheduling.

✅Email marketing tools: These tools allow sales reps to send targeted and personalized email campaigns to prospects and customers, helping to build relationships and drive engagement. They can include features such as email templates, A/B testing, and analytics.

✅Sales Intelligence and Analytics Tools: Sales intelligence tools provide insights into customer behavior, allowing sales teams to identify trends, measure performance, and optimize their sales processes. This can include tools for tracking website analytics, lead scoring, and sales forecasting.

✅Communication and Collaboration Tools: Communication and collaboration tools allow sales reps to communicate and collaborate with prospects and customers in real time, using a variety of channels such as chat, phone, and video. This can include tools for video conferencing, chatbots, and phone systems.

✅Social Selling Tools: These tools help sales teams leverage social media to engage with prospects and customers, build relationships, and drive sales. This can include tools for social media monitoring, social media advertising, and social media prospecting.

What Should You Look for in a Sales Engagement Platform

Sales engagement is the most crucial stage where you turn a prospect into a customer. The process must be inexpensive, easy to operate, and hassle-free.

While choosing a sales engagement software for your business, keep the following things in mind:

• Automated data logging
• CRM integration
• Sales pipeline building
• On-time and accurate reporting
• Email automation
• Easy interface
• All-in-one dashboard

Along with the above features, a sales engagement tool should be:

1. Ease of use: The platform should be user-friendly, with a simple and intuitive interface that makes it easy for sales reps to navigate and perform their tasks.

2. Customizable: The platform should be customizable, allowing sales teams to tailor it to their specific needs and workflows.

3. Must Provide Integrations: The platform should integrate with other tools and software commonly used by sales teams, such as CRMs, marketing automation software, and sales analytics tools.

4. Automation: The platform should have automation capabilities, allowing sales reps to automate repetitive tasks such as email outreach, follow-up, and lead nurturing.

5. Collaboration: The platform should support collaboration and communication between sales reps, as well as between sales reps and other teams, such as marketing and customer support.

6. Analytics and Reporting: The platform should provide detailed analytics and reporting capabilities, allowing sales reps to track their performance, measure the effectiveness of their interactions, and optimize their sales processes.

7. Security and Privacy: The platform should prioritize security and privacy, protecting customer data and ensuring compliance with data protection regulations.

8. Mobile Compatibility: The platform should be compatible with mobile devices, allowing sales reps to access it on the go and stay connected with prospects and customers while they are out of the office.

By having these features, a sales interaction platform can help sales teams streamline their processes, increase their productivity, and ultimately close more deals.

Benefits of Sales Engagement Platforms

1. Stay One Step Ahead with Planning

Nobody wants to go through old scattered data to close a sales deal. Most of the best sales engagement tools offer a sales pipeline as well.

A sales pipeline enables companies to develop step-by-step plans to close sales deals.

Sales pipeline also helps customer reps to see exactly where a customer is on their journey. It means no need to keep records handy; you can follow up contextually from where you've left it.

2. Organized Workflow

Sales engagement tools keep everything organized in a central database so that you don't have to switch tabs or dig through sheets.

It helps sales reps to focus on the customers and cater to their needs.

An organized workflow means better communication, less confusion, fewer chances of missing information, better chances of conversion, and cost reduction.

3. Faster Conversions

Imagine the painful task of checking each customer's positions on their customer journey and sending follow-up emails; it's hectic and time-consuming.

Sales engagement tools usually come with sales automation features. It means you can perform some of your sales processes through automation quickly.

As a result, it saves time and helps keep constant communication with customers.

4. Detailed Reports and Analytics

Measuring marketing campaigns' success is easier with sales engagement tools. They collect sales data from campaigns and provide you with detailed on-time reports on the engagement activities of prospective customers. Also, some platforms, such as Smartlead, can provide data-based sales forecasts.

You can improve your pipeline based on the previous data and step up your sales game with more conversions.

5. Fast Engagement with Customers

Sometimes, you just gotta be fast to win the sales game. If your emails reach your prospects' inboxes late, the chances are that they may have already decided to go with your competitors.

With automated actions and email template banks, sales engagement tools help you personalize communication and send emails faster.

These platforms send automated emails as soon as you find leads, even if you are busy doing something else. This way, you can always stay ahead of your competitors and see better conversion rates.

7 Best Sales Engagement Platforms in 2024

Smartlead

Smartlead is an excellent combination of sales engagement and cold emailing tools. This tool offers unlimited email warmups, so users don't miss a lead.

Also, the AI-powered writing tool helps create personalized emails based on customer interaction data and intent. What makes it stand out is its automated follow-up feature.

Also, it offers a master mailbox to make communication and tracking easier, and sales reps can focus on closing deals.

