September 2026 Edition, published · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since. The current standing is on the category page →
Index › GTM › Sales › Sales engagement › Enterprise · September 2026 Edition

Sales engagement platforms for enterprise buyers

Asked as “sales engagement platform”, and as “sales engagement tool”, on behalf of an enterprise B2B company. 52 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
42%
Clear leader
42Outreach27Salesloft10HubSpot Sales Hub21others

42% of first choices, clear leader.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.

The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for an enterprise B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Outreach42%26%62criticized default
02Salesloft27%23%61accepted challenger
03Salesforce Sales Engagement10%14%29accepted challenger
04HubSpot Sales Hub10%33%27criticized challenger
05Apollo.io2%35%31criticized challenger
Show the two products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
07Groove0%24%21accepted challenger
06Gong Engage0%19%16accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its product page.
Head to headHead-to-head pages are published for mid-market buyers, so these open on mid-market figures, not enterprise.
All fifteen head-to-head pages: the top six products, each against each

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative60%
Key
01Outreach42%
02Salesloft27%
03Salesforce Sales Engagement10%
04HubSpot Sales Hub10%
05Apollo.io2%
06Gong Engage0%
07Groove0%

What they warned about

Four of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash and GLM 4.7 FlashX changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
Apollo.io
35%
11 of 31 labels negative · 10 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“one guide says to avoid it when deliverability is critical, for enterprise deals above $100K, and for teams larger than 50 reps” Perplexity Sonar, negative prompt
Outreach
26%
16 of 62 labels negative · 9 of 12 models · 5 hard negative
“When to Avoid: Teams under 300-500 reps; non-Salesforce CRMs; or those needing responsive support/fast setup.” Grok 4.20, negative prompt
Salesloft
23%
14 of 61 labels negative · 9 of 12 models · 5 hard negative
“Platforms to Avoid ... Salesloft (Post-Clari Merger) - Primary Concern: Merged with Clari in December 2025, creating significant integration and pricing risk” MiniMax M2.5, negative prompt
HubSpot Sales Hub
33%
9 of 27 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“one guide says to avoid it if sending more than 5K emails/month because deliverability drops” Perplexity Sonar, negative prompt

What they cite

Four of the twelve models returned a source list in this edition: four return the pages they cited.

Sites the answers cite

24 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 4 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 313 links across 141 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page. The other 8 models searched through a gateway that returned no source list on this edition.

vendor site · Forecastio11 answers · 11 citations · 3 models
vendor site · La Growth Machine10 answers · 10 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Avoma9 answers · 11 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Salesloft7 answers · 8 citations · 4 models
vendor site · Kixie7 answers · 7 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Skylead7 answers · 7 citations · 3 models
vendor site · ZoomInfo6 answers · 8 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Instantly6 answers · 7 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Allegrow6 answers · 6 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Klenty6 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Rework6 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Sybill6 answers · 6 citations · 2 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

Search against answers

Each company's standing in the answers beside its site's footprint in Google search, one row a site: the products the models named on it with their shares, and the share they add up to; monthly searches on Google, and DataForSEO's estimate of AI search demand (modeled from search signals, directional, not a count of queries to any assistant), for the most-searched of the company's and its products' names (the name is in each row's hover text); estimated monthly organic visits to the site; and its best position in Google's top ten for “best sales engagement platform”, “sales engagement platform”. US estimates from DataForSEO and Google's Ads Transparency Center. A small company's site, or a mid-sized company's site for its flagship, is marked company; a product on a large parent's site (Google, Microsoft) has no site figures. A column with no figures for this category is left out, and an empty cell means none were seen, not none exist. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Company and productsShareOwn site citedName searches, GoogleAI search demand, est.Organic visitsPaid search a month, est.Google ads, last 30 daysBest Google position
Outreach outreach.ai42%26933,1009,28227,855$14351
Salesloft salesloft.com27%29218,10044552,058$4,229745
Salesforce parent site
Salesforce Sales Engagement 10%, Salesforce Sales Cloud 4%
13%318550,00060,632
HubSpot parent site
HubSpot Sales Hub 10%
10%687368,0009,776
Apollo.io apollo.io2%101033,100396111,60894
Dynamics 365 Sales Accelerator2%
Salesforce Salesloft2%
SmartReach.io smartreach.io2%1540042,8700
Gong gong.io
Gong Engage 0%
0%3074,00013,36152,787 company$1,556120
Clari clari.com
Groove 0%
0%3260,50027,676444,225 company

Google's top ten for the two searches hold 11 sites; 4 of them are among the sites the models cited here (forecastio.ai, kixie.com, pipeline.zoominfo.com, salesloft.com). The first result for “best sales engagement platform” is forecastio.ai.

