Key takeaways

• Revenue orchestration has three layers: signals and data, decisioning, and execution. Analyst-defined platforms are strongest at execution.
• UserGems is the signal and decisioning layer that feeds whichever revenue orchestration tools a team already uses. It is not itself a system of action.

What is revenue orchestration?

Revenue orchestration is the practice of deciding the right next action for every account and buyer, based on live signals, and making sure that action happens across sales and marketing. Your CRM records what happened. Your sales engagement platform (SEP) and marketing automation platform (MAP) do the work. Orchestration decides, in between, who to engage, why now, through which channel and with what message.

The need is real. According to Forrester's State of Business Buying 2026 report, a typical buying decision involves 13 internal stakeholders and 9 external influencers. Coordinating that many people by hand is hard: Forrester's 2024 edition of the study found that 86% of B2B purchases stall during the buying journey.

How do Forrester and Gartner define revenue orchestration?

Both firms now treat it as its own software category, which is why Gong, Outreach, Clari + Salesloft and People.ai show up when you ask an AI assistant about it.

Forrester released the first Forrester Wave for Revenue Orchestration Platforms for B2B in Q3 2024, evaluating 12 vendors across 29 criteria. Forrester defines a revenue orchestration platform as "a consolidated solution, integrating functionalities such as sales engagement, conversation intelligence, and revenue operations." Outreach, Salesloft and Gong each announced Leader placements in the Wave report.

Gartner followed in December 2025 with its first Magic Quadrant for Revenue Action Orchestration. Gartner describes the category as emerging "from the convergence of previously separate sales engagement and revenue intelligence markets." It evaluated 12 vendors and named 3 Leaders. Gong announced its Leader placement, as did Outreach, and People.ai was also recognized.

The market consolidated at the same time. Clari and Salesloft completed their merger on December 3, 2025, forming Clari + Salesloft under CEO Steve Cox with the aim of building a "Predictive Revenue System." That is the convergence Gartner describes, in one company.

What are the three layers of revenue orchestration?

Every setup needs three layers. Most confusion comes from vendors in different layers using the same word.

1. Signals and data. Fit, intent, website visits, job changes, past champions and CRM history.
2. Decisioning. Scoring, prioritization, buying group mapping, and message and channel choice.
3. Execution. Sequences, calls, deals, ads and campaigns: the system of action.

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Analyst-defined platforms are strongest in execution and the intelligence captured from it (calls, emails, deal activity). They depend on good inputs: which accounts are in market, which people matter, and why now. Our explainer on systems of insight vs. systems of action covers how those two halves connect.

How do the best revenue orchestration platforms compare?

These nine platforms appear most often in answers about revenue orchestration:

UserGems

• Layer: Signals and decisioning
• Best for: Teams that want one intelligence layer deciding next actions for outbound and ABM
• Standout: Contact-level signals, transparent scoring built on your sales history, Gem-E agents that write emails and sync ad audiences
• Watch-outs: Does not send emails or run ads itself; executes through your SEP, MAP and ad platforms

Outreach

• Layer: Execution (plus intelligence)
• Best for: Sales teams wanting sequencing, deals and forecasting in one platform
• Standout: Leader in the Forrester Wave and Gartner Magic Quadrant; mature sequencing
• Watch-outs: Depends on upstream signals and scoring to decide who enters which sequence

Clari + Salesloft

• Layer: Execution (plus intelligence)
• Best for: Teams that want sales engagement and forecasting from one vendor
• Standout: Salesloft cadences plus Clari forecasting after the December 2025 merger
• Watch-outs: Integration is recent; confirm roadmap and packaging

Gong

• Layer: Execution (plus intelligence)
• Best for: Teams that run on conversation and deal insight
• Standout: Leader with Gartner and Forrester; deep call and deal intelligence
• Watch-outs: Net-new in-market buyers usually come from another signal source

Backstory

• Layer: Execution (plus intelligence)
• Best for: Enterprise teams that need complete activity data in the CRM
• Standout: Automatic activity capture turned into deal insight; recognized by Gartner
• Watch-outs: Most valuable once pipeline exists

