In the last few years, sales engagement applications (SEA) have become the primary system of action for B2B sellers. The platform has proven to be a game changer because of its seller-centricity. But as the market matures, there is a lot more that organizations should expect from sales engagement platforms – beyond activity management, automation, and integration capabilities. If we scan through the recently published Gartner Market Guide for Sales Engagement applications, there are two directions in which existing sales engagement platforms must expand, to help organizations really extract the value from such tools or platforms.

1. Evolving into an ‘Action Platform’ – Most seller tools promise sales force automation in terms of automating repetitive tasks, calendarizing meetings and providing an omni channel interface. This has brought in a transformation in terms of how sellers are now able to log into a single app, preferably mobile-first in principle, for their daily chores, vis-a-vis toggling between multiple systems as they work through their day. As a next step, sales engagement tools incorporate AI-guided selling by supporting sellers further through nudges, reminders and alerts based on the ML algorithms. Platforms like Vymo are also able to distill sales data from across the organization to help a seller decide the right time to make the first call, the winning behaviors of colleagues that result in a conversion and so on. Increasingly, SEAs must combine revenue intelligence to provide clarity and direction to sellers, managers and leaders and provide a streamlined, comprehensive product offering. With this, features such as guided selling, activity intelligence, prospect intelligence etc. will soon become a ‘must have’ feature, and features such as persuasion insight, deal scoring, and sales skill coaching will set valued SEAs from the rest.
   
2. Seeking verticalized, customized solutions:As SEAs mature, and the landscape features multiple players, the ability to provide verticalized solutions for specific industries will become more valued. Industry customizations will become a crucial differentiator for those players who are providing sales engagement native, and on-point solutions. Focusing on a vertical, can help platforms dive deeper into relevant use cases and enhance the platform to solve for those. This will help such players carve out a niche in the buzzing SEA market. As Gordon Ritter, founder and General partner, Emergence Capital says, “Every industry has different regulations to the way they run their business and we’ve seen Industry-aligned cloud software adding more value than a horizontal solution. The cloud allows you to gain domain expertise by building solutions that are tailored to a vertical after understanding their needs.

According to the 2024 Gartner Market Guide for sales engagement applications, Vymo offers preconfigured sales engagement solutions for insurance and financial services industries. The action cards configuration in the app uses industry-specific terminology. Its UX is mobile-first and nudges users to capture activity data immediately following sales activities. The product enables physical field meeting guidance based on a seller’s geographic proximity to relevant prospects. With future enhancements including specialized configurations within insurance and banking, sales forecasting focus, better sales performance management and an AI-powered copilot, Vymo is recognized among the best-fit options for B2B seller productivity.