Smartlead offers real-time updates and data-driven market prediction, which helps businesses create their next marketing moves. The sales pipeline and sales funnel make it easier to automate the process and focus on closing deals.

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Standout Features

• Master inbox
• AI-powered writing tool
• Sales funnel and pipeline creation
• High deliverability IP address
• Email sequences
• Unlimited automated email warmup
• Reports and Analysis

Pricing

• Basic: $29 per month
• Popular: $69 per month
• Pro: $94 per month
• Custom: Customizable upon discussion

HubSpot Sales Hub

HubSpot ranks 2nd for its all-in-one service, sales, marketing, content management, and operations tools. Its Sales Hub offers sales engagement platforms as well as selling tools or e-commerce websites.

The fully customizable and visible pipeline helps sales reps track each customer's progress in real-time. HubSpot can also track your calls and emails sent to the customers and automatically keeps track in the integrated CRM.

You can integrate this sales software with various modes of communication, including social media handles and ESPs.

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Standout Features

• Customer database
• Lead management
• Sales forecasting
• Pipeline building
• Real-time reports
• Referral tracking
• Contact management
• Sales prospecting

Pricing

• Starter: $45 per month for two paid users
• Professional: $450 per month for five paid users
• Enterprise: $1200 per month for ten paid users

Zendesk Sell

This sales engagement software boasts numerous impactful and innovative sales engagement features for all kinds of businesses. First, it is user-friendly and lets you communicate with your clients on their preferred channels.

Zendesk Sell allows sales reps to connect directly with prospects and discuss what works for them and what doesn't.

Moreover, Sell, like Smartlead, is integrated with a powerful lead generation tool (AI-powered) so that you can find industry-specific verified leads and get the maximum out of your outreach campaigns.

The mobile connectivity makes it stand apart from the crowd, as you can manage your sales tasks while on the go. Zendesk works as a cloud-based CRM as well.

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Standout Features

• CRM and sales engagement software
• Workflow automation
• Lead generation and AI verification
• Sales engagement
• On-time reports and predictive analytics

Pricing

• Team: $19 per user per month
• Growth: $49 per user per month
• Professional: $99 per user per month

Apollo.io

If you are looking for sales engagement software to improve your business practices, Apollo.io is the perfect platform for you. Apollo aims to highlight the areas to improve a user's business.

With its intuitive and data-driven analysis, you can deploy best practices for your business. Apollo allows its users to generate industry-specific and relevant leads through its prospect searcher tool.

Moreover, with the built-in integration, you can search for potential leads on LinkedIn. And the best leads are saved directly to the CRM database.

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Standout Features

• CRM integration
• Chrome extension
• Marketing account intelligence
• Real-time reports
• Sales funnel

Pricing

• Free: $0
• Basic: $19 per user per month
• Professional: $39 per user per month
• Enterprise: $5K per user per year

Outreach

Outreach leaves no room for guesswork with its AI-powered deal insights. Outreach helps businesses automate their sales process, from launching email campaigns to closing deals.

Moreover, Outreach offers prediction-based reports to its users so that they can blueprint their next marketing move. It optimizes sales workflow by creating pipelines automatically and manages sales workflow with a revenue intelligence tool.

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Standout Features

• Automated pipeline generation
• Revenue Intelligence Solution
• Sales intelligence tool
• Real-time analysis and reports
• AI-powered Deal Insights
• Sales engagement automation
• CRM integration

Pricing

• Fully customizable upon quotation

Mailshake

Next up on our list, Mailshake is compatible with almost all top CRM tools. The best thing about Mailshake is that it automatically collects accurate leads and contacts them.

Although this platform makes Outreach completely automated, it leaves the opportunity for personalization within communications and customer outreach.

Moreover, Mailshake offers many useful integrations besides CRMs, such as Slack, GMass, GSuite, Outlook, etc.

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Standout Features

• Lead catcher
• LinkedIn automation
• Multi-channel Outreach
• Pipeline-focused Outreach
• Dynamic content
• Subscriber management

Pricing

• Email Outreach: $58 per user per month
• Sales Engagement: $83 per user per month

Pipeline

The last addition to our list, Pipeline, is a CRM platform and sales engagement software. This is the right platform for you if you are looking for a sales tool for small and medium-scale businesses.

Pipeline offers complete tracking of your cold email campaigns and creates reports based on each customer's journey through an outreach campaign. Its predictive analytics helps users close deals faster and create future tactics.

