Sales technology has come a long way in recent years and has become an integral part of most organizations. During that time, however, sales teams have amassed a large number of tools, and that’s created some problems.

Having a lot of sales tools creates confusion, makes tool management complicated, reduces sellers’ productivity, and can be expensive. In a time when sales teams are smaller and budgets are flat—if not lower—those problems will impact your sales reps’ ability to close deals and generate revenue.

“As the market has matured, people are coming to the realization that you can’t have 25 tools in your tech stack because it’s just overwhelming,” said Mark Magnacca, co-founder and president of Allego, during a recent webinar, New Research: The State of the Sales Tech Stack in 2023.

It’s time to  look at how your team can become as efficient as possible and help your sellers be more productive. In fact, a survey of nearly 1,000 sales reps, managers, and leaders conducted by Outreach in 2022 revealed efficiency to be the top theme looking ahead to 2023, said Mary Shea, vice president and Global Innovation Evangelist at Outreach.

During their presentation, Shea and Magnacca shared the findings of that survey and discussed four sales technology trends that emerged from the results.

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4 Sales Technology Trends for 2023

1. Prospecting and Deal Management Will Be Top Sales Tools

Sales teams use a variety of tools, the Outreach survey found. The different types include prospecting, deal management, data storage and reporting, forecasting, data augmentation, sales enablement, and compensation and performance.

Among those, prospecting and deal management tools are most widely used across teams, Shea said.

“All the research I’ve conducted shows organizations are prepping for a tough economic environment, so it’s no surprise to me that companies and business leaders are focused on prospecting, deal management, and closing deals,” she said.

Shea also said more chief revenue officers (CROs) see the importance of sales enablement tools. “They’re leaning into sales development, sales training, sales coaching, and sales readiness very heavily right now,” she said.

2. Tech Stack Consolidation Will Yield Better Performance

The challenges of running and maintaining a lot of sales tech tools has sales leaders looking into consolidating their tech stack. They’re concerned, however, that they could lose functionality, the research found.

Looking at the sales enablement platforms available today, though, it’s possible to get all that functionality in one solution, Magnacca and Shea said. There’s no need for companies to try to research, select, and connect multiple best-of-breed, single-point solutions.

“Back in 2015, it made a lot of sense to experiment with a range of point solutions. And most companies did that,” Shea said. “Now that the sales technology marketplace has matured, though, we’re at a point where the providers, like Allego and Outreach, have moved on from offering a single solution to delivering a single robust platform that allows their customers to really have support across the entire revenue cycle.”

It’s about finding a provider that has a platform and feature roadmap you can rely on, as well as trusting the management team’s ability to execute that plan, Magnacca added.

As more sales organizations do that, we’ll start to see the number of tools they use decline, Shea said.

If you consolidate, “you’ll waste less time negotiating with a range of different vendors, and you’ll see better data integrity, which is increasingly important to derive insights from the tools that you have,” she said.

3. Efficiency and Sales Rep Productivity Will Be Top Priorities

Considering today’s economic pressures and sales team challenges, sales reps must work more efficiently and productively.

“Companies are going to have to do more with less. That’s just the reality of it,” Magnacca said.

Shea agreed, saying, “Efficiency is the word of the year for B2B sales in 2023. Every organization that I talked to wants to increase productivity. They’re asking: How do we get more participation? How do we do more with less? That’s going to be across the board, not only with sales talent, but also with pipelines.”

As sales teams strive to be more efficient and productive, they must also consider their ability to access and integrate sales data, Magnacca and Shea said.

Disparate tools don’t integrate and share data effectively. So, sales leaders are looking for a platform that can serve as a single source of truth for their sales pipeline and activity data, they said. Further, sprawling tech stacks are not cost-efficient, and organizations need to reduce spend.

“The net result is simply this: There’s going to be continued consolidation, and there’s no question there’s going to be a cost advantage for doing so. We’re seeing it already,” Magnacca said.

Shea also pointed out that as companies invest in easing the seller’s experience, they should do so with a customer-centric mindset and ask, “What technologies can I use to similarly make it easier for our prospects to buy from us?”

4. Innovative Sales Technology Will Be a Critical Lever

Companies are tightening their financial belts in several areas, but one area they’re spending more is sales technology, Shea said.

“I surveyed a bunch of CRO’s globally, and they’re starting to view innovative sales tech, such as sales enablement platforms and suites, as a critical lever in their go-to-market strategy. They’re also looking at diverting budgets from one area of the business over to sales tech,” she said.

CROs understand companies can’t survive and thrive in today’s buying environment unless they have efficiency driven by automation and effectiveness, which is driven by insights that are derived from machine learning, Shea said.

“I think CROs have gotten that message. Business leaders have gotten that message. Board members have gotten that message. They know you’ve got to have this stuff,” Shea said.

Research also shows that top sellers won’t work at a company unless it has a top-tier sales tech stack. While hiring managers are evaluating sales reps’ skills, those reps are evaluating the sales technology the company has.

“That’s because they know they can’t perform to the best of their ability and make all the money that they want to make unless [the company has] the right solutions in place,” Shea said.

If your organization has the best tools, you will have a natural advantage, Magnacca added. Top sellers know what they need, and they will ask for it. They do not want to go backward in terms of technology, productivity, and efficiency.

At the same time, sales managers must keep in mind that there’s a natural adoption curve for each organization, he said. Think about the problem you are trying to solve, and what’s most important to you. Then determine whether you have the resources and experience to deploy the technology.

Your Sales Tech Strategy Is Key to Doing More with Less

Every piece of technology promises to make life and work easier. And while you want innovative tools, you must be strategic about adoption. Because having multiple sales enablement tools will do more harm than good if they don’t integrate or share data, are complex, and consume sellers’ time. And in a year when sales team performance is more important than ever, you can’t afford that.

Learn More

Watch the webinar New Research: The State of the Sales Tech Stack in 2023 to learn which platforms will help your sales team close revenue more efficiently and effectively.