Why ABM Sounds Strategic But Often Gets Stuck

ABM is great for alignment: sales and marketing teams rally around the same high-value
accounts. On paper, it’s strategic, structured, and focused. But in practice, ABM efforts often
stall.


Marketing launches a campaign. GTM teams cheer it on. SDRs receive a spreadsheet of target
accounts and then what? They’re told to “personalise more” and “go deeper,” but without clear
processes, tool support, or account strategy, most fall back into generic outbound.


The Result:
● A few contacts get touched, maybe one meeting gets booked
● SDRs think the job is done
● Momentum is lost

The truth is, ABM only works when SDRs are empowered to run plays across the account, not
just book a single meeting and move on as usual. Leadership must support them and give
direction.

Stakki’s Prescription: Making ABM Real for SDR Teams


To make ABM work at the SDR level, stop treating it like a marketing-only strategy and start
building it like a repeatable outbound motion. Here’s how:

  1. Trust Your SDRs to Own the Account Motion
    ABM means more people per account, more touches, and more nuance. If SDRs are told to wait
    for green lights before every contact, momentum dies.

Instead, trust them to prospect into multiple stakeholders, find signals, and book multiple
meetings if needed. The onus to pause should fall on the AE or Sales Leader, not the SDR.
One meeting ≠ job done.

  1. Set Clear Account Criteria and Roles

ABM needs clarity, not complexity. Define:
● What makes an account “in play”
● Who owns which actions (SDR vs AE vs Marketing)
● What signals justify continued outreach or pause

This keeps everyone moving without stepping on toes.

  1. Support Smart Outreach with Smart Tools
    Don’t flood SDRs with content or 12-step approval flows. Instead, give them:
    ● A target account list
    ● 3–5 strong personalization angles
    ● Outreach tools that sync to CRM and show activity at the account level

And let them run. Onus is on you to monitor and AE’s to say the account has been “cracked”
and they got it from here.

Tools That Make ABM Work for SDRs

Category What to Look For Examples / Suggestions
CRM + Account
Management
Hierarchies, account-level
reporting, stakeholder tracking
Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive
(with customisation)
Intent & EnrichmentBuyer intent signals, credit-based
enrichment, global coverage
Upcell, BetterContact, Salesbolt
Multichannel
Outreach
Sequences for email + LinkedIn +
call, integrated with CRM
AmpleMarket, Reply, Smartlead,
HeyReach
Conversation
Intelligence
Recording, transcripts, sentiment
analysis, scorecards
Gong, Avoma, Chorus

Final Thought: ABM Needs Ownership, Not Overhead


If you’re asking SDRs to execute ABM, you need to give them:
● The trust to explore an account, not just touch one contact
● Clear signals on when to pause, not just when to start
● Tools that support multi-threaded outreach and personalised insight

ABM isn’t just a strategy. It’s a workflow. And the teams that win with it build repeatable plays,
coachable processes,
and flexible tooling.

James Donaldson

Founder @ Stakki

james@Stakki.io

Intent and Signals Data: All It’s Cracked Up to Be?

Intent and Signals Data

In the ever-expanding world of sales tech, “intent data” and “signals” have become buzzwords. Providers promise that these tools will tell you exactly which accounts are ready to buy and who your sales team should prioritize. For SDR leaders under pressure to generate pipeline, it sounds like a silver bullet. But is intent data really all it’s cracked up to be?

First-Party vs. Third-Party Intent

Not all intent data is created equal. Broadly, there are two categories:

  • First-Party Intent
     This comes directly from your own ecosystem: website visitors, form fills, product trials, content downloads, email engagement, or even repeat visits to pricing pages. First-party intent is powerful because it’s unique to your business. These people have taken actions in your funnel, and while not every visitor is ready to buy, their behavior is a strong signal of interest.
  • Third-Party Intent
     Third-party providers like 6sense or Bombora claim to aggregate buyer research happening elsewhere across the web. By tracking cookies, IP addresses, and content consumption, they attempt to flag when a company is “in market” for your category. In theory, this gives you a head start on accounts researching competitors. In practice, the accuracy is mixed. IP matching is harder than ever, signals often come too late, and context is missing.

