Sales engagement platforms are tools that have rapidly grown in popularity over the last few years, but that’s not to say that the concept of what they offer is new. At their heart is the ability to engage with, nurture, and convert leads into sales. They are, effectively, a pipeline tracker that encourages businesses to regularly engage with their prospects through a variety of touchpoints.
In this article we’re going to cover:
- What is a sales engagement platform
- Features of a sales engagement platform
- Instantly Vs. Klenty
- Plus other Klenty alternatives to consider
What is a Sales Engagement Platform?
In order to examine comparisons between Klenty and its competitors, we first need to understand what a sales engagement platform actually is.
These tools aim to save time (for the buyer and salesperson), increase engagement, and create more conversions. By tracking each engagement, analyzing the process, and optimizing it, it is hoped that revenue generated will increase. They are a traditional CRM but with a focus on sales.
Beyond aiming to boost a business's productivity and sales, these tools put the focus back on the customer. By creating a customer-centric sales process, the experience should feel better for everyone involved. The customer no longer feels that they’re dealing with a faceless corporation but that they are receiving a personal experience with a more engaged company representative.
One of the main features of a sales engagement platform is its ability to save valuable time for sales representatives. If they are spending less time on admin, and more time engaging with their prospects, it stands that they are more likely to close more deals. Sales platforms tend to save time by facilitating or automating some of the administrative tasks that slow down salespeople such as email sequencing, prospecting, and tracking.
Sales engagement platforms work incredibly well for teams that are looking to work at scale or push for growth. By keeping all prospect information in one tool, it means that the entire sales team is able to track a prospect and dip in and out accordingly, picking up on previous engagements and tracking their own. It means that everyone is navigating the sales process in the same direction.
Features of a Sales Engagement Platform
When comparing a sales engagement platform with competitors you need to consider the core features that every platform should have. You also need to consider precisely what role the platform is going to play in your organization. By understanding the features your business will benefit from the most you’ll best position yourself to make the right decision.
Varied Communication Methods
Different customers want to be contacted in different ways. Some respond best to telephone calls, others SMS, some email, others video conferencing. Everyone is an individual and should be treated as such, but this does cause something of a headache when it comes to tracking communication, especially across team members.
The best sales engagement platforms will allow you to not only track each communication channel but also allow you to conduct the communication from within the platform, tracking it as it happens.
By tracking everything on one platform, it is ensured that previous conversations and notes can be accessed on the fly within a few clicks. Your message is standardized and your customer is safe in the knowledge that everyone is on the same page.
Templates for Sales Content
Businesses that make hundreds, if not thousands, of sales pitches a month will understand that having their sales process, pitches, and content standardized makes it far easier to track and measure success.
Many sales engagement tools have the ability to create, share, and use various content such as templates and scripts that you can adapt and personalize according to your needs.
Automation
One of the biggest time-saving and efficiency-increasing features of a sales engagement tool is the ability to automate various parts of the sales process. Typically these are repetitive, administrative tasks that don’t require the salesperson’s input. Data entry, scheduling, and follow-up communication can all easily be automated in many tools.
The best tools will include automation with the option to personalize responses to customers. For example, when a customer completes a lead form, depending on the criteria they selected, they are sent an automated response addressed to them by name with specific details included.
Analytics
Every platform should include the ability to report on sales activities, track specific goals, KPIs and compare against historical data. These allow you to see where progress has been made, and where improvement is required. Many tools will allow you to segment your customers and prospects into smaller groups, allowing you access to more refined data points.
Instantly Vs. Klenty
Instantly Entry Tier
- $37 a month
- Unlimited Email Accounts
- Unlimited Email Warmup
- 100 Active Leads
- 5000 Emails per month
- Advanced Sequences
- Email and Account Analytics
- Reputation and Bounce Protection
- General Support Tickets
Klenty Entry Tier
- $35 a month, paid annually
- Per user
- Email Cadences
- Intent Score
- Email Validation (On Demand)
Klenty is a tool that focuses on intent-based sales. It is able to allow sales teams to customize different styles of outreach based on the prospect’s intent, automates many of the standard administrative sales tasks, and aims to develop a sales strategy that businesses are able to scale and repeat in the future. Klenty is aimed at B2B sales teams that want to scale up their outreach.
Klenty does offer all of the standard sales engagement features that you would have come to expect from a platform. It offers AB Testing, campaign management, email campaigns, automations, lead captures and management, templates, and more. It’s a typical, run-of-the-mill sales engagement platform.
