Salesforce Acquires Qualified: Why Now Is the Time to Evaluate Alternatives

On December 17, 2025, Salesforce announced its definitive agreement to acquire Qualified, the AI-powered conversational marketing platform. The deal is expected to close in Q1 of Salesforce's fiscal year 2027.

If you're a Qualified customer, this announcement should prompt a strategic question: is now the time to evaluate alternatives?

Based on what typically happens when enterprise giants acquire smaller platforms—and what Qualified customers have told us about their current experience—the answer is increasingly yes.

What the Acquisition Means

Salesforce is acquiring Qualified to enhance its Agentforce Sales and Agentforce Marketing products. In their words, the goal is to offer "autonomous pipeline generation" by integrating Qualified's agentic marketing capabilities.

For Salesforce, this makes strategic sense. They're building out their AI agent ecosystem and Qualified—already a Salesforce AppExchange partner and Salesforce Ventures portfolio company—fits neatly into that vision.

For Qualified customers, the implications are less clear—and historically, that ambiguity doesn't resolve in their favor.

What Happens When Enterprise Giants Acquire

If you've been through an enterprise acquisition before, you know the pattern:

1. Integration Becomes the Priority

Once an acquisition closes, the acquired company's roadmap shifts. New features that were promised get delayed or cancelled. Engineering resources move toward integration with the parent platform. The product you bought starts becoming a feature of a larger suite.

Salesforce has been explicit about this: Qualified will enhance Agentforce. That's the priority—not evolving Qualified as a standalone product.

2. Pricing Changes Follow

Enterprise acquisitions rarely result in lower prices. More commonly:

• Standalone pricing disappears in favor of bundle pricing
• Per-seat costs increase as "enterprise features" get added
• Existing contracts get pressure to convert to new terms
• The product becomes a wedge to sell broader platform adoption

Qualified already required 3-year minimum contracts. Under Salesforce, expect that to become more rigid, not less.

3. Agility Decreases

Smaller companies move fast. They respond to customer feedback quickly. They ship features in weeks, not quarters.

Enterprise companies move deliberately. Every change goes through more approval layers. Roadmap decisions involve more stakeholders. The responsiveness that made the product attractive diminishes.

4. The "Integration Tax"

Products acquired by platforms often require deeper investment in that platform. Already using HubSpot? You might find Qualified's Salesforce integration getting prioritized over HubSpot features. Using a different CRM entirely? Expect declining support.

Salesforce acquires companies to strengthen its ecosystem. If you're not fully committed to that ecosystem, you're swimming against the current.

What Qualified Customers Are Already Experiencing

Even before this acquisition, Qualified customers were hitting limitations:

Long Implementation Timelines

Qualified's 6+ month onboarding with assigned implementation resources isn't a feature—it's a symptom of complexity. Companies need dedicated integration work, custom scripting, and ongoing configuration. That complexity doesn't decrease under enterprise ownership.

Rigid Contracts

Three-year minimum commitments with no month-to-month option. For a category evolving as rapidly as AI-powered engagement, locking into a multi-year contract means committing to yesterday's technology.

Rules-Based Limitations

Despite marketing itself as AI-powered, Qualified's underlying architecture relies heavily on form-based logic and decision trees. The "AI" layer sits on top of fundamentally rules-based infrastructure—limiting adaptability and requiring manual configuration for each use case.

Limited AI Search Visibility

Qualified focuses on website engagement. It doesn't address how your brand appears in ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity—the increasingly important discovery layer where B2B buyers start their research.

Why This Is the Strategic Moment to Switch

Acquisitions create natural inflection points. Contracts come up for renewal. Integrations require new decisions. Teams reassess whether the current solution still fits.

If you're a Qualified customer, here's why now is the time to evaluate:

Before Integration Complexity Hits

The months immediately after an acquisition closes are chaotic. Account teams change. Support processes shift. The product roadmap gets rewritten. Switching before that chaos begins means switching from a stable-enough platform to a stable alternative.