What About “Signals”?

You’ll also hear SaaS providers talk about “signals data.” This is often a blend of intent and broader buying cues:

  • Job changes (champion moves, new executives in seat)
  • Company growth (hiring surges, funding announcements, geographic expansion)
  • Engagement (likes/comments on LinkedIn, event attendance, email replies)

Signals data is useful because it highlights change. Outbound teams know that moments of change (a new budget, a new leader, or a new strategy) are when conversations are easiest to start.

The Pros and Cons

First-Party Intent
 ✓ High accuracy, directly tied to your funnel
✓ Can be acted on immediately (real-time alerts from tools like Warmly or Clearbit Reveal)
X Limited volume, you’re constrained by the size of your own traffic and database

Third-Party Intent
 ✓ Broader reach, can flag accounts outside your funnel
 ✓ Can layer into ABM strategies for enterprise-scale targeting
 X Accuracy challenges (IP match, timing, relevancy)
 X Expensive, often bundled with long-term contracts
 X Risk of chasing “false positives” instead of real buyer engagement

Signals Data
 ✓ Timely triggers (job changes, hiring, funding, etc.)
 ✓ Adds context to account research, especially when layered with enrichment tools like Clay or LoneScale
 X Not all signals are created equal (a champion job move may matter more than a LinkedIn like)

Our Take: First-Party Wins

For most sales teams, first-party intent and simple, verifiable signals are more valuable than the promises of third-party intent. Knowing who’s already visiting your website, trialing your product, or engaging with your content is a clearer path to pipeline than chasing a vague “in-market” badge from a third-party vendor.

That’s not to say third-party intent is worthless. For enterprise ABM plays with long sales cycles, layering it in can help marketing align with sales. But for most SDR teams, investing in tools that surface first-party intent and actionable signals will deliver higher accuracy, lower costs, and better conversations.

At the end of the day, intent and signals data are only as good as the humans behind them. Tools can surface the “when,” but it’s up to your SDRs to deliver the “why” in every conversation.

Build with Stakki

Here are some of our top picks for intent and signals data:

  • Clay – multi-source enrichment and custom signals
  • LoneScale – champion tracking + CRM hygiene
  • Warmly – website visitor alerts (first-party intent) to automatic engagement sequencing
  • TeamFluence – social engagement signals
  • Upcell – contact-level enrichment to act on signals like web visitors and job changes

Our preference: start with first-party intent and proven signals data, then layer enrichment tools to act on them.

Build your Stack here

James Donaldson

Founder @ Stakki

james@Stakki.io

How to Save Budget and Boost Data Coverage: A Simple Shift in Your Data Stack

Boost Data Coverage

If you’ve ever looked at your data tool spend and thought, “Why are we paying this much for this little?”, you’re not alone.

Across sales and marketing teams, a quiet shift is taking place. It’s not about buying more tools, it’s about using better models. Specifically: switching from seat-based licenses to credit-based enrichment.

Here’s how it works and how companies like Clarify have already used Stakki’s approach to cut costs and double their reach.


Step 1: Stop Paying for Every SDR to Have a Full License

Most data tools charge per user. But the truth is, not every rep needs a full license. And in most teams, only a few power users actually use those tools regularly.

Instead: Audit which reps actually use what. Then shift to tools that only charge when data is used, not just when someone logs in.


Step 2: Switch to a Credit-Based Model

Credit-based or “consumption” models let you pay only for what’s enriched. That means you can:

  • Centralize usage through one or two tools
  • Track spend more accurately
  • Cut unused licenses

One great example is Upcell, a tool that allows SDRs to use a simple Chrome extension to create contact records in your CRM, while your data team controls enrichment in the background.

Tools like this create one workflow for reps, while giving ops the flexibility to reduce tool sprawl and move to a cost-effective credit model.


Step 3: Repurpose Budget Across More Tools, Not Just One

By saving on license bloat, you can redistribute that budget toward multiple tools that hit different segments or regions more effectively.

Use Apollo for breadth, Kaspr or FindyMail for mobile-first enrichment, or Surfe to sync LinkedIn activity back to CRM.