Standout Features

• Lead generation and qualification
• Marketing automation
• Sales funnel
• Cold email marketing
• Social media integration

Pricing

• Start: $25 per user per month
• Develop: $33 per user per month
• Grow: $49 per user per month

Strategies for Leveraging Sales Engagement Platforms

To maximize the effectiveness of top sales engagement platforms, businesses should focus on aligning their sales processes with the platform's capabilities. This involves segmenting leads for targeted communication, automating routine tasks to increase efficiency, and utilizing the platform's analytics to refine strategies. Personalizing outreach based on lead behavior and preferences can significantly enhance engagement rates. Moreover, integrating sales engagement platforms with content marketing strategies ensures that sales teams have valuable resources to share with prospects, further nurturing those relationships.

Customization Options in Sales Engagement Platforms

The best sales engagement platforms offer extensive customization options to fit a variety of business needs. Customization can range from tailoring email templates and scheduling preferences to configuring complex workflow automations. These platforms allow sales teams to set up personalized dashboards that highlight key metrics and performance indicators, enabling them to focus on what matters most. By leveraging these customization features, businesses can ensure that their sales engagement processes closely align with their unique sales cycles and customer journey maps.

Integration Capabilities with Other Sales and Marketing Tools

Integration capabilities are a critical consideration when selecting the best sales engagement software. The ability to seamlessly connect with CRM systems, email marketing tools, social media platforms, and other marketing automation software facilitates a unified approach to customer engagement. This interconnected ecosystem enables sales teams to maintain a comprehensive view of each prospect's interactions across multiple channels, ensuring that no opportunity is missed. Furthermore, it simplifies data management and enhances the accuracy of sales forecasting.

Sales Engagement Platforms: Security Features and Compliance

Security features and compliance are paramount for any sales engagement platform, given the sensitive nature of sales data. Top sales engagement platforms invest heavily in security measures such as data encryption, access controls, and regular security audits to protect user data. Compliance with international regulations like GDPR and CCPA is also crucial to ensure that businesses can confidently use these platforms without risking legal penalties. This commitment to security and compliance not only safeguards data but also builds trust with customers.

Mobile Accessibility and On-the-Go Features of Sales Platforms

The best sales engagement software list often includes platforms that offer robust mobile accessibility and on-the-go features. This allows sales teams to access critical information, communicate with prospects, and update deals from anywhere, at any time. Mobile apps with intuitive interfaces enable sales professionals to stay productive outside the office, ensuring that opportunities aren't missed due to delayed responses. This level of accessibility is essential in today's fast-paced business environment, where agility can be a significant competitive advantage.

The Future of Sales Engagement: Trends and Predictions

Emerging trends in sales engagement point towards increased use of AI and machine learning to further personalize sales interactions and predict buyer behavior. Additionally, we can expect to see greater emphasis on omnichannel engagement strategies, integrating voice, text, email, and social media interactions into a cohesive customer experience. The integration of virtual reality and augmented reality technologies may also redefine product demonstrations and presentations. As these technologies evolve, sales engagement platforms will become even more sophisticated, offering unprecedented insights and capabilities to sales teams.

Training and Support for Sales Engagement Platform Users

Effective training and support are crucial for ensuring that sales teams can fully leverage the capabilities of sales engagement platforms. The best sales engagement platforms provide comprehensive onboarding programs, detailed documentation, and responsive customer support to address any issues that users may encounter. Additionally, ongoing training resources, such as webinars and tutorials, help users stay updated on new features and best practices, maximizing the value they derive from the platform.

Sales Engagement Platform Analytics: Interpreting Data for Sales Success

Analytics and reporting features in sales engagement platforms offer deep insights into sales activities and performance. By interpreting data on email open rates, response times, engagement scores, and more, sales teams can identify successful tactics and areas for improvement. Advanced analytics can also forecast sales trends and pinpoint high-value prospects, enabling sales teams to prioritize their efforts for maximum impact. Leveraging these insights allows businesses to continuously refine their sales strategies for sustained success.

Conclusion

Experiencing a new platform can be challenging for sales and marketing teams. But B2B sales engagement platforms are here to make your jobs easier.

Pick up the right software for your business, walk your sales team through the workflow, and provide them with the necessary training.

Once you pick up the pace, there is no turning back. Keep your sales team relaxed and skyrocket your revenue. 

FAQs

What exactly are sales engagement tools, and why are they important?

Sales engagement tools, such as sales engagement platforms, are software solutions that enable sales teams to effectively interact with prospects and customers through various channels. These tools aid in organization, streamline workflows, and offer features like cadences, automation, and integrations with other sales tools. They are crucial for optimizing sales processes, enhancing communication, and ultimately driving better results in sales efforts.

How do I choose the best sales engagement platform for my business?

Your sales engagement platform should provide insight into what drives results and what doesn't. It should also be able to tie activities and success to existing CRM data; for example, you may want to see reporting on how efficient and effective individual sellers are at calling to different industries.

What are some common features of sales engagement platforms?

