Sales Enablement Soiree 2019: Three Key Takeaways

By James Lundy

Sales Enablement Soiree 2019

The Sales Enablement Soiree 2019 is one to remember.  If you missed out and you’re in the sales field, be sure to consider it for the next year.  But don’t worry, Aragon has got you covered.

What is the Sales Enablement Soiree? 

It’s is an annual event put on by Highspot at the Four Seasons in San Francisco.  Aragon first attended the Sales Enablement Soiree at Dreamforce 2018.  Well, it wasn’t technically at Dreamforce.

It happens to take place at the same time as Dreamforce, but attendees don’t need a Dreamforce pass to attend.  The event is designed for sales enablement providers to exhibit their latest advances in sales enablement technologies.  And although we spent time at Dreamforce 2019, Aragon also stopped by the soiree to see what was new in the sales enablement community.

I had the chance to attend this year’s event with Jim Lundy, CEO of Aragon Research and lead analyst on sales enablement, and Lawrence Sweeney, one of our account executives.

Takeaways from Sales Enablement Soiree 2019

The soiree was alive and well this year.  It’s a great place for the sales enablement pro and sales executive alike.  Besides having more than my fair share of cookies, there are three key takeaways I’d like to discuss.

1. Customer revenue optimization has arrived
2. Sales content management and communications
3. Growth of the market

Customer Revenue Optimization Has Arrived

It’s clear now more than ever, that customer revenue optimization, or CRO, has arrived. Aragon identified the CRO category earlier this year in 2019, with revenue optimization companies like Altify and Revegy providing SaaS offerings that take a paper-based sales process and make them digital.

At the Sales Enablement Soiree, we saw the expansion of CRO, with technology vendors like Playboox integrating with Sandler. Sandler is a sales methodology which has been implemented in many sales teams throughout the years, and they’re leveraging technology in order to digitize the sales process.

Altify, now part of Upland due to an acquisition earlier this year, is a pioneer in digitizing sales methodology with their CRO offering. During the Sales Enablement Soiree we had the chance to catch up with them and hear about their continued success.

Sales Content Management and Communications

More sales technology providers are seeing the need to provide a complete solution—Aragon refers to this as a sales engagement platform, which has provided content management for sales. Companies like Seismic, ClearSlide, Highspot, Showpad, Bigtincan, and vablet are examples of these types of providers. Then there are providers focused mainly on sales communications like Outreach, SalesLoft, and VanillaSoft. From the Soiree and from 2019 in general, it’s clear that many of these vendors are either building out or partnering with each other to offer both content management and communications under one platform.

Growth of the Market

The growth of the market can be seen from the presence of the event. There are more providers present, with more funding, and with more enterprise customers than before. A few years ago, the biggest obstacle many of these firms had to face was the standard quo of not having dedicated tools for sales. Now that the market has exploded and enterprises have begun to adopt these technologies, there’s more direct competition for individual deals, and buyers have become more savvy in what they’re looking for. The market still has plenty of room to grow, and it will be interesting to watch how it evolves in the next few years.

Bottom Line

The soiree was a nice compliment to Dreamforce. This event allows us to stay on top of the market and perhaps introduce us to companies who are either established in the sales enablement space or are starting to make waves. If you’d like to learn more about how to get started with your sales engagement or customer revenue optimization approach, Aragon has provided extensive coverage in both areas. We encourage you to schedule your complimentary consultation today.