The goal: coverage, not complexity.


Real-World Example: How Clarify Did It

Clarify needed global data at scale, without bloating their stack. After a conversation with their CEO about rising enrichment spend, Stakki introduced them to Upcell’s CEO directly.

Within weeks, Clarify had:

  • Enriched 500,000+ contacts
  • Doubled their data coverage
  • Cut costs by 61%
  • Sped up prospecting by 40%

They kept the SDR workflow simple, but moved to a model where they only paid for what they used. That’s the modern way to scale.


Build with Stakki:

  • Upcell – Credit-based enrichment and free Chrome extension to simplify SDR workflows
  • Kaspr, FindyMail, Apollo – Used for region-specific coverage and data quality
  • Surfe – For syncing LinkedIn prospecting directly into CRM without adding new tabs or extensions

Want to build a more efficient, cost-effective sales stack?

We help teams like Clarify find tools that scale with them—not slow them down.

  • Visit Stakki to explore smarter sales tools
  • Build with Stakki to create your stack, with expert input and trusted partners

James Donaldson
Founder, Stakki
james@stakk.io

Call Screening Isn’t the Problem — Your SDRs Still Don’t Know How to Connect

Apple Just Raised the Bar — A Bit

Apple’s iOS 26, coming this September, adds a new feature: built-in AI call screening. As described by bland.ai, “When an unknown number calls, iOS will automatically pick up on the user’s behalf, ask who’s calling and why, then present a real-time transcript to the phone owner so they can decide whether to answer.”

Sales Twitter and LinkedIn will soon erupt with takes, just like they did with email deliverability. Expect the flood of hot takes and “solutions” by September. But let’s be clear: this doesn’t kill cold calling — it just makes average reps easier to ignore.


This Isn’t the Death of Cold Calling — But It Is a Warning Shot

This update will mostly affect a narrow middle of the market:

  • People who already answer unknown calls? They still will.
  • People who never answer? They still won’t.
  • The few in the middle? If they opt-in to screening, they’ll answer even less.

But here’s the kicker: the best teams never relied on these edge cases. They already knew how to connect.


Great Callers Don’t Rely on Luck or Mobile Numbers

The reps who get through consistently:

  • Call switchboards and ask to be transferred.
  • Call direct lines not just mobiles.
  • Use multiple local presence numbers.
  • Call at varied times, including early morning or late afternoon.
  • Follow up with email or LinkedIn to drive familiarity.

If your team isn’t doing this now, iOS 26 isn’t your issue. Skill gaps are.

[Refer to: “Diallers for 2025“] — especially the section on how Rocketphone and other tools offer mobile fallback and live call coaching features that only matter if reps already understand multi-threaded calling strategy.


Protecting Numbers Is Smart. But Smart Dialling Still Wins

Yes, number reputation matters. That’s why tools like Rocketphone, PhoneBurner, Frontspin, and Connect&Sell are worth looking at. These tools are built with features to:

  • Rotate and protect caller IDs.
  • Monitor spam flagging.
  • Integrate with CRMs to show relevant context at dial time.

But these tools work best when reps know how to work the phone. That’s the difference between activity and connection.

[Refer to: “What Does Sales Tech Bloat Actually Mean for Your SDRs“] — where we highlight how bloated tech stacks often mask weak processes and create false confidence in connection strategies.


The Real Problem Is Hidden in Your Metrics

If your team is making 80 calls a day and booking 1 meeting a week, you don’t have a tech problem. You’ve got a skills and process problem:

  • Are reps listening back to calls?
  • Are they calling when others aren’t?
  • Do they know how to navigate gatekeepers?
  • Are they coached on how to open strong?

AI call screening might reduce some pick-ups. But the biggest drop in meetings will still come from low skill, high volume strategies that have long passed their expiry date.

[Refer to: “Saving Costs: When to Buy What as Your Sales Dev Engine Grows“] — we made it clear then, and we’ll say it again now: investing in better training and smarter habits beats another tool license.


Ignore the Noise — Focus on Fundamentals

The AI call screening feature will absolutely be overblown. And some guru will try to sell you a course, a call assistant, or a new engagement platform to fix what is really just a training issue.

