Consolidation in the Sales Tech Stack: AI Will Deliver the Competitive Edge

Among B2B salespeople, the call for consolidating the tools in the tech stack has grown increasingly loud. There’s no sign of it quieting down anytime soon, either. You can’t blame sellers for wanting to streamline the tech they rely on to close deals. For years, they’ve been managing numerous tech platforms and tools – many point solutions to cover for the remaining shortcomings of other solutions in the stack – simply to perform their jobs successfully. But, managing all of those tools has proven to be a serious drain on sales teams’ time and mental focus.

And that’s not to mention the cost of using the tech. The fees add up fast, chipping away at the revenue businesses should rightfully be earning from their sales teams’ efforts.

It’s intuitive for sales leaders to simplify workflow and costs by trimming back the tech stack. But there’s a delicate balance here. The goal is to seek and eliminate redundancies, without creating tech “blind spots” that can put them at a competitive disadvantage. This is where businesses need to explore how AI tools can enable tech stack consolidation without compromising sales teams’ ability to deliver revenue. AI can be an invaluable asset in creating the holistic solutions that business leaders consider their Holy Grail, enabling them to win in a competitive marketplace.

The search for the elusive true end-to-end solution

One trend we’re seeing among sales leaders, aside from the search for tech redundancies, is re-evaluating the role of the many point solutions in their stacks. They’re seeking end-to-end tech platforms that can provide the same point solutions without sacrificing performance. AI tools can deliver the insights and outcome projections necessary for leaders to make decisions that drive overall success.

Sales professionals recognize a certain risk in losing specialized support by removing select vendors from their stacks. After all, they’ve chosen those vendors because they excel at their core functions, making them hesitant to trade “great, but niche” solutions for “serviceable, but broad” platforms. Simultaneously, sales teams are wary of the possibility that a tech platform, while working to provide more solutions under one roof, may end up shifting support away from the platform’s core product and functions.

But let’s remember that one of the advantages of a broader platform is that all of the data that fuels its various functions is already under the same roof. AI empowers businesses to put that data to its best uses, and to extrapolate new insights. In this case, it also enables cross-functional communication, making the process of sharing insights and solving problems more efficient across the platform’s various tools. Going beyond that, AI and machine learning can accelerate innovation across those functions, by sharing and synthesizing insights, and making recommendations. Those insights and recommendations become possible because they’re drawn from a unified, actionable collection of trusted data.

Read More: SalesTechStar Interview with Craig McAndrews, Vice President of Sales at Mezmo

What to evaluate before you consolidate

Sales leaders can set off on the road toward streamlining their tech stack right now, by examining their internal processes. The first step – even before evaluating the strongest features of their tech partners – is to identify the functions that drive the most value. The next step is to consider how AI can be put to use automating repetitive, time-consuming tasks.

Automation is one of the most common and effective use cases for AI right now. Sales teams will be attracted to solutions that can update the CRM, generate email templates, conduct forecasting, make recommendations on the sales process, locate accounts that fit ICP, provide customer support for frequently asked questions and troubleshooting, and other highly manual tasks. Businesses today are using AI to automate tasks that are increasingly impactful – including recommending business decisions, which 80% of executives say they believe AI can do for them. Less time spent finding, aggregating, and analyzing the data required for those tasks means faster speed to deals and increased efficiency. It also means there is more time for sales professionals to serve clients and nurture prospective clients.

We can expect sales teams to eventually apply AI beyond connecting data sets and automating manual functions. AI tools can be used to develop new, stronger strategies for tech stack consolidation – based on insights beyond what sales leaders can observe on their own. This will reduce human error and blind spots in the existing tech. And that leads to business growth and a competitive edge.

OUTLINE

The task of consolidating the tech stack has been a significant theme among B2B sellers, and it’s bound to continue being one. Sales teams have spent years managing numerous platforms and tools – many of them point solutions – to close deals. But managing all of those tools has proven to actually be a real drain on sales teams’ time and mental focus. Plus, the tech fees add up and chip away at the potential revenue businesses should be earning from sales. Sales leaders want to locate redundancies in their tech stacks, cut back on point solutions, and rely more on the platforms that can serve as end-to-end solutions. Meanwhile, the bigger sales tech platforms are building out new functions to make them more appealing as comprehensive solutions. And the platforms that integrate more AI will create the most value for their customers, and in turn be more likely to win in this competitive marketplace.

• A comprehensive sales tech solution will need to perform a lot of functions, and to excel at a broader range of functions than their competitors.
  • Sales professionals recognize that most tech solutions tend to excel at their core functions, and many are hesitant to remove the “great but niche” at the expense of the “serviceable but broad.”
  • Sales teams don’t necessarily want to see sales platforms expand their services at the expense of the platforms’ core product(s).
  • AI enables cross-functional communication, making good use of all the data stored under the sales tech platform’s roof. This makes problem-solving and insight-sharing more efficient across the various tools the platform offers.
  • AI/ML can accelerate innovation in all of the platform’s functions, by sharing and synthesizing insights and making recommendations based on a unified, actionable collection of data.
• Businesses that are using AI effectively right now are using it to automate time-consuming, repetitive tasks.
  • Sales teams will be attracted to solutions that can update the CRM, generate email templates, conduct forecasting, make recommendations for the sales process, locate accounts that fit ICP, etc.
    • Businesses are using AI to get the ball rolling on increasingly significant tasks – even automating recommendations for business decisions.
  • Understanding customers’ needs is central to being competitive, and AI can automate customer service processes by answering FAQs and doing routine troubleshooting.
  • All of this frees up the provider’s teams to strategize, innovate, develop their weaker links, and listen and respond to their customers’ needs.

Read More: What is Email Address Intelligence and Why Do B2B Teams Need It Now More Than Before?

Catch, Episode 190 Of The SalesStar Podcast: Current AR Trends in Sales and Marketing with Zac Duff, CEO and co-Founder at JigSpace