GTM AI Index
Index › Sales › Sales engagement › Small business › September 2026 Edition

Sales engagement platforms for small business buyers

Asked as “sales engagement platform”, and as “sales engagement tool”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 52 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Apollo.io
Clear leader
50% of first choices, clear leader.
ShowinginAll 73 categories →

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.
Small businessApollo.io50%Clear leaderThis pageMid-marketSalesloft35%ContestedStanding →EnterpriseOutreach42%Clear leaderStanding →

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Apollo.io50%7%59endorsed leader
02Klenty13%4%23accepted challenger
03HubSpot Sales Hub10%4%47accepted challenger
04Mailshake6%0%27accepted challenger
05Reply.io6%10%29accepted challenger
06Unify4%0%11accepted challenger
07SmartReach.io4%0%10accepted challenger
08Instantly2%9%23accepted challenger
Show the five products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
13Outreach0%94%47criticized challenger
12Salesloft0%92%48criticized challenger
10Lemlist0%7%27accepted challenger
11Smartlead0%6%18accepted challenger
09Mixmax0%5%40accepted challenger
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.
Head to head
Salesloft vs Apollo.ioSalesloft vs OutreachApollo.io vs Outreach

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 →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative70%
Key
01Apollo.io50%
02Klenty13%
03HubSpot Sales Hub10%
04Mailshake6%
05Reply.io6%
06Unify4%
07SmartReach.io4%
08Instantly2%
09Mixmax0%
10Lemlist0%
11Smartlead0%
12Salesloft0%
13Outreach0%

02What they warned about

Six of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Mistral Small, Llama 4 Maverick, Kimi K2 and MiniMax M2.5 changed. 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.
Outreach
94%
44 of 47 labels negative · 12 of 12 models · 23 hard negative
“best sales engagement platforms to avoid or be cautious about are Outreach and Salesloft, as they are enterprise-grade tools that are overkill” Llama 4 Maverick, negative prompt
Salesloft
92%
44 of 48 labels negative · 12 of 12 models · 23 hard negative
“avoid or be cautious about are Outreach and Salesloft, as they are enterprise-grade tools that are overkill for most small businesses” Llama 4 Maverick, negative prompt
Salesforce Sales Engagement
88%
7 of 8 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 6 hard negative
“Why to avoid: ... the total cost of ownership is high... Overkill unless your company is already a mature Salesforce shop.” Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt
Groove
50%
4 of 8 labels negative · 4 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“**Groove**: Now part of Clari/Salesloft merger, complex pricing” Mistral Small, direct prompt

03What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: four of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

22 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 4 of 12 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. 186 links across 79 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page. The other 8 models searched through a gateway that returned no source list on this edition.

klenty.com
vendor site · Klenty10 answers · 10 citations · 2 models
g2.com
8 answers · 14 citations · 2 models
blog.hubspot.com
vendor site · HubSpot7 answers · 8 citations · 2 models
unifygtm.com
6 answers · 8 citations · 2 models
connectsafely.ai
6 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
lagrowthmachine.com
vendor site · La Growth Machine5 answers · 7 citations · 2 models
pipeline.zoominfo.com
vendor site · ZoomInfo5 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
forecastio.ai
vendor site · Forecastio5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
learn.g2.com
5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
mixmax.com
vendor site · Mixmax4 answers · 4 citations · 2 models
nooks.ai
vendor site · Nooks4 answers · 4 citations · 2 models
resources.rework.com
vendor site · Rework4 answers · 4 citations · 1 model

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.

klenty.com/blog/sales-engagement-platform-tools
9 answers · 2 models
blog.hubspot.com/sales/sales-engagement
7 answers · 2 models
connectsafely.ai/articles/best-sales-engagement-platforms-small-business-2026
6 answers · 2 models
forecastio.ai/blog/best-sales-engagement-software
5 answers · 2 models
pipeline.zoominfo.com/sales/sales-engagement-platforms
5 answers · 2 models
unifygtm.com/explore/sales-engagement-platforms-small-teams
5 answers · 2 models
g2.com/categories/sales-engagement/small-business?order=g2_score
4 answers · 1 model
lagrowthmachine.com/best-sales-engagement-tools-2026
4 answers · 1 model
learn.g2.com/best-sales-engagement-software
4 answers · 1 model
nooks.ai/blog-posts/top-6-sales-engagement-platforms-in-2026
4 answers · 2 models