Instantly is an SEP that offers a more detailed and focused outreach experience. Rather than attempting to hit all sales outreach channels, Instantly focuses on email outreach, and it does so perfectly.
A key feature that is missing from Klenty is a warmup feature for email accounts that are sending out cold emails. Sadly, without this feature, you risk a great deal of your hard work ending up in spam folders. Accounts that haven’t been through a warmup feature that suddenly start sending thousands of emails don’t fare well. Yes, Klenty does offer email validation, but only on an on-demand basis.
One of the great features of Instantly is your option of adding unlimited email accounts to one subscription. This means that paying for one seat gets you access to an unlimited number of email accounts to send from. Klenty does, in theory, offer the same, but you have to pay per account.
Personalization and templates in the form of email builders and content are offered by both brands. A nice touch from Klenty is the option to add LinkedIn tasks to your sequence, allowing you to add contacts, view profiles, and send messages, all as part of your sales sequence.
Klenty offers fewer integrations than Instantly but does have all of the major sales and marketing tools that you would hope would be on the list. Pipedrive, Zapier, Slack, Hubspot, Zoho, and Salesforce are all covered by Klenty, but it’s interesting that these named tools offer many of the same features. Does the question have to be asked why you’d need both?
If you are making a decision between the two, Klenty or Instantly, you need to weigh up exactly what it is you’d like from your platform. Are you after a tool that will scale with your business, and offers unlimited email accounts, email warmup, and 5000 emails a month at the lowest price? Pick Instantly. If you’re looking for a CRM-style tool that integrates with a CRM you already own, pick Klenty.
Other Klenty Alternatives
If neither Instantly nor Klenty are seeming like the right choice for you, there are other options out there for you to consider. The list below compares a number of sales engagement tools based on their key features. Remember that in order to pick the right tool you need to consider exactly what it is your business wants to achieve using this tool.
Woodpecker vs. Klenty
Saving a whole 9-5 workday sounds great, as Woodpecker claims to save you at least 8 hours of work a week. The primary reason for the claim is covered by the automation that it offers.
Woodpecker scans received emails, categorizes them so you’re able to focus on the hottest leads, and sends follow-ups to those who haven’t replied. Woodpecker is another tool that has a built-in warm-up feature.
Autoklose vs. Klenty
Autoklose has an impressive number of Sales leaders using their software amongst some Fortune 1000 companies. They aim to build sales pipelines by combining an email outreach platform with a huge database of potential prospects.
Autoklose says that they help sales teams target new prospects, engage with those prospects through email sequencing, and then grow through analytics and focused dashboards. Its slightly higher entry point at $49.99 a month offers the starter pack that limits some features listed below.
SendBlaster vs. Klenty
SendBlaster is a bit different from other competitors out there. It’s a piece of software that you download locally (for free) and it stores all email lists on your local disk. This makes it potentially appealing for entrepreneurs but those with shared teams will see this as somewhat of an awkward feature. The pro version has some fairly standard additional features for a one-off fee of $129. There’s no comparison table for SendBlaster against Klenty due to a lack of reliable information.
EngageBay vs. Klenty
More than just a sales engagement platform, EngageBay offers a full CRM experience, with a claim to be used by nearly 30,000 companies. It offers a good suite of automation, live chat software for your business, and helpdesk software for those with a wide customer support requirement. The 360 Degree Customer View would be appealing to larger teams with separate sales, marketing, and support departments.
Salesmate vs. Klenty
Another full CRM, Salesmate offers a suite of features including the ability to filter and segment all of your leads, capture, nurture and score leads, run full automation campaigns including multi-channel drip campaigns, and automated sales sequencing. The list of features goes on and Salesmate has received some glowing reviews. It is certainly an option worth considering with a free trial and a $12 price mark.
Key Takeaways
Sales engagement platforms are an investment in your business. The right tool in the right hands can accelerate growth, build leads and, to an extent, put your business on autopilot. Each tool might seem like it offers a similar set of features, but they do have their nuances and slight differences. Pick features that really matter to you. For example, if you genuinely want your email campaigns to land in people’s inboxes, Instantly’s warmup feature alone makes it the ideal choice.
Keep in mind:
- Before diving into comparisons, be completely clear on the features that your business needs.
- Consider the size and scope of your team when making decisions as extra seats can add up.
- Be sure to pick a tool with comprehensive analytics so that you’re able to track
Instantly provides all of the above and offers a 14-day free trial. Click here to learn more!
