Why a Tech Stack Audit Saves Big Bucks as Point Solutions Consolidate
Research conducted by Salesforce showed that Sales Reps use an average of 10 different tools to close a single deal. And this is leading to further findings that 94% of Sales organizations plan to consolidate their tech stacks in the coming year - in an attempt to boost productivity.
Yeah, you read that right. We need to remove tools in order to increase productivity, despite having bought those tools for that very purpose.
It's all because over the last several years, we've seen an explosion of point solutions - tools and products that solve a very narrow problem within the end-to-end Sales process. This is everything from conversational marketing, to buyer intent data, sales automation platforms, CPQ tools, revenue intelligence / forecasting, and more.
Managing a GTM Tech stack in a growing B2B startup is a slippery slope. Decisions to implement a new tool make sense when they are viewed in isolation but it quickly snowballs into a fragmented systems landscape that ends up decreasing Rep productivity instead of driving top-line gains.
Point Solution Tools
The landscape of GTM Tools extend the full-funnel, enabling Reps and automating aspects of their workflow every step of the way.
At a minimum, we see 7 primary categories but some of these could be broken down much furtner.
Sales Engagement
Sales Intelligence
Scheduling
Document Management
CPQ
Data Enrichment
Productivity
Monitoring Changes in the Point Solution Space
To see where the challenge comes in, let's take a look at the Sales Engagement category.
This includes your Salesloft, Outreach, Groove, Gong, Mixmax, ZoomInfo SalesOS, and Apollo type platforms.
Some of these platforms got their start focused entirely on automating e-mail sequences for Sales Reps.
They were point solutions with that singular purpose. (Outreach and Salesloft, for example.)
Alternatively, some products on this list had nothing to do with e-mail sales automation. They started with another point solution focus and have expanded into sales engagement. (Gong and ZoomInfo Sales OS, for example.)
This rapid evolution of point solutions is where the fundamental problem lies.
In the past, they only served one purpose so you did, in fact, need all of them. You had Outreach for e-mail automation and Gong for forecasting, revenue intelligence etc. But now Gong can handle the e-mail piece. No need for Outreach anymore.
These are the decisions startups everyone are making as the landscape of vendors evolves.
And it's happening by way of acquisitions - ZoomInfo acquiring Chorus in 2021; Clari acquiring Groove in 2023 - as well as through organic growth with companies like Apollo and Gong launching new features.
A fast changing GTM Systems landscape presents challenges and opportunities for companies - you can make more cost-effective purchasing decisions by trimming your total number of vendors and you can reduce the complexity of your Tech Stack to boost Rep experience - but it takes a conscious effort and ongoing audit process.
Conducting a Tech Stack Audit
It's probably a good idea to audit your Tech Stack on an annual basis anyway ...
But in light of the messy point solution market, you may want to do it even more frequently even if just for a quick pulse check.
For the core pieces of infrastructure (like your CRM and Marketing Automation platforms), you'll want to do a more thorough audit. (We'll skip the technical specifics here but you can check out this Guide to a Salesforce Audit for more insight.)
As it relates to the likely dozens of point solutions you have implemented for the Sales team, that audit process can be a bit lighter weight.
Ultimately, it comes down to 2 things:
- Current Utilization of the Tool: is this something Sales Reps are actually using as intended and is it delivering the value expected?
- Alternatives in the Market: the SaaS landscape is constantly changing, so a product you're already using is likely to release features that could replace a separate tool you have in place.
Number 2 is the tricky one because it requires more than just familiarity with your own technology stack. It requires you to keep tabs on new releases across all the vendors out there.
If you're using Apollo for e-mail sequences and Chili Piper for lead routing & scheduling ... but then Apollo launches lead routing & scheduling features, it probably makes sense for you to be aware of it so you can scrap that Chili Piper agreement when it's up for renewal.
