According to Sales Hacker, there are five core sales activities that can be optimized with technology. For every core sales activity, there are countless tools to choose from — some that specialize in a single function and some that encompass several. The combination you select to support your day-to-day operations becomes your “sales stack.”
Your organization’s sales stack will likely look a bit different from those of your competitors, but that doesn’t mean one is right or wrong. It simply means that you believe your assembly of tools will maximize your team’s efficiency and effectiveness.
However, as innovation continues to bring new features and functionality to the marketplace, sales stacks grow more costly and complex. This is no recipe for success, especially as COVID-19 forces you to tighten your tech budget.
The Modern Sales Stack is Weighing You Down
The emphasis on technology and innovation in the sales world has given us the impression that more is more. In 2019, the median number of sales tools (i.e., the number of tools used by the largest number of respondents) organizations used in their sales stack was nine. That averages out to nearly two tools per core sales activity! All of the tools you employ may be of actual value to you, but they each come at a cost.
Price
Every individual tool costs money to set up and money to use on a per-user basis. According to Smart Selling Tools, two-thirds of survey respondents in 2017 reported they spent less than $150/user/month on their sales stack. The stack quickly exploded, and earlier this year, TOPO reported companies are spending $10k/rep on their tech stack.
Priorities change and technology advances, but are you confident that your added monthly overhead is yielding markedly better return? That’s something only you can determine.
Cohesion
Every tool in your stack brings something to the table. However, your efficiency and effectiveness is ultimately reliant upon the ecosystem created by your sales stack. That means unless every tool in your stack integrates with one another, you cannot achieve optimal performance.
The more interconnectivity that exists in your sales stack, the greater risk of your ecosystem breaking. For example if your activity capture tool loses connection with your guided selling tool, all other tools in your stack are rendered useless. If you consolidate your stack, you assume less risk while gaining more control of the overall performance.
Adoption
Every tool holds great promise in terms of how it can impact your team. However, every new tool you add to your stack adds training and onboarding time to your reps’ calendars — time away from selling. In addition, you now face the challenge of ramping engagement with the tool and ensuring proper use of it — no small feat.
Did you know the typical mid-sized company turned over 39% of its SaaS apps between 2017-18? That equates to a lot of time and effort wasted onboarding new tools. Tools that you cannot guarantee your team sufficiently adopts.
Sales Stack Consolidation is Your New Priority
Your team still requires technology to operate at a high level, but with budgets shrinking due to COVID-19, you need to be more diligent in how you assemble your sales stack. No longer will the nine-tool sales stacks of today be the norm.
Sales stack assessment should happen annually, but for many companies it’s been put on the backburner—until now. With InsightSquared you don’t have to compromise. Our comprehensive RevOps platform includes all five core sales activities in one seamless interface. It saves you time, effort and overhead — all with the pipeline clarity and visibility you strive for.
What does your current sales stack say about you? Check out our next blog where we examine which sales tools are most impactful for high-performing sales organizations.