Don’t fall for the panic. You need:

  • Better data.
  • Cleaner processes.
  • Sharper coaching.
  • And a team that can adapt to shifts in behaviour — not overreact to them.

Final Thought

Come September, you’ll hear the rumble turn into a roar. But the best teams? They’ll barely notice the change. Because they were never playing the cold call game at random. They were already calling with purpose, across channels, and without relying on one number or one moment.

[Refer to: “4 Tech Stacks That Will Still Work in 2025“] — every team in that post made calls that stuck because they tracked follow-ups, built context, and stayed consistent.

Want to win in Q4? Start there.

Diallers for 2025 by Stakki

In the ever-evolving landscape of communication technology, selecting the right dialer
for your team has become more crucial than ever before. We all know, gone are the
days of traditional hard phones tethered to desks; instead, businesses use cloud-based
solutions. In this guide, we’ll explore the key features to consider when choosing a
dialer, highlight the differences between parallel and power dialers, and help you make
an informed decision for your team’s needs.

  1. The Evolution of Dialers: From Hardware to Cloud-Based Solutions
    Today, businesses are using softphones or Unified Communications (UC) and Contact
    Center (CC) solutions, which are cloud-based and offer a comprehensive suite of
    communication tools. Don’t be confused by UC, CC or softphone too much though, they
    all help you dial remotely, some with mobile apps, some just for headsets and a laptop.
  2. Key Features to Look For in 2025
    When selecting a dialer for your team, several key features should be on your radar:
    ● Seamless integration with your existing systems and workflows
    ● Real-time analytics and reporting to track performance metrics
    ● Local number capabilities, like JustCall and Cloudtalk
    ● Reputation protection and relationships with carriers, like Frontspin, PhoneBurner
    or Hiya
    ● Integration to CRM as well as Engagement tools, like Quack or Trellus
    ● AI agent support and capabilities
    ● Live call coaching, like Rocketphone
    ● Mobile and cellular, again like Rocketphone
  3. Parallel vs. Power Dialers: Understanding the Difference
    Parallel Dialer: A parallel dialer enables agents to initiate multiple outbound calls
    simultaneously, significantly increasing call volume and efficiency.
    Power Dialer: In contrast, a power dialer automatically dials through a list of contacts,
    presenting the next call to the agent only after the previous one has ended.
    Neither increase connection rates in terms of dial to connect! This is a common
    misunderstanding. Dial to connect is determined by data quality. They can improve
    connection rate, but only from a rate of conversations per hour. Simply because of
    increased call capacity. Data is still king.
  4. Benefits of Each Dialer Type
    Parallel Dialer Benefits:
    ● Drastically increases call volume and productivity, like Orum
    ● Ideal for campaigns focused on quantity and reaching a large number of
    prospects, like Connec&Sell
    ● Enables agents to maximize conversation rate and data coverage, like Nooks
    Power Dialer Benefits:
    ● Maximizes conversation rates and minimizes downtime between calls, like Orum
    ● Provides a steady workflow for agents, reducing fatigue and increasing focus
    ● Ideal for campaigns that prioritize quality conversations and personalized
    interactions, like Cloudtalk or Aircall
    Conclusion: Making the Right Choice
    When choosing a dialer for your team, it’s essential to consider your specific business
    needs, goals, and workflows. Evaluate the key features offered by different solutions,
    and determine whether a parallel or power dialer aligns better with your objectives. By
    selecting the right dialer, you can empower your team to communicate more effectively,
    drive productivity, and achieve success in today’s fast-paced business environment.

Data Sources: By Region, CRM, and Data Type

There are so many sales tools and marketing tech out there now that provide data. Whether this be contact numbers, emails, or intent data.

Here’s a very short, to the point, clear blog about which are the best sales tech and martech tools to provide what data.

Separated and ordered by region, CRM, type of data, and personas.

Focused on data that helps connection rates.

Phone, Email and Intent.

(For the smart hack on how to get all the credits and data you need for cheaper then the quoted license prices check out our previous blog here.)

