As you endeavor to improve sales operations efficiencies and effectiveness, you will inevitably face the task of researching and purchasing new sales tools. Adding to your sales stack is overwhelming when you consider the sheer volume of sales tech available.
Everyone wants tools that help them…
- reduce time and administration
- positively impact cash flow and reduce spend
- reduce training time
- scale with your organization’s expected growth
- close more deals, faster
…but your new purchase should not duplicate the functionality of existing tools or be a standalone solution that doesn’t integrate with the rest of your ecosystem.
“Not enough sales tools” is no longer the problem.
There was a time when sales teams were begging for better tools. CRMs were clunky. Outreach was manual. Data was scattered or non-existent. That’s not the world you’re selling in anymore.
Today, there’s a tool for everything, and probably three more competing for the same job. Not to mention, practically everyone’s already using them.
97% of US and Canadian sales teams say their CRM is “important” or “very important” in closing deals. And according to Salesforce’s 2024 State of Sales Report, 81% of them are either experimenting with AI or have fully implemented AI tools into their workflows.
In fact, the average company today powers itself using 112 different SaaS applications. Dozens of those are concentrated within the sales org. You’ve got the big ones like CRM, CPQ, and sales engagement platforms. But there are quite a few smaller ones as well, like call recording and deal analytics tools.
More tools ≠ more productivity. In fact, the opposite usually happens. You spend more time learning new platforms, stitching data together, and fixing sync error. That’s why in that same report, Salesforce found that despite software being as smart and abundant as it’s ever been, reps still spend less than one-third of their time actually selling.
3 steps to consolidate your sales tech stack
Consolidation isn’t about cutting for the sake of cutting. It’s about removing friction, boosting efficiency, and giving your team tools they’ll actually use. Good news is, the process is as easy as 1-2-3.
1. Evaluate your current sales stack
To begin the process of consolidating your sales stack, it’s helpful to lay out your sales process and align it with the tools you currently use.
Consider this flow:
Look for areas for improvement:
- Where are you incorporating technology throughout the process and where are the gaps?
- Where is there duplication of functionality in our current tools?
- Where are you spending too much time on manual administrative tasks?
- How can you better engage prospects throughout the sales process?
- Where are the bottlenecks in your current sales cycle?
- Where are the opportunities for analytics on buyer interest?
- How can we increase conversions throughout the pipeline?
- Where are you using tools that aren’t giving you the ROI you expect?
Keep this in mind. The sales process is everything. Your tech isn’t your process – your tech must automate your process. The technology you use makes the process scalable.
2. Figure out what to consolidate
Now that you’ve mapped out your tools, it’s time to cut the fat. Broadly speaking, you can focus on three types of tools that are ripe for consolidation.
Cheap point solutions
These are the $10/month tools that seemed like a good idea at the time. A Chrome extension here, a scheduling widget there, and suddenly your team is juggling half a dozen single-purpose tools.
Single-purpose tools aren’t inherently bad. Some of them solve real problems fast, like a LinkedIn scraping extension that feeds leads directly into your CRM, or a calendar integration that actually syncs across time zones.
But as you grow your sales org and graduate to larger, more feature-rich platforms, these tools start duplicating functionality. Kill anything that your CRM, sales engagement platform, or calendar tool already does natively or better.
High-overhead tools
Some systems just aren’t worth the effort. They might offer powerful features, but if they require a full-time admin, endless training sessions, or constant troubleshooting, they’re costing you more than they’re saving.
Think of overbuilt enablement platforms, bloated reporting dashboards, or legacy tools with poor UX and weak integrations.
Redundant technology
If two or more tools serve the same purpose, one of them needs to go.
For example:
- Two sequencing tools
- Two data enrichment tools
- A proposal builder and a CPQ tool doing the same job
When two platforms do 80% of the same thing, you’re doubling cost and splitting focus. That confuses sellers and makes it impossible to build a repeatable sales process.
3. Consolidate your sales stack
Once you have evaluated your current sales process against your sales stack and have determined the gaps and areas for improvement, you’re ready to explore opportunities to consolidate your tools. You may discover you are using tools that can be eliminated and tools you already have that you are underutilizing.
