Sales Toolbox - Latest Software Listings

In the next few pages you’ll find our latest listings of software applications designed to help in the B2B selling process or in organising the salesforce. We’ve picked out these tools as separate categories to mainstream customer relation management (CRM) suites such as Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics, although of course these do also carry out some functionality of the specialist selling apps – but obviously not as well or at all, as many of these apps are designed to work with the big CRM systems to plug gaps or to enhance their functionality.

What we can say for sure is that the sales app sector – apart from CRM – shows no sign of slowing down, although there are inevitably more signs of consolidation, which always happens in a software sector that is moving to a more mature phase. A good example is an investment company called Vista Equity Partners, which has gobbled up four sales and marketing players recently – Marketo (which is a big fish), Lithium and Xactly (the sales compensation provider); and also the rather oddly named ToutApp, a sales communications and campaign system that was acquired by Marketo. To play in the enterprise market alongside Salesforce it’s probably vital to have a “one stop shop” but, generally, companies that buy up lots of others don’t tend to fare well in integrating them and also lose many staff who made the firms successful in the first place. An exception is CallidusCloud, which looks to now have apps in almost every sales tool category and which has maintained its independence.

To get hopefully unbiased views of products there are several sites that have managed to put apps into various categories and invite users to add ratings and reviews – G2 Crowd, Capterra and the Salesforce AppExchange are still the main ones although they major on US software and omit a lot of UK/European apps. Also, quite a few products on the AppExchange have not been updated for some time and have few or no ratings – there does not appear to be much quality control. There are currently more than 1,200 apps in the sales category on the AppExchange. A good marker of developers on the ball is those marked “Lightning ready”, Lightning being Salesforce’s “agile” platform.

Software companies come and go and it’s easy to just leave behind a website where you can still sign up to an app, but is it being supported? We are suspicious of websites that do not have named people as contacts and at least an updated blog that says what they doing. Have we missed a key app? Let us know.

PROPOSALS, PORTALS, PRESENTATIONS, SALES ENABLEMENT

IS ANYTHING YET threatening to overturn PowerPoint as king of general presentation tools? It will surely happen but there’s nothing anywhere near, but not for want of trying. Prezi looks to be doing well with a business edition of its tool and cites research that “zoomable user interfaces” such as Prezi’s are better than “slideware”. Apple’s Keynote is still being updated; British firm Sparkol (which sells Videoscribe) reckons there has been “a small but noticeable shift away from PowerPoint”, and Google of course has Slides, which is free. We’ve picked up a number of other general-market presentation tools that look to be worth checking out: CustomShow, Haiku Deck, SlideDog (a playlist app), Visme (which majors on infographics), Wink and Emaze. See also the free Libre Office and its Impress presentation module, and various apps that cater for sharing slides and presentations among groups, and of course apps that enhance PowerPoint itself. What follows are apps and companies 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. QVIDIAN – looks to be maintaining its leadership in the proposal and RFP area, and has recently improved the workflow functions of the main product. It also has playbook, presentation and due diligence offerings, and has signed a UK partner, Hobbs Repro, a reprographics firm that specialises in proposal management. CLEARSLIDE – a firm we said is one to watch and it’s not disappointed with its sales platform that allows you to integrate content with communications you like to use, including Slack, a teamworking tool claimed to be “the fastest growing business application in history”. SEISMIC – a top-rated content platform (see box p30). SAVO GROUP – praised for having one of the most complete sales enablement offerings. It says its platform “prescribes the right sales content, coaching and process” for its enterprise customers. CALLIDUSCLOUD – the all-round provider has a sales content enablement offering that gives you a “single source of truth”, as the company puts it. QURIOUS – gives reps “realtime answers” to questions. PROPOSAL SOFTWARE – a longstanding proposal and RFP player with its PMAPS system, against which other firms like to compare and better with their own offerings. It has a UK office. BRAINSHARK – another strong sales enablement platform with integration into most main CRM systems. Its site has good thought leadership material. BIGTINCAN – the amusing company name is behind a an enterprise-level sales, marketing and learning content platform. It targets roles such as field service.