EMEA

Salesforce, Hubspot, and Microsoft Dynamics users:

Phone Numbers, phone numbers, phone numbers

Phone Numbers for IT, Technical and Security Personas

Emails, requiring a large volume

Emails, requiring a smaller volume.

First party intent data

Third Party intent data

Hubspot users:

Phone Numbers, phone numbers, phone numbers

Pipedrive users:

Phone Numbers, phone numbers, phone numbers

Phone Numbers for IT, Technical and Security Personas

Emails

First party intent data

Third Party intent data

CopperCRM users:

Phone or Email

Intent

AMERICA 

Salesforce, Hubspot, Microsoft Dynamics users:

Phone Numbers, phone numbers, phone numbers

Emails

First party intent data

Third Party intent data

Pipedrive users:

Phone Numbers and Emails

First party intent data

Third Party intent data

CopperCRM users:

Phone or Email

Intent

How to Save your Budget but Access More Data Enrichment Tools

Sales Development Representatives in EMEA have access to numerous tools and extensions, but this can leave them toggling between them to locate accurate contact data. Ultimately people want more data, but less licenses or extensions.

Firstly you should monitor your team’s monthly credit usage. Avoid purchasing individual licenses for every SDR. Leverage existing tools that offer data enrichment, or integrate another data source. For instance, LeadForensics provides access to Cognism credits.

Many traditional data tools come with hefty license fees. Transitioning to a credit-based system means paying only for the data your team actually uses, minimizing wasted spend on underutilized licenses. Many providers will do this but only if you ask. 

The challenge can then be how do we avoid the multiple extensions on screen for the SDR?

This is where we recommend tools like Surfe and Upcell. These can create contact records for you from their Chrome extensions straight to CRM. With very good free credit options. Every SDR and AE could have a licence or account with them. 

Upcell is also one of the best for data in the USA and quickly catching up in the UK. Whilst both can provide data enrichment. 

Once you’ve done this you can move other data enrichment providers to automatically enriching in the CRM on credit and usage models. Cognism, ZoomInfo and Kaspr’s can do this in some way. 

Waterfall enrichment tools similarly allow access to multiple providers with only one license or extension necessary. BetterContact is one of the best. And this can also be hooked into Surfe. So each user could have a Surfe license to create contacts, with one company license using BetterContact enrich in Surfe, and therefore CRM. FullEnrich is also fast becoming a close second place for this type of waterfall. 

Remember though waterfall enrichment is only as good as the providers it searches. This is why BetterContact with its 20+ data providers and ability to connect your own other ones can be very powerful. 

In summary, ask all your providers about credit and usage options. Don’t assume the only offer they have is a license per rep model. Consider tools that will create the contact records for you and then work from here to leverage others.

Sales Tools to Watch for 2025

Leaders are seeking tools that consolidate information into a single platform, reduce friction in
workflows, and allow teams to focus on what they do best: building relationships and closing
deals. Here’s a look at the sales tools and trends to watch for in 2025 that prioritize simplicity
and efficiency. We’ve tried to go category by category so that you can quickly head to the area
that is most relevant to you.

  1. Data Enrichment – Data is King, after all
    Waterfall data enrichment has been around for the last year or so. However, it is now moving
    beyond a mish mash of the cheapest providers cleverly dragged into another system that you
    can subscribe to. BetterContact is a waterfall enrichment tool with a wide range of data
    providers, the ability to connect your own existing providers and, using their millions of data
    points, they search the providers in varying order depending on the region, persons and data
    you are looking for. FullEnrich are close behind, working hard on integrations to CRMs.
    FindyMail are similar but are really focused on quality data and after blowing Apollo out of the
    water for quality, maybe not quantity, they are now providing mobiles too.
  2. Linkedin Automation
    There are a lot of tools in this space, many of which have limits and perhaps encourage bad
    habits from SDRs. The jury may still be out on whether this is true or not, but the genie is out of
    the box now. HeyReach is fast becoming one of the most widely used Linkedin automation tools
    we see. It allows for unlimited senders to connect with one fixed price. There’s several ways to
    use this to your advantage, but we are seeing it in some teams allow for a copy writing expert to
    take on the linkedin prospecting activity across a team. Freeing up that team to call and focus
    on other activities.
    This trend aligns with the growing emphasis on personalization and targeted outreach. By
    presenting data in a structured, list-based format, tools help reps focus their time on the right
    activities while ensuring nothing slips through the cracks.
  3. Diallers and call insights
    There are numerous diallers in the market now. Our most reliable is JustCall. Never having had
    or seen a single outage or minute of downtime across our customers. They have also kicked off
    2025 with a new AI voice agent, which can handle some basic inbound Q&A and transfer to theright reps. To be clear we are still against AI SDRs making and taking calls, however JustCall may be onto something here that helps SDRs answer call backs, transfer leads and find some efficiency. The other one to watch is Rocketphone one of the best dialers for Salesforce CRM. However, their AI transcription and being the first softphone able to also run on and default to the mobile network you never have to miss notes from a customer call, ever!

