MSM FULL-FUNNEL CONVERSION GLOSSARY
What is a Technology Stack?
A technology stack is the full set of software a business uses to run its marketing, sales and operations, along with the connections that let those tools share information.
THE SHORT ANSWER
The Definition
A technology stack is the full set of software a business uses to run its marketing, sales and operations, along with the connections that let those tools share information.
Why It Matters Commercially
Software spend creeps up quietly and rarely gets reviewed. More importantly, a stack where the tools don't talk to each other produces numbers that don't reconcile, which means every decision downstream is made on data nobody fully trusts.
How It's Measured
Total annual cost of your tools, and the number of tools holding customer data. If more than two systems hold contact records, you have a reconciliation problem whether or not you've noticed it yet.
Who Owns It
Somebody has to, and in most SMEs nobody does. Marketing buys marketing tools, sales buys sales tools, and the joins belong to neither. This is one of the clearest arguments for a revenue operations owner, even part time.
HOW IT WORKS
A technology stack, or tech stack, is every piece of software your business runs and the connections between them. In a marketing and sales context that usually means:
- Website and CMS. Where your content lives and how it gets published.
- CRM. Where contacts, deals and history are recorded.
- Marketing automation. What triggers messages and alerts based on behaviour. See marketing automation.
- Analytics and tracking. What tells you where traffic comes from and what it does.
- Advertising platforms. Where you buy attention.
- Communication. Email, phone systems, live chat, scheduling.
The list matters less than the joins. A stack isn't a collection of tools, it's how they pass information to each other.
Where stacks go wrong
Software accumulates. Someone buys a tool to solve a problem, then someone else buys another, and within a few years the business is paying for six systems where three would do, with contact records in most of them.
The symptom is familiar. Marketing reports one number, sales reports another, and neither reconciles with the accounts, because each system holds a partial version of the truth. That's the problem revenue operations exists to solve, and no amount of additional software fixes it.
The test for any new tool is straightforward. What does it connect to, what data does it own, and what happens to that data if you stop using it.
Tech stack versus a CRM
A CRM is one component. The stack is everything, including the CRM and whatever surrounds it. Businesses often use the terms interchangeably, which hides the real question: whether the CRM is the single source of truth or one of several places the same contact appears.
Tech stack versus integrations
The stack is the set of tools. Integrations are the connections between them. A stack with no integrations is a set of silos, and staff end up copying information between systems by hand, which is where most data quality problems begin.
Buying more versus using what you have
Most businesses we audit use a fraction of what their existing tools can do. Before adding anything, work out whether the gap is capability or configuration. Buying a new platform to solve a problem your current one already handles is a common and expensive mistake.
We build and rationalise stacks as part of our CRM and automation work. There's more in our piece on whether SMEs need automation CRMs.
WHAT THIS LOOKS LIKE IN PRACTICE
A firm lists its tools and finds eleven active subscriptions. Three hold contact data: the CRM, the email platform, and a spreadsheet the sales team keeps because the CRM is out of date.
None of the three agree. The email list includes people who cancelled two years ago. The CRM is missing recent enquiries because the website form goes to an inbox rather than the system.
Fixing it meant connecting the website form to the CRM, making the CRM the single source of truth, and switching two subscriptions off. No new software, a lower monthly cost, and reporting that reconciled for the first time.
IS THIS COSTING YOU REVENUE RIGHT NOW?
Work through these with whoever manages your systems:
- Could you list every tool the business pays for, and what each costs?
- How many systems hold customer contact details?
- Does your website form write straight into your CRM?
- Does anyone copy information between systems manually?
- Do your marketing numbers reconcile with your sales numbers?
- Is there a tool you're paying for that nobody has opened this quarter?
Two or more problems here and you're paying for complexity rather than capability.
SEE WHAT YOUR COMPETITORS ARE DOING THAT YOU AREN'T
We'll analyse two of your competitors against your own site and show you where they're winning conversions you should be getting.
WHAT WE SEE IN THE FIELD
The most expensive stacks we see aren't the ones with the priciest software. They're the ones where nothing connects, so people spend hours moving information between systems and nobody trusts the reports at the end of it.
Before buying anything else, list every tool, what it costs, who uses it and what it connects to. That list usually answers the question on its own, and it often finds duplicate spend nobody had noticed.
Reviewed by Ian Wilson, MSM.
Frequently Asked
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