ISM Round-Up of Sales Enablement Tools

By MARC BEISHON

This is the latest in our listings of software applications that are aimed primarily at the frontline selling process and in particular at B2B sales professionals and their managers. It has blossomed into a vibrant sector of the software market and we don’t pretend to include all the apps out there – but we do think this is the most complete and up-to-date listing you will find. As usual, we do not include general purpose customer relationship management (CRM) systems although many do include or integrate with a lot of sales enablement and other apps and can also be used for account and opportunity management

Salesforce is the obvious CRM system that has spawned a big add-on app community and these apps simply would not exist if off the shelf CRM systems had all the features needed for organising frontline selling. Some CRM systems are though more sales-oriented than others – Zoho for one.

In our last round-up we noted that this market has been heavily targeted by the enterprise software players, which tend to simply acquire firms to bolster their sales and marketing offerings. Salesforce automation is now a $6bn+ market.

Last year, one of the big independents, Callidus, succumbed to the call of the giant SAP, and its offerings are now being rebranded as SAP Sales Cloud although there’s still a Callidus website. Meanwhile other ambitious players are gathering strength below the giants – notable is Upland Software, which has acquired a lot of companies, most relevant here being Qvidian, the proposals software firm, and RO Innovation, a customer referencing specialist, which itself has bought up Boulder Logic. Another firm on the up is Seismic, which we picked out last time, and it has acquired Savo, another strong sales enablement player.

For reviews see G2 Crowd, Capterra and the Salesforce AppExchange although they are biased towards US apps. A firm called Aragon Research is researching sales enablement software, as do Gartner and Forrester.

Look out too for consultancies that specialise in sales apps, such as Redspire, a Microsoft Gold Partner and also an ISM partner.

When browsing for apps bear in mind that firms can still stay in business by leaving a website up for a cloud system, but not actually update it. The warning signs are blogs and tweets that are old, no company address and named executives, and an off the shelf website design. You don’t want to invest in something where the plug has been pulled. Have we missed a key app? Let us know.

WE’VE LUMPED TOGETHER apps in this category that major in the content side of the sales enablement sector, which seems to be the most common use of the sales enablement term, although it is used in opportunity management as well. Also, we’re mainly talking about B2B selling here – web-based content personalisation for consumer retail selling is a very different area.

In presentation, it seems that no one is likely to ever top PowerPoint but the choice of alternatives is good and growing. We don’t list these as sales products of course as they are generic but ones to note include Prezi, which we’ve reviewed in Winning Edge; Apple’s Keynote is still being updated; British firm Sparkol (which sells the VideoScribe whiteboard animation tool); and Google Slides. Others to check out are Zoho Show, CustomShow, Haiku Deck, SlideDog, Slidebean, Visme, Wink and Emaze. The free LibreOffice and Apache OpenOffice both have the Impress presentation module. Adobe is in this market too, and Preseria is suitable for conference presentations. SHOWPAD – one of the most active sales enablement players and an ISM partner. Just announced is a unified platform combining content with training and coaching. QVIDIAN – this was acquired by Upland Software and is one of the oldest and most solid purveyors of proposal and RFP offerings. CLEARSLIDE – a firm we said is one to watch and someone did as it has been acquired by Corel. It’s a strong platform for sales content and presentation and has engagement analytics. SEISMIC – a top-rated content platform and a company on the acquisition trail having snapped up another strong player, Savo Group, which has claimed to have one of the most complete sales enablement offerings. CALLIDUSCLOUD – now being rebranded as SAP Sales Cloud this is enterprise class content management. PROPOSIFY – says it can transform your sales team into a closing machine with its proposals offering. It’s a Canadian firm with a UK contact. RESPONSEFULL – probably the oldest proposal system was PMAPS from Proposal Software, now in the hands of RocketDocs and the ResponseFull brand – AnswerFull is the RFP/RFI product, and WinFull a sales playbook system. See responsefull.com for UK office. BRAINSHARK – an award wining sales enablement platform with strengths in onboarding, training, coaching and sales leadership as well as content. BIGTINCAN – an enterprise-level sales, marketing and learning platform said to be powered by artificial intelligence. Ranked highly for coaching and learning. KAON – sells a 3D product content modelling and interactive storytelling system. XAIT – has a collaborative platform called XaitPorter suitable for working up sales proposals. Based in Norway.

