There’s a sea of software vendors to choose from, but to get started, there are five core types needed in a new business tech stack no matter the size of the team.
Sales Engagement
A sales engagement platform is a tool that allows the new business team to engage directly with prospects and keep them engaged. As any business development professional will tell you, prospects can be slippery creatures – fully engaged in one moment and complete radio silence the next.
A tool that helps manage this supports reconnecting and meeting prospects wherever they are in their buyer journey. The tool should be able to seamlessly re-engage and respond to prospects through coordinated outbound activities like email, LinkedIn, phone calls and even web chat. Many are able to automate aspects of this outreach too. The advantage of having one in your tech stack is that sales engagement tools will streamline your sales process, making the team more effective.
Marketing Engagement
More commonly referred to as marketing automation, a marketing engagement tool enables inbound lead generation and supports proactive sales outreach. The core feature of a marketing automation tool should include email marketing, social media marketing, and managing ads.
When evaluating different technologies keep in mind some platforms are great at activating marketing content through content management and even campaign management features. Having one in your tech stack will allow the team to manage and nurture leads through their buying journey. Tracking engagement through emails, website visits, ads, content downloads and social media gives you a more holistic view into the prospect’s business needs and what led them to a sales conversation.
Research Insights
Getting critical insights and updates about your industry is important. The new business development team needs to make decisions that are informed and measured, and having this information will be able to guide them down the right path. There are several platforms that can provide insights, but first, find out what would be most useful for the team. These are the types of insights most new business development teams use:
- Advertising Spend
- Advertising Placements
- Buyer Intent Demographics
- Industry News Personnel
- CMO Shifts
Contact Data
Not all data is created equal, and it can be hard to find contact and company information that is accurate. When evaluating these tools find out the method they are sourcing their data from and whether this will give you the right types of contacts.
Some teams choose to take an account-based approach, and that will affect which contact data provider you choose. For Account Based Selling (ABS), you’ll want a data provider that connects the dots between brands, agencies and executives – knowing the entire buying committee is key. Supplementing this data with insights will also help narrow down the right target accounts to include.
On the flip side, if you’re taking a more traditional approach, you will want to identify as many contacts in your Right to Win zone as possible. Having a data provider with a large volume of accurate contact data is a must.
Have you considered Winmo to power your sales pipeline? Marketing agencies, ad tech companies, and media and sponsorship sales teams partner with Catapult when they’ve made the commitment to grow and need a proven, viable and scalable way to do so – with a resource that is focused on proactively creating new opportunities on your behalf.
CRM
A customer relationship management (CRM) platform will serve as the team’s one source of truth. When all the technology is connected to the CRM, nothing falls through the cracks and all touchpoints are tracked here.
Many business development teams agree to a process around lead management inside of a CRM, using features like workflows and lead routing, customizable dashboards and reports, and updating contact data based on the sales qualification and closing process. A good CRM will fit your team’s needs, but should at minimum allow for lead routing, lead tracking and reporting.
The framework of a successful program is built on industry-leading technology and accurate contacts to communicate with. Catapult is powered by Winmo to help win more business on your behalf. All clients receive a custom technology stack to enable their team to catapult their sales pipeline. Ready to get started? Contact Us.