KAON – an interesting provider of a 3D content modelling and interactive storytelling system. BUYERDECK – this looks like a solid sales content platform. The firm has UK and US contacts. XAIT – has a collaborative document platform called XaitPorter that is suitable for working up sales proposals. PRESENTIA – a presentation system that’s much better than PowerPoint for sales, reckons its British developer. IPSCONNECT – dovetails PowerPoint slides with PDFs, videos and other media to deliver sales presentations. It’s from a UK outfit called Interactive Presentation Solutions. RO INNOVATION – has content and sales enablement offerings. Based in Denver. MARCOMCENTRAL – a Ricoh company, it has a marketing content distribution platform. FISION – a strong looking sales-marketing content firm. MAINSTAY – a US firm with a sales enablement platform and a value calculator. See mainstaycompany.com POINTDRIVE – this is a sales content engagement firm that has been acquired by LinkedIn. SALESFRAME – a Finnish firm with a sales enablement system for all company sizes. It includes a storyboard feature and has a good, clear website. QORUS – offers sales enablement and proposal/bid management modules. There’s a London office. SHOWPAD – a sales enablement platform that’s expanded to the UK and the US from its Belgium base. LEVERAGEPOINT – a value content system. VABLET – a sales content system from a US firm. There’s a version that integrates with Salesforce. WHUT – a sales content management system built for manufacturing sales professionals. UNIFY– UK content system. 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 – modestly described as “the ultimate sales enablement tool”. This Swiss firm targets various verticals. CONGA COMPOSER – we continue to note that this document system is one of the top-rated Salesforce apps. 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. The main product is called seProposals. MEDIAFLY – a US firm that offers SalesKit, a content app, and has trademarked the term Evolved Selling. ROI SELLING – has a range of RoI and value tools. ALINEAN – a long-standing RoI and value proposition firm, with a range of tools. OCTIV – a rebrand from Tinderbox, this document firm has a sales proposal and presentation offering. PAPERLESS PROPOSAL – offers a cloud-based proposals system that pulls together latest assets. RFP365 – an RFP collaboration platform. INSIDESALES – a major player in several categories, including playbooks CONTIQ – “creates winning sales pitches in minutes”. ENHATCH – centralises content on a visual 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. See perfectpitch24.com POSTWIRE – a cloud-based system for creating private places for prospects and clients to “feel special by sharing information and exchanging insights for achieving their goals”. It integrates with Salesforce. GLANCE – provides visual engagement tools such as co-browsing and screen sharing. ACCENT – provides a family of sales enablement products with crossover into opportunity management. REDOCK – this was a firm called Koneka and has rebranded to market its RFP system, which has an artificial intelligence element. It’s a Canadian firm. PLAYBOOX – this US company has a sales playbook system, as its name suggests. MINDTICKLE – has a mobile content system that can also be used for coaching/onboading, and has partnered with Playboox in a bid for an “end to end” solution. SALESHOOD – a content and coaching platform. PRIVIA – a US developer of proposal management software for companies of all sizes. It has recently added a graphical whiteboard review feature. WITTYPAROTT – a content delivery system for rapid response to prospects with personalised content. It can also help with onboarding reps. ALLEGO – a sales learning and content platform. VEELO – this is a sales enablement specialist that rebranded from MobilePaks. HIGHSPOT – another powerful-looking sales enablement content system. PREZENTOR – a tool for building value-based sales presentations from a Danish firm. FLOWVELLA – an iOS presentation app. See also p11.

SALES SHAKE UP We’ve picked out Seismic for special mention in the sales enablement category partly because of its leadership in promoting the benefits of delivering the right content to sales reps at the right time and the right place. If any vendor’s website is going to turn you on to this, Seismic’s will. An award handed out to the firm notes that: “For content administration and management, Seismic has all of the bells and whistles: decomposition of PowerPoints and PDFs into individual pages; in-depth workflows for reviews and approvals; and rapid assembly of customised content, which gets automatic updates as it changes.” Seismic also recognises it can’t pretend to cover all angles, and we see it has partnerships with several other high profile sales and marketing tool companies, including Brainshark, MindTickle and Marketo.

ON DISPLAY Plecto is a Danish firm we’ve encountered a few times at trade shows and has one of the best we’ve seen of a new generation of dashboards to display sales performance. You can tailor the dashboards with various widgets, recognise top performers on leaderboards, broadcast success with customisable “win” notifications, and organise contests and rewards. If visual presentation is a factor in driving behaviour change, this offering has a good pitch. Plecto says it has redesigned the system this year, and it can also integrate with a range of platforms such as Salesforce and Pipedrive.