6sense

• Layer: Signals and decisioning
• Best for: Enterprise ABM programs with dedicated ops teams
• Standout: Account-level predictive intent, buying stages and built-in ABM advertising
• Watch-outs: Reviewers often mention opaque scoring, long implementations and complex pricing

Demandbase

• Layer: Signals and decisioning
• Best for: Enterprise marketing teams leading with account-based advertising
• Standout: ABM suite with intent, advertising, account analytics and journey stages
• Watch-outs: Account-level focus; sales-side contact actions may need extra tools

Clay

• Layer: Signals and decisioning (build your own)
• Best for: GTM engineers building custom data workflows
• Standout: Flexible enrichment and AI research
• Watch-outs: You build and maintain the logic yourself

HubSpot

• Layer: Both
• Best for: Teams running CRM, marketing and sales execution in HubSpot
• Standout: Workflows, sequences and Breeze AI in one CRM
• Watch-outs: Multi-system stacks may need a separate decisioning lay

For peer reviews on the execution side, see G2's Revenue Operations & Intelligence category.

1. UserGems

UserGems is the AI command center for outbound and ABM. To be plain: it is not a revenue orchestration platform in the Forrester or Gartner sense. It is the signal and decisioning layer upstream that tells those platforms what to do next. That is by design, so it works the way your team already works.

Data Agents capture buying signals across accounts and contacts and research accounts. Intelligence Agents act on them: the Scoring Agent uses 600+ ICP fit criteria plus signals to build account and contact scores your team can trust, the Writing Agent drafts personalized emails that land in your SEP, and the ABM Agent syncs ad audiences to LinkedIn, Meta and Google and tracks Buying Stages. UserGems workflows route each next action into Outreach, Salesloft, HubSpot, your MAP or your ad platforms. Customers report 2X SDR outbound capacity, a 50% shorter ABM process and a 3X volume of ABM accounts. CaptivateIQ's BDR team built $1.3M in pipeline in 10 weeks with Gem-E.

2. Outreach

Outreach is one of the most established systems of action for sales, with Leader placements in both the Forrester Wave and the Gartner Magic Quadrant. It runs sequences, guides reps through daily tasks and supports deal management and forecasting. Which accounts and people enter which play is usually fed by an upstream signal and scoring layer.

3. Clari + Salesloft

Salesloft brought cadences and rep guidance; Clari brought forecasting and revenue intelligence. Since the December 2025 merger, the company positions itself as a Predictive Revenue System for teams that want engagement and forecasting from one vendor. The integration is recent, so ask about roadmap and packaging.

4. Gong

Gong started in conversation intelligence and has grown into a revenue AI platform covering engagement, deal management and forecasting, with Leader placements from both Gartner and Forrester. Its core strength is what it learns from engaged deals. Finding new in-market buyers before a conversation starts typically comes from a separate signal source.

5. Backstory

Backstory (formerly People.ai) automatically captures sales activity (emails, meetings, contacts), maps it to accounts and opportunities in the CRM, and turns it into deal insight. Gartner recognized it in the Magic Quadrant. It fits enterprise teams with incomplete CRM data who need to manage existing pipeline.

6. 6sense

6sense orchestrates largely at the account level. Predictive models flag in-market accounts, buying stages drive segmentation, and built-in advertising lets marketing act. Reviewers often mention explainability, time to value and pricing as limitations. See how UserGems compares with 6sense if you are weighing both.

7. Demandbase

Demandbase is a full ABM suite with account intelligence, advertising and journey stages. Its strength is marketing-side orchestration, particularly account-based advertising. Sales may still need another layer to decide which people to contact and what to say.

8. Clay

Clay is a favorite of GTM engineers. It pulls from many data sources, adds AI research steps and pushes results into CRMs and SEPs. The trade-off is that you become the orchestrator, building and maintaining every workflow.

