Total Economic Impact
Cost Savings And Business Benefits Enabled By Salesloft
A Forrester Total Economic Impact™ Study Commissioned By Salesloft, April 2025
Total Economic Impact
A Forrester Total Economic Impact™ Study Commissioned By Salesloft, April 2025
Amid economic challenges and evolving B2B buyer behavior, revenue leaders and their organizations are facing increasing pressure to improve performance, be more cost efficient, and better utilize technology, including AI. Given budget pressures, Forrester recommends that revenue operations leaders invest in core areas that bolster the foundations of growth, which includes revenue orchestration platforms.1 Organizations can use a revenue orchestration platform like Salesloft to enable effective buyer engagement, optimize internal revenue generation processes, and improve sales performance and productivity.2
Salesloft is an AI-powered revenue orchestration platform that captures, prioritizes, and operationalizes data from billions of buyer-seller interactions and buying signals within the platform and across its integration marketplace. It enables businesses to engage buyers, generate pipeline, accelerate deal velocity, and ultimately close more business. Salesloft powers revenue growth and predictability and helps thousands of organizations worldwide scale their revenue operations. The platform unifies previously disconnected technologies across the entire buyer-seller journey, integrating CRM data with tools for conversational AI chat, sales engagement, revenue intelligence, conversational intelligence, deal management, sales coaching, and forecasting — all supported by AI-driven workflows and agents.
Salesloft commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct a Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study and examine the potential return on investment (ROI) enterprises may realize by deploying Salesloft.3 The purpose of this study is to provide readers with a framework to evaluate the potential financial impact of Salesloft on their organizations.
To better understand the benefits, costs, and risks associated with this investment, Forrester interviewed four decision-makers with experience using Salesloft. For the purposes of this study, Forrester aggregated the interviewees’ experiences and combined the results into a single composite organization that is a global B2B enterprise with annual revenue of $7 billion and a distributed revenue organization of 1,500 people.
Interviewees said that prior to using Salesloft, their organizations typically did not have a revenue orchestration platform; instead, they had no solution, mixed tooling, or manual operations. Previous attempts to implement such a system yielded limited success, leaving them with reduced visibility, poor data quality, unpredictability, disjointed tooling, and inefficient revenue organization. These limitations led to fewer sales opportunities and smaller pipelines, resulting in fewer deals and lower revenue. This ultimately caused a decrease in operating profit and inconsistent organizational goal achievement.
After the investment in Salesloft, many interviewees’ organizations saw an impact within the first six months, maturing their revenue organizations and achieving a performance force multiplier. These organizations experienced value through several key multipliers across various operational aspects. For example, they achieved people multipliers through improved efficiency that enhanced productivity across teams. Opportunity multipliers emerged from improved visibility and data quality, allowing for more informed decision-making. Organizations realized coverage multipliers through more effective buyer engagement, leveraging AI and personalization to tailor interactions. And they attained speed multipliers by implementing consistent sales processes built on best practices, which were aided by Salesloft’s support, education, and services. Key results from the investment included increases to opportunities, closed/won deals, cost savings, operating profit, and durable revenue.
Percentage more revenue with Salesloft (Year 3, excluding renewals)
Quantified benefits. Three-year, risk-adjusted present value (PV) quantified benefits for the composite organization include:
Increased operating profit from improved sales effectiveness due to a 20% improved response rate and a 50% improved conversion to opportunity rate. The composite organization uses the Salesloft platform — including Rhythm for agentic workflows, Cadence for sales engagement, Conversations for conversational intelligence, and Coaching for sales coaching — to engage at scale more effectively and consistently throughout the buyer lifecycle and convert more sales activity into opportunities. The composite’s sellers more effectively engage with buyers when they receive key insights detailing who is in market, the context of their needs, what actions to take, when to take them, and why. With increased opportunities from a consistent level of sales activity and a streamlined workflow to engage buyers at the right moment, the composite organization closes deals faster and more predictability. By leveraging Salesloft, it gains visibility into deal status, identifies risks, and has the workflows in place to act on these insights, which drives greater revenue. Over three years, this benefit is worth $12.4 million in operating profit to the composite organization.
Increased operating profit from increased selling activity with 40% more activity to maximize market opportunities. In addition to improved sales effectiveness, the composite organization uses Salesloft to complete more calls, emails, and other sales activities with a steady number of salespeople throughout the buying lifecycle, reaching more buyers with the right engagement. Salesloft’s sales engagement and agentic workflows enable the composite organization’s team to drive optimal seller actions and build AI-powered outbound engagement sequences, resulting in more opportunities generated consistently and efficiently. With a larger and more predictable pipeline supported by Salesloft, the composite organization closes more deals and achieves greater revenue. Over three years, this benefit is worth $10.9 million in operating profit to the composite organization.
Increased operating profit from improved opportunity management with a 12% higher closed/won rate. The composite organization not only generates more opportunities and pipeline due to Salesloft but also converts a higher percentage of these opportunities into closed/won deals. Salesloft’s conversational intelligence provides valuable insights by distilling information from conversations and linking it to relevant opportunities. This feature enables the composite’s sellers to act on those insights and improve deal outcomes, while sales managers can identify risks and opportunities within specific deals and leverage teachable moments effectively. These activities, combined with Deals for deal management, agentic workflows, and sales coaching capabilities, enable the composite organization to improve its consistency at scale, drive more closed/won deals, and increase revenue. Over three years, this benefit is worth $4.4 million in operating profit to the composite organization.
Percentage more opportunities and pipeline with Salesloft (Year 3)
Increased operating profit from improved customer loyalty with a 1.3% improved renewal rate. The composite organization benefits from using Salesloft throughout the buyer lifecycle, including for deal renewals. With Salesloft, it increases and improves engagement with current customers and better manages deal renewals, leading to higher customer retention, more renewed deals, and increased revenue. Over three years, this benefit is worth $2.3 million in operating profit to the composite organization.
Team productivity and performance benefits with 32% improved coaching productivity and 10% improved administrative productivity. The composite organization’s entire revenue team benefits from its investment in Salesloft. Its managers coach salespeople more effectively and efficiently with Salesloft’s conversational intelligence and coaching capabilities, saving time on manual work and driving better sales outcomes. Salesloft helps the composite’s managers home in on the most relevant opportunities and help salespeople succeed. Additionally, coaching sessions are more productive with less preparation required due to AI meeting agents. Its salespeople also save time on manual work with agentic workflows, integrations, Conductor AI, and the rest of the Salesloft platform. Salesloft’s AI workflows connect to a broad integration ecosystem, giving the composite’s salespeople a complete and prioritized view of the most important actions to get deals done and maximizing efficiency. This feature enables the revenue team to better allocate their time toward higher value activities that align with the organization’s goals. Over three years, this benefit is worth $6.8 million to the composite organization.
Technology optimization cost savings of $1.3 million over three years. After investing in Salesloft as a comprehensive revenue orchestration platform for the entire buyer lifecycle, the composite organization simplifies and consolidates its revenue technology stack by retiring point solutions that it no longer needs.
Percentage additional revenue with Salesloft (Year 3, including renewals)
Unquantified benefits. Benefits that provide value for the composite organization but are not quantified for this study include:
Improved data quality. The composite organization improves its data quality by better tracking sales activity and pulling it together with first-party signals, third-party signals, buyer engagement, and its sales methodology. Salesloft helps the composite organization integrate the most critical data sources in its sales ecosystem, resulting in a complete view of buyers and a better understanding of outcome drivers.
Increased visibility and insights. With the investment in Salesloft, the composite organization increases its visibility into revenue organization processes, helping identify gaps across the full sales funnel in one place and gaining greater insights, including AI insights. This enables the composite to better spot risks, focus on the right actions, reduce friction in the buying journey, and drive repeatable revenue.
Salesloft support and education. The composite organization benefits from Salesloft self-service tooling, documentation, and support in addition to Salesloft professional services. This support helps the composite’s team quickly get back to work and spend more time closing deals and achieving goals. It also benefits from education resources and best practices that facilitate and accelerate Salesloft adoption internally.
