Sales Renewal’s insight:

From spreadsheets to contact databases to CRMs – the sophistication of lead management tools has improved by leaps and bounds in the last decade. And now we’re seeing an emergence of a new category of lead management: sales acceleration tools. (See Entrepreneur‘s The New Wave of Sales Acceleration Technology.)
This software bridges the gap between CRM and marketing automation and can be used for sales people with varying levels of experience, as it typically feeds information about the contact to allow for a more personalized interaction. It goes beyond email opens and clicks and provides insights into what messages are working for which prospects.
According to the article, $1.2 billion has already been invested in this category and billions more are expected to flood in over the next few years.