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 small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which sales engagement tool would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top sales engagement platforms for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best sales engagement platform for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a sales engagement platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which sales engagement platforms should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Klenty, Mailshake, Reply.io
Three alternativesApollo.io, Growbots, Lemlist
KlentyChanged
Three alternativesHubSpot Sales Hub, Mailshake, Reply.io
against: Outreach, SalesloftKlenty, Mailshake, Reply.io
Three alternativesApollo.io, HubSpot Sales Hub, Yesware
against: Outreach, SalesloftKlenty, Mailshake, Reply.io
Five alternativesApollo.io, Bigin by Zoho, HubSpot Sales Hub, Lemlist, Mixmax
against: Outreach, Salesloftno first choiceagainst: Instantly, Outreach, Salesloft
GPT-5.4 miniApollo.io
Two alternativesHubSpot Sales Hub, Mailshake
against: Outreach, SalesloftHubSpot Sales HubChanged
One alternativeApollo.io
Apollo.io, HubSpot Sales Hub
Two alternativesLemlist, Salesloft
against: OutreachApollo.io, Saleshandy
One alternativeHubSpot Sales Hub
no first choiceagainst: ActiveCampaign, SalesRabbit
Gemini 3.5 FlashApollo.io
Four alternativesHubSpot Sales Hub, Lemlist, Mixmax, Reply.io
against: Outreach, SalesloftApollo.ioHeld
Two alternativesHubSpot Sales Hub, Instantly
against: Outreach, SalesloftApollo.io
Five alternativesHubSpot Sales Hub, Instantly, Lemlist, Mixmax, Smartlead
against: Outreach, SalesloftApollo.io
Four alternativesInstantly, Lemlist, Mixmax, Saleshandy
against: Outreach, SalesloftApollo.io
Three alternativesAmplemarket, HubSpot Sales Hub, Lemlist
against: Outreach, Salesloftagainst: Groove, Outreach, Salesforce Sales Engagement, Salesloft
Perplexity SonarApollo.io
Six alternativesHubSpot Sales Hub, Klenty, Mailshake, Mixmax, SmartReach.io, Yesware
against: Outreach, SalesloftApollo.ioHeld
Three alternativesHubSpot Sales Hub, Klenty, Mixmax
Unify
Six alternativesApollo.io, HubSpot Sales Hub, Instantly, Mixmax, Reply.io, Smartlead
against: Outreach, SalesloftApollo.io
Three alternativesMailshake, Mixmax, Yesware
no first choiceagainst: Outreach, Salesloft
Grok 4.1 FastApollo.io
Six alternativesGroove, HubSpot Sales Hub, Klenty, Lemlist, Mixmax, Reply.io
against: Outreach, SalesloftApollo.ioHeld
Four alternativesHubSpot Sales Hub, Mixmax, Pipedrive, Reply.io
against: Outreach, SalesloftHubSpot Sales Hub
Five alternativesApollo.io, Klenty, Mixmax, Reply.io, Unify
against: Outreach, SalesloftApollo.io, HubSpot Sales Hub
Three alternativesInstantly, Mixmax, Smartlead
against: Outreach, Salesloftno first choice
Five alternativesApollo.io, Groove, HubSpot Sales Hub, Outreach, Salesloft
against: HubSpot Sales Hub, Outreach, Salesloft
Mistral SmallApollo.io
Four alternativesHubSpot Sales Hub, Lemlist, Mixmax, Unify
against: Groove, Outreach, SalesloftHubSpot Sales Hub, La Growth MachineChanged
Four alternativesApollo.io, Bigin by Zoho, Instantly, Mixmax
against: Outreach, SalesloftUnify
Six alternativesApollo.io, HubSpot Sales Hub, Instantly, Lemlist, Mixmax, Smartlead
SmartReach.io
Four alternativesApollo.io, Lemlist, Mailshake, Mixmax
no first choiceagainst: Outreach, Salesloftagainst: Gong Engage, Outreach, Reply.io, Salesforce Sales Engagement, Salesloft
DeepSeek V4 FlashApollo.io
Two alternativesHubSpot Sales Hub, Mixmax
against: Outreach, SalesloftApollo.ioHeld
Four alternativesHubSpot Sales Hub, Lemlist, Mixmax, SmartReach.io
against: Outreach, Salesloft, ZoomInfoApollo.io
Four alternativesHubSpot Sales Hub, Instantly, Mixmax, Smartlead
against: Outreach, SalesloftApollo.io, SmartReach.io
Three alternativesHubSpot Sales Hub, Instantly, Mixmax
against: Outreach, SalesloftApollo.io, Klenty
Two alternativesReply.io, Rework
against: Mixmax, Outreach, Salesloftagainst: Apollo.io, Gong Engage, Instantly, LeadIQ, Outreach, Salesforce Sales Engagement, Salesloft, Smartlead, ZoomInfo
Llama 4 Maverickno first choice
Five alternativesKlenty, Koncert, Mailshake, Reply.io, Unify
KlentyChanged
Two alternativesMailshake, Reply.io
Unify
Four alternativesHubSpot Sales Hub, Instantly, Mixmax, Smartlead
against: Outreach, SalesloftUnify
Five alternativesApollo.io, Instantly, Mixmax, Smartlead, Yesware
no first choiceagainst: Outreach, Salesloft
Qwen 3.7 FlashApollo.io
Six alternativesHubSpot Sales Hub, Mailshake, Mixmax, Reply.io, Salesforce Sales Engagement, Yesware
against: Outreach, SalesloftApollo.ioHeld
Four alternativesHubSpot Sales Starter, Instantly, Lemlist, Smartlead
against: Outreach, SalesloftApollo.io
Five alternativesHubSpot Sales Hub, Lemlist, Mixmax, SmartReach.io, Smartlead
against: Outreach, SalesloftUnify
Four alternativesApollo.io, Mixmax, SmartReach.io, Smartlead
Instantly
Three alternativesApollo.io, Clay, Smartlead
against: Outreach, Salesloftagainst: Apollo.io, La Growth Machine, LinkedHelper, Outreach, Phantombuster, Salesforce Sales Engagement, Salesloft, Seamless.AI, Zoho Sales Insights
Kimi K2Apollo.io
Six alternativesHubSpot Sales Hub, Instantly, Lemlist, Mailshake, Mixmax, Reply.io
against: Outreach, SalesloftApollo.io, HubSpot Sales HubChangedagainst: Outreach, Salesforce Sales Engagement, SalesloftHubSpot Sales Hub
Seven alternativesApollo.io, Close, Instantly, Mixmax, Reply.io, Unify, Yesware
against: Outreach, SalesloftApollo.io
Four alternativesLemlist, Mailshake, Mixmax, Yesware
Apollo.io
Four alternativesHubSpot Sales Hub, Klenty, Mixmax, Unify
against: Outreach, Salesloftagainst: Apollo.io, Klenty, Lemlist, Outreach, Reply.io, Salesforce Sales Engagement, Salesloft
GLM 4.7 FlashXApollo.io
Two alternativesClose, HubSpot Sales Hub
Apollo.ioHeld
Two alternativesClose.io, HubSpot Sales Hub