Flexibility. Salesloft customers might implement Salesloft and later realize additional uses and business opportunities, including:
Enterprise-readiness and scalability. As it grows, the composite organization can scale its Salesloft use across the entire, global revenue organization while meeting compliance requirements.
Use with other technology. The composite organization can integrate Salesloft with its CRM and other interoperable technologies, thereby driving increased use and value from those technologies with Salesloft.
Platform growth, including Drift. With Salesloft’s acquisition of Drift, the composite organization can start to realize greater value from using Salesloft and Drift together.
Costs. Three-year, risk-adjusted PV costs for the composite organization include:
Salesloft costs of $8.8 million over three years. The composite organization pays for Salesloft on a per user basis over three years, and all 1,500 of the composite’s revenue organization employees adopt it by Year 3. Additionally, the composite takes advantage of Salesloft professional services for onboarding, implementation, and ongoing optimization.
Implementation costs of $192,000. The composite organization devotes two full-time roles to implement Salesloft over four months. It takes advantage of Salesloft services, which accelerates the implementation process and reduces the necessary labor.
Training costs of $1.2 million. Each of the composite organization’s Salesloft users receives three hours of initial training followed by refresher training each year, allowing users to maximize their performance. Salesloft services help the composite organization run training sessions and develop custom training materials.
Ongoing management and support costs of $715,000. To maintain the Salesloft investment, the composite organization invests 25% of four roles per year in ongoing management.
Sales enablement costs of $357,000. The composite organization also invests 25% of two roles per year for sales enablement purposes.
The representative interviews and financial analysis found that a composite organization experiences benefits of $38.02 million over three years versus costs of $11.33 million, adding up to a net present value (NPV) of $26.69 million and an ROI of 236%.
Return on investment (ROI)
Benefits PV
Net present value (NPV)
| Role | Industry | Region | Revenue | Salesloft services customer | Drift customer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sales director | Electronics distribution | North America HQ, global operations | $33 billion | Yes | No |
| Director, global head of prospecting | Financial services | North America HQ, global operations | $12 billion | Yes | Yes |
| Senior revenue operations manager | Commerce | North America HQ, global operations | $7 billion | Yes | Yes |
| Head of sales optimization | Information services | Europe HQ, global operations | $7 billion | Yes | Yes |
Before Salesloft, interviewees’ organizations often had no revenue orchestration solution. Some had a selection of related tools and point solutions and others manually orchestrated their revenue processes. Many of the interviewees created their specific teams within their revenue organizations from nothing and wanted to find the right tools to lead their teams to success.
The interviewees noted how their organizations struggled with common challenges, including:
Lack of visibility and poor data quality. Interviewees told Forrester that their organizations lacked visibility into their revenue processes before Salesloft and existing data was of poor quality. The head of sales optimization for an information services organization said: “[Our sales activity] was completely invisible to management and upward. ... One of the initiatives that drove us into revenue orchestration was to do with tracking. [Revenue orchestration] solves that pain point in the sense that we can start to see visibility and history on [prospects and customers] in one place.”
Lack of consistency and disjointed tooling. Interviewees explained how their organizations were challenged to deliver consistent revenue-driving efforts and partially attributed this to a disjointed tool experience. The senior revenue operations manager for a commerce organization said: “The user experience was just disjointed. We had questions about how merchant activity pulls in with merchant conversations and how to get that connectivity. It was a big focus of revenue operations at the time to make sure that our [user experience] was more seamless and everybody had access to one singular source of truth for revenue engagement.” They wanted to see all their revenue data in one place and act on it.
Inefficient revenue organizations. Interviewees told Forrester how their organizations’ revenue-driving employees faced sales efficiency challenges and therefore sought a more optimal solution. The head of sales optimization for an information services organization said: “[It was] about efficiencies as well. The lack of tooling [before] versus the tooling we have now puts us in a very different place in terms of how much one salesperson can complete.”
Revenue Orchestration Platforms
Forrester defines revenue orchestration platforms as “technology that enables B2B frontline resources to design, execute, capture, analyze, and improve buyer and customer engagement while optimizing productivity and internal revenue processes.”4
The interviewees’ organizations searched for a solution that could:
Offer the necessary revenue orchestration solution capabilities.
Integrate with their CRM solutions and other tools.
Provide support and services.
Specifically, the interviewees’ organizations opted for Salesloft services to:
Encourage and maximize adoption.
Accelerate implementation.
Serve as a force multiplier for their teams.
Support them in following best practices.
Based on the interviews, Forrester constructed a TEI framework, a composite company, and an ROI analysis that illustrates the areas financially affected. The composite organization is representative of the interviewees’ organizations, and it is used to present the aggregate financial analysis in the next section. The composite organization has the following characteristics:
Description of composite. The composite organization is a global B2B enterprise with annual revenue of $7 billion. It is a large and distributed revenue organization of 1,500 people who focus on the full buyer lifecycle. The composite has a complex organizational structure, has made acquisitions, and must adhere to specific governance requirements. On average, its new business deals are valued at $150,000 and typically last three years, which translates to an average annual new business deal value of $50,000. The composite maintains an average operating profit margin of 12%. It is a customer of Drift and Salesloft services.
Deployment characteristics. The composite organization begins using Salesloft in Year 1, following a four-month implementation period. The initial rollout covers 60% of the revenue organization’s potential users, which scales to 85% by Year 2 and reaches 100% by Year 3. The composite uses Salesloft professional services to accelerate implementation and user adoption.
$7 billion annual revenue
1,500 revenue organization employees
$50,000 average annual deal value (new business)
12% operating profit margin
60% user adoption in Year 1, 85% in Year 2, and 100% in Year 3
Uses Salesloft professional services
| Ref. | Metric | Source | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| R1 | Annual revenue | Composite | $7,000,000,000 |
| R2 | Percentage of employees in the revenue organization focusing on new business | Composite | 15% |
| R3 | Percentage of employees in the revenue organization focusing on growth (cross-sell) | Composite | 40% |
| R4 | Percentage of employees in the revenue organization focusing on growth (upsell) | Composite | 30% |
| R5 | Percentage of employees in the revenue organization focusing on retention | Composite | 10% |
| R6 | Percentage of employees in the revenue organization focusing on management and operations | Composite | 5% |
| R7 | Average annual deal value (new business) | Composite | $50,000 |
| R8 | Average annual deal value (cross-sell) | Composite | $30,000 |
| R9 | Average annual deal value (upsell) | Composite | $10,000 |
| Ref. | Benefit | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Total | Present Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atr | Increased operating profit from improved sales effectiveness | $3,511,961 | $5,239,987 | $6,480,101 | $15,232,049 | $12,391,855 |
| Btr | Increased operating profit from increased selling activity | $3,013,882 | $4,607,225 | $5,832,090 | $13,453,198 | $10,929,253 |
| Ctr | Increased operating profit from improved opportunity management | $1,138,465 | $1,839,840 | $2,449,732 | $5,428,037 | $4,396,017 |
| Dtr | Increased operating profit from improved customer loyalty | $620,057 | $958,038 | $1,219,784 | $2,797,879 | $2,271,897 |
| Etr | Team productivity and performance | $1,790,250 | $2,838,500 | $3,701,250 | $8,330,001 | $6,754,172 |
| Ftr | Technology optimization | $382,500 | $541,875 | $637,500 | $1,561,875 | $1,274,521 |
| Total benefits (risk-adjusted) | $10,457,115 | $16,025,465 | $20,320,458 | $46,803,038 | $38,017,715 |
Evidence and data. Interviewees told Forrester that their organizations’ salespeople became more effective in their sales interactions. Salesloft’s capabilities, including sales engagement, agentic workflows, conversational intelligence, and coaching, helped their organizations’ sellers more effectively engage buyers with deeper and more timely insights. Interviewees explained that they could solicit increased responses to their engagement and convert those responses into opportunities at a greater rate.
The head of sales optimization for an information services organization said: “We were converting 16% of our orders into progressed opportunities. Our sales development representatives are booking those calls and progressing those opportunities. The most recent full month is at 35%. We’ve converted almost twice as many orders into live opportunities.”
