The sales process is well known. You need to find potential customers, attract them, close the deal, and make sure they become loyal customers.

But today’s customer buying journey is more complex, more competitive than ever before. CRM and sales engagement solutions offer the tools to help you win the business and meet customer expectations, but they need to be integrated.

Most sales teams use a CRM like Salesforce or Pipedrive and a Sales engagement platform like Outplay but not together.

In this article, we'll explain why you should integrate your CRM and sales engagement solutions, and how it will help you close more deals.

Sales Engagement Platform (SEP) vs CRM

CRM and Sales Engagement Platforms are not the same thing. But many people use the terms interchangeably.

Why is this important? Because both the tools are two important pillars of the sales tech stack and in order to optimize your sales activities you need to integrate both these tools and they need to work together cohesively.

Where a CRM is record-oriented - it stores and organizes your customer information, and records interactions for ongoing business use - a SEP is process-oriented - it helps you engage with prospects with highly personalized and relevant messages over different channels.

It’s not enough to just have one or the other. Trying to use a sales engagement platform without a CRM will not work and trying to use a CRM without a sales engagement platform would waste time and be inefficient.

Let's take a look at how they differ.

What is a CRM?

A CRM (Customer Relationship Management software) is your system of record. Think of your CRM as your customer database. It is a software solution designed to store information about your customers, their purchase history, deal information and other vital information.

It's like an electronic version of a paper-based Rolodex where customer records are collected and updated throughout the customer life cycle, making your CRM a central repository for important data.

Your business can use this information to enhance customer relationships, boost customer retention, and improve sales performance.

What is a Sales Engagement Platform?

A Sales Engagement Platform (SEP) is your system of action. It enables your

sales team to have high-quality interactions with prospects and customers at scale and automate those interactions too.

It acts as the management console for the sales process while sending activity data back to your CRM throughout the customer lifecycle giving you a complete view of your sales pipeline.

A SEP helps you to efficiently plan, execute, track, measure and optimize interactions with your prospects and customers across multiple touches and channels - email, call, SMS, social, and more.

We'll now look at some of the key reasons why you should integrate your CRM and sales engagement platform.

Benefits of integrating your CRM and Sales Engagement Platform

SEP and CRM engagement are two of the most important tools that businesses use to manage their customer data. When CRM engagement and sales engagement platforms are not integrated, it can lead to data silos and inefficiencies.

As a business owner, you are always looking for ways to increase efficiency and productivity. One way to do this is to integrate your CRM engagement and sales engagement solution.

Here are some benefits of doing so:

1. Streamlined data management

Once you integrate your CRM and sales engagement platform, all your data is housed in one place. Easier to manage, update, and report on your sales data. And because your data is centralized, your sales team can access it from anywhere, anytime.

2. Sales Pipeline Management

Another benefit of integrating your CRM and sales engagement solution is you can better manage your sales pipeline. You can view your sales stages, tasks, and deadlines under one roof. Now you can close more deals and increase your sales productivity.

| Read: A sales rep’s guide to understanding the sales pipeline

3. Customer Relationship Management

Integrating your CRM and sales engagement platform can help you better manage your customer relationships. This includes having a complete view of your customer’s communication history, contact information, and purchase history. This information can help you provide better customer service and support.

4. Marketing Automation

Integrating your CRM and sales engagement platform will help you automate your marketing tasks. Tasks such as email marketing, lead nurturing and lead scoring. You’ll be able to save time and energy on your marketing efforts.

5. Improved Sales Visibility

Integrating your CRM and sales engagement solution gives you a complete picture of your sales pipeline. You can see which deals are in progress, which are close to close, and which are at risk of falling through the cracks. This visibility is essential for keeping your sales team on track and achieving your goals.

6. More Efficient Sales Process

An integrated CRM and sales engagement solution can help you streamline your sales process. By Automating repetitive tasks, you can free up your sales team's time so they can focus on selling. And by setting up rules and triggers, you can ensure that your sales team is following the best practices.

7. Greater Scalability

As your business grows, you may need to add more sales reps. With an integrated CRM and sales engagement platform, you can easily add new users and train them on the system.

8. Reduced Costs 

Integrating your CRM and sales engagement platform can save you money by reducing the need for duplicate data entry. When you enter information into one system, it automatically updates in the other system.  Reducing the likelihood of errors ensures that your sales reps are working with the most up-to-date information.

9. Better Sales

When your sales team has access to customer data and purchase history, they can better understand what customers are interested in and what products they might be interested in purchasing. This information helps them to make more informed sales pitches and to close more sales.

| Read: The Ultimate Guide to B2B Contact Databases


Sales teams need a CRM to manage their customer relationships and a Sales Engagement Platform to help them sell. By integrating these two platforms, you can get the best of both worlds and boost your sales performance.  

You can create a more seamless process for your sales team and ultimately improve your bottom line. Try Outplay today, the leading Sales Engagement Platform that natively integrates with CRMs like Salesforce, Hubspot, Pipedrive, Zoho CRM, and more!