CUSTOMER ADVOCACY REFERENCES AND REFERRALS

NO COMPANY CAN get by without decent customer references, and in the B2B world they are especially critical in the sales cycle. This is more than a niche area in the overall content/sales enablement mix as it can be a struggle to capture content from customers, so a few tools continue to thrive in organising this content, especially in the enterprise market. A challenge is that customer content is often fragmented around a company. RO INNOVATION – we noted before that RO Innovation had acquired Boulder Logic, a pioneer in this field. Its Reference Enablement product is the core customer reference/advocacy offering. POINT OF REFERENCE – its ReferenceEdge system runs natively on Salesforce, and as the firm says, “customer content is only powerful if it can be found”. AMPLIFINITY – specialises in customer and partner referrals, which can be powerful if done right. VOCALREFERENCES – interesting firm that helps to capture video and text customer testimonials. INFLUITIVE – an active provider of an advocate marketing platform. AMBASSADOR – modestly claims to be the “world’s number one all-in-one referral software”. CUSTOMERADVOCACY – an advocate marketing platform that runs with Salesforce. TECHVALIDATE – says its software “creates persuasive content from your satisfied customers”. WIWITNESS – for collecting social media testimonials.

GAMIFICATION AND LEARNING

THIS SECTOR HAS developed more rapidly than anything we’ve seen. While many vendors say they have gamification, we’ll restrict our list to major sales players. GROWTH ENGINEERING – UK firm that majors on learning and has a game-based tool called Genie. BUNCHBALL – one of the pioneers. QSTREAM – probably the world leader in developing interactions between salespeople and prospects. HOOPLA – has a performance data platform. CALLIDUSCLOUD – has the Badgeville service. MICROSOFT – fantasy sports in Dynamics CRM. INSIDESALES – acquired the PowerStandings system. LEVELELEVEN – initially just gamification, now a wider sales motivation platform that works in Salesforce. GAMEFFECTIVE – a new one on our sales radar. PLAYDAY – gamification from an Indian company. PLECTO – see box. THE SALES ACTIVATOR – a UK player that has developed The Selling Game. CLOUDAPPS – has the SuMo sales motivation and leaderboard products. Based in Winnersh. AMBITION – creates dashboards for all employees. ONEUP – UK dashboard and game player.

CONFIGURE, PRICE, QUOTE AND CONTRACTS

CPQ – CONFIGURE, PRICE and quote – are applications that help salespeople to quote complex and configurable products, and also guide customers on ecommerce. Note that Salesforce has its own CPQ offer having bought SteelBrick in 2015. This is a hot software category that fits between CRM and ERP. Forrester puts Oracle, Apttus and CallidusCloud as leaders. ORACLE – the software giant acquired BigMachines and now badges it under the Oracle CPQ Cloud name. IBM – offers its Sterling CPQ suite. CALLIDUSCLOUD – CPQ is yet another in its set. FPX – a pioneering CPQ player, acquired by equity firm HGGC. There’s a UK office. See also the article on p34. BLUEPRINTCPQ – the trading name of UK firm Blue Zebra Associates and a cloud CPQ player. INFOR – big player with dozens of products including CPQ and CRM. VENDAVO – a CPQ supplier based in Denver. SOFON – a Dutch firm with quote and contract offers and also a sales management module. Has a UK office. CINCOM – a long-standing business software player with a CPQ module. APPAROUND – combines customer facing content and real time quoting. Based in Pisa, Italy. DETERMINE – includes contract, CPQ and RoI tools among its offerings. It acquired Selectica. CONGA – pops up again in contract management. CIS – a US CPQ vendor. See cisconfigurator.com VERENIA – this US firm claims to have the world’s most used CPQ platform. CAMOS – a German CPQ specialist. TACTON – a major CPQ and guided selling provider based in Sweden. Targets the manufacturing sector. ENDEAVORCPQ – quote-to-order and proposal generation software from a US player. PROS – an international player with CPQ, sales analytics, price and revenue management. QUOTEWERKS – sales quotes and proposal system. APTTUS – a big player in the quote to cash market, with CPQ, contract and revenue modules. SPRINGCM – contract and document management. MODEL N – its Revenue Cloud automates pricing, quoting, deal management, contracting and more. NSALES – a Danish firm offering a mobile sales ordering tool, nVision Mobile. It’s for the retail sector. EXPERLOGIX – US firm that offers CPQ that works in Dynamics and NetSuite. IQUOTEXPRESS – a US quote and proposal system. DOCUSIGN – the firm that’s led the market for automating sales contracts and agreements. PANDADOC – a CPQ, proposal and contract management firm that recently won more funding. KBMAX – a 3D CPQ system. CONFIGURE ONE – solid CPQ company targeting the manufacturing sector. It has a UK office in Harlow. BLACKCURVE – UK provider of price management software for manufacturing, distribution and retail. AXONOM – sells the Powertrak visual CPQ system.