The director, global head of prospecting for a financial services organization highlighted how Salesloft helped their organization produce quality pipeline. They said: “We have insights [with Salesloft]. Those insights also help us to tailor our messaging. Furthermore, the fact that it’s integrated with our other internal CRM tools helps us track activities [including] calls [and] emails. That is tremendously important.” This interviewee also explained how Salesloft helped improved their organization’s sales effectiveness, saying: “[Agentic workflows] help us prioritize the activities that prospectors need to take [and then action on them]. The different analytical reports that Salesloft has in its dashboard also helps us coach our team.” They added: “Does Salesloft help us get to customers quicker and in a more efficient and streamlined way? Yes. The first step of closing a deal, which is to get in touch with the prospect and have them agree to [talk to] us, is very much streamlined because of Salesloft.”
The senior revenue operations manager for a commerce organization said: “[We achieved] an increase in the response rate [and] an increase in meetings booked. We were able to increase speed to lead and the consistency of the steps after that as far as prospect engagement by running automated enrollment and then automated messaging. [This made us] more consistent and therefore increased our outcomes.”
The sales director for an electronics distribution organization said: “The response rate has increased … 5 to 7 [percentage points].” They also explained how this benefit was realized throughout the buyer lifecycle, saying: “Yes, we have [seen improved customer growth], especially upsell and cross-sell. We use Salesloft for call blitzes and that’s our cross-sell. We get quite good lift out of that.” The interviewee concluded: “I’ve done about $50 million in net new revenue. Eighty percent of that came from Salesloft.”
Interviewees also told Forrester that Salesloft services helped their organizations realize value quicker and improved their performance over time. The director, global head of prospecting for a financial services organization said: “The Salesloft team is very proactive. [They help] ensure that we continue to not only see the same value that we’ve been seeing from Salesloft but also figure out how to use more features of the product to improve the value that we generate.”
Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:
The composite organization benefits from increased sales effectiveness throughout the buyer lifecycle with Salesloft.
It has 1,500 revenue organization employees with the following focus areas: new business (15%), cross-sell (40%), upsell (30%), retention (10%), and management and operations (5%). Eighty-five percent of employees who are focused on new business and growth benefit from the improved sales effectiveness.
The average employee conducts 20 sales activities (e.g., emails or calls) per day, which equates to 5,000 sales activities per year.
The composite organization progressively adopts Salesloft across the revenue organization over three years, reaching 100% of employees in Year 3. It benefits from a 20% faster user adoption rate due to Salesloft services.
The composite organization’s response rate without Salesloft is 5% and its conversion to opportunity rate without Salesloft is 10%.
The composite organization improves its response rate with Salesloft by 18% in Year 1. This improvement increases 5% year over year and reaches 20% in Year 3 due to the impact of Salesloft’s ongoing services.
The composite organization improves its conversion to opportunity rate by 46% in Year 1 with Salesloft. This improvement increases 5% year over year and reaches 50% in Year 3 due to the impact of Salesloft’s ongoing services.
The composite organization’s average blended annual deal value is based on the percentage of revenue organization from employees focusing on new business, cross-sell, and upsell, and the average annual deal values for each of these components. The composite organization’s average annual deal values are $50,000 for new business, $30,000 for cross-sell, and $10,000 for upsell.
The closed/won rate without Salesloft is 10%.
The operating profit margin is 12%.
Risks. This benefit may vary based on:
The size of an organization, including the number of employees in its revenue organization and how they focus their time.
The prior state of an organization, including its prior response rate, conversion to opportunity rate, and closed/won rate, as well as the average employee’s sales activity without Salesloft.
An organization’s Salesloft adoption pace, change management capabilities, use of Salesloft services, and the corresponding degree of improvement realized as compared to its prior state.
An organization’s operating profit margin.
Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 20%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $12.4 million.
Response rate improvement with Salesloft (Year 3)
Conversion to opportunity rate improvement with Salesloft (Year 3)
| Ref. | Metric | Source | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A1 | People in revenue organization | Composite | 1,500 | 1,500 | 1,500 | |
| A2 | Percentage of employees selling | Composite | 85% | 85% | 85% | |
| A3 | Selling activities per person per year without Salesloft | Composite | 5,000 | 5,000 | 5,000 | |
| A4 | Subtotal: Selling activities without Salesloft | A1*A2*A3 | 6,375,000 | 6,375,000 | 6,375,000 | |
| A5 | Salesloft user adoption rate | Composite | 60% | 85% | 100% | |
| A6 | Subtotal: Preexisting selling activities optimized with Salesloft | A4*A5 | 3,825,000 | 5,418,750 | 6,375,000 | |
| A7 | Response rate without Salesloft | Composite | 5% | 5% | 5% | |
| A8 | Conversion to opportunity rate without Salesloft | Composite | 10% | 10% | 10% | |
| A9 | Improvement to response rate with Salesloft | Interviews | 18% | 19% | 20% | |
| A10 | Improvement to conversion to opportunity rate with Salesloft | Interviews | 46% | 48% | 50% | |
| A11 | Response rate with Salesloft | A7*(1+A9) | 5.9% | 5.95% | 6% | |
| A12 | Conversion to opportunity rate with Salesloft | A8*(1+A10) | 14.6% | 14.8% | 15% | |
| A13 | Average blended annual deal value | ((R2/A2)*R7) + ((R3/A2)*R8) + ((R4/A2)*R9) | $26,471 | $26,471 | $26,471 | |
| A14 | Subtotal: Incremental new opportunities with Salesloft | (A6*A11*A12)-(A6*A7*A8) | 13,824 | 20,624 | 25,500 | |
| A15 | Subtotal: Incremental new pipeline with Salesloft | A13*A14 | $365,935,104 | $545,937,904 | $675,010,500 | |
| A16 | Closed/won rate without Salesloft | Composite | 10% | 10% | 10% | |
| A17 | Subtotal: Incremental closed/won deals with Salesloft | A14*A16 | 1,382 | 2,062 | 2,550 | |
| A18 | Subtotal: Incremental revenue earned with Salesloft | A17*A13 | $36,582,922 | $54,583,202 | $67,501,050 | |
| A19 | Operating profit margin | Composite | 12% | 12% | 12% | |
| At | Increased operating profit from improved sales effectiveness | A18*A19 | $4,389,951 | $6,549,984 | $8,100,126 | |
| Risk adjustment | ↓20% | |||||
| Atr | Increased operating profit from improved sales effectiveness (risk-adjusted) | $3,511,961 | $5,239,987 | $6,480,101 | ||
| Three-year total: $15,232,049 | Three-year present value: $12,391,855 | |||||
Evidence and data. Interviewees told Forrester their organizations could efficiently increase their sales activity throughout the buyer lifecycle while maintaining the same number of salespeople with Salesloft. Salesloft’s sales engagement and AI workflow capabilities helped their organizations drive optimal seller actions and build agentic-powered engagement sequences. These features led to maximized market opportunities through targeted engagement, which increased pipeline, deals, revenue, and operating profit.
The head of sales optimization for an information services organization said: “There’s more activity. … People that are heavily embedded with Salesloft are getting … more leads and therefore they get more opportunities. It’s significant. We get a 50% uplift.” They explained: “Salesloft is folding down the amount of time we spend on any given lead because of Cadence.”
This interviewee also noted increased speed to opportunity and said: “Our entire inbound channel and our outbound campaigns all run through the Salesloft platform. We’re seeing that decrease the time to respond to a client. [Before Salesloft] we saw half-day response times on inbound queries. Now, [with Salesloft], we’re seeing 10- to 15-minute response times on inbound queries. That’s significant.”
When asked whether Salesloft helped their financial services organization create more opportunities and increase pipeline value, the director, global head of prospecting for a financial services organization said, “Yes. The automated cadences of Salesloft have enabled reach at scale. My team will have, at any given point, 10,000 or more people on a cadence. [Manually doing this] over the course of 20 days would be very difficult. The fact that it is all automated helps us tremendously.” This interviewee summarized the increased seller productivity impact, saying: “Has prospecting activity increased per prospector? Yes. We’ve increased [engagement] activity 40% to 45% per prospector.”