PRESENTIA – a presentation offering designed for sales and so gets a listing. It’s from a UK firm. CLIENTPOINT – a cloud-based proposals system. IPSCONNECT – dovetails PowerPoint slides with PDFs, videos and other media for sales presentations. It’s from UK firm, Interactive Presentation Solutions. MARCOMCENTRAL – has a content distribution platform. It’s a company owned by Ricoh. NAPP – a Danish firm with a strong-looking salesenablement platform, now making a UK push. FISION – a decent looking sales and marketing content system from the top software firm in Minnesota. POINTDRIVE – a sales content system that is part of LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator family. SALESFRAME – a sales presentation offering from a Finnish firm. It has an active, up to date website and looks well worth checking out. QORUS – offers proposal, RFP, sales enablement and channel software. Sable International is the UK rep. LEVERAGEPOINT – a value proposition system for empowering B2B sales conversations. VABLET – mobile sales engagement from a US firm. There’s a version that integrates with Salesforce. KLYCK – a content and presentation system for creating “memorable sales conversations”. UNIFY– a UK firm whose offering allows you to create personalised brochures. See librisunify.com COMPANYAPP – has products including Presenter, a sales presentation app. It’s a UK firm based in London. IPRESENT – a sales enablement system that runs in the cloud. The firm has UK and US offices. PITCHER – an international firm that targets various verticals with its sales enablement offering CONGA COMPOSER – this document system continues to be a top-rated Salesforce app. Conga has acquired a number of firms recently, including Octiv for its sales proposal and presentation offering. SHARK FINESSE – helps you create RoI business cases. From a British firm based in Basingstoke. SALESELEMENT – a web-based proposal offering from a US firm that integrates with the main CRM systems. MEDIAFLY – a US firm that offers a sales engagement app and has trademarked the term Evolved Selling. It recently bought Alinean, another RoI player. ROI SELLING – has a range of RoI and value tools. RFP360 – a collaboration platform for both issuing and responding to RFPs. CONTIQ – described as an intelligent content discovery and customer engagement measurement platform. SLIDESHARE – don’t overlook the massive presentation sharing site owned by LinkedIn. PERFECT PITCH 24 – a sales presentation tool for the iPad and other systems. GLANCE – provides visual engagement tools such as co-browsing and screen sharing that can be embedded in the CRM system. Prospects don’t need a special app. ACCENT – provides sales enablement, presentation and content management products. There’s a UK outlet, Hargreaves Marketing. REDOCK – for the “tedious aspects” of proposal creation – “finds answers not documents”, as the firm says. HIGHSPOT– an ISM partner and one of the highest rated sales enablement platforms. See box below for more. GURU – unifies your collective knowledge, verifies its accuracy, and empowers your revenue teams (so it says). DOCSEND – an interesting system that allows you to send presentations and other sales collateral without clogging inboxes or getting lost in spam filters. ZOOMIFIER – a US company with content and sales and marketing engagement products. SalesHub is said to create “stunning, media-rich presentations and proposals”. SHOWCASE WORKSHOP – a firm based in New Zealand with a nice looking content and presentation app. PREZENTOR – this is a Danish company worth checking out for its sales content offering. ONEMOB – says it will quickly create pages of content to engage prospects, customers, partners and employees. UNBOXED – has Hub360, a sales enablement system. SALESAPPS – a French company with a mobile sales content system that runs on tablets. SHOWELL – a Finnish firm that says it has a fast and easy sales enablement platform and presentation app. Prices start from 20 euros per person per month. SALESHOOD – a US firm that promises to help you publish the right content at the right time and in the right context. Also majors in coaching and learning. RECAPPED – said to create beautiful sales proposals that let you assign next steps to clients, upload file attachments, leave comments and track engagement. BEEHIVR – a tool that allows you to build interactive sales content for reps. Based in Quebec, Canada. DOOLY – a sales playbook offering. Not a great website. ATTACH – managing use of your collateral materials. FOTOWARE – another content asset system. FOLEON – replaces PDFs for online display.

HIGHSPOT SPOTLIGHT Highspot has brought together content management, sales guidance and buyer engagement into its platform. It says content is generated using an artificial intelligence approach and, pushing the high tech story further, talks of “content genomics” which uses “machine learning to map the DNA of content as it evolves across an organisation”. Like a lot of sales enablement offerings it crosses over into other categories, in particular sales intelligence by bringing in fresh content from outside sources. There’s an interactive sales playbook tool as well, and integration with various online systems.

The company has recently opened a European HQ in London under managing director Richard Langham, who was head of enterprise sales at Mendix and also ran EMEA for Adobe Document Cloud.

