What is Sales Engagement?
Software platforms that help sales teams execute multi-channel outreach cadences at scale.
Definition
Sales engagement platforms orchestrate outbound sales activity across email, phone, social, and direct mail channels. They provide cadence management (structured sequences of touches), email automation with personalization, power dialers, analytics, and CRM sync. The category sits between your CRM (system of record) and your communication tools (email, phone), automating the execution layer of outbound sales.
Why It Matters
Manual outbound doesn't scale. A sales rep can manage maybe 20-30 prospects by hand. A sales engagement platform lets them run structured cadences to 200+ prospects simultaneously while tracking every interaction. The data from these platforms also feeds coaching and process optimization.
Example
An SDR creates a 14-day cadence in Salesloft with 5 emails, 3 phone calls, and 2 LinkedIn touchpoints. They enroll 50 new prospects daily. The platform automates email sends, queues calls, and tracks open/reply rates across the sequence.