However, the increased activity was not solely for new business, as the director, global head of prospecting explained: “Yes, Salesloft does help us [with upselling and cross-selling] because we’ve started using a feature on Salesloft called team cadences. … It would be a lot more difficult and not as efficient because there’s no other tool or feature that we could use where I could send an email on someone else’s behalf.”
The senior revenue operations manager for a commerce organization explained how their organization realized increased sales activity with Salesloft. They said: “We have implemented automation rules creation and scheduled imports that have resulted in an increase in meetings booked and opportunities created. … We’ve increased pipeline value with Salesloft. … [We’ve seen] Salesloft directly impact on our bottom line.”
This interviewee also noted the full buyer lifecycle impact, saying: “So, for our upsell team, we’ve just recently put in place an automation to take advantage of trials and autoenroll those into cadences. In the last 30 days, I’ve seen a 4% to 5% increase in opportunities created. We were at 4% and now we’re at about 8% to 8.6% opportunities created from that automation and cadence.”
The sales director for an electronics distribution organization said: “[There has] been an uplift [in pipeline value]. … Between last year and this year, our activity is up 30% by utilizing Salesloft more and more effectively.”
Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:
Without Salesloft, the composite organization averages 5,000 selling activities (e.g., a call, email, or other similar activity) per employee per year, or approximately 20 selling activities per day.
The composite organization increases its selling activity with Salesloft 36% in Year 1. This improvement increases 5% year over year and reaches 40% in Year 3 due to Salesloft’s ongoing services. As a result, the composite generates more opportunities, pipeline, deals, revenue, and operating profit.
The composite organization’s operating profit margin is 12%.
Risks. This benefit may vary based on:
This size of an organization and the number of salespeople.
The time spent targeting new business.
The prior state of an organization, the nature of its business, the number of sales activities per person per year, and the opportunity for improvement.
The change management capabilities of an organization, its use of Salesloft services and Salesloft, and the corresponding degree of improvement realized.
An organization’s operating profit margin.
Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 20%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $10.9 million.
Increase in selling activities with Salesloft (Year 3)
| Ref. | Metric | Source | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| B1 | Selling activities without Salesloft | A4 | 6,375,000 | 6,375,000 | 6,375,000 | |
| B2 | Salesloft user adoption rate | A5 | 60% | 85% | 100% | |
| B3 | Percentage increase in selling activities with Salesloft | Interviews | 36% | 38% | 40% | |
| B4 | Subtotal: Incremental new selling activities with Salesloft | B1*B2*B3 | 1,377,000 | 2,059,125 | 2,550,000 | |
| B5 | Response rate with Salesloft | A11 | 5.9% | 5.95% | 6% | |
| B6 | Conversion to opportunity rate with Salesloft | A12 | 14.6% | 14.8% | 15% | |
| B7 | Subtotal: Incremental new opportunities with Salesloft | B4*B5*B6 | 11,861 | 18,133 | 22,950 | |
| B8 | Subtotal: Incremental new pipeline generated with Salesloft | B7*A13 | $313,972,531 | $479,998,643 | $607,509,450 | |
| B9 | Closed/won rate without Salesloft | A16 | 10% | 10% | 10% | |
| B10 | Subtotal: Incremental closed/won deals with Salesloft | B7*B9 | 1,186 | 1,813 | 2,295 | |
| B11 | Subtotal: Incremental revenue earned with Salesloft | B10*A13 | $31,394,606 | $47,991,923 | $60,750,945 | |
| B12 | Operating profit margin | A19 | 12% | 12% | 12% | |
| Bt | Increased operating profit from increased selling activity | B11*B12 | $3,767,353 | $5,759,031 | $7,290,113 | |
| Risk adjustment | ↓20% | |||||
| Btr | Increased operating profit from increased selling activity (risk-adjusted) | $3,013,882 | $4,607,225 | $5,832,090 | ||
| Three-year total: $13,453,198 | Three-year present value: $10,929,253 | |||||
Evidence and data. Beyond increased sales effectiveness and sales activity driving more pipeline, interviewees told Forrester that their organizations were also able to win a greater percentage of opportunities. They explained that Salesloft enabled them to engage contacts quickly and consistently, prioritize opportunities effectively, and improve performance with coaching and insights, leading to faster deal velocity and an increased closed/won rate.
The head of sales optimization for an information services organization said, “We’re seeing the win rate go up.” They added: “Time to progress a sale [has improved]. The number of persistent contacts that reps would make would be very variable before. Now, it’s consistent.” The interviewee also noted: “Deal velocity is key. We’re starting to cut it down. If we cut a day off our response to a customer, clearly it improves conversion.”
The senior revenue operations manager for a commerce organization said: “[Salesloft conversation intelligence] is great. Having those insights is helpful. With the adoption of [their opportunity management tool], we’ll also be able to see more impact on [closed/won rates] on the coaching level.”
Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:
It manages all opportunities with Salesloft, including incremental new opportunities generated by improved sales effectiveness and increased selling activity. This activity scales year over year as a greater percentage of employees in the revenue organization adopt Salesloft.
The closed/won rate without Salesloft is 10%.
The composite organization increases its closed/won rate by 10% with Salesloft in Year 1. This improvement increases 5% year over year and reaches 12% in Year 3 due to Salesloft’s ongoing services. As a result, the composite converts additional incremental opportunities into closed/won deals, thereby increasing revenue and operating profit.
The composite’s operating profit margin is 12%.
Risks. This benefit may vary based on:
The number of opportunities and the value of the pipeline an organization manages with Salesloft as influenced by an organization’s size, sales activity, and Salesloft adoption.
The prior state of an organization including its previous closed/won rate, potential for improvement, change management capabilities, use of Salesloft services and Salesloft, and the corresponding degree of improvement realized.
An organization’s operating profit margin.
Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 20%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $4.4 million.
Closed/won rate improvement with Salesloft (Year 3)
| Ref. | Metric | Source | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C1 | Subtotal: Cumulative opportunities managed with Salesloft | (A6+B4)*A11*A12 | 44,810 | 65,850 | 80,325 | |
| C2 | Subtotal: Cumulative pipeline managed with Salesloft | C1*A13 | $1,186,165,510 | $1,743,115,350 | $2,126,283,075 | |
| C3 | Closed/won rate without Salesloft | A16 | 10% | 10% | 10% | |
| C4 | Percentage improvement to closed/won rate with Salesloft | Interviews | 10% | 11% | 12% | |
| C5 | Closed/won rate with Salesloft | C3*(1+C4) | 11% | 11.1% | 11.2% | |
| C6 | Subtotal: Incremental closed/won deals with Salesloft | (C1*C5)-(C1*C3) | 448 | 724 | 964 | |
| C7 | Subtotal: Incremental revenue earned with Salesloft | C6*A13 | $11,859,008 | $19,165,004 | $25,518,044 | |
| C8 | Operating profit margin | A19 | 12% | 12% | 12% | |
| Ct | Increased operating profit from improved opportunity management | C7*C8 | $1,423,081 | $2,299,800 | $3,062,165 | |
| Risk adjustment | ↓20% | |||||
| Ctr | Increased operating profit from improved opportunity management (risk-adjusted) | $1,138,465 | $1,839,840 | $2,449,732 | ||
| Three-year total: $5,428,037 | Three-year present value: $4,396,017 | |||||
Evidence and data. Interviewees explained that Salesloft positively impacted the entire buyer lifecycle from new business sales to growth to retention. They told Forrester that their organizations could better engage with current customers and manage deals with greater insight into the most valuable customer information, thereby driving increased renewals, incremental revenue, and operating profit.
The head of sales optimization for an information services organization explained that Salesloft helped their organization increase customer engagement, which led to an increased retention rate. They told Forrester: “Salesloft has allowed us to work toward having every client contacted every quarter. In contrast to 20% to 30% of customers being contacted within the last 90 days, we’re now [engaging] more than 50% of customers and will get to 70% to 80% of customers in the next two or three months.” As a result of this increase, they stated: “In some cases, we’re engaging with customers four to five times as much as we did before. That is a leading measure for retention. Our retention rates are running from 80% to 83%. We forecast a 3- to 4-percentage-point increase in how we retain customers, which is sizable.”
