Atlanta-based SalesLoft lands $10.2M so sales teams can get their rhythm going

Software that supports a salesperson’s “cadence” is getting to be a thing.

Today, Atlanta-based startup SalesLoft is announcing it has scored a Series A round of $10.2 million so it can help more sales folk find their grooves.

SalesLoft CEO Kyle Porter told me that a user of his software can generate lists of “the right prospects and communicate with them though a cadence of phone, email, and social media touches on a daily accountable rhythm.”

The idea is that this prospecting platform’s Cadence tool increases qualified appointments and demos by enabling salespeople to get their mojo going. Email replies, for instance, are automatically taken out of the to-do list of follow-ups, so as not to disturb the “rhythm” of the reply process. A separate Prospector tool helps users search for leads.

Sales, Porter said, has had some of its “human element” taken away by marketing automation, plus it’s not generally ranked among the most sincere occupations. If software takes away “the grunt work of prospecting,” he said, that leaves more time for a more personal touch.

Nevertheless, his company’s website describes its wares as “prospecting automation software.” Its claims to “increase qualified demos and appointments by 300 percent” and to double lead generation might lead you to be even more skeptical of the company’s sincerity.

The fact is, salespeople have plenty of tools to choose from these days, each promising a more efficient mix of communication, lead/prospect tracking, and CRM integration than the other.

Hence, the hype.

Porter, for instance, described competitors like Outreach as a “Terminator (machine), [while] we are Iron Man (human + machine).”

For its part, Outreach — which also promises to support a salesperson’s cadence — has suggested it can give a salesperson “superpowers.”

Apparently, sales goals these days require a superhuman effort.

More specifically, Porter said, SalesLoft combines email, data, dialers, and social selling into one tool optimized for “sincerity and personalization,” in addition to top-of-funnel appointment and demo setting. And while Outreach, he noted, emphasizes email, InsideSales focuses on phone dialers, and ToutApp and Yesware are more tuned to “automation blasts.”

But this “Iron Man” appears to be gaining altitude. The company is reporting rocket-like growth: In January of last year it had five employees, 40 clients, and an annual run rate of $200,000, compared to its current 60 employees, 1,300 clients, and $5.5 million run rate.

The new funding will go toward sales development, sales efforts, further development of the application, marketing, and building a community.

The Series A round, which brings the total investment thus far to $11 million, came from Jason Green, Storm Ventures, and Emergence Capital Partners. Company founders include Pardot’s founder and former CEO, David Cummings.