HERE WE LIST information and intelligence systems that can be vital for fuelling sales research. We have not included the many business data companies that provide lists, instead focusing on companies with apps and platforms. We have included a few related offerings. LINKEDIN – its Sales Navigator has to be considered. DOW JONES – has a range of information products including Factiva, the news database. D&B HOOVERS – Dun & Bradstreet’s system is said to be a “sales acceleration solution packed with insight”. LEXISNEXIS – a major player that includes news and company research in its portfolio. BUREAU VAN DIJK – now owned by Moody’s, this is another major business information platform. VAINU – a major international B2B database system. LATTICE – a strong player in lead scoring and predictive analytics. See lattice-engines.com CONVERSICA – aims to qualify leads with AI. CALIBERMIND – built for B2B engagement across any channel and strong on tracking events. SILOBREAKER – a UK firm for making sense of the overwhelming amount of data available on the web. NODE – uses AI to generate ideal customer profiles. See hello.node.io. INFER – it matches your CRM records against its dataset “to identify thousands of signals”. See infer.com SOCIALMENTION – a social media search engine. INTROHIVE – adds “relationship intelligence” into CRM. ZANRAN – searches for data and statistics. BYPATH – a B2B sales intelligence system that analyses big data. It’s a French firm with a UK office. MINTIGO – a predictive marketing platform that the company says will be the “ultimate GPS for marketers”. RELATIONSHIP SCIENCE – allows you to map your relationships with other entities. The firm is promoting the idea of “relationship capital”. See relsci.com ARTESIAN – a strong UK provider of customer insight for B2B selling, with an artificial intelligence approach. INSIDEVIEW – a solid player that delivers detailed data about markets, companies and buyers, along with insights and connections, and uses AI of course. SIDETRADE – supports sales by recommending best cross-sell and upsell opportunities. It has UK offices. DISCOVERORG – a Canadian B2B sales intelligence firm that makes the grand claim of having the world’s most accurate, actionable prospecting database. COLLECTIVE[I] – maps buyer behaviour. DATAFOX – recently acquired by Oracle, this is another AI-driven company data management platform. CLEARBIT – appends accurate company and contact details to your CRM records. EVERYONESOCIAL – Content and tools for connecting across social media and other channels. DIGINIUS – UK firm with lead intelligence, social media tracking, competitor monitoring and more. LEADIQ – a well-rated prospecting system. DATANYZE – identifies technologies used by firms. Part of Zoominfo, a major B2B data company. OXYLEADS – specialises in email verification. HUNTER – another email address specialist.

THIS CATEGORY IS about adding salesforce automation back into CRM. It’s about managing the sales cycle, not so much sales intelligence or content management, although lines between the categories are not as clear cut now. We’re not including mainstream CRM systems and call centre apps, but do include “sales CRM”. CALLIDUSCLOUD – now rolled into SAP, the offering includes opportunity management and forecasting. ORACLE – the software giant has a set of sales automation tools in its Sales Cloud suite. SALES-I – a UK developed system that alerts you to slipping accounts, automates sales reports and spots opportunities. It’s aimed at sectors such as distribution. VECTA – UK sales automation software aimed at manufacturers, distributors and wholesalers. FORCEMANAGER – a mobile salesforce system that tracks activity and analyses sales behaviour. AGENT3 – majors on insights for account-based selling and prospecting. Has UK and US offices. ZILLIANT – Its IQ range includes Sales IQ, which provides “predictive sales analytics to identify the best opportunities to retain and grow customer relationships”. There’s a London office. ALTIFY – bought the famous Target Account Selling (TAS) methodology some years ago. It’s a software firm with account/opportunity management, sales process and revenue optimisation tools. Has a UK office. ADVENTACE – automated sales methodology. PIPELINER – bills itself as a CRM player but firmly focused on managing the sales process. TOTANGO – a “customer success platform” for managing customer relationships with complex account hierarchies and multiple products. PERENSO – Australian firm with a field sales system. TECH4T – UK firm with a territory manager. PROSELL – provides a sales onboarding app. MARSELI – forecasting analytics. Runs in Salesforce. FRONT ROW SOLUTIONS – US firm with a reporting system for field sales calls. MEMBRAIN – a Swedish firm with a platform for complex B2B selling. See panel. OUTREACH – drives meetings and rep workflow. CACI – UK firm with field sales optimisation software. Not related to a US company of the same name. CLARI – a forecast and deal management offering. XENTOR – a UK sales management system. XVOYANT – award-wining sales performance system with pipeline goal tracking. See panel, page 31. DEALSHEET – an opportunity manager from UK firm Outside In Sales & Marketing. PLAN2WIN – a US developer, it has territory, account and pre-call planning products for Salesforce. REVEGY – a sales platform for key account management. US firm based in Atlanta. GEOPOINTE – a geo-mapping system for Salesforce. DEALGPS – a deal support tool from a Dutch firm called Ardens Soft.