The senior revenue operations manager for a commerce organization said: “Our customer success teams are getting more involved in the renewals of deals instead of just having the system run them. Salesloft will be integral for them to be able to spot risky deals as well as put in place actual cadences that will be specific to renewals.”
Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:
It has 140,000 customers as determined by its total revenue and average deal size.
The composite organization’s average deal length is three years, resulting in an average of 33% being available for renewal each year.
The renewal rate without Salesloft is 80%.
The composite organization increases its renewal rate 1.1% with Salesloft in Year 1. This improvement increases 5% year over year and reaches 1.3% in Year 3 due to Salesloft’s ongoing services. This improvement results in more renewed deals each year.
Risks. This benefit may vary based on:
An organization’s number of customers and how many are eligible to renew their deals each year. Varying factors include deal length, deal size, and the nature of an organization’s business.
The prior state of an organization including its previous retention rate, potential for improvement, change management capabilities, use of Salesloft services and Salesloft, and the corresponding degree of improvement realized.
An organization’s operating profit margin.
Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 20%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $2.3 million.
Renewal rate improvement with Salesloft (Year 3)
| Ref. | Metric | Source | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| D1 | Customers | Composite | 140,000 | 140,000 | 140,000 | |
| D2 | Percentage of deals eligible for renewal | Composite | 33% | 33% | 33% | |
| D3 | Subtotal: Deals eligible for renewal managed with Salesloft | D1*D2*A5 | 27,720 | 39,270 | 46,200 | |
| D4 | Renewal rate without Salesloft | Composite | 80% | 80% | 80% | |
| D5 | Percentage improvement to renewal rate with Salesloft | Interviews | 1.1% | 1.2% | 1.3% | |
| D6 | Renewal rate with Salesloft | D4*(1+D5) | 80.88% | 80.96% | 81.04% | |
| D7 | Subtotal: Incremental deals renewed with Salesloft | (D3*D6)-(D3*D4) | 244 | 377 | 480 | |
| D8 | Subtotal: Incremental revenue with Salesloft | D7*A13 | $6,458,924 | $9,979,567 | $12,706,080 | |
| D9 | Operating profit margin | A19 | 12% | 12% | 12% | |
| Dt | Increased operating profit from improved customer loyalty | D8*D9 | $775,071 | $1,197,548 | $1,524,730 | |
| Risk adjustment | ↓20% | |||||
| Dtr | Increased operating profit from improved customer loyalty (risk-adjusted) | $620,057 | $958,038 | $1,219,784 | ||
| Three-year total: $2,797,879 | Three-year present value: $2,271,897 | |||||
Evidence and data. In addition to Salesloft’s full buyer lifecycle revenue-related benefits, interviewees shared its team productivity benefits, which included effective and efficient coaching sessions, less manual work, and an improved focus on driving the right actions at the right time using insights. Interviewees said that Salesloft capabilities such as agentic workflows, coaching, conversational intelligence, and the embedded Conductor AI feature drove these benefits. The resulting time savings and ability to focus enabled further success and growth for the interviewees’ organizations.
The senior revenue operations manager for a commerce organization highlighted the coaching productivity impact, saying: “We have asked our coaches, as part of a pilot, to score 50% of their team each week, so that’s about 7 hours per week. When you can scroll through [AI-generated] key moments in your conversations, [and more with Salesloft], that saves one-third of your time at least.” They continued: “I believe it has improved the employee experience. Pulling everything into one platform was our highest priority … where we can make [it all] as actionable as possible.”
Similarly, the head of sales optimization for an information services organization also highlighted the coaching and management productivity benefits for salespeople and managers, saying: “The organization the platform offers for an individual in a sales role is invaluable. [The increased visibility] reduces management time. The manager can take the information from their activity logged and the dashboards. It’s cutting down the time reporting and increasing the time to talk about what should be done differently.”
This interviewee then detailed: “Sales managers spent 10% of their time previously looking into what everyone is doing, having those discussions, and reporting back. It’s about one-third of that time [saved] in terms of not having to be debriefed on what’s happened because they can already access that information. … [Salespeople] save that same time as well because they’re not having to report back to the manager on [their activities]. … We’d be expecting them to put 5% of their time into the management conversations. That goes down to 3% or 4%.” They concluded: “The transcripts, the action items, and the AI-driven summaries of meetings are saving time and making it clearer for our clients. [Conversation intelligence] is one of the features we really use.”
The director, global head of prospecting for a financial services organization highlighted the value of agentic workflows for productivity. They explained that AI helped automatically prioritize tasks in a workflow their organization’s sellers could action on and anticipated a 10% reduction in their administrative burden.
The senior revenue operations manager for a commerce organization also spoke about the impact of AI with Salesloft, saying: “AI will allow us to continue to become more strategic. AI is automation, such as with automated sends and being able to pull together relevant messaging based on previous interactions within the platform and meeting follow-ups based on transcripts. It pulls relevant details and allows our sellers to become reviewers and approvers and to look at something with a lens of critique versus having to build from the ground-up, which is a time-saver. It allows them to be better at their roles.”
Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:
The employees in the revenue organization who focus on management and operations spend five hours per week preparing for coaching sessions.
These team members improve their coaching productivity by 29% in Year 1. This increases 5% year over year and reaches 32% in Year 3 due to Salesloft’s ongoing services.
The composite organization’s remaining employees spend 14 hours per week on nonselling activities.
These team members improve their use of this time by up to 8% in Year 1. This increases 5% year over year and reaches 10% in Year 3 due to Salesloft’s ongoing services.
The average fully burdened salary of these team members is $250,000.
These team members recapture 35% of their time saved for productive work.
Risks. This benefit may vary based on:
The size of an organization’s revenue organization, degree of Salesloft use (including adoption pace), and organizational makeup.
The prior state of an organization, potential for improvement, change management capabilities, use of Salesloft services and Salesloft, and the corresponding degree of improvement realized.
Whether an organization can reallocate time savings to productive work.
Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 20%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $6.8 million.
Coaching productivity improvement with Salesloft (Year 3)
| Ref. | Metric | Source | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| E1 | People in revenue organization | A1 | 1,500 | 1,500 | 1,500 | |
| E2 | Percentage of employees in the revenue organization managing employees | R6 | 5% | 5% | 5% | |
| E3 | Average hours spent preparing for coaching sessions per week | Composite | 5 | 5 | 5 | |
| E4 | Improved coaching productivity | Interviews | 29% | 30% | 32% | |
| E5 | Subtotal: More productive coaching preparation hours per week | E1*E2*E3*E4*A5 | 65 | 96 | 120 | |
| E6 | Percentage of employees in the revenue organization that are nonmanagement or operations | 1-E2 | 95% | 95% | 95% | |
| E7 | Average hours spent on nonselling activities per week | Composite | 14 | 14 | 14 | |
| E8 | Improved productivity | Interviews | 8% | 9% | 10% | |
| E9 | Subtotal: More productive administrative hours per week | E1*E6*E7*E8*A5 | 958 | 1,526 | 1,995 | |
| E10 | Average fully burdened salary | Composite | $250,000 | $250,000 | $250,000 | |
| E11 | Productivity recapture rate | TEI standard | 35% | 35% | 35% | |
| Et | Team productivity and performance | (E5+E9)*(E10/ 2,080 hours)*E11*52 weeks | $2,237,813 | $3,548,125 | $4,626,563 | |
| Risk adjustment | ↓20% | |||||
| Etr | Team productivity and performance (risk-adjusted) | $1,790,250 | $2,838,500 | $3,701,250 | ||
| Three-year total: $8,330,001 | Three-year present value: $6,754,172 | |||||
Evidence and data. Depending on their prior state, interviewees told Forrester that their organizations could optimize technology spending. They discussed how choosing and adopting Salesloft allowed their organizations to retire select solutions, thereby achieving cost consolidation savings and associated productivity gains from managing fewer solutions. These cost savings were reallocated to drive better returns.
