27 Questions for Evaluating a Sending Platform

Buying a Sending Platform is a big investment that often requires sign off from several different people within a company—and sometimes an entire buying committee. Any new software you add to your tech stack needs to be the right software for your company, fit all your team’s needs, and does every single thing the vendor says it can do over the phone.

Use the below questions to help weed out any false advertising, and set your teams up for sending success!

Questions to Ask When Evaluating a Sending Platform

Use Case Questions

1. How does the platform help create relationships and relevant experiences across the entire customer lifecycle?
2. How can marketing teams use this for demand generation and ABM?
3. How can SDR teams use this to open doors and drive meeting attendance?
4. How can sales teams use this to accelerate sales and win back deals?
5. How can customer teams use this to drive retention and upsells?
6. How can HR and marketing teams use the Sending Platform warehouse for swag management?
7. How does the platform generate ROI? Are there case studies and success metrics from customers relevant to your use case?

Integrations Questions

8. How many integrations does the product have?
9. Does the solution integrate with Sales Engagement Platforms including Salesloft, XANT, and Outreach?
10. Does the solution integrate with Marketing Automation Platforms including Marketo, HubSpot, Eloqua, and Pardot?
11. Are integrations an important part of the platform’s roadmap?
12. Can the platform report on the ROI and success of campaigns in my other tools?
13. Can the platform use data from other tools in my tech stack to trigger or execute a send?

Platform Questions

14. Does the platform scale to meet my program needs across one-to-one, one to-few, and one-to-many use cases?
15. Can the platform create hyper-personalized one-to-one sends and customize handwritten notes?
16. Can the platform pass my company’s security and compliance requirements?
17. Is the platform GDPR and SOC 2 compliant?
18. Does the platform offer single sign-on options for my integrations like Okta, GSuite, Azure, and OneLogin?
19. Does the platform allow me to time my outreach and follow-up perfectly with visibility into the status of my sends?
20. Does the platform have a product roadmap?

Warehouse Questions

21. Can the vendor share information about their logistical expertise?
22. Can the platform help me source items for sending and does it work with my existing vendor network? Can I work with any vendor?
23. Can the platform store our collateral, branded swag, custom packaging, or anything else we’d like to send to customers and prospects?
24. Can I view our inventory in real-time, send more inventory to our warehouses with just one click, and set alerts for low inventory so my items are never out of stock?
25. Does the platform use different shipping carriers, including USPS, UPS, FedEx, and DHL, and others?
26. Does the platform offer warehousing in EMEA / APAC and the U.S.?
27. Does the platform offer the ability to ship perishables including cupcakes, wine, boxes, and more?

Download our brand new Sending Platform Buyer’s Guide for even more hard-hitting questions, and all the tools you need to evaluate and make a well-researched, educated decision on the right Sending Platform for you.