Gong vs Chorus vs Clari: The $300K Revenue Intelligence Experiment
We spent $300,000 implementing Gong, Chorus, and Clari across three similar sales teams.
Same products. Same markets. Same sales process. Different "intelligence" platforms.
The winner? None of them. Here's why.
The Revenue Intelligence Gold Rush
Every sales team wants to be "data-driven." Vendors promise AI-powered insights that will revolutionize your sales process.
The reality? Most companies are paying $100,000+ annually for glorified call recording with fancy dashboards that nobody looks at.
We ran a controlled experiment: Three 20-person sales teams, each using a different platform for 12 months. We tracked everything: adoption, insights generated, revenue impact, and ROI.
The results will make revenue intelligence vendors very unhappy.
Gong: The $125,000 Echo Chamber
The Promise: "Unlock reality with AI-powered insights" The Cost: $125,000/year for 20 users The Reality: Expensive confirmation of what you already knew
What Gong Does Well: Gong's transcription accuracy is genuinely impressive—94% accurate even with accents and technical jargon. The platform captures every call, creates searchable transcripts, and identifies talk patterns. Their "market insights" feature actually surfaces useful competitive intelligence.
What Actually Happened: Month 1: Everyone excited about call recordings Month 2: Managers obsessing over talk ratios Month 3: Reps gaming the metrics Month 6: Only managers still logging in Month 12: $125,000 for call recording
The Brutal Truth: Gong told us our top performers ask more questions. Revolutionary. It revealed that deals with multiple stakeholders close faster. Groundbreaking. It showed that discussing price too early kills deals. Who could have guessed?
The Real Problems:
- Reps felt surveilled, not supported
- Managers became scoreboard watchers
- Coaching turned into metric harassment
- Customers hated being recorded
- 73% of "insights" were obvious
ROI Analysis:
- Cost: $125,000
- Revenue lift: 3% (marginal)
- Actual value: $20,000 in saved coaching time
- Net ROI: -$105,000
Chorus (now ZoomInfo Engage): The $95,000 Distraction
The Promise: "Conversation intelligence that wins deals" The Cost: $95,000/year for 20 users The Reality: Death by dashboard
What Chorus Does Well: The Zoom integration is seamless (they're owned by ZoomInfo). Playlist creation for coaching is intuitive. The mobile app actually works. Momentum alerts for deal risks are occasionally useful.
What Actually Happened: Week 1: "Look at all these dashboards!" Week 4: "Which dashboard shows what again?" Week 12: "Does anyone actually use this?" Week 52: "Let's not renew"
The Coaching Theater: Manager: "I've created a playlist of your calls to review" Rep: "Great, when should I review them?" Manager: "In your spare time" Rep: "What spare time?" Result: 8% of playlists ever watched
The Real Problems:
- UI designed by someone who loves complexity
- Insights buried under 17 clicks
- Integration broke monthly
- Support that responds in geological time
- AI that thinks every price mention is a "negotiation"
ROI Analysis:
- Cost: $95,000
- Revenue lift: 1% (statistical noise)
- Actual value: $10,000 in CRM data entry
- Net ROI: -$85,000
Clari: The $80,000 Fortune Teller
The Promise: "Full-funnel accountability and intelligence" The Cost: $80,000/year for 20 users The Reality: Sophisticated guessing about pipeline
What Clari Does Well: Forecasting interface is actually beautiful. Pipeline inspection tools are genuinely helpful. The activity capture works reliably. Executive dashboards make CEOs feel informed.
What Actually Happened: Clari predicted our quarter would end at $2.3M. We closed $1.8M. Next quarter: predicted $2.5M, closed $3.1M. Third quarter: predicted $2.8M, closed $2.7M (finally!). Fourth quarter: predicted $3.2M, closed $2.1M.
A magic 8-ball would have been as accurate and cost $19.99.
The Forecasting Fantasy: CEO: "Clari shows us hitting 95% of target" VP Sales: "That assumes all these deals close" CEO: "Will they?" VP Sales: "Clari says maybe" CEO: "So you don't know?" VP Sales: "But now with AI confidence scores!"
The Real Problems:
- Forecasting based on bad CRM data
- Reps gaming the system immediately
- "AI insights" that are just averages
- Expensive Salesforce duplicate
- Pipeline inspection without phone validation
ROI Analysis:
- Cost: $80,000
- Revenue lift: 2% (generous estimate)
- Actual value: $15,000 in forecasting time
- Net ROI: -$65,000
The Features Arms Race Nobody Wanted
All three platforms are locked in a feature war, adding capabilities nobody requested:
Gong's Latest: "Sentiment analysis" that rates every call's emotional journey. Useful? No. Interesting? Barely. Cost to develop? Probably millions.
Chorus's Addition: "Deal intelligence scores" using proprietary AI. What it actually does: Averages historical data and adds confidence intervals. Revolutionary.
Clari's Innovation: "Relationship mapping" showing who knows whom. Turns out, it's just email frequency analysis with fancy visualization.
Meanwhile, what sales teams actually want:
- Which phone numbers work
- When prospects actually answer
- Why deals really die
- How to reach decision makers
The Adoption Death Spiral
Every revenue intelligence platform follows the same adoption pattern:
Weeks 1-2: The Honeymoon Everyone explores every feature. Dashboards are checked hourly. Insights are shared in Slack. Hope springs eternal.
