{"id":18532,"date":"2018-11-08T03:47:52","date_gmt":"2018-11-08T03:47:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/?p=18532"},"modified":"2024-10-22T19:21:51","modified_gmt":"2024-10-22T18:21:51","slug":"how-optimize-your-sales-and-marketing-tech-stack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/how-optimize-your-sales-and-marketing-tech-stack\/","title":{"rendered":"Build a growth stack, not a tech stack"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tech stacks are the tools that marketing and sales use to reach out to customers and track results. They form the backbone of modern sales and\u00a0digital marketing operations.<\/p>\n

When set up right, they provide a clarifying view of your most valuable prospects and customers — and the next steps that your team needs to take to efficiently nurture a lead, close the deal or grow the account.<\/p>\n

But, too often sales and marketing tech stacks<\/a> are cobbled together from existing tools and workflows that have haphazardly developed over time. When adding a new marketing or sales tool to the stack, systems teams consider how the tool will interact with other existing tools. But they ignore the more fundamental question: can this tool propel the business to the next stage of growth and open a gateway to more revenue?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time for marketing and sales leaders to redefine tech stacks as growth stacks — the suite of tools that unlocks new ways of selling and better customer relationships. The suite of different tools that creates new business growth\u00a0and leads your growth strategy.<\/p>\n

Growth stacks aren’t just for startups, they’re for any business that wants to grow. From our combined years of experience helping companies build robust growth stacks, here are three things your tools should do to drive growth.<\/p>\n

3 tips for building a sales and marketing growth stack<\/h2>\n

1. Accelerate speed to lead<\/h3>\n

Serious prospects have done their research by the time they reach out to your business. They\u2019ve spent hours reading customer reviews, checking out your pricing options and researching competitors. So by the time they reach out, they\u2019re ready to take action. Don\u2019t let your leads sit idle because of outdated internal processes that dictate how leads need to funnel from one person to the next. Leverage marketing automation and lead generation before your valuable leads trickle away. Time can kill deals and these days, just five extra minutes will drop your chances of connecting with a lead by 9x<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“If you\u2019re not communicating real-time with your prospects, your competitors are”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One tool that guarantees faster speed to lead is live chat. Instead of waiting for leads to reach out to you, a live chat solution like Intercom\u2019s Messenger<\/a> helps you connect with potential customers right when they\u2019re expressing the most interest with your product \u2014 when they\u2019re on your website. With more and more people expecting real-time service, if you’re not communicating real-time with your prospects, your competitors are and they are stealing your leads.<\/p>\n

\"live<\/p>\n

2. Make customer handoffs invisible<\/h3>\n

When it comes to customer workflows, many teams focus solely on the leads handoff process between sales development reps and account executives. That handoff is a critical one to get right, but don’t neglect the many other valuable handoffs that customers will experience throughout their lifecycle. Fragmented handoffs at any<\/em> point of the customer experience can seriously dampen a customer\u2019s trust, putting the sales process in jeopardy.<\/p>\n

Consider these touch points:<\/p>\n