Developing a tech stack strategy

A sales tech arms race?

Sales organisations are now operating in a market flooded with next-generation ‘unicorn’ tech firms. Each claims to have the silver bullet to achieving outsized sales performance, and the results can’t be ignored. With huge increases in revenue and productivity, is it any surprise we find ourselves in a corporate arms race for the latest sales enablement tech?

Developing a tech stack strategy has become one of the greatest challenges for modern-day sales leadership. Nobody wants to be late to the party or miss the opportunity to capitalise on expected returns. However, embedding new tech solutions comes with an array of hidden risks, expenses, and hurdles – all of which threaten hiked costs and a reduction in overall sales performance.

Over a couple of blog posts, we’re going to share some key lessons and observations from across the industries we serve. Read on to discover the essential considerations and evaluation frameworks we use to support our clients.

Beware of external pressures

When developing a tech stack strategy, the first trap that countless sales organisations fall into is taking an outside-in approach. Outside-in focuses on what to buy and from whom, rather than first identifying unique and intentional opportunities for tech to drive sales performance.

Falling into this trap is easier than you think. Outside-in strategies usually come about because of three main pressures:

Macro-sentiment pressure: “If we don’t modernise and automate, then our business will fall behind.” 

Competitive pressure: “Our competition is using this tool to do this – we need to buy it too.”

Silver-bullet transformation: “If we can just find a way to increase pipeline by 20%, we’ll solve all our business challenges.”

The pressure they feel to pursue tech-enabled solutions often leads sales organisations to overlook traditional opportunities for sales growth. In short, it can distract them from their existing strategy and core strengths, competencies, and capabilities. In his excellent podcast, Mike Weinberg stresses to sales leaders that “execution trumps enablement every time.” He suggests organisations focus on identifying and executing their core strengths over pursuing silver-bullet enablement solutions.

Start inside-out

By adopting an inside-out approach – identifying, evaluating, and accounting for core organisational strengths, competencies, and capabilities, organisations can avoid poor tech choices.

There are sales organisations whose “reps only spend 30% of their time on sales activity,” where “it takes 6 hours to process a new client contract.” Elsewhere, “sales analytics are riddled with inaccuracies due to poor CRM hygiene.” We also have statistics on individual contributors thinking they do twice as much client engagement as they actually do. For some organisations, challenges like these significantly constrict sales output and productivity, while others achieve significant growth and results in spite of them. The key is to identify which challenges to address in your organisation, which will have the greatest impact on performance output, and which (if any) can be enabled through tech.

A company’s ability to implement and leverage new tech solutions is limited to its existing systems, skills, and mindsets. Without an honest account of internal strengths and opportunities, firms cannot accurately evaluate the potential impact new technology could offer. Furthermore, they cannot comprehensively understand the resources, time, and costs involved in implementing it.

Consider this equation:

New Technology Capabilities x Systems + Skills + Mindset

= Sales Performance Output 

Too many times, we have seen businesses acquire new technology full of promise (and hope) but fail to meet expected returns because of insufficient consideration for implementing, embedding and enabling the technology. When this happens, the best-case scenario is that the firm loses the capital they’ve invested in the tech. The worst-case scenario is that multiple teams and people spend exponential hours and resources embedding a solution that dilutes sales rep focus, productivity and output.

SBR Consulting supports clients to start inside-out, evaluating their unique strengths, competencies, and capabilities and identifying the existing systems, skills, and mindsets that will determine a tech strategy’s effectiveness.

To discover more about how we help our clients with their tech stack strategy, let’s talk growth.