The hot topic at DreamForce was Sales Acceleration. But what *is* Sales Acceleration and which companies are leading the way in make the buyer's journey more engaging for customers, more effective for salespeople, and more trackable for managers? For more content from Alexander Boutelle, please visit www.internetadjacent.com.

2. Customer behavior is
changing
94%
57%
Number of B2B buyers
who research online
before buying
Percentage of sales
process average
customer completes

3. If contacted within 5
minutes of
lead submission, sales
leads are
Timing
Matter
s
1 “How Much Time Do You Have Before Web-Generated Leads Go Cold?” Lead Response
Management
Research Summary - Prof. James Oldroyd, MIT Sloan School of Management (October 2007)
100
x
20x
more likely
to
be
successfully
contacted
more likely
to qualifythan if the salesperson waits 30
minutes1
Yet in 2011, only 37% of
companies responded to new
leads within an hour2

4. WHAT IS SALES ACCELERATION
TECHNOLOGY?Tools to increase the velocity of
the
sales process by filling the
gap between Marketing
Automation and CRM.
Communication Tools
Smooth the path to 1st contact
Analytics
Narrow leads intelligently, with actionable
predictions on customer response
Activity-based Accountability
Managers can’t improve what they can’t
measure

7. Dozens of companies want to
win this red-hot market.
Here are 5 start-ups
I find

8. Name ClearSlide Funding $89M Location SF Bay
Founded 2009 Stage Growth C Employees 250-500
Product Mix
LivePitch allows remote
slide views with no install.
Content management, email
engagement tracking, and
mobile campaign management
app.
Announcement at Dreamforce 2015
Predictive Insights, an
analytics engine to
translate rich data into a
confidence score. Also,
Personalized Video Mails in
their iOS app and new
Meeting Scheduler

9. Name LiveHive Funding $4.7M Location SF
Bay
Founded 2011 Stage Early A Employees 25-50
Product Mix
Offers customizable,
automatable email templates
for reps, and a variety of
tracking tools for managers
(Engagement Score, Prospect
Ranking, "health check" for
team's follow-up
effectiveness)
Announcement at Dreamforce 2015
Partnering with FRONTLINE
Selling to integrate its sales
acceleration tools into their
Staccato prospect management
tools.

10. Name InsideSales.com Funding $199MLocation Provo, UT
Founded 2004 Stage Mezzanine Employees 500-1000
Product Mix
Full suite of sales
acceleration products, plus
PowerStandings Gamification
(leader boards) and
SalesIndicator (pre-hiring
evaluation tools).
Also offers consulting and
training services. Valued at
$1.5B in last round.
Announcement at Dreamforce 2015
Releasing “Predictive Cloud”
analytics in beta, to be
available widely in 2016.

11. Name Seismic Funding $25M Location Solana Beach,
CA
Founded 2010 Stage Early B Employees 100-250
Product Mix
Manage materials
centrally, sales
playbook integration,
analytics, slide deck
assembly, outbound
communication tools.
Announcement at Dreamforce 2015
Seismic for Outlook,
which includes
Suggested Content
(serving contextually-
relevant content for

12. Name BrainShark Funding $24M Location Waltham, MA
Founded 1999 Stage Growth C Employees 250-500
Product Mix
Rapid Learning™ Onboarding
tools, sales acceleration
and Analytics Dashboard,
Rapid Authoring™ and
Content Portal for
marketing material
creation.
Announcement at Dreamforce 2015
Recent “Stevie Award”
wins, and reiteration of
August’s release of Sales
Accelerator Analytics.

13. Whoever becomes market leader in
Sales Acceleration, we all win.
Sales Acceleration will make teams more effective and
profitable, and outreach more relevant for consumers.
Who do *you* think will win the race to market share?
Leave your thoughts in the comments!