Sales Execution Done Differently

The only platform built for “whats next”.

Vanillasoft is built for high-volume sales execution, for teams that move fast. High-velocity inside sales or outbound-heavy teams, all of which have valuable leads, must move fast. Teams where speed to contact a lead is crucial, must have an efficient system. The Vanillasoft approach for serving these teams drives two fundamental differences between Vanillasoft and traditional sales stacks:

First, we believe that disparate, fragmented systems do not allow revenue teams to move fast, and that sales teams that move fast, should have an all-in-one platform.

Second, we believe that sales agents should focus on one thing - selling at speed - and not the distractions that arise from the hidden dangers of the “lead list”. Our approach is a queue of leads that are constantly evaluated based on scoring metrics, scheduled, and routed so that agents are constantly served the next best lead to contact.

While in hindsight, it's easy to see how the sales stack evolved to manage data, not execution, Most sales platforms are built to manage data. Vanillasoft is built to manage sales execution.

Vanillasoft is the best sales engagement software for teams that move fast - according to users themselves. When revenue teams move fast, they need software that delivers results, is easy to use, and is easy to set up.

When users of various sales engagement platforms score the platform they use, including Vanillasoft users, Vanillasoft consistently scores higher for metrics that support results and user adoption, and ease of use.

1. Vanillasoft vs. Salesloft

2. Vanillasoft vs Apollo

3. Vanillasoft vs Hubspot Sales Hub

4. Vanillasoft vs Revenue.io

5. Vanillasoft vs ActiveCampaign

6. Vanillasoft vs Reply

7. Vanillasoft vs Outreach

The buyer journey for B2B Sales is complex. Gartner illustrates its complexity through its phases and steps. Arising from this journey, is a need to manage and track where buyers are in the journey - an inherently data-rich task.

Most sales software puts the data first - lists, signals and reports and tools. Most software in the sales stack was built phase by phase to solve for this journey as the data and its management became more complex over time.

B2B buyers data evolved past rolodexes and address books. In its first fully digitized phase, buyer data lived in the CRM soley. Early systems like Salesforce, Siebel or Oracle CRM handled:

• lead records

• contact records

• opportunity tracking

• pipeline management

Salespeople worked directly inside CRM. However, CRM systems were designed as databases and reporting tools, not productivity tools for high-volume outreach. Sales teams doing inside sales or high-volume prospecting found CRMs slow and inefficient for:

• calling large numbers of leads

• sending repeat emails

• managing follow-ups

• handling call workflows

CRM stored leads, but it did not optimize the work of contacting them.

As the B2B sales motion became more digital and more reliant on online channels, the inefficiencies of the CRM for managing lead outreach grew clearer and starker. Email outreach, online presence from established websites though web 2.0 through social media, and the increased pressure for sales productivity following the early 2000s recession all placed more stress on the salesforce to be productive. New vendors emerged to solve the sales productivity problem. Vendors added sales-focused:

• email cadences

• dialing tools

• call tracking

• sequence automation

• activity analytics

These tools typically sat on top of CRM, pulling lead data from Salesforce or other central CRMs. As a result, the architecture became:

CRM = lead (and opportunity and customer) database

Sales engagement = outreach execution

At the same time, marketing automation systems grew. Similar forces drove the need for more digital outreach, and various products emerged to focus on:

• lead capture

• nurturing

• scoring

• qualification

So the architecture evolved further:

Marketing automation → generates leads

CRM → stores leads

Sales engagement → works leads

Each platform solved a different part of the process. True platform consolidation did not occur, and experimental and early forays into Account Based Marketing and more determined focus on lead generation and capture through marketing automation were the focus of the time.

Marketing automation helped create more and more lead traffic for sales. However, this innovation also created further platform fragmentation. The rise of marketing automation and lead capture also created deepening of the oft-described rift between sales and marketing. and sales. More data and easier measurement of lead generation and capture created visibility and exposed gaps in handoffs and processes.

In response to the gaps created in handoffs and processes, exacerbated by the increased volume of digital leads (which made gaps more clear) and the increased scrutiny of sales performance, more specialized tools appeared to connect systems. Tools and software were created to handle:

• lead routing and workflows

• scheduling

• system integrations

Now the stack looked like this:

Marketing automation → CRM (lead database) → Lead Routing Tools → Sales Engagement Software

Lead management software helped to put processes in place to manage the flow of lead records from their capture, to agent assignment.
The Practical Gaps In the Traditional Process

The traditional sales stack and data process creates two key challenges for sales organizations that move fast.

First, the process is a fragmented environment for most companies in terms of systems and tech stack. There is a purpose to each system, but there are often three or four if not more systems involved in sales execution.

That said, none of these systems actually manage the operational workflow of sales work itself.

Second, the final step in the traditional process is still often a salesperson working through a list. The final-step of sales reps working lists slows the sales process down and creates inefficiencies.

While the goal of the modern sales technology stack was designed to create a more effective and efficient sales process, it did the opposite. The fashionable sales tech by design has been focused on data, and not on the second most crucial part of the sales process - the sales rep (the first being the customer).