Gartner defines B2B marketing automation platforms (B2B MAPs) as software applications that support demand generation processes at scale. B2B MAPs help marketers capture and qualify leads and accounts, orchestrate marketing-driven engagement across the full customer journey, and use analytics to optimize and measure performance. B2B MAPs enable marketers to automate a wide range of activities intended to drive new customer acquisition, retention and growth. To support the pursuit of new commercial opportunities (from current or prospective customers), marketers use B2B MAPs to generate, prioritize, and manage leads and account buying groups across the revenue life cycle. This includes the distribution of marketing-generated and qualified leads to sales teams for further pursuit. Also, B2B MAPs are used to orchestrate and measure multichannel customer engagement campaigns and programs. B2B MAPs enable marketers to design and activate some communication channels natively — most notably, email and web landing pages — and orchestrate customer engagement through other channels via integrations with other tools/platforms.
Gartner defines customer journey analytics and orchestration (CJA/O) as solutions that track and analyze how customers and prospects interact with an organization across multiple channels over time. Most CJA/O solutions subsequently enable organizations to prioritize and orchestrate real-time improvements to the customer experience in multichannel journeys throughout the end-to-end customer life cycle. The journey lens provided by CJA/O solutions offers insights by combining cross-channel interaction data with transactional, voice of the customer (VoC) and customer profile data on a time axis. Other types of analysis in isolation cannot achieve this. This enables data-driven predictions at scale and experimentation with multichannel interventions that can be robustly verified as driving increased customer satisfaction, retention and lifetime value.
Sales engagement applications (SEAs) streamline how sellers execute sales activities and deal workflows at scale. They optimize seller productivity by combining three key capabilities into a single interface: multichannel engagement (e.g., email, voice, SMS, video, social media), outbound workflow execution and time-saving AI/automation. Sellers rely on SEAs to streamline guidance into whom to engage and when, and what messaging to use, while capturing sales activities back into sales force automation (SFA) platforms.
Sales force automation (SFA) platforms are AI-enhanced tools that streamline sales tasks, helping teams manage buyer interactions across various channels. By using AI, these platforms optimize sales activities with advanced analytics and actionable insights, improving contact, pipeline and opportunity management. AI features like machine learning and natural language processing enable platforms to predict customer needs, personalize strategies and guide sellers through complex processes. AI-driven tools aid in forecasting and decision making, allowing teams to anticipate market trends and customer behaviors. SFA platforms enhance the user experience for sellers, ensuring scalability and facilitating seamless buyer-seller interactions and shared customer experiences, and providing leaders with visibility. SFA is a foundational sales platform implemented to automate and augment an organization’s core sales processes while utilizing AI and advanced analytics. It enhances the seller’s ability to engage with customers on all interaction touchpoints and devices. It not only optimizes sales-relevant tasks but also provides actionable next best actions for improved sales contact, pipeline and opportunity management.