Apollo.io, Close
Two alternativesHubSpot Sales Hub, Reply.io
against: SalesloftApollo.io
Five alternativesClose, HubSpot Sales Hub, MailRush.io, Smartlead, Woodpecker
no first choiceagainst: Amplemarket, Apollo.io, Gong Engage, Groove, HubSpot Sales Hub, Lemlist, Outreach, Reply.io, Salesforce Sales Engagement, Salesloft
MiniMax M2.5Klenty, Mailshake, Reply.io
One alternativeBigin by Zoho
KlentyChanged
Three alternativesInstantly, Mailshake, Salesforge
Apollo.io
Four alternativesBigin by Zoho, Close, HubSpot Sales Hub, ZoomInfo
Bigin by Zoho, HubSpot Sales Hub
One alternativeApollo.io
no first choiceagainst: Groove, Mixmax, Outreach, Salesloft, ToutApp
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
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 00:22yes68 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:38yes65 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:26yes1115 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-14 23:33yes205 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 02:30yes012 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 23:54yes09 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 01:42yes024 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-14 23:58yes02 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 04:39yes025 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:20yes053 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 22:52yes013 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 02:59yes09 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 01:55yes88 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 05:01yes25 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 23:04yes1519 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 02:11yes205 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 01:56yes07 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 04:15yes07 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 01:26yes022 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-14 23:17yes01 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 03:05no033 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 00:53yes019 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 02:07yes042 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 23:41yes018 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 23:48yes89 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 03:03yes46 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:29yes1424 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 03:56yes208 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 04:14yes06 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 04:54yes09 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 03:28yes024 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:51yes02 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 01:49yes040 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:41yes044 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 00:37yes026 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:25yes010 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 00:55yes97 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 02:51yes34 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 23:38yes1823 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:44yes205 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 01:30yes08 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 23:16yes07 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 00:38yes022 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:49yes02 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 04:40yes031 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:14yes025 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 02:43yes081 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 03:47yes011 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 04:21no05 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:33no09 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 23:22yes824 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 01:36yes209 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-14 23:52yes010 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 04:43no04 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 00:38yes044 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 00:23yes03 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 01:18no041 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:23yes025 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 03:42no09 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 02:20no010 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 02:00yes178 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:18yes39 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 01:17yes1325 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 03:53yes2020 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 01:52yes012 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 01:40yes010 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 02:59yes024 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:35yes02 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 00:10yes066 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:04yes078 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 00:30yes055 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 23:39yes015 s

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
Gong read as Gong Engage
HubSpot read as HubSpot Sales Hub
Salesforce read as Salesforce Sales Engagement
Unresolved, counted raw
Close.io
Growbots
Instant
LinkedHelper
MailRush.io
Pipeline
Zoho Sales Insights
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.

Also in sales

The other categories of this function, with the leader in each.
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