How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ShowHide
ModelDirect“What is the best sales engagement platform for an enterprise B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which sales engagement tool would you recommend to a large B2B company with thousands of employees?”Comparative“What are the top enterprise-grade sales engagement platforms and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best sales engagement platform for a large company that needs predictable total cost across thousands of users?”Scale-constrained“We are a 5,000 person company with SSO, SOC 2 and procurement review requirements evaluating a sales engagement platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which sales engagement platforms should a large enterprise avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Outreach, SalesloftOutreachChanged
Two alternativesAmplemarket, Groove
Outreach, Salesloft
One alternativeHubSpot Sales Hub
Salesloft
One alternativeSmartlead
against: Outreach
no first choiceagainst: Outreach
GPT-5.4 miniSalesloft
One alternativeOutreach
against: Apollo.io, HubSpot Sales Hub
OutreachChanged
Two alternativesSalesforce Sales Engagement, Salesloft
Salesloft
Two alternativesGroove, Outreach
Apollo.io
One alternativeSalesloft
no first choiceagainst: Salesloft
Gemini 3.5 FlashOutreach
Three alternativesGong Engage, Salesforce Sales Engagement, Salesloft
SalesloftChanged
Three alternativesGong Engage, Outreach, Salesforce Sales Engagement
Outreach, Salesloft
Four alternativesAmplemarket, Apollo.io, Gong Engage, Salesforce Sales Engagement
Dynamics 365 Sales Accelerator, Salesforce Sales Engagement
One alternativeApollo.io
against: Gong Engage, Outreach, Salesloft
no first choiceagainst: Apollo.io, Lemlist, Lusha, Mailshake, Mixmax, Reply.io, Woodpecker, Yesware, ZoomInfo Engage
Perplexity SonarOutreach
Two alternativesSalesforce Sales Engagement, Salesloft
against: HubSpot Sales Hub
OutreachHeld
Two alternativesSalesforce Sales Engagement, Salesloft
Outreach, Salesloft
Two alternativesGong Engage, Salesforce Sales Engagement
against: Groove, HubSpot Sales Hub
SmartReach.io
Two alternativesOutreach, Salesloft
no first choiceagainst: Apollo.io, HubSpot Sales Hub, Instantly, Klenty, Lemlist, Mailshake, Reply.io
Grok 4.20Outreach
One alternativeSalesloft
OutreachHeld
Two alternativesSalesforce Sales Engagement, Salesloft
Outreach, Salesloft
Three alternativesGroove, Salesforce Sales Engagement, ZoomInfo Engage
against: Apollo.io
HubSpot Sales Hub, Salesforce Sales Engagementagainst: Outreach, SalesloftOutreach, Salesloft
One alternativeZoomInfo SalesOS
against: HubSpot Sales Hub, Outreach, Salesforce Sales Engagement, Salesloft
Mistral SmallOutreach
Two alternativesGong Engage, Salesloft
Outreach, SalesloftChanged
Two alternativesApollo.io, Salesforce Sales Engagement
Outreach
Five alternativesApollo.io, Mixmax, Reply.io, Salesforce Sales Engagement, Salesloft
HubSpot Sales Hub, Salesforce Sales Cloudagainst: Outreach, Salesloftno first choiceagainst: Apollo.io, Groove, Mixmax, Outreach, Salesloft, ToutApp
DeepSeek V4 FlashOutreach, Salesloft
Two alternativesAmplemarket, Nooks
OutreachChanged
One alternativeSalesloft
Outreach, Salesloft
Two alternativesGroove, Salesforce Sales Engagement
Salesloft
Two alternativesHubSpot Sales Hub, Salesforce Sales Engagement
against: Instantly, Outreach
Outreach, Salesloftagainst: Apollo.io, HubSpot Sales Hub, Instantly, Koncert, Lemlist, Mailshake, Nooks, Outreach, Revenue.io, Salesloft, Smartlead, Snov.io, Woodpecker, ZELIQ
Llama 4 MaverickOutreach, SalesloftSalesforce Sales CloudChanged
Two alternativesLa Growth Machine, Warmly
Outreach
Two alternativesApollo.io, Salesloft
no first choiceOutreach, Salesforce Sales Engagement, Salesloft
Three alternativesGong Engage, Groove, HubSpot Sales Hub
nothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashSalesforce Salesloft
Two alternativesOutreach, Sequences.ai
SalesloftChanged
Two alternativesGroove, Outreach
Outreach, Salesloft
Three alternativesApollo.io, Highspot, HubSpot Sales Hub
HubSpot Sales Hub, Salesforce Sales Engagementagainst: Outreach, Salesloftno first choiceagainst: Apollo.io, Boomerang, Groove, HubSpot Sales Hub, Mixmax, Salesloft, Yesware
Kimi K2Outreach
Three alternativesApollo.io, Salesforce Sales Cloud, Salesloft
OutreachHeld
One alternativeSalesloft
against: Apollo.io, Gong Engage
Outreach, Salesloft
Three alternativesGroove, HubSpot Sales Hub, Salesforce Sales Engagement
Salesforce Sales Engagement
One alternativeGroove
against: Outreach, Salesloft
Outreach
Two alternativesGroove, Salesloft
against: Apollo.io
against: Dux-Soup, Groove, Mixmax, Outreach, Phantombuster, Salesforce Sales Engagement, Salesloft, ToutApp
GLM 4.7 FlashXSalesloft
Three alternativesApollo.io, Gong Engage, Outreach
OutreachChanged
One alternativeSalesloft
Outreach, Salesloft
Ten alternativesApollo.io, Gong Engage, Groove, HubSpot Sales Hub, Instantly, Kixie, Lemlist, Reply.io, Revenue.io, Salesforce Sales Engagement
HubSpot Sales Hub
Two alternativesApollo.io, Salesforce Sales Engagement
against: Outreach, Salesloft
no first choiceagainst: Apollo.io, Bigtincan, Drift, Gong Engage, Groove, Highspot, HubSpot Sales Hub, Mixmax, Outreach, Revenue Grid, Salesforce ClockWise, Salesforce Sales Engagement, Salesloft, Showpad, ToutApp
MiniMax M2.5Outreach
One alternativeSalesloft
OutreachHeld
Three alternativesGroove, Salesloft, ZoomInfo Engage
Outreach, Salesloft
Two alternativesHubSpot Sales Hub, Salesforce Sales Engagement
HubSpot Sales Hub, Salesloft
