Building a Sales Tool Stack That Works
The average sales team uses 10+ tools. Most of them overlap, few of them integrate well, and sellers spend more time managing software than talking to customers. Here's how to build a stack that actually improves productivity.
The Foundational Layers
Your CRM is the system of record. Every customer interaction, every deal, every contact lives here. The specific tool matters less than consistent usage. Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive—all work if properly implemented.
Key principle: The CRM is the source of truth. No shadow systems, no personal spreadsheets, no "I keep my deals in my head." If it's not in the CRM, it didn't happen.
Email, phone, video. Most teams need dedicated tools because CRM-native communication features are usually weak. Choose tools that log automatically to your CRM—manual logging is a tax on productivity.
- Email: Tool that tracks opens/clicks and logs to CRM
- Phone: Dialer with recording, transcription, CRM integration
- Video: Standard conferencing with recording capability
Lead and contact data tools. Where do you get prospects? How do you enrich records with accurate contact information? Common tools include ZoomInfo, Apollo, Lusha, Clearbit.
Key questions: How accurate is the data? How fresh? What's the cost per record at your usage level? Does it integrate with your CRM for enrichment?
The Enhancement Layers
Sequencing and automation tools—Outreach, Salesloft, Apollo. These automate follow-up and track engagement. Valuable for teams doing volume outbound; overkill for low-volume, high-touch sales.
Danger zone: These tools make it easy to send bad emails at scale. They don't fix messaging problems—they amplify them.
Conversation intelligence, intent data, deal prediction. Tools like Gong, Chorus, Clari, Bombora. Valuable for larger teams with enough data to generate insights; often premature for small teams.
Wait until you have: 5+ reps, consistent recording habits, and clear questions the data should answer.
The Integration Imperative
Tools that don't integrate create data silos and duplicate work. Before adding any tool, ask:
- Does it have native integration with our CRM?
- Does it sync automatically or require manual work?
- Does it create duplicate records or use existing ones?
A tool that doesn't integrate well often costs more in productivity loss than it provides in value. The best tool that doesn't connect to your stack is worse than a decent tool that does.
Common Mistakes
Too many tools too fast. Add one tool at a time. Ensure adoption before adding the next. A tool nobody uses is pure cost.
Features over workflow. Don't buy tools because they have impressive features. Buy tools because they solve specific problems in your workflow.
No owner. Every tool needs an owner responsible for configuration, training, and ensuring adoption. Without an owner, tools decay into shelfware.
Starting Stack Recommendations
For teams under 5 reps: CRM + email tool + data provider. That's it. Add more only when you've maxed out what these can do.
For teams 5-20 reps: Add engagement automation and consider conversation intelligence.
For teams 20+: Full stack becomes viable, but still evaluate each addition against integration requirements and adoption capacity.