Before Contract Renewal Pressure

As the acquisition closes, Qualified's sales team will push renewals aggressively. They want committed customers before the Salesforce integration changes terms. Evaluating alternatives now means having leverage in that conversation—or a clear exit path.

Before Your Stack Gets Entangled

The longer you stay on a platform being absorbed into Salesforce, the more your processes and integrations become Salesforce-dependent. Switching now is simpler than switching after a year of deeper integration.

What to Look for in an Alternative

If you're evaluating options, here's what matters:

AI-Native Architecture

Not AI layered on top of rules-based logic. Actually AI-native—built to understand, reason, and adapt without pre-configured decision trees. This is the difference between a chatbot with AI marketing and a genuine AI agent.

Rapid Deployment

If implementation takes 6+ months, you're paying for complexity you don't need. Modern AI platforms deploy in days, not months—a single line of code or tag manager installation, not a dedicated implementation team.

Flexible Contracts

In a category evolving this quickly, 3-year commitments are a liability. Month-to-month pricing with no long-term lock-in means you can adapt as the market evolves.

Beyond Website Engagement

Website chat is one channel. But B2B buyers increasingly start their research in AI assistants before they ever visit your site. A complete solution addresses both—engaging visitors on your website and ensuring you're visible when they research in ChatGPT.

Platform Independence

If your engagement platform is owned by your CRM vendor, your flexibility decreases. An independent platform that integrates with any CRM—Salesforce, HubSpot, or others—gives you options.

How Salespeak Addresses These Needs

We built Salespeak specifically to solve the problems that Qualified customers experience:

AI-Native, Not Rules-Based

Salespeak is built on LLM technology from the ground up. It understands context, reasons about buyer needs, and adapts conversations dynamically—no decision trees or pre-scripted flows required.

Live in Days, Not Months

Setup takes hours, not months. Upload your product content, configure your voice, and deploy with a single script or tag manager. No implementation team. No 6-month timeline.

Month-to-Month, No Lock-In

Transparent pricing. No 3-year commitments. No enterprise minimums. If the category evolves or your needs change, you have flexibility.

LLM Visibility Included

Beyond website engagement, Salespeak shows you how your brand appears in ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity. You can see—and influence—how AI describes your product to buyers who are researching before they ever visit your site.

Works With Any CRM

Real-time sync with Salesforce, HubSpot, and other platforms. We're not owned by your CRM vendor, so our incentive is to integrate well with whatever you use—not to push you toward a specific ecosystem.

Results Customers See After Switching

Companies that have moved from legacy conversational platforms to Salespeak report:

• 3x faster deployment than implementation-heavy alternatives
• 40% increase in qualified conversations from AI-native engagement
• 2-3x jump in qualified pipeline within the first month
• Visibility into AI search that legacy platforms can't provide

The Timing Reality

Acquisitions create natural switching windows. The period between announcement and close—when existing contracts are maturing but integration chaos hasn't begun—is the optimal time to evaluate alternatives.

Once the acquisition closes and Qualified becomes "Agentforce Marketing" (or whatever it becomes), switching gets harder. Your account relationship changes. Your integration points change. Your leverage changes.

If you've been considering alternatives to Qualified, the Salesforce acquisition doesn't close the window—it opens it. But that window has a timeline.

Next Steps

If you're a Qualified customer evaluating options:

1. Review your contract terms. When does your current agreement end? What are your renewal terms? What flexibility do you have?
2. Document your requirements. What do you actually use Qualified for? What's working? What's not?
3. Evaluate alternatives before renewal pressure hits. Having options means having leverage—whether you ultimately switch or negotiate better terms.
4. Consider the AI search dimension. Is website engagement enough, or do you need visibility into how buyers research you in ChatGPT?

We're happy to show you how Salespeak compares—and how quickly you could be live if you decide to switch. See the full comparison or reach out for a demo.

Acquisitions are inflection points. The question is whether you'll use this one strategically—or let it happen to you.