The senior revenue operations manager for a commerce organization shared an example of cost consolidation savings, saying: “We ended the contract a couple of months later. It was in the hundreds of thousands [of dollars].” They also explained how consolidating tools helped with workflow productivity, saying, “To focus on one tool allows me to context switch less, which makes me more productive.”
Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:
Fifty percent of the composite organization’s revenue organization have one preexisting point solution.
It incrementally retires preexisting point solutions as Salesloft adoption increases.
The average point solution costs the composite organization $1,000 user per year.
Risks. This benefit may vary based on:
The prior state of an organization, including whether its revenue organization has preexisting point solutions that it can retire after adopting Salesloft and the members of the revenue organization who use those solutions.
Whether an organization chooses to retire any preexisting point solutions.
The size of an organization’s revenue organization, Salesloft adoption pace, and which employees adopt Salesloft.
Preexisting point solution costs and contract length.
Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 15%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $1.3 million.
Technology optimization cost savings
| Ref. | Metric | Source | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| F1 | People in revenue organization | A1 | 1,500 | 1,500 | 1,500 | |
| F2 | Salesloft user adoption rate | A5 | 60% | 85% | 100% | |
| F3 | Percentage of people in revenue organization with preexisting point solutions | Composite | 50% | 50% | 50% | |
| F4 | Point solutions retired | Composite | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| F5 | Point solutions cost per user | Composite | $1,000 | $1,000 | $1,000 | |
| Ft | Technology optimization | F1*F2*F3*F4*F5 | $450,000 | $637,500 | $750,000 | |
| Risk adjustment | ↓15% | |||||
| Ftr | Technology optimization (risk-adjusted) | $382,500 | $541,875 | $637,500 | ||
| Three-year total: $1,561,875 | Three-year present value: $1,274,521 | |||||
Interviewees mentioned the following additional benefits that their organizations experienced but were not able to quantify:
Improved data quality. Interviewees told Forrester that their organizations realized improved data quality using Salesloft’s integrations, CRM sync, AI, automations, and deal management capabilities. The senior revenue operations manager of a commerce organization explained, “We are seeing an impact on data hygiene because [our salespeople] are able to log information, which simply wasn’t feasible with time before.”
Increased visibility and insights. Related to improved data quality, interviewees told Forrester that their organizations benefited from increased revenue-related visibility and insights. With better insights, the interviewees’ organizations could analyze performance, monitor deal progression, identify opportunity gaps for improvement, take better actions, and drive revenue. The head of sales optimization for an information services organization said, “The features around call recording and conversational intelligence … help us because we get visibility of how we’re selling to our B2B customers.” The director, global head of prospecting for a financial services organization said: “Other features that have unlocked value for us [include] analytics. It tremendously helps us coach our team to have better responses. We download analytical reports and put them into our internal systems to see where we can improve as far as the wording or message is concerned to certain prospects and different industries.”
Salesloft support and education. Interviewees highlighted the value of Salesloft support, documentation, and educational resources in addition to Salesloft services. They spoke highly of Salesloft-provided support and resources, noting how they enabled internal teams to spend less time on support tasks and more time on revenue-driving activities. For more detail on the interviewees’ experiences with Salesloft services, please reference the accompanying Spotlight.
Quicker value realization with Salesloft services
The value of flexibility is unique to each customer. There are multiple scenarios in which a customer might implement Salesloft and later realize additional uses and business opportunities, including:
Enterprise-readiness and scalability. The interviewees’ organizations are all large enterprises with complex organizational structures, large and distributed global sales teams, a history of acquisitions, public company governance requirements, and more. The interviewees highlighted the scalability and strength of Salesloft in an enterprise environment. The head of sales optimization for an information services organization said: “We had to land it with the first team, prove the value, and then widen it out. [Salesloft] is scalable.” The director, global head of prospecting for a financial services organization said, “We’re able to utilize Salesloft more and it can take that load.” The senior revenue operations manager for a commerce organization said: “Yes, Salesloft is enterprise-ready. They have the support team necessary to focus and understand what a high-touch account requires, and the platform is continuously evolving.” The sales director for an electronics distribution organization said: “There are other business units [within our organization] that Salesloft is growing to. We’re using it in EMEA now.” They added: “We’re publicly traded. We can rest assured that what we’re doing is fair and equitable to all salespeople.” This interviewee concluded, “[It is] enterprise-ready because it ties directly into [our CRM] and there are other [integrations].”
Use with other technology. Interviewees highlighted the value of Salesloft’s interoperability and integration with other technologies, which drove their increased use and ROI. The senior revenue operations manager for a commerce organization said: “We’re looking at the integration with [a sales solution and our CRM]. Salesloft has helped with our activity logging as well as giving reps some understanding of [how their buyers are behaving], especially if they’re not leaving the Salesloft platform.” The sales director for an electronics distribution organization said: “We’ve bought other complementary solutions and are in the process of evaluating more complementary solutions that tie into Salesloft. It’s helping us accelerate even further.”
Platform growth, including Drift. Three out of the four interviewees’ organizations were Drift customers before Salesloft acquired the company in 2024. At the time, Forrester wrote that the acquisition was, “a positive step for buyers looking for more aligned technology for their revenue teams.”5 Similarly, the interviewees told Forrester that they were excited about the prospect of increased integration and value. The head of sales optimization for an information services organization said: “[Using Drift and Salesloft together] absolutely improved the engagement and more. … We’ve been really pleased [with Salesloft’s Drift acquisition].”
Flexibility would also be quantified when evaluated as part of a specific project (described in more detail in Appendix A).
| Ref. | Cost | Initial | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Total | Present Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gtr | Salesloft | $302,500 | $2,603,810 | $3,612,290 | $4,217,510 | $10,736,110 | $8,823,641 |
| Htr | Implementation | $191,667 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $191,667 | $191,667 |
| Itr | Training | $0 | $372,600 | $527,850 | $621,000 | $1,521,450 | $1,241,533 |
| Jtr | Ongoing management and support | $0 | $287,500 | $287,500 | $287,500 | $862,500 | $714,970 |
| Ktr | Sales enablement | $0 | $143,750 | $143,750 | $143,750 | $431,250 | $357,485 |
| Total costs (risk-adjusted) | $494,167 | $3,407,660 | $4,571,390 | $5,269,760 | $13,742,977 | $11,329,296 |
Evidence and data. Interviewees told Forrester that their organizations paid for Salesloft on a per user per month basis with pricing varying between the Advanced and Premier packages and costs for admin and dialer users. Additionally, all four interviewees’ organizations took advantage of Salesloft services including onboarding, project-based engagements, and recurring programs to accelerate and maximize the value they received. Pricing may vary. Contact Salesloft for additional details.
Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:
The composite organization selects the Advanced package and pays a monthly cost for each member of its revenue organization. It then pays an additional cost per month for each admin and dialer user.
The composite organization purchases onboarding services and a project-based engagement from Salesloft to help with the implementation. It also purchases a recurring consulting program to drive improved performance.
Risks. This cost may vary based on:
An organization’s size, revenue organization scale, Salesloft adoption pace, and the number of users who need licenses.
The structure and nature of an organization’s revenue organization and the resulting percentage of Salesloft users that need admin and dialer licenses.
The Salesloft services an organization chooses to purchase.
Salesloft’s licensing and services pricing.
Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this cost upward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $8.8 million.
Greater value realization with Salesloft services
| Ref. | Metric | Source | Initial | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G1 | Salesloft | Composite | $275,000 | $2,367,100 | $3,283,900 | $3,834,100 | |
| Gt | Salesloft | G1 | $275,000 | $2,367,100 | $3,283,900 | $3,834,100 | |
| Risk adjustment | ↑10% | ||||||
| Gtr | Salesloft (risk-adjusted) | $302,500 | $2,603,810 | $3,612,290 | $4,217,510 | ||
| Three-year total: $10,736,110 | Three-year present value: $8,823,641 | ||||||
Evidence and data. After choosing to invest in Salesloft, interviewees detailed how their organizations implemented the revenue orchestration platform including planning, configuration, enablement, and deployment. They also shared how Salesloft’s services team assisted with and accelerated this process, allowing their organizations to realize value more quickly.
