If you take a look at business technologies nowadays, you’ll find that some of the most efficient tools a few years back are now obsolete to some extent. This is because the industry is constantly changing, and so does the technology that comes with it. That’s precisely why most successful companies tend to rebuild or revamp their sales stack now and then. If you plan on doing the same, understand what sales stack means first.
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What Is A Sales Stack?
Sales stack, also known as a sales technology stack, refers to the collection of technologies, tools, or software that helps with a company’s sales process. These may include tools to help onboard and train greenhorns, automate menial tasks, collect information on prospects, and write up proposals to close a sale or deal. The main goal of a sales stack is to provide your sales team with technologies that they may leverage to achieve a higher standard of sales metrics.
In this increasingly digital world, most businesses now rely on technologies. Hence, one may argue that the success of a company’s sales process largely depends on its sales technology stack.
For that reason, building a sales stack is a must for every company, but the question is, ‘How can you do it?’ If you want to learn how the following pointers may help you.
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1. Commission A Professional For Help
Before you start with the process of building a sales stack, you should consider seeking the help of a professional, preferably someone that has extensive experience in this matter. He may be especially helpful if you’re not exactly an expert in building a sales stack. If you plan on hiring such an individual, you’re looking at around USD$50,000. If that isn’t up to your budget, you can also consider hiring an agency that will do the same thing, except for a much cheaper cost.
Whichever you choose, you can expect satisfactory results as they could help you find the most suitable tools for your organization and can also deal with their implementation.
You may always choose to build a sales stack by yourself or with your existing team. However, that would require extensive knowledge of sales technologies. If that’s your plan, you might want to start by doing an audit of your existing sales stack to determine what needs to be changed.
2. Do An Audit On Your Existing Sales Stack
An audit is the inspection of one or multiple aspects of an entity to determine any problem with that particular aspect. In the case of a sales stack audit, you’re essentially figuring out what elements need to be replaced. This should always be the first step when rebuilding your company’s sales technologies. In that regard, here’s how to do a sales stack audit:
- Conduct An Audit Regularly. First of all, you need to conduct an audit regularly, not just when you want to rebuild or revamp your existing sales stack. This is because you’ll eventually need the information on your sales technologies, and it can be difficult to track the different elements of your stack if you only do it once or twice a year.
- Determine The Functions Of Each Element. Next, you need to determine the functions of the sales technologies. This is to identify which technologies practically do the same thing and make changes by replacing them accordingly.
- Check Whether They Are Integrated. In a sales stack, all tools must be centralized in one platform (e.g., HubSpot). In that sense, integrate all of your sales technologies into one platform. If they aren’t, it’s high time you consolidate them. If not, put them on your list of apps to replace.
- Compare The Prices Of Each App. Remember that the market price for various sales technologies constantly changes. An existing app may have been the cheapest option at the time of your purchase, but you can’t say the same after a few years. On that note, when doing an audit, make sure you compare the prices of each technology.
An audit allows you to figure out whether your sales stack truly needs a revamp or not. After all, rebuilding a sales stack isn’t cheap by any means. However, if it does require a revamp, an audit can serve as a way to clean up the mess that is your current sales stack. Once you’ve taken care of the unnecessary elements of the sales stack, it’s time to find tools to serve as their replacements, but that would require you to have a deeper understanding of your sales process.
3. Identify The Different Steps In The Sales Process
Almost every aspect of an organization changes constantly. This is especially true in the sales process, as each step may change as the company continues to grow and strategies evolve. So, what does this have to do with your sales stack? For one, when building a sales stack, managers often consider the different steps of the sales process and start from there.
Therefore, your next step is to identify the different steps in your sales process. In that regard, here’s a closer look at what can be seen in a company’s sales process:
- Lead Generation
Lead generation is the process of gaining the attention and interest of prospects to convert them into customers and generate sales soon. There are several ways to approach lead generation. These may include: (1) email outreach, (2) phone calls, (3) social media advertising, (4) referrals, (5) content marketing, and many more. Naturally, each of these methods would require different sales technologies.
- Lead Management
As you continue to generate leads through various channels, you’ll have to manage the information about each lead accordingly, such as their email address, gender, name, nationality, etc. Of course, it can be difficult, even impossible, if you do it manually, so you need the help of a tool, which would then be an essential element of your sales stack. The software that manages leads is often the central part of the sales stack.
- Product Demonstration
Now that you have the necessary information on your leads, it’s time to contact them directly to demonstrate your products and services. As you might imagine, this would also require various technologies and tools, particularly those that can help with scheduling, videoconferencing, appointment setting, and the like.
- Closing Deals
If the prospect is enticed with your product demonstration, they may want to strike a deal with your business. Again, you’ll need technologies to streamline this process.
Take note that these are only the standard steps in a sales process. In the case of your business, the steps may vary according to your strategy. That’s why just like audits, you should evaluate your sales process regularly to avoid having a sales stack that doesn’t fit with your current sales process. Once you successfully identify each step, it’s time to look for suitable technologies.
4. Look For A Reliable Tool For Each Step
As stated previously, each step requires technologies with varying functionalities. If you want to rebuild your sales stack, it would be best if you look at each step individually.
In that regard, the following are the different types of tools you’d want to include on your sales stack:
- Lead Generation
A lead generation tool is any technology that makes it easier to capture qualified leads rather than forcing you to do follow-ups and outreach manually. As there are different methods to lead generation, you may have to look for several tools to fill in the gaps in your lead generation process. Examples include predictive dialers and automatic call recorders for phone call outreach and autoresponders for emails.
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
To manage leads, you’ll need a specific type of technology called CRM software. If you may recall, the entirety of your sales stack needs to be based on one platform. This is that platform, as your CRM software is essentially the central part of a sales stack.
- Scheduling And Appointment
Next, you need tools for product demonstrations. Because it would require you to schedule an appointment with prospects, you need a scheduling technology for your sales stack.
- Proposal Creation And eSignature
The last step is closing the deal, and for that, you need to have a tool that allows you to create proposals that your prospects can then sign to close the deal officially.
- Process and Training
While it’s technically not a step in the sales process, you might want to include an onboarding platform to help train the new hires or greenhorns as part of your sales stack.
When looking for a reliable tool, you must ensure each one could be integrated into your existing CRM solution. This should help make your sales stack easier to manage.
Wrapping Up
As helpful as they may be, you have to remember that sales technologies also have their limits. You can’t rely on them to solve all your problems concerning sales. Rather than looking for a silver bullet that will solve your problems right away, look for several sales technologies, each with its respective benefits and functionalities. With this guide, finding the right tools to rebuild your sales stack should be a lot easier.