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

THIS CATEGORY IS about business information for fuelling sales research, and is particularly important to implement as we are constantly being told to engage with prospects in the early stages of the decision cycle. We’ve excluded standard business list companies in favour of companies with apps. LinkedIn is of course in this category too. We have included a few social media and “influencer” offerings. DOW JONES – has a range of information products including Factiva, the news database, and Dow Jones Direct, which sets up curated content. D&B HOOVERS – always a big name in business information, Dun & Bradstreet acquired Avention this year and combined it with Hoovers to create D&B Hoovers and has more than 120 million records. LEXISNEXIS – a major player that includes news and company research in its portfolio. MOODY’S – has recently acquired Bureau van Dijk, which expands its business information side. LATTICE – a strong player in lead scoring and predictive analytics. See lattice-engines.com CONVERSICA – aims to pre-qualify leads with AI. CALIBERMIND – unites data silos for sales intelligence for a “single view of the customer journey”. SILOBREAKER – a UK firm that allows you to monitor news, blogs, feeds, forums and social media sources. NODE – uses AI to generate ideal customer profiles. INFER – it matches your CRM records against its dataset “to identify thousands of signals including social presence, website technology, and more”. See infer.com KRED – for building a trusted influencer network. SOCIALMENTION – a social media search engine. INTROHIVE – adds “relationship intelligence” into CRM. ZANRAN – a source for data and statistics. BYPATH – an intelligence app from Kompass. MINTIGO – a predictive marketing platform that the company says will be the “ultimate GPS for marketers”. It’s about harnessing “big data” to gain customer insight. ONALYTICA – focuses on getting your content in front of influencers. 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 – see panel on page 33. SIDETRADE – gets views of customer relationships – payment terms, changes in behaviour, delays, long-term forecasts and so on. It’s a UK firm. DISCOVERORG – a Canadian sales intelligence company. It has bought a firm called RainKing with its database of 1 million decision makers. KNOW YOUR ENEMY – a free Salesforce app for keeping an eye on the competition. DATAFOX – a recent US startup that promises to deliver better company intelligence and key events on prospects. It’s using artificial intelligence of course. CLEARBIT – pushes real-time data into Salesforce. EVERYONESOCIAL – a social selling and employee advocacy platform.

OPPORTUNITY AND ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT

THIS CATEGORY IS about adding frontline salesforce automation back into CRM. It’s about smarter selling, not sales intelligence or content management, although lines between the categories are not as clear cut as they were before the advent of “sales enablement”. We’re not including mainstream CRM systems and call centre apps. CALLIDUSCLOUD – among its products here are Datahug, for pipeline and forecasting; and territory and quota management automation. 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. SALESMAP – a Scottish web-based opportunity and pipeline management system. AGENT3 – majors on account-based selling. ZILLIANT – Its IQ range includes Sales IQ, which “provides actionable intelligence about the best cross-sell, up-sell, and retention opportunities within existing customers”. We’re talking artificial intelligence again, from one of the stronger players. SALES OPTIMIZER – well-rated on Appexchange for its process, opportunity and account management tools. ALTIFY – this used to be the TAS Group, which had the famous Target Account Selling (TAS). Now it’s a software firm with account/opportunity management, coaching, relationship mapping, and sales process tools. ADVENTACE – sales methodology on Salesforce. PIPELINER – bills itself as a CRM player but firmly focused on managing the sales process. TOTANGO – see panel, p33. PERENSO – an Australian firm with a field sales automation system. PROSELL – provides a sales onboarding app. MARSELI – forecasting analytics in Salesforce. FRONT ROW SOLUTIONS – has a reporting system for field sales calls. MEMBRAIN – a Swedish firm with a platform for complex B2B selling. Includes opportunity/pipeline management, coaching, content and more.