- Start with a single source of truth. These are your bigger platforms, like CRMs and CPQ platforms. They’re the core sources of your sales and customer data, which is why everything else needs to connect to them. Otherwise, you’ll create data silos. Make sure you pick one with an extensive integration library, then build outwards from there.
- Automate handoffs via integration. Your sales workflow should feel seamless. When a prospect books a meeting, it should auto-update your CRM, trigger a pre-call flow, and prep reps with relevant intel without manual input. If tools can’t integrate these processes natively, use middleware like Zapier or native API connectors to bridge the gaps.
- Shift from point solutions to unified platforms. Look for systems that combine multiple functions under one roof. For example, instead of using one tool to quote and another to send contracts, move to an integrated CPQ + CLM solution that handles everything from pricing to e-signature in a single workflow and interface.
- Prioritize platforms with open ecosystems. Tools that plug into your CRM, sales enablement suite, or CPQ via native integrations or robust APIs make your stack more adaptable as your team grows.
Sometimes, sales tech consolidation exposes holes as well. Maybe you realize you’ve got strong prospecting tools and a great CRM, but no real sales engagement layer to tie it together. That’s why we say that consolidation isn’t just subtraction. It’s also about adding the right piece to make the rest of your stack stronger.
DealHub is purpose-built for consolidation
Most selling stacks are stitched together from half a dozen tools that were never meant to work together. One for configuration and quoting. One for sales documents and contract signing. Another for billing. And if you’re a SaaS company, another for subscription management.
This is precisely why at DealHub, we’ve intentionally built a Revenue Hub to connect and consolidate several stages of the deal process, and make the sales execution an intuitive process for all teams.
How does DealHub’s consolidated deal stack affect your tech stack? Essentially, we come into action after the Qualification stage has been completed, and you want to take the next steps in focusing the information given to your Buyer.
DealHub Converts Leads to Paying Customers
The emphasis here is to lead the buying process, and continue to focus their attention on the key information needed to move the buying process forward.
Our stack consists of all the essential software solutions needed in the lead-to-cash process.
Deal stack selection criteria
When selecting a deal stack, consider these factors:
Who are the winners that will benefit from a consolidated stack?
- Sales Reps – who spend too much time on admin and away from ‘active selling.’
- Sales Operations – who have to continually upskill and train on how to use the 20+ tools that have been purchased.
- Procurement and Finance – reducing the operational overhead without compromising growth is an ideal outcome, reflecting well for any company that is serious about pursuing an IPO or exit.
What core areas are optimized through this consolidation?
- Time and administration
- Cash flow and spend
- Focus on essential tools that add value
- Reduced training time
What to avoid when choosing a deal stack:
- Software that does not have horizontal connectivity
- Legacy technology with no clear product roadmap
- Tools with hidden add-on charges
- Tech that is extremely high-touch and isn’t intuitive for your average team member to use
The cost of Not consolidating
Duplication of information and effort, increased training time, increased costs for implementation and support, time spent monitoring multiple tools – these are just a few of the ways your sales stack may be negatively impacting your ROI.
According to Clari, sales reps spend only 28-34% of their time talking to prospects. If your sales team is spending the majority of their time interacting with complex and varied sales tools, that’s less time spent moving buyers forward in the pipeline. Increased complexity means decreased effectiveness, which has a huge impact on revenue.
Choose a unified revenue platform
We now know both the cost of not consolidating, as well as the strategic and revenue benefits of consolidating your sales stack.
Consolidating your sales stack enables you to reduce training time, cut administrative costs, and focus on effective sales tools that tie directly into your deal stages. ROI is driven up as sales teams operate from one source of truth when looking at their buyers.
We encourage you to evaluate your sales tech and improve your team’s efficiency and effectiveness. Increase your sales team’s performance by consolidating the software used in the final deal stages using our Revenue Hub. Our all-in-one Platform allows you to create a personalized buying experience from prospect to close that includes interactive content, CPQ, contract management and approval workflows to give you the competitive advantage in each deal.
