Sales engagement platforms
Asked as “sales engagement platform”, and as “sales engagement tool”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B software company. 48 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, six models each.
01The standing
Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all six models, for a mid-market B2B software company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its vendor page.
Recommended versus criticized
Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.
Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
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02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative50%
Key
01Salesloft35%
Salesloft35%02Apollo.io33%
Apollo.io33%03Outreach15%
Outreach15%04HubSpot Sales Hub8%
HubSpot Sales Hub8%05Klenty4%
Klenty4%06Instantly2%
Instantly2%07Reply.io0%
Reply.io0%08Mixmax0%
Mixmax0%09Groove0%
Groove0%10ZoomInfo0%
ZoomInfo0%02What they warned about
A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
Outreach31%
19 of 62 labels negative · 11 of 6 models · 8 hard negative
“**Red flags**: Poor customer support (slow responses, ticket-only), steep learning curve, integration issues ... **Avoid if**: Non-Salesforce CRM, small team, or high-volume cold email” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt
Salesloft25%
16 of 64 labels negative · 11 of 6 models · 7 hard negative
“**Avoid if**: Cold email/calling heavy, regulated industry (security concerns), or budget-sensitive (hidden fees stack up).” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt
Apollo.io16%
9 of 57 labels negative · 8 of 6 models
“**Data Quality Issues**: Frequently reports inaccurate or outdated contact records ... Best for: Lead enrichment, but verify data before use” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt
Salesforce Sales Engagement50%
4 of 8 labels negative · 4 of 6 models
“**Complexity Issues**: Requires significant operational discipline ... Only if your team is ready for complex implementation” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt
03What they cite
Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: four of the six in this edition.
Sites the answers cite
22 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 4 of 6 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 6 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 183 links across 78 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page. The other 2 models searched through a gateway that returned no source list on this edition.
vendor site · Forecastio10 answers · 10 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Klenty7 answers · 7 citations · 2 models
vendor site · ZoomInfo6 answers · 8 citations · 2 models
vendor site · HubSpot5 answers · 7 citations · 2 models
5 answers · 6 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Guideflow5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
vendor site · La Growth Machine4 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Gartner4 answers · 5 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Clay4 answers · 4 citations · 1 model
vendor site · Hey Sid4 answers · 4 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Kixie4 answers · 4 citations · 1 model
vendor site · MarketBetter4 answers · 4 citations · 2 models
Pages the answers cite
The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.
10 answers · 2 models
6 answers · 2 models
6 answers · 2 models
5 answers · 2 models
5 answers · 2 models
5 answers · 3 models
4 answers · 1 model
4 answers · 1 model
4 answers · 2 models
4 answers · 1 model
04How they answered
Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ModelDirect“What is the best sales engagement platform for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which sales engagement tool would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top sales engagement platforms and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best sales engagement platform for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a sales engagement platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which sales engagement platforms should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Opus 5no first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choicenothing named
Claude Opus 4.8no first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choicenothing named
GPT-6 Astrano first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choicenothing named
GPT-5.6 Solno first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.1 Prono first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choicenothing named
Perplexity Sonar Prono first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choicenothing named
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against
05The record
One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Zero rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
| Prompt | Model | Version string | Time (UTC) | Searched | Sources | Latency |
|---|
Noise floor in this category
Flips between the edition run and its calibration repeat. Six prompts per model is a small sample; the index-wide floor is the number to trust.
Normalization in this category
Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.
Category-scoped readings
Clari read as Groove
Gong read as Gong Engage
HubSpot read as HubSpot Sales Hub
HubSpot (Marketing & Sales Hub) read as HubSpot Sales Hub
Salesforce (Sales Engagement) read as Salesforce Sales Engagement
Unresolved, counted raw
Assurance IQ
ConnectSafely
FlashIntel
MediaAlpha
Response Tree LLC
SF Sales Engagement
Salesforce Pardot / Sales Cloud Engage
SmartReach
Unify GTM
Zoho CRM Plus / Zoho CRM ecosystem
ZoomInfo Engage
ZoomInfo SalesOS / GTM Workspace
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.