OPPORTUNITY & ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT (CONTINUED)

INSIGHTSQUARED – system with sales analytics, pipeline management, forecasting, coaching and more. JOURNEY SALES – its flagship, Smart Rooms, sets up personalised spaces for key account engagement. ANAPLAN – optimises quota planning, account segmentation and sales capacity. See panel, right. BPM’ONLINE – CRM with strong sales automation. CRMNEXT – more CRM with strong sales automation. SPARKSTONE – a UK sales-oriented CRM system. KAPTA – key account management software. FILEBOARD – has account activity functions. I-SNAPSHOT – “complete visibility” of sales team activity. Plus competitor analysis and lead management. DEMANDFARM – key account planning offering that integrates with both Salesforce and Dynamics. PEGA SALES AUTOMATION – from major vendor Pegasystems, this is a full service opportunity, account, territory and forecast management suite. SALESSEEK – a sales funnel management system from a London-based firm. GRYPHON NETWORKS – offers sales performance and intelligence systems, among others. SALESMETHODS – a UK firm with methodology and tools OrgChartPlus, ValuMaker and BlueSpace. SALES INTERACTION – UK firm that has a field call activity and coaching system called Advance. VELOXY – a pipeline manager for Salesforce. PIPEDRIVE – described as a simple sales management tool to organise sales information, activities and deals. SALESRABBIT – a field sales management product. BADGER MAPS – sales route/territory planning software. Works internationally. MAPVIEW – another territory planner. PORTATOUR – another route planner. ESPATIAL – Dublin-based sales mapping firm OCCURRO – a pipeline performance system from a UK firm called Occurro Consulting. TERRALIGN – has sales territory software. DISTRIBUTION ENGINE – a well-rated lead-routing app for Salesforce from British firm, NC Squared. TRACTION – a big Salesforce app provider – eg. Hierarchies, which displays things like account overlaps. See tractionondemand.com SALESMATE – a sales-oriented CRM system. KLIPFOLIO – dashboard system for sales and more. TEAMGATE – UK sales CRM worth a look. MAGIC SALESMAP – Google Maps sales app. FRESHWORKS – another sales-oriented CRM system. NOCRM – name is the clue that this is sales not CRM. TACT – an AI sales assistant. See tact.ai VANILLASOFT – major offering that is said to have the most powerful appointment setting software. PIPELINEDEALS – sales-oriented CRM system. GONG – sales conversation specialist for deals NUDGE – deal risk analytics, target account strategy, pipeline builder and more from a US vendor. POBUCA – UK field sales mobile app. SALESBOOM – sales-led CRM system. SELLUTION – opportunity management software. MADE IN THE UK Anaplan was founded by Michael Gould, a Brit, in 2006, on the basis of a new modelling technology for planning. The firm’s products work in various department such as finance and IT, but it seems to be especially strong in sales performance and is included in Gartner’s SPM magic quadrant. There’s an impressive range of resources on Anaplan’s website.

WHAT IS SALES CRM? Some vendors describe their products as “sales CRM” – a recognition that to sell a product you still need the magic term, CRM. Salesforce puts it like this: “A sales management system, also referred to as or sales CRM, is a program that’s ultimately designed to make the sales process simpler.”

Swedish firm Membrain is a case in point with its “CRM for complex B2B sales”. It talks our language: “We believe that the sales profession is one of the most important jobs on the planet. It’s also one of the most challenging.” It wants to “elevate the sales profession by designing technology and tools... Since our launch 6 years ago, we’ve seen that customers are sick and tired of CRM platforms just being glorified digital rolodexes.”

Tough talk, and Membrain uses the other magic phrase, sales enablement, to describe its approach, and it seems to have covered both the pipeline management/forecasting side and content/front end side, so could be listed in our first section too.

In a dig at Salesforce, it also says: “If you’re stuck with Salesforce you can still get the power of Membrain using our plugin.”

THIS CATEGORY IS important because setting up an incentive and commission regime is notoriously difficult. Sales performance management (SPM) is the usual name for these systems. XACTLY – still one of the sector leaders and has enjoyed a record-breaking year. As well as compensation it does quota and territory management. CALLIDUSCLOUD – now rolled into SAP, there’s an incentives and compensation system. ICONIXX – an enterprise sales performance system, with compensation and quota management. ORACLE – has a top-rated incentive and talent management functions in its Sales Planning suite. IBM – covers incentives, quota and territory management, analytics and talent management. ANAPLAN – a solid SPM offering. See panel. INCENTIVES SOLUTIONS – a big sales performance provider; also has Joopy, a sales channels system. The firm has European offices. OPTYMYZE – this US firm has compensation, territory and quota products. NETSUITE – now owned by Oracle it has sales compensation management in its SFA system. GLOCENT – a sizeable sales performance player with an office in Germany. Its website could be better. BEQOM – a cloud sales compensation, territory and quota player with a UK office. CORE COMMISSIONS – US firm that has an automated commission offering. QUOTAPATH – a new US firm that’s raised $3.5m to market a sales commission system. FOCALREVIEW – compensation management software from a US firm, SpiraLinks. Has a UK office. NICE – has a solid compensation management engine to process complex calculations and rule sets. ZS ASSOCIATES – offers its Javelin sales compensation and territory tools. There’s a UK office. QCOMMISSION – sales commission software from a firm called CellarStone. PERFOMIO – sales commission software. COMMISSIONLY – aimed at SMEs.