Do you look at customer reviews before selecting a restaurant, hotel, or service? Odds are, the answer is yes. It’s common and accepted to do a little research to see what your peers are saying before booking that vacation or hiring a handyman. After all, real-world experiences tell you more about a product or service than a menu or list of features.

When it comes to software, finding valid (and validated) user reviews can be more of a challenge. But, when you’re selecting something as mission critical as a sales enablement platform, knowing what customers think of the platform, how easy it is to deploy and maintain, and any potential roadblocks can make all the difference to long-term success—and therefore, more sales.

If you’re in the market for a sales enablement solution, it’s a good idea to read reviews ahead of time. Features don’t mean much if integration with CRM systems is clunky, or if reps don’t like the user interface. When you’re selecting a platform that you want your team to adopt (after all, adoption is key to realizing results) it’s important to know what you’re getting from a user satisfaction perspective.

Software and Services review site G2 Crowd recently published its 2017 Grid Report for Sales Enablement, which ranks 15 leading sales enablement providers on a variety of factors, all directly from verified user reviews. To qualify for inclusion in the sales enablement category of this report, solutions must:

• Act as a repository of marketing content to be used by sales representatives
• Track prospect and customer engagement on content and sales pitches
• Allow users to upload a variety of collateral or build content directly within the tool
• Assist in the preparedness of salespersons during presentations or pitches by having easy access to relevant marketing content

This report is a great tool because it lets you read first-hand what people like—and don’t like—about their sales enablement platforms. You’ll find valuable content around user satisfaction with a side-by-side comparison of how solutions stack up. (In the interest of full disclosure, Highspot ranked as a Top Performer, with the highest customer satisfaction ranking of any provider—96%).

Here’s a satisfaction snapshot showing two organizations in the Grid Report. You can quickly see the marked differences in areas like ease of use, ease of administration, and ease of set up. When it comes to bringing a solution online, these are critical areas to consider. You want to make sure the solution you’ve picked can be deployed and implemented without undue hassle—and is easy to maintain over the long term.

When we drill down on the ease-of-use satisfaction area, we can see details about deployment methods, implementation times, and implementations methods—all critical to understanding alignment with your organization’s expectations. Do you want to be up and running within one-two months, or, do you have more time—say four-to-five months from project kick-off to deployment? Every solution brings different parameters to the table and understanding those parameters can be of significant value when it’s time to make a final decision.

Interested in learning more?

Download the full report to read reviews of each of the 15 companies, as well as their strengths and weaknesses across a gamut of factors. If you’re shopping for a sales enablement platform, use this research as a tool to help you select the best solution for your organization. You’ll save time and money by getting it right the first time—and your sales team will be more productive in the long run.