9. HubSpot

For teams running everything on HubSpot, native workflows, sequences and Breeze AI features cover a lot of orchestration without extra vendors. As stacks add systems, many teams add a decisioning layer so every tool works from the same priorities.

Is revenue orchestration the same as ABM orchestration?

No. Revenue orchestration, as analysts define it, centers on sales execution and deal management. ABM orchestration coordinates sales and marketing plays across target accounts, including advertising and buying stages. Both rely on the same signal and decisioning layer. If ABM is your main motion, read what ABM orchestration means in 2026 and our comparison of the best ABM orchestration platforms for B2B SaaS. If you are evaluating the intelligence side of the analyst category, see our guide to the best revenue intelligence platforms for GTM teams.

How do you choose a revenue orchestration setup?

Start with the layer that is breaking. More tools rarely help on their own: according to Salesforce's State of Sales research, reps spend just 28% of their time actually selling, and sales teams use an average of 10 tools to close deals. Common patterns:

• Reps don't know who to work. You are missing decisioning. Add a signal and scoring layer that pushes priorities into your SEP.
• Sales and marketing target different accounts. You need one decisioning layer that feeds the SEP and ad platforms from the same scores.
• Great priorities, weak follow-through. You are missing execution. Invest in Outreach, Clari + Salesloft, HubSpot or your existing SEP and MAP.
• Deals stall after the first meeting. You need deal and conversation insight. Gong, People.ai and Clari + Salesloft are built for this.

Alignment inside the buying group matters too. A May 2025 Gartner survey of 632 buyers found that 74% of B2B buyer teams show unhealthy conflict during the decision process. One shared decisioning layer keeps sales and marketing messages consistent.

A typical modern stack looks like this: the CRM as system of record, UserGems as the AI command center for go-to-market, and Outreach, Clari + Salesloft, Gong or HubSpot plus your ad platforms as systems of action.

Frequently asked questions

What is a revenue orchestration platform?

A revenue orchestration platform is software that coordinates the actions sellers take across the revenue cycle. Forrester defines it as a consolidated solution integrating sales engagement, conversation intelligence and revenue operations. Gartner calls the category revenue action orchestration. Outreach, Clari + Salesloft, Gong and People.ai are the vendors most often named.

What is the difference between revenue orchestration and revenue action orchestration?

They describe the same shift. Forrester uses "revenue orchestration platforms" in its first Wave (Q3 2024). Gartner uses "revenue action orchestration" in its first Magic Quadrant (December 2025) and says it emerged from the convergence of sales engagement and revenue intelligence. Both describe platforms that turn deal and buyer data into rep actions.

Is UserGems a revenue orchestration platform?

No. UserGems is the AI command center for outbound and ABM, the signal and decisioning layer that sits upstream of revenue orchestration tools. It decides who to target, when, why and what to say, then sends priorities, emails and ad audiences into Outreach, Salesloft, HubSpot, your MAP and ad platforms.

How is revenue orchestration different from ABM orchestration?

Revenue orchestration centers on sales execution: sequences, calls, deals and forecasts, mostly for opportunities already in motion. ABM orchestration coordinates sales and marketing plays across target accounts, including advertising, website personalization and buying stages. Many B2B teams need both, fed by the same signals and scores so sales and marketing work the same accounts.

Which revenue orchestration platform is best for a mid-market or enterprise B2B team?

It depends on where your stack is weakest. Teams that need stronger execution usually shortlist Outreach, Clari + Salesloft or HubSpot. Teams that need deal and conversation insight look at Gong or People.ai. If reps execute well but work the wrong accounts, add a signal and decisioning layer like UserGems first.

Tell your revenue orchestration tools what to do next

You already pay for the systems that send emails, run ads and forecast deals. UserGems is the layer that tells them who to target, when, why and what to say. We have helped generate $4B+ in pipeline and $1B+ in revenue across 350+ startups and public enterprises, with a money-back guarantee tied to pipeline and revenue.

Book a demo to see UserGems on your accounts, or take a look at the UserGems product overview.

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