One alternativeZoomInfo Engage
against: Instantly, Outreach
no first choiceagainst: Apollo.io, Brainshark, Highspot, HubSpot Sales Hub, Outreach, Salesforce Sales Engagement, Salesloft, Showpad
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency.
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 00:06yes87 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 03:38yes35 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:37yes1922 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 01:49yes206 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-14 23:59yes07 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 23:18yes012 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 00:08yes017 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:57yes02 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 00:45no033 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:28yes032 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 03:42yes0131 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:13yes09 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 00:23yes77 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:52yes34 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:54yes1620 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-14 23:56yes205 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-14 22:58yes08 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 01:29yes09 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 02:34yes021 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:03yes01 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 00:43no031 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:12yes048 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 22:53yes011 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 03:42yes024 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 23:44yes119 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 03:34yes57 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 01:50yes1926 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:37yes198 s
ComparativeGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-14 23:05yes08 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 00:55yes010 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 03:50yes025 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-14 23:45yes02 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 04:26no049 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:54yes045 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 01:28yes0112 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 01:49yes021 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 03:06yes158 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:44yes25 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:36yes1929 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 01:17yes205 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 04:31yes09 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 03:42yes05 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 02:58yes021 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:40yes02 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 02:32yes086 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:17yes088 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 00:27yes047 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 03:43yes023 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 01:11yes1613 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 02:47yes15 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:57yes1127 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:19yes209 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 03:38yes012 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 01:54no04 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 03:56yes020 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-14 22:53yes03 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 00:13no033 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:48yes096 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 01:47yes020 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 01:18yes013 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 02:58yes158 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:53yes37 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:21yes2126 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-14 23:14yes205 s
Negative framingGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-14 23:12yes09 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 03:30yes012 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 03:03yes032 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-14 23:06yes02 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 02:01yes052 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:37yes063 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 01:40yes032 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 04:09yes039 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

ShowHide
Category-scoped readings
Clari read as Groove
Gong read as Gong Engage
HubSpot read as HubSpot Sales Hub
HubSpot (Sales Hub) read as HubSpot Sales Hub
Salesforce read as Salesforce Sales Engagement
ZoomInfo read as ZoomInfo Engage
ZoomInfo Engagement read as ZoomInfo Engage
ZoomInfo Sales read as ZoomInfo Engage
Unresolved, counted raw
Boomerang
Dynamics 365 Sales Accelerator
Salesforce ClockWise
Salesforce Salesloft
ZELIQ
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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