In sales and marketing, a tech stack often refers to the collection of digital tools and software applications that a company uses to automate, optimise, and measure its sales and marketing activities. It typically includes customer relationship management (CRM) software, email marketing platforms, social media management tools, landing page builders, lead generation and qualification tools, lead nurturing solutions, analytics and reporting software, and many others. The sales and marketing tech stack is crucial for enabling organisations to manage their customer interactions and improve their overall sales and marketing performance.

Managing your tech stack

1. Consolidate your tech stack: Rather than using a variety of different tools and software, streamline your tech stack by consolidating tools and focusing on a few core platforms. This can help make your tech stack more efficient and easier to manage.
2. Regularly review your tech stack: Review your tech stack frequently to ensure that all tools and software are still relevant and useful. Get rid of any tools or software that are no longer needed or useful.
3. Invest in training: Invest in training and education for yourself and your team to ensure that everyone is proficient in the tools and software that are being used. This can help increase productivity and efficiency.
4. Use cloud-based software: Using cloud-based software can help make your tech stack more flexible and easier to manage. This can also help reduce costs associated with maintaining hardware and software.
5. Seek feedback: Regularly seek feedback from your team and customers to find out what tools and software are working well and what could be improved. Use this feedback to make informed decisions about your tech stack.

Software you should consider adding to your tech stack (or at least reviewing):

1. Salesforce – Salesforce is the most popular CRM software being used today.
2. HubSpot – HubSpot is a marketing and sales software platform that provides tools for companies to attract, engage, and delight customers. It includes a wide range of features, including email marketing, social media management, search engine optimisation, website design and development, customer relationship management, and more. HubSpot is designed to help businesses streamline their marketing and sales processes, improve customer relationships, and ultimately drive revenue growth.
3. Adobe Marketo Engage – Marketo Engage is the world’s largest marketing automation platform, a singular solution that combines the power of automation, content, lead development and account-based marketing. It helps connect you with customers and keeps them coming back, saving your team time, effort, and resources.
4. Oracle Eloqua – Eloqua is a marketing automation software that provides insights and marketing campaign management capabilities.
5. Hootsuite – Hootsuite is a social media marketing platform that helps businesses manage their social media accounts to publish content, monitor engagement, and analyse performance.
6. Google Analytics – Google Analytics is a free analytics tool that helps businesses track website traffic and user behaviour on their website.
7. Optimizely – Optimizely is a testing and optimisation software that allows businesses to test different versions of their website to optimize conversion rates.
8. SEMrush – SEMrush is an SEO and SEM software that provides competitive intelligence, keyword research and tracking, and site auditing capabilities.
9. ZoomInfo – ZoomInfo is a B2B data intelligence platform that helps businesses identify and target potential customers.
10. ChatGPT – ChatGPT is a natural language processing tool driven by AI technology that allows you to have human-like conversations and much more with the chatbot. The language model can answer questions and assist you with tasks like composing emails, essays, and code. Most of what you have read above was written by ChatGPT, not Shaun Weston 😊

Opinion piece by Shaun Weston – CRM Manager at Air Marketing