The senior revenue operations manager for a commerce organization explained: “We made a four- to five-month timeline. We pushed and said we wanted to do it in three.” They summarized: “[Implementation took] about half of my time and half of a project manager’s time. Our process team [of ten] on the revenue operations side was involved as well … [with approximately] 10% to 15% [of their time].”
The sales director for an electronics distribution organization said: “Our operations team had to be involved. We had to test and make sure that there would be no interruptions and that everything would work seamlessly together.” When asked if they believed whether Salesloft services allowed their organization to achieve greater success than they could have on their own, they responded, “Absolutely. … It was seamless.”
Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:
The composite organization takes advantage of Salesloft services to accelerate implementation and adoption and avoid additional internal labor.
The implementation takes four months.
Two internal employees manage the implementation.
These employees dedicate 100% of their time to implementation during this period.
The average fully burdened salary of an employee dedicated to implementation is $250,000.
Risks. This cost may vary based on:
Whether an organization takes advantage of Salesloft services, which can shorten the implementation timeline and reduce required internal labor.
The prior state of an organization’s environment, the capabilities of its staff, and the corresponding length of an organization’s implementation period.
The number of employees an organization requires to implement Salesloft, which may vary by their expertise, roles, and responsibilities.
The fully burdened salaries of these participating employees.
Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this cost upward by 15%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $192,000.
Accelerated onboarding with Salesloft services
| Ref. | Metric | Source | Initial | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| H1 | Implementation time (months) | Interviews | 4 | ||||
| H2 | Internal employees managing the implementation process | Composite | 2 | ||||
| H3 | Percentage of time dedicated to implementation | Interviews | 100% | ||||
| H4 | Average fully burdened salary for an employee dedicated to implementation | Composite | $250,000 | ||||
| Ht | Implementation | (H1/12 months)*H2*H3*H4 | $166,667 | $0 | $0 | $0 | |
| Risk adjustment | ↑15% | ||||||
| Htr | Implementation (risk-adjusted) | $191,667 | $0 | $0 | $0 | ||
| Three-year total: $191,667 | Three-year present value: $191,667 | ||||||
Evidence and data. Interviewees told Forrester that their organizations worked with Salesloft to train their employees as part of the adoption process. This training and enablement continued annually to onboard new employees and refresh existing employees. Critically, the interviewees emphasized the importance of not only learning how to use Salesloft, but how to use Salesloft effectively within their unique organizations and environments. To accomplish this and accelerate adoption, they emphasized the value of Salesloft services, not only to lead trainings but also to create bespoke trainings.
The head of sales optimization for an information services organization said: “We have two, one-hour sessions [for new employees]. One is an introduction, and one is role-specific. We then have a 15-minute prerecorded bespoke video that has been done by the Salesloft services team and a guide that was provided by the Salesloft services team as well. We effectively have three hours of prescribed training upon a new start … plus some on-the-job training.”
The director, global head of prospecting for a financial services organization said: “Every time I get a new hire, they’re trained on Salesloft. … We don’t spend more than four to five hours training an employee how to use Salesloft.”
The senior revenue operations manager for a commerce organization said, “We had live training sessions [at launch].” They continued, “Onboarding was two sessions and some asynchronous learning courses as well. Now, they have an hour of [training] and then they take two Salesloft courses to get up to speed.”
The sales director for an electronics distribution organization said: “We do refreshers for existing staff and when we have turnover. … The Salesloft services team does ongoing sessions with us.”
Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:
Each new Salesloft user receives an initial training and refresher training in subsequent years.
Training requires an average of three hours per user per year.
The fully burdened hourly rate of users receiving training is $120.
Risks. This cost may vary based on:
The size of an organization, its degree and pace of adopting Salesloft, and the resulting number of Salesloft users each year.
An organization’s training decisions, including how much training each user receives and how often.
The fully burdened hourly rates of users receiving the training, the users’ degree of experience, and how much training they require.
Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this cost upward by 15%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $1.2 million.
| Ref. | Metric | Source | Initial | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I1 | New users trained | (A1CY*A5CY)-(A1PY*A5PY) | 0 | 900 | 375 | 225 | |
| I2 | Existing users refreshed | I1PY+I2PY | 0 | 0 | 900 | 1,275 | |
| I3 | Average hours of training per user | Interviews | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | |
| I4 | Average fully burdened hourly rate for a user receiving training | Composite | $120 | $120 | $120 | $120 | |
| It | Training | (I1+I2)*I3*I4 | $0 | $324,000 | $459,000 | $540,000 | |
| Risk adjustment | ↑15% | ||||||
| Itr | Training (risk-adjusted) | $0 | $372,600 | $527,850 | $621,000 | ||
| Three-year total: $1,521,450 | Three-year present value: $1,241,533 | ||||||
Evidence and data. After their organizations implemented Salesloft, conducted initial employee training, and began paying for the platform, interviewees explained how their organizations invested necessary labor for ongoing management and support. This labor included Salesloft IT management, administration, vendor management, and other operational support to sustain continued use and realize value over time.
The director, global head of prospecting for a financial services organization said: “[Ongoing management and support involves] the sales operation and vendor management teams. That is five to six people, and it’s not anyone’s full-time job. … It is 5% to 10% of their overall work to maintain Salesloft.”
The senior revenue operations manager for a commerce organization said: “I am one person dedicated to Salesloft, and we’ve recently onboarded another person dedicated to Salesloft. Our team lead is decently involved as well, … [and that takes] 20% of their time. We have two support people that do help us with users, [and that takes] 10% to 20% of their time as well.”
Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:
The composite organization has four people involved in ongoing management and support.
The average fully burdened salary for a revenue organization role is $250,000.
These roles dedicate 25% of their time to ongoing management and support.
Risks. This cost may vary based on:
The size of an organization and the degree of its Salesloft adoption and usage.
The average fully burdened salaries of the individuals involved in this labor.
Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this cost upward by 15%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $715,000.
| Ref. | Metric | Source | Initial | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| J1 | People involved in ongoing management and support | Composite | 0 | 4 | 4 | 4 | |
| J2 | Average fully burdened salary for an individual involved in ongoing management and support | Composite | $250,000 | $250,000 | $250,000 | $250,000 | |
| J3 | Percentage of time dedicated to ongoing management and support | Interviews | 25% | 25% | 25% | 25% | |
| Jt | Ongoing management and support | J1*J2*J3 | $0 | $250,000 | $250,000 | $250,000 | |
| Risk adjustment | ↑15% | ||||||
| Jtr | Ongoing management and support (risk-adjusted) | $0 | $287,500 | $287,500 | $287,500 | ||
| Three-year total: $862,500 | Three-year present value: $714,970 | ||||||
Evidence and data. Interviewees’ organizations invested in sales enablement to systematically support the increased, Salesloft-driven sales activity and improve its ROI. This labor investment included ongoing content creation, engagement sequence development, and internal or outsourced template creation.
The head of sales optimization for an information services organization explained: “We use a central function for sales enablement. We have one person dedicated to this group, and 20% of their time is Salesloft-specific.”
As opposed to using a central function for content creation, the sales director for an electronics distribution organization explained that it outsourced some of this labor, saying: “We have outside sources create content that we load in. It’s very quick and simple.”
The director, global head of prospecting for a financial services organization detailed how each person on their team played a role, saying, “Everybody who uses Salesloft on my team creates their own cadence because it’s so straightforward.”
Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:
The composite organization has two people involved in Salesloft-related sales enablement.
The average fully burdened salary for a revenue organization role is $250,000.
These roles dedicate 25% of their time to Salesloft-related sales enablement.
Risks. This cost may vary based on:
An organization’s ongoing sales enablement needs as influenced by the size of an organization, the degree of its Salesloft adoption and use, the growth it realizes with Salesloft, and the importance it places on sales enablement.
The average fully burdened salaries of the individuals involved in this labor.
Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this cost upward by 15%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $357,000.