The Simplicity Imperative
As sales teams evaluate their tech stacks for 2025, the overriding priority from the best tools
appears to be simplicity. Using AI not to replace SDRs but help them get insight and data in one
place. Tools that consolidate workflows, present data in accessible formats, and automate
routine tasks are no longer just nice-to-have—they’re essential. As you plan for the year ahead,
prioritize solutions that align with this philosophy. The sales tools to watch in 2025 are those that
keep things simple while delivering the insights and automation your team needs to succeed.

4 Examples of Simple Tech Stacks we’ve seen work in 2024 that will continue to work in 2025

As we move into 2025, the most successful sales teams are doubling down on solutions that centralize data, present it in an intuitive list view, and emphasize follow-up tracking with clear timestamps. These core functionalities make it easier for leaders to provide coaching and training, rather than wondering which tool is causing bottlenecks and think it’s a tech problem. It’s more often a skills problem. 

In this post, we’ll share four examples of simple, effective tech stacks that have driven results in 2024 and are poised to continue thriving in the coming year.

Stack one uses Salesforce, Apollo, Linkedin SalesNavigator, BetterContact and Rocketphone. The traditionalist.

The key here is that Apollo is used to build lists and export to Salesforce. The team then have Linkedin and Bettercontact to source more contacts and find more numbers. They are 90% calling for their outreach and Rocketphone provides AI transcription, prompting and note taking all in real time. It adds this all to the contact notes as it is happening. All contacts have a status based on the next step and a time stamp for follow up calls on each SDRs list view. They are averaging 14 meetings per rep per month, at 80 calls per day.

Stack two uses Pipedrive, Kaspr, Apollo and JustCall. Clean and simple.

This team uses the labels in Pipedrive against the organizations, and then saves a filter against the People view. Making it quick and easy for the team to find and work methodically through a list of accounts knowing they are targeting enough prospects is their guiding rule. Apollo, again, is only used to build an initial list, export to csv and loaded into Kaspr’s bulk enrich to get more mobiles, before finally loading into Pipedrive and calling through. The Pipedrive list shows name, job title, company, linked url, phone numbers, and contact status and a time stamp for next follow up. For every contact stays as “new” until they’ve been contacted, and the status changes to reflect the structure of the follow up call. They are making a meeting every 30 dials. 

Stack three uses Hubspot, Apollo, Ocean, Heyreach, Instantly, Slack and RB2B. The fast, and modern, game. 

This small team has a large TAM in a growing industry with lots of investment: ClimateTech. They build lists in Apollo, enrich and export to Instantly and Heyreach. As they find success they use Ocean to supplement and find new accounts. They are emailing their TAM whilst also running separate sequences in Heyreach on linkedin. All responses land directly in Slack, making it fast and easy for the team to respond to everything. On responding, contacts and the account are automatically created in Hubspot as a lead to be worked. There are custom fields against contacts for prospecting notes, status and time stamps that can all be filled in from the contact page minimising navigation away from their specific list of prospects. They made 23 meetings in month one, and are collecting a database to start calling when they have capacity.

Stack four uses Smartsheet, Kaspr, and Justcall. The anomaly.

