Overview
Salesloft has recently rebranded itself as an “AI-powered revenue platform” while Drift recently started calling its offerings a “buyer engagement platform.” Now, these two join forces to build towards a full-customer-journey orchestration tool that can handle multi-channel, multi-touch engagement.
The move will no doubt put pressure on other GTM Technology platforms positioning around full-customer-journey orchestration, as well as ABM and other marketing intelligence tools.
Is a new wave of GTM Tech M+A approaching?
Despite the positives, the move by Salesloft ‘seems’ like it still remains a sales-centric view of customer journey engagement. Salesloft + Drift remains a mid to lower funnel story, and we believe there remains a major opportunity for marketing automation and Web CMS personalization to round out the ability to nurture multi-channel earlier in the customer journey – i.e., to be part of a holistic GTM Technology stack.
GTM Implications
The combination of these two product lines melds Salesloft’s pipeline analytics and sales cadence management with Drift’s full journey engagement capabilities, which primarily focus on chat bot, live chat and other asynchronous communication. In the company’s own words – the combined entity creates an “AI-powered Revenue Orchestration Platform.” This is interesting, because at ANNUITAS we have been preaching the value of full-customer-journey orchestration, with a supporting GTM Tech Stack that can support consistent engagement across pre-and-post sale journey stages. So this is a positive, in our view. We also believe the role of AI in GTM needs to be more strategic; hopefully, this is also an opportunity.
This move creates one of the first single-vendor offerings that can perform a lot of this work. Not only does the combination allow for full-customer-journey engagement, it also allows sellers and other GTM professionals to engage earlier in the demand experience (e.g., when on the Website), using multi-channel tools and intelligence gleaned from buyer behaviors to craft either automated or human-assisted engagement messages to optimize conversions.
Salesloft said in a statement that current Drift customers will see no changes to their product usage or pricing in the foreseeable future. And the company committed to continued focus on development of Drift’s capabilities. Also, since Drift integrates with a lot of tools that may appear competitive to Salesloft, the company has committed to retaining an open integration ecosystem for Drift users, so that they are not locked out of integrations with other sales engagement tools they may be using now or in the future.
Landscape Implications
When we think of the conversational tools out there, Drift being part of a much more robust portfolio probable affects players like Intercom the most. In addition, the chat-focused standalone tools from players like LivePerson and Qualified will seem lacking in terms of truly offering a vision for full journey orchestration. In addition, the company may see Iterable in more deals as it expands its scope. Iterable has a compelling customer messaging platform that is looking more and more as a multi-channel, multi-touch engagement tool.
This also causes Salesloft to skate closer to the world of marketing automation and Web CMS personalization, which are also in the business of delivering targeted, personalized messaging to customers via right stage/right channel. Neither chat+cadence (Salesloft) nor marketing automation+Web CMS (e.g., Adobe, Hubspot) are a complete GTM Technology stack solution. In fact, they really perpetuate a remaining sales vs. marketing divide. So the M+A opportunity is there to bring them together. (Perhaps we need more Chief Growth Officers to advocate for this.)
It also will be interesting to see how core ABM and marketing intelligence tools like 6sense and Terminus respond. This move gives Salesloft an interesting edge when it comes to actually delivering on the “right prospect, right time” type messaging that many of these vendors promise. We expect further consolidation as this market heats up.
The Takeaway
Ultimately, we like the vision that the combined companies bring to the table. Calling the new portfolio an AI-powered revenue orchestration platform makes sense, as it aligns well with what ANNUITAS sees as a need for a Converged Growth GTM mindset. The combined tools will allow for more calculated engagement – whether by humans or automated – that can better equip buyers with the resources and information they need to make an informed purchase, renew a contract, or even make add-on purchases with less friction.
What we want to see is the combined company truly deliver on the full-customer-journey orchestration part of the vision. While competing GTM Technology components offer similar functionality, not a lot are supporting a true engagement story that spans early funnel (real early funnel, not chat on Website as a sense of early funnel) with lower funnel and both pre-and-post sale journey stages. If Salesloft/Drift can lead the way in providing a clear cut POV on how to use this technology to best support a full customer journey, omnichannel engagement model – it could reap significant benefits.
We also remain concerned by the sales-centric POV (literally, it’s called “Sales”-loft), when the marketplace really needs a Converged Growth GTM Technology stack that supports the entire customer journey, across marketing sales and customer success touchpoints. Salesloft has been in the past a tool that more supports “random acts” of sales and marketing rather than a tool for supporting well-orchestrated engagement. A sense of Conversation Track Architecture is a missing component, and we hope Salesloft will start to get more strategic about the dialogue, not just about the technology. I.e., driving real dialogue with prospects and customers, not just interrupting them. The addition of Drift is a significant move in the right direction.
