Let’s be honest: picking a go-to-market (GTM) software suite for your B2B team is a pain. The vendors all sound the same. Demos blur together. Everyone’s promising sales enablement, content automation, AI-powered insights—whatever buzzword is hot this quarter. If you’re just trying to help your reps close more deals and stop losing track of collateral, this guide is for you.
Below, I’ll break down what actually matters when comparing Bigtincan against other leading GTM platforms. I’ll call out real strengths, pitfalls, and what you can safely ignore. This isn’t a beauty contest. It’s about finding what works for your team, minus the hype.
What Is GTM Software, Really?
Let’s cut through the noise: GTM (go-to-market) software is a catchall for tools that help sales and marketing teams get on the same page, share the right content, and not drop the ball with prospects. At its best, GTM software helps you:
- Organize and distribute sales content (decks, one-pagers, case studies)
- Ramp up new reps faster with guided learning
- Track what’s actually being used (and by whom)
- Surface useful insights (not just dashboards for the sake of dashboards)
- Integrate with your existing CRM, email, and chat tools
If you’re dealing with messy shared drives, outdated PDFs, or reps going rogue on messaging, you’re the target customer.
The Big Names: Who Are the Main Players?
Bigtincan gets plenty of airtime, but it’s not alone. Here are the top GTM platforms most B2B orgs consider:
- Bigtincan: Sales enablement, content management, guided selling, onboarding. Big on mobile and offline access.
- Seismic: Heavyweight in content automation and analytics. Lots of integrations.
- Showpad: Known for clean user interface, sales training features, and ease of use.
- Highspot: Focuses on content findability and in-context guidance.
- Allego: Strong video coaching and peer learning tools.
There are others, but these five come up the most in mid-market and enterprise B2B sales teams.
What Actually Matters (and What Doesn’t)
Let’s be real: most of these platforms check the same boxes on vendor comparison charts. Here’s what you should care about—and what’s mostly window dressing.
What to Look For
- Adoption: If your reps won’t use it, you’ve wasted your budget. Demos don’t tell the story—ask for free trials or pilot access.
- Content Search & Organization: Can reps find what they need in under 30 seconds? Is version control a nightmare?
- CRM Integration: Does it play nice with Salesforce, HubSpot, or whatever system you use? Or does it require duct tape and prayers?
- Mobile Experience: For field reps, does the app actually work on the go, or is it just a desktop site crammed onto a phone?
- Content Analytics: Not just “who opened what” but useful data: What’s actually moving deals forward?
- Onboarding and Training: Are there built-in learning paths? Can you upload your playbooks and track progress?
- Admin Overhead: How much time will your content or ops team spend keeping this thing up to date?
What to Ignore (Mostly)
- AI Features: Most “AI” in these platforms is glorified keyword matching or basic recommendations. It won’t magically close deals for you.
- Endless Customization: Fancy dashboards and custom fields sound great until you’re the one maintaining them.
- Awards and Analyst Reports: Nice for the vendor’s sales deck, but rarely move the needle for actual users.
Bigtincan: The Good, The Bad, The Meh
Here’s the straight dope on Bigtincan:
Where It Shines
- Mobile and Offline: Probably the best in class here. If you have field reps who need access on planes, at hospitals, or in bad WiFi zones, Bigtincan’s mobile app is solid.
- Content Automation: Good for surfacing the right content at the right time, especially if your library is massive.
- Guided Selling: The “playbooks” and content recommendations are more than just a glorified folder structure.
- Onboarding and Training: Built-in LMS (learning management system) features mean you don’t necessarily need a separate training tool.
Where It Struggles
- User Interface: Not the slickest. Some users find it clunky, especially compared to Showpad or Highspot.
- Learning Curve: Lots of features means more to train and maintain. Smaller teams may find it overwhelming.
- Reporting: Analytics are fine, but not as deep or flexible as Seismic or Highspot.
- Customization: You can go deep, but it takes work. Out-of-the-box, it’s not as “plug and play” as you might hope.
Pro Tips
- Pilot with your actual reps—not just admins or managers. Adoption is the make-or-break factor.
- If you have a distributed or frontline salesforce (medical, industrial, etc.), Bigtincan’s mobile features are a real differentiator.
How Does Bigtincan Stack Up Against the Competition?
Let’s break it down. Here’s what you get—and what you don’t—compared to the other heavy hitters.
1. Seismic
- Strengths: Deep content automation, strong analytics, mature Salesforce integration, better for giant orgs with lots of custom needs.
- Weaknesses: Can be pricey. Setup is complex. Mobile is less robust than Bigtincan.
- Best For: Enterprises with big content teams and lots of custom sales processes.
2. Showpad
- Strengths: User-friendly, easy onboarding, slick interface, solid training features.
- Weaknesses: Analytics are lighter. Custom workflows require workarounds.
- Best For: Mid-sized teams that want something reps will actually use without a ton of training.
3. Highspot
- Strengths: Best-in-class search, contextual guidance, integrates natively with most sales tools.
- Weaknesses: Can feel like “just another place to store stuff” if you don’t invest in setup and ongoing governance.
- Best For: Teams who care most about making content findable and actionable.
4. Allego
- Strengths: Video coaching and peer learning. Good for remote/distributed teams.
- Weaknesses: Not as strong for content organization or CRM integration.
- Best For: Sales orgs prioritizing training, especially those moving away from in-person onboarding.
5. Bigtincan
- Strengths: Mobile/offline, guided selling, training and onboarding all in one.
- Weaknesses: UI is a little dated, setup can be a slog, analytics aren’t as deep as Seismic/Highspot.
- Best For: Teams with field reps, heavy mobile use, or who want an all-in-one platform.
Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them
Don’t buy the hype: No GTM platform will fix broken sales processes or magically make your reps care about content. These are tools, not silver bullets.
Key mistakes to avoid: - Rolling out a tool without cleaning up your content first. Garbage in, garbage out. - Letting IT or execs pick without real user input. If reps don’t use it, you’ve wasted everyone’s time. - Underestimating the admin burden—someone needs to own content governance. - Falling for “cool” demos over fit for your actual workflow.
Pro tip: Run a real-world pilot with a handful of reps. Get their honest feedback. Most vendors will let you do this, but you have to push for it.
Pricing: What to Expect
Vendors rarely publish pricing, but here’s the ballpark:
- Bigtincan: $35–$60/user/month, depending on features and scale.
- Seismic & Highspot: Usually $50+/user/month, with enterprise deals running higher.
- Showpad: $40–$60/user/month.
- Allego: Similar, but training-focused packages may differ.
Most require annual contracts and minimum seat counts. Negotiate—nobody pays list price.
Final Thoughts: Keep It Simple
Most B2B teams don’t need every bell and whistle. Start by solving your biggest pain—usually content chaos or onboarding headaches. Pilot two or three platforms, push for real user feedback, and don’t get seduced by features you’ll never use.
Pick the tool your reps will actually use, not the one with the flashiest demo. You can always add complexity later. Simple, steady wins here.