Common features of sales engagement platforms include a single interface for managing sales activities, efficiency in tasks, planning and executing sales strategies, tracking progress, measuring performance, and optimizing sales processes for improved results.

How can sales engagement tools and platforms benefit my sales team and business?

Sales engagement platforms streamline workflows, enhance customer interactions, and boost revenue. They consolidate tools, providing teams with the information they need, expediting sales processes, and ultimately improving business outcomes.

What is a sales engagement platform and how does it differ from CRM?

A sales engagement platform is designed to automate and enhance interactions between sales teams and potential buyers, focusing on the efficiency and effectiveness of communication. In contrast, a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system serves as a database that stores information about customers and prospects, including historical interactions and sales activities. While CRMs provide the foundation for understanding who your customers are, sales engagement platforms offer tools for actively engaging with these individuals through various channels like email, social media, and calls. Essentially, CRMs help you manage data related to customer relationships, whereas sales engagement platforms are action-oriented, aiming to boost sales through improved engagement tactics.

Can sales engagement platforms be integrated with existing sales software?

Yes, top sales engagement platforms are typically designed to integrate seamlessly with existing sales software, including CRMs. This integration capability is crucial for maintaining a unified sales process and ensuring that data flows smoothly between systems. By connecting a sales engagement platform with other sales tools, businesses can leverage the strengths of each system, enabling sales teams to access comprehensive customer insights while using advanced engagement features to communicate effectively with prospects and customers.

What features are most important when selecting a sales engagement platform?

When selecting a sales engagement platform, key features to consider include automation capabilities that streamline sales processes, multi-channel communication support (email, phone, social media), analytics and reporting tools for measuring engagement success, and integration options with CRMs and other sales tools. Personalization features that allow sales teams to tailor their outreach, as well as scalability to grow with your business, are also important. Ultimately, the best sales engagement software should enhance your team's productivity and enable more meaningful interactions with prospects and customers.

How do sales engagement platforms improve sales team productivity?

Sales engagement platforms improve sales team productivity by automating routine tasks, such as follow-up emails and activity logging, allowing sales representatives to focus more time on high-value activities like building relationships and closing deals. These platforms also provide tools for efficiently managing multi-channel outreach and ensuring consistent communication with prospects. By streamlining the sales process and reducing manual effort, sales engagement platforms enable sales teams to engage more leads in less time, significantly boosting overall productivity.

What types of analytics are available through sales engagement platforms?

Sales engagement platforms offer a range of analytics designed to provide insights into sales activities and performance. These may include metrics on email open rates, response times, call outcomes, and overall engagement levels across different channels. Advanced platforms also offer predictive analytics to forecast sales trends and identify high-potential leads. By analyzing this data, sales teams can optimize their strategies and focus their efforts where they are most likely to yield results.

How do sales engagement platforms support account-based marketing strategies?

Sales engagement platforms support account-based marketing (ABM) strategies by providing tools for targeted and personalized outreach to key accounts. These platforms enable sales and marketing teams to collaborate closely in identifying high-value targets, crafting customized communication plans, and tracking engagement at the account level. By facilitating focused engagement with decision-makers within targeted accounts, sales engagement platforms play a critical role in the success of ABM campaigns .

In what ways can sales engagement platforms impact customer retention?

Sales engagement platforms can significantly impact customer retention by enabling ongoing, personalized communication with existing customers. Through regular engagement and by providing valuable content and support, businesses can strengthen relationships and increase customer loyalty. These platforms also allow for timely intervention based on engagement metrics, helping to address any issues before they lead to churn. By fostering a positive customer experience, sales engagement platforms contribute to higher retention rates.

Are there industry-specific sales engagement platforms?

Yes, there are industry-specific sales engagement platforms designed to meet the unique needs and challenges of different sectors. These platforms may offer specialized features, integrations, and workflows tailored to industries such as healthcare, technology, real estate, or finance. By choosing an industry-specific platform, businesses can benefit from tools that are directly aligned with their operational requirements and customer engagement strategies.

What are the considerations for data security with sales engagement platforms?

Data security is a critical consideration when using sales engagement platforms, given the sensitive nature of customer information handled by these systems. Businesses should look for platforms that offer robust security measures, including data encryption, secure data storage, and compliance with relevant regulations such as GDPR. It's also important to evaluate the platform's policies on data access and sharing to ensure that customer information is protected throughout the sales process.

How do sales engagement platforms facilitate team collaboration?

Sales engagement platforms facilitate team collaboration by providing shared access to customer data, communication templates, and engagement schedules. These platforms often feature tools for assigning tasks, sharing notes, and tracking the progress of deals across the team. By centralizing information and enabling real-time updates, sales engagement platforms ensure that all team members are aligned and can work together effectively to move prospects through the sales funnel.