This team doesn’t, yet, use a CRM. They are a Smartsheet reseller, which is much like excel or google sheets in many ways. They built simple views that display the same fields in each column as our other stacks. They bought a specific data set of c-level contacts in the renewables space. This forms the base of their approach. Relying again on simple lists that show the contact info and status, notes and next step date is proving the compound effect of tracking conversations, removing distraction and upskilling. They listen back to calls daily with JustCall and leadership coach and share industry developments and insights after every sales call. The SDR averages a meeting a day. 

Conclusion

A tech stack that centralizes data, provides actionable views, and prioritizes follow-up tracking empowers teams to stay focused on connecting to and speaking with prospects at scale. As leaders this allows us to better track activity and conversations, and take the appropriate steps towards upskilling our sales reps. This is what truly impacts the pipeline.

Examine the main place of work, set it up to support conversations and follow ups at scale before you look for more silver bullets in tech. By keeping your tech stack straightforward and purpose-driven, you’ll create an environment where sales reps can thrive and leaders can better support their teams. As 2025 approaches, remember: less is often more when it comes to sales tech.

The Real Symptoms of  Sales Tech Bloat and What It Actually Means for Your SDRs: James Donaldson, Founder

@Stakki

With tools for everything from email automation to lead scoring, it’s tempting to introduce new software at every turn, particularly when your goal is to empower SDRs. However, this desire to equip SDRs often leads to a phenomenon known as sales tech bloat. But why should it matter to your organisation?

Sales tech bloat refers to the accumulation of unnecessary, and or overlapping features across a company’s sales tools.

Instead of enabling SDRs to focus on high-value tasks, these tools often force them to navigate between systems, leading to decision fatigue and frustration. 

Why Sales Tech Bloat Is a Problem

According to Salesforce, 70% of sales reps say they are overwhelmed by sales tools. Through speaking to leaders we identify the below symptoms of a bloated tech stack.

1. Fractured Workflows

Sales workflows are most effective when they’re smooth and seamless. When an SDR has to switch between multiple tools to complete a single task—checking one platform for contact information, another for call logs, and yet another for pipeline updates—it introduces unnecessary friction. Time that should be spent engaging prospects is instead consumed by toggling between systems, breaking momentum and focus.

2. Distractions

The more tools an SDR is asked to use, the more their attention is divided. Notifications, reminders, and updates from different platforms can become overwhelming, diluting their ability to focus on meaningful prospecting and relationship-building. SDRs may also feel pressured to justify the use of each tool, leading to inefficiency and frustration.

3. Underutilised Potential

Tools that aren’t fully utilised represent wasted budget and missed opportunities. Instead of enhancing productivity, they become yet another layer of complexity for your team. They also make it harder to identify the gap and area of improvement to focus on.

How do we solve this?

The very first thing to identify is if it is a skill gap or an information and data gap. 80% of the time we speak to Sales Leaders at Stakki who think they need to find better accounts or better signals for their SDR team. However, after digging deeper, the skill level of their SDR team is a bigger barrier to growth. This skill gap is caused, and worse hidden, by this switching between tools, reliance on multiple tools and broken workflows.

Subsequently, whilst adding a tool may add some immediate positive impact to the pipeline, it does not equal long term change. We need to first identify and be brutally honest with ourselves if there are skill gaps. From here we can strip back our tech stack, and only focus on the foundations.

Audit your sales tools, look for ones with feature overlap and a lack of integrations into CRM. There are more and more tools that cover multiple fields, so find the ones that are able to pull the information and data you want to one place. One team of 4 SDRs has tripled their pipeline across 3 months using just Rocketphone, Apollo, Surfe, BetterContact, Kaspr and Salesforce. A second has generated a meeting for every 34 dials, using only Pipedrive, Kaspr, Apollo and Justcall. The common thread was a focus on simplicity, creating one list to work from consistently in their CRMs.

Conclusion

Sales tech bloat is more than just a logistical issue—it’s a barrier to SDR upskilling. Focus on streamlining and working on a single “solution of work.” Whether this be a CRM or an Engagement tool, 80% of SDR time should be here. A lean, purposeful tech stack is key to enabling your SDRs to upskill, enjoy work and progress pipeline and careers.

https://www.stakki.io/