Weeks 3-8: The Reality Check Reps realize it's mostly surveillance. Managers realize insights aren't actionable. Everyone realizes it's another dashboard to check.
Months 3-6: The Compliance Phase Usage becomes mandatory. Adoption metrics are tracked. Reps do minimum required. Managers pretend it's valuable.
Months 6-12: The Abandonment Only managers use it, and only for reviews. Reps actively avoid it. License renewal discussions begin. CFO asks about ROI.
What These Platforms Actually Tell You
After analyzing thousands of "AI-powered insights," here's what revenue intelligence actually reveals:
Universal Truths Every Platform "Discovers":
- Good reps talk less than prospects (shocking!)
- Multi-threading increases close rates (who knew!)
- Deals slow down without next steps (incredible!)
- Discussing price early reduces conversion (amazing!)
- Champions who leave kill deals (unbelievable!)
You just saved $100,000. You're welcome.
The Surveillance State Problem
The biggest issue nobody discusses: Revenue intelligence turned coaching into surveillance.
Before Revenue Intelligence: "Hey, how did that call with Acme go?" "Pretty good, they're interested but concerned about implementation." "What's our next step?" "Demo scheduled for Thursday." "Perfect, let me know if you need help."
After Revenue Intelligence: "I reviewed your call. Your talk ratio was 47%, should be under 40%. You mentioned price at minute 23, too early according to Gong. You didn't ask about budget until minute 31. Your competitor mention rate is below team average. Also, you said 'um' 17 times."
Which conversation builds better salespeople?
The Hidden Costs of Intelligence
The sticker price is just the beginning:
Implementation Costs:
- Technical setup: $10,000-25,000
- Training: $5,000-15,000
- Integration: $10,000-30,000
- Change management: Priceless (and usually failed)
Ongoing Costs:
- Administrator time: 20 hours/month
- Manager review time: 40 hours/month
- Rep compliance time: 100 hours/month
- Lost productivity from surveillance stress: Unmeasurable
Opportunity Costs:
- What if you hired another rep instead?
- What if you invested in better data?
- What if you paid for actual sales training?
- What if you validated phone numbers before calling?
The Customer Experience Disaster
Nobody talks about how customers react to being "intelligently analyzed":
"This call is being recorded for training purposes" used to be acceptable. Now it's "This call is being recorded, transcribed, analyzed by AI, shared with our team, used for market insights, and your emotional sentiment is being scored."
Customer reactions:
- 31% become noticeably less open
- 24% ask not to be recorded
- 18% mention lawyers or compliance
- 12% end calls immediately
You're paying $100,000+ to make prospects trust you less.
What Actually Improves Sales Performance
We tested everything. Here's what actually increased revenue:
10x Impact:
- Validating phone numbers before calling
- Reducing CRM requirements
- Hiring better reps
- Improving product-market fit
5x Impact:
- Regular 1-on-1 coaching
- Clear career progression
- Better territories
- Faster lead response
2x Impact:
- Sales methodology training
- Better email templates
- Improved demos
- Competitive battle cards
1x or Less Impact:
- Revenue intelligence platforms
- AI-powered insights
- Conversation analytics
- Sentiment tracking
The Revenue Intelligence Stack That Actually Works
Here's what smart teams are doing:
Instead of Gong: Basic call recording ($20/user/month) + manager who actually listens to calls
Instead of Chorus: Screen recording software ($15/user/month) + weekly team call reviews
Instead of Clari: Accurate CRM data + Excel + common sense
Add: ConnectRate validation to know which numbers work
Total Cost: $40/user/month vs $400/user/month Results: Same or better performance at 90% less cost
The Vendor Response Playbook
When you try to cancel, here's what they'll say:
"You're not using it right" - Translation: Our UX is so bad you need consultants
"Let us show you new features" - Translation: Please don't let our investors find out about churn
"Your competitors are using us" - Translation: They're also wasting money
"The ROI takes time" - Translation: We have no proof of ROI
"We'll discount heavily" - Translation: Our margins are insane
The Questions to Ask Before Buying
- What specific problem will this solve?
- Can we solve it cheaper another way?
- Will reps actually use this daily?
- How will we measure ROI?
- What happens when the novelty wears off?
If you can't answer all five confidently, save your money.
The Bottom Line
Revenue intelligence platforms are solutions looking for problems. They've convinced sales leaders that AI-powered insights will transform performance.
The reality? Your sales problems aren't caused by lack of conversation intelligence. They're caused by:
- Bad contact data
- Broken sales processes
- Misaligned incentives
- Poor product-market fit
- Inadequate training
No amount of AI analysis fixes fundamental problems.
Our Recommendation
Skip the revenue intelligence theater. Instead:
- Fix your data quality first
- Simplify your sales process
- Invest in rep development
- Focus on customer success
- Measure what matters
You'll save hundreds of thousands of dollars and actually improve performance.
The best revenue intelligence? Asking customers why they buy or don't buy. Then listening. No AI required.
Want intelligence that actually impacts revenue? See how ConnectRate tells you which numbers work before you dial them. That's intelligence worth paying for.