Sales Enablement
Forrester defines sales enablement as “a strategic, ongoing process that equips all client-facing employees with the ability to consistently and systematically have a valuable conversation with the right set of customer stakeholders at each stage of the customer’s problem-solving lifecycle to optimize the return on investment of the selling system.”6
| Ref. | Metric | Source | Initial | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| K1 | People involved in ongoing content creation, cadence development, and template creation | Composite | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | |
| K2 | Average fully burdened salary | Composite | $250,000 | $250,000 | $250,000 | $250,000 | |
| K3 | Percentage of time dedicated to content creation, cadence development, and template creation | Interviews | 25% | 25% | 25% | 25% | |
| Kt | Sales enablement | K1*K2*K3 | $0 | $125,000 | $125,000 | $125,000 | |
| Risk adjustment | ↑15% | ||||||
| Ktr | Sales enablement (risk-adjusted) | $0 | $143,750 | $143,750 | $143,750 | ||
| Three-year total: $431,250 | Three-year present value: $357,485 | ||||||
| Initial | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Total | Present Value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total costs | ($494,167) | ($3,407,660) | ($4,571,390) | ($5,269,760) | ($13,742,977) | ($11,329,296) |
| Total benefits | $0 | $10,457,115 | $16,025,465 | $20,320,458 | $46,803,038 | $38,017,715 |
| Net benefits | ($494,167) | $7,049,455 | $11,454,075 | $15,050,698 | $33,060,062 | $26,688,419 |
| ROI | 236% |
The financial results calculated in the Benefits and Costs sections can be used to determine the ROI, NPV, and payback period for the composite organization’s investment. Forrester assumes a yearly discount rate of 10% for this analysis.
These risk-adjusted ROI, NPV, and payback period values are determined by applying risk-adjustment factors to the unadjusted results in each Benefit and Cost section.
The initial investment column contains costs incurred at “time 0” or at the beginning of Year 1 that are not discounted. All other cash flows are discounted using the discount rate at the end of the year. PV calculations are calculated for each total cost and benefit estimate. NPV calculations in the summary tables are the sum of the initial investment and the discounted cash flows in each year. Sums and present value calculations of the Total Benefits, Total Costs, and Cash Flow tables may not exactly add up, as some rounding may occur.
From the information provided in the interviews, Forrester constructed a Total Economic Impact™ framework for those organizations considering an investment in Salesloft.
The objective of the framework is to identify the cost, benefit, flexibility, and risk factors that affect the investment decision. Forrester took a multistep approach to evaluate the impact that Salesloft can have on an organization.
Interviewed Salesloft stakeholders and Forrester analysts to gather data relative to Salesloft
Interviewed four people at organizations using Salesloft to obtain data about costs, benefits, and risks.
Designed a composite organization based on characteristics of the interviewees’ organizations.
Constructed a financial model representative of the interviews using the TEI methodology and risk-adjusted the financial model based on issues and concerns of the interviewees.
Employed four fundamental elements of TEI in modeling the investment impact: benefits, costs, flexibility, and risks. Given the increasing sophistication of ROI analyses related to IT investments, Forrester’s TEI methodology provides a complete picture of the total economic impact of purchase decisions. Please see Appendix A for additional information on the TEI methodology.
Benefits represent the value the solution delivers to the business. The TEI methodology places equal weight on the measure of benefits and costs, allowing for a full examination of the solution’s effect on the entire organization.
Costs comprise all expenses necessary to deliver the proposed value, or benefits, of the solution. The methodology captures implementation and ongoing costs associated with the solution.
Flexibility represents the strategic value that can be obtained for some future additional investment building on top of the initial investment already made. The ability to capture that benefit has a PV that can be estimated.
Risks measure the uncertainty of benefit and cost estimates given: 1) the likelihood that estimates will meet original projections and 2) the likelihood that estimates will be tracked over time. TEI risk factors are based on “triangular distribution.”
The present or current value of (discounted) cost and benefit estimates given at an interest rate (the discount rate). The PV of costs and benefits feed into the total NPV of cash flows.
The present or current value of (discounted) future net cash flows given an interest rate (the discount rate). A positive project NPV normally indicates that the investment should be made unless other projects have higher NPVs.
A project’s expected return in percentage terms. ROI is calculated by dividing net benefits (benefits less costs) by costs.
The interest rate used in cash flow analysis to take into account the time value of money. Organizations typically use discount rates between 8% and 16%.
The breakeven point for an investment. This is the point in time at which net benefits (benefits minus costs) equal initial investment or cost.
Total Economic Impact is a methodology developed by Forrester Research that enhances a company’s technology decision-making processes and assists solution providers in communicating their value proposition to clients. The TEI methodology helps companies demonstrate, justify, and realize the tangible value of business and technology initiatives to both senior management and other key stakeholders.
Related Forrester Research
Predictions 2025: B2B Marketing, Sales, And Product, Forrester Research, Inc., October 22, 2024.
Anthony McPartlin and Seth Marrs, The First Forrester Wave™ Evaluation Of Revenue Orchestration Platforms For B2B Is Live, Forrester Blogs.
The Forrester Wave™: Revenue Orchestration Platforms For B2B, Q3 2024, Forrester Research, Inc., September 4, 2024.
B2B Buyers Don’t Care About Your Pipeline — Marketers And Sellers Need New Ways To Partner, Forrester Research, Inc., June 20, 2024.
Seth Marrs, When It Comes To Sales And Marketing Alignment, Data Needs To Come Before People, Forrester Blogs.
Seth Marrs, It’s Time For Sales Leaders To Coach Sellers Like Athletes, Forrester Blogs.
Anthony McPartlin and Seth Marrs, A New Supergroup For Revenue Technology Emerges: Revenue Orchestration Platforms, Forrester Blogs.
Three Revenue Tech Categories Converge Into One: Revenue Orchestration Platforms, Forrester Research, Inc., April 5, 2024.
Conversation Intelligence Is Key To Unlocking Sales Productivity, Forrester Research, Inc., July 12, 2023.
The Forrester Wave™: Sales Engagement Platforms, Q3 2022, Forrester Research, Inc., September 27, 2022.
1 Source: Budget Planning Guide 2025: Revenue Operations, Forrester Research, Inc., August 1, 2024.
2 Source: The Revenue Orchestration Platforms For B2B Landscape, Q1 2024, Forrester Research, Inc., March 27, 2024.
3 Total Economic Impact is a methodology developed by Forrester Research that enhances a company’s technology decision-making processes and assists solution providers in communicating their value proposition to clients. The TEI methodology helps companies demonstrate, justify, and realize the tangible value of business and technology initiatives to both senior management and other key stakeholders.
4 Source: The Revenue Orchestration Platforms For B2B Landscape, Q1 2024, Forrester Research, Inc., March 27, 2024.
5 Source: Seth Marrs and Jessie Johnson, What Salesloft’s Acquisition Of Drift Means, Forrester Blogs.
6 Source: Forrester Glossary, Forrester Research, Inc.
Readers should be aware of the following:
This study is commissioned by Salesloft and delivered by Forrester Consulting. It is not meant to be used as a competitive analysis.
Forrester makes no assumptions as to the potential ROI that other organizations will receive. Forrester strongly advises that readers use their own estimates within the framework provided in the study to determine the appropriateness of an investment in Salesloft. For any interactive functionality, the intent is for the questions to solicit inputs specific to a prospect's business. Forrester believes that this analysis is representative of what companies may achieve with Salesloft based on the inputs provided and any assumptions made. Forrester does not endorse Salesloft or its offerings. Although great care has been taken to ensure the accuracy and completeness of this model, Salesloft and Forrester Research are unable to accept any legal responsibility for any actions taken on the basis of the information contained herein. The interactive tool is provided ‘AS IS,’ and Forrester and Salesloft make no warranties of any kind.
Salesloft reviewed and provided feedback to Forrester, but Forrester maintains editorial control over the study and its findings and does not accept changes to the study that contradict Forrester’s findings or obscure the meaning of the study.
Salesloft provided the customer names for the interviews but did not participate in the interviews.
Andrew Nadler
April 2025
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