According to an Accenture study, 93% of companies close fewer sales than forecast. SiriusDecisions found that sales departments never use 65% of content created by marketing.

CSO Insights finds that 67% of sales leaders lack confidence in their own activity data. And many other stats point to a similar dilemma – that despite the investment in sales technology, teams still struggle to achieve revenue growth and overall sales productivity goals.

Sales engagement platforms will grow from $700 million to $5 billion in the next five years

In a recent CIO.com article, Roger Kay (founder and president of Endpoint Associates) discusses the emergence of the Sales Engagement Platform to address these industry challenges and why companies should care. He names ClearSlide the originator in the space and the most complete platform. Kay suggests that neither CRM nor marketing automation solutions helps sales actually engage with prospects. For sales, marketing, and customer success teams, having a solid platform to manage the customer engagement process from end to end can yield real dividends.

And Kay is not alone. Aragon Research estimates that the market for sales engagement platforms will grow from $700 million to $5 billion in the next five years.