OPPORTUNITY & ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT (CONTINUED)

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 performance management firm. XVOYANT – sales coaching system. DEALSHEET – an opportunity manager from UK firm Outside In Sales & Marketing. ONTARGET SYSTEMS – a UK opportunity/pipeline risk and rep performance offering. PLAN2WIN – a US developer, it has territory, account and pre-call planning products for Salesforce. PIPELINE MANAGER – looks like it does what the name says and is a highly rated app. REVEGY – a US provider of opportunity, account, territory and channel management software. GEOPOINTE – a geo-mapping system for Salesforce. DEALGPS – a deal support tool from a Dutch firm called Ardens Soft. INSIGHTSQUARED – says its Tiles and Slate products provide everything you need to understand, forecast, and optimise your sales in one place. ANAPLAN – aligns sales objectives, plans quotas, designs territories and carries out forecasting. KAPTA – key account management (see panel). DEMANDFARM – key account management. PEGA SALES AUTOMATION – from major vendor Pegasystems, this competes head on with Salesforce. SALESSEEK – a sales activity and deal manager from a London-based firm. GRYPHON NETWORKS – offers sales performance and intelligence systems, among others. SALESMETHODS – a UK firm with a range of sales tools, including methodology offerings and the selling tools OrgChartPlus, ValuMaker and BlueSpace. SALES INTERACTION – UK firm that has a field call activity and coaching system called Advance. PIPEDRIVE – described as a simple sales management tool to organise sales information, activities and deals. VERSATILECAPITALIST – has several Salesforce apps such as for managing multiple account contacts. BADGER MAPS – sales route planning software. Works internationally. SALES NAVIGATOR – another route planner. PORTATOUR – another route planner. TRIP BUILDER – a UK travel time app. DEAL CATALYST – a pipeline system from a firm called Occurro Software. TERRALIGN – has sales territory software. DISTRIBUTION ENGINE – a well-rated lead-routing app for Salesforce from British firm, NC Squared. SAVO GROUP – this major vendor also has opportunity management and team selling apps. TRACTION – a big Salesforce app provider – e.g. Hierarchies, which displays things like account overlaps. DREAM TEAM A company that claims to “put sales and marketing on the same page to create a revenue dream team” is certainly one to note. InsideView is a US firm that has a methodology to gather and validate data and market signals in real-time, “to produce the industry’s most reliable, actionable B2B data and intelligence”. Visit insideview. com and see if you agree with the company’s claims.

CUSTOMER SUCCESS We’ve noticed that some companies have started to use the term “customer success” for their customer-facing teams, and one software provider, Totango, has adopted the phrase for its products. The idea is to “onboard” customers and then optimise each stage of their journey, with Totango saying it can help build early warning systems for when customers need attention; build automated account management activities; and forecast churn, renewal and upsell revenue by portfolio or customer segment. As such its platform is primarily aimed at customer retention, which is often neglected in favour of new business, and could give account managers an easier way to work. Another firm is Kapta, which is squarely aimed at key accounts, but the firm also uses the term customer success to describe its wares. Its software carries out account health scoring and captures data on client expectations and initiatives, so generating strategic account plans. General CRM packages also run accounts of course – but not as well, we feel.

INCENTIVES/ PERFORMANCE

THIS CATEGORY HAS developed into much more than compensation systems and into salesforce performance based on incentives. XACTLY – appears still to be the sector leader and has been acquired by Vista Equity Partners. Apart from its main compensation lines it has recently bought AlignStar, a territory management player. CALLIDUSCLOUD – the multi-product vendor has the Commissions incentives and compensation system. ICONIXX – an enterprise sales performance system, with compensation and quota management. ORACLE – has incentive and talent management functions that run on its Sales Cloud. IBM – covers incentives, quota and territory management, analytics and talent management, through various acquisitions. INCENTIVES SOLUTIONS – a big sales performance provider, with a UK office. OPTYMYZE – this US firm has compensation, territory and quota products. NETSUITE – one of the big all-round software players. It has a commission plans module. GLOCENT – a sizeable compensation player with an office in Germany. BEQOM – a cloud sales and HR compensation player with a UK office in London. SURFWRITER – has products for sales compensation (CloudComp) and a rep revenue splitting app (RevenueCloud) that run on Salesforce. CORE COMMISSIONS – specialises in “affordable” sales commission and incentive pay solutions. FOCALREVIEW – compensation management software from a US firm, SpiraLinks. NICE SYSTEMS – has an incentive compensation management product. ZS ASSOCIATES – offers its Javelin sales compensation and territory tools. QCOMMISSION – sales commission software from a firm called CellarStone.