Sales engagement is poised to meet the moment

Today, The Forrester Wave™: Sales Engagement, Q3 2020 report was released. It’s the first major research report on the sales engagement category ever released.

I’ve waited for this occasion since January 2014. My co-founders and I acted on gut intuition by building technology for sellers empowering them to build more meaningful and trusting relationships with their customers. We didn’t know if we were going to be successful, but we knew sales teams needed a platform to drive better, more effective engagement with their customers. And we made a choice to start down an uncharted road and build a category.

Now, all the work, struggle, and blind optimism has paid off.

“Outreach outpaces others with product innovation and an intuitive platform”
THE FORRESTER WAVE™: SALES ENGAGEMENT, Q3 2020

How We Fared — Outreach Named a Leader

Outreach was named a “Leader” in sales engagement, earning the highest score possible in 11 criteria. We earned the highest marks possible on platform features that thousands of sales reps rely on us to deliver — from user experience interface and workflow steps to email and calendaring and content templates.

I’m particularly excited about the high scores we earned in areas that set us apart when we sell to enterprise customers.

That’s why the highest score possible in the service and support criterion stands out to me. When we started the company, we asked, “What kind of company are we going to be?” A sales-driven, or product-driven, or marketing-driven company? We decided on a success-driven company. We wanted to be driven by the success of our customers, and now everything we do is through that lens in mind. So receiving the highest score possible here is validating for us, and it’s a testament that our customers appreciate us going above and beyond for them and aligning the entire company around their success. We will do whatever it takes to be there for our customers. As one reference customer told Forrester, Outreach has “transformed the way we do business and [is] something we could not go without.”

We have demonstrated that we’re a trusted partner and secured the highest score possible in partner and customer ecosystem criteria. Outreach was also the only vendor to score a 5 out of 5 in security and compliance, privacy and governance criterion.

Some of my favorite citations from the Forrester report include, “Outreach outpaces others with product innovation and an intuitive platform” and “Outreach is a strong fit for organizations that value innovation, category leadership and that want to align with a technology partner with big aspirations.”

Great News for the Sales Engagement Category

This is a huge moment, not only for Outreach, but for the sales engagement category as a whole. One of the world’s most influential research firms has declared that sales engagement is a necessary part of the sales tech stack. It’s not a “nice to have” or a “maybe if I have extra budget” tool, but a key element to driving efficiency across a revenue operation.

The Forrester Wave is something that all sales engagement companies can celebrate. Congratulations to all the vendors included in this Wave. This is truly something we can all celebrate.

The Journey Has Just Begun

We have big aspirations. You’ll see them continue to play out in the coming months with product innovations like Outreach's virtual sales assistant, Kaia.

To learn more about what to look for when evaluating a trusted vendor for sales engagement, download the full Forrester Wave report!