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.