The Best Outbound Tech Stack for Early-Stage SaaS Startups (Step-by-step Guide)

Alexander Estner

and

KptnChris

Jun 09, 2024

Hey - it’s Alex - this time together with Christian Städtler!

Today we cover:

1️⃣ The 10 Categories of Essential Outbound GTM Tools

2️⃣ 6 Key Principles for Deciding Your Tech Stack

3️⃣ Step-by-Step Guide for Your Outbound Tech Stack Implementation

The Best Outbound-led GTM Tech Stack for early-stage SaaS startups

One of the critical decisions you'll face is selecting the right go-to-market (GTM) tech stack to drive your initial growth.

This article will focus on building an outbound-led GTM tech stack for early-stage SaaS startups.

Why Outbound-Led GTM is Essential for Early-Stage Startups

Outbound-led strategies are prevalent among early-stage SaaS startups for two primary reasons:

Historical Success and Expertise: Outbound sales have been a cornerstone of business development for decades, resulting in a rich pool of expertise and proven methodologies.
Speed and Simplicity: Outbound strategies can be quickly implemented and offer rapid results. This is crucial when you’re in the ideation stage and striving to achieve problem-market fit. You need to determine if customers are willing to pay for your solution.

You likely don’t have a clear ideal customer profile (ICP), target persona, segmentation, or well-defined value proposition and messaging in the early stages. Outbound sales allow you to cast a wide net, gather immediate feedback, and iterate quickly.

The Complexity of Building the Right Tech Stack

With so many tools available, choosing the right ones for your GTM strategy can be overwhelming. Different goals, scenarios, skill sets, countries, industries, and GTM motions make a one-size-fits-all solution impossible. This guide will help you navigate these complexities and build an effective, tailored tech stack.

6 Key Principles for Deciding Your Tech Stack

Own the Process: You must have control and a thorough understanding of your sales process.
Avoid Overengineering: Keep your tech stack simple and focused.
Easy to Implement: Choose tools that are straightforward to set up.
Be Cost-Conscious: Even with ample funding, avoid unnecessary expenditures. Build a functional system first, then scale.
User-Friendly: Ensure your tools are easy to use.
Measurable: Implement tools that provide clear metrics and insights.

The 10 Categories of Essential Outbound GTM Tools

Going from 0€ to 1€ million ARR, you must manage numerous interactions and leads.

Here’s a breakdown of 10 mandatory and nice-to-have tools (+ 1 bonus tool):

Mandatory Tools

1. Contact Data Tools:

Find the contacts/companies that match your Ideal Customer Profile.

Examples: Apollo.io, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Evaboot.com, Clay.com

2. Outreach Tools:

Get in touch with your ICP contacts and share your messaging.

Mail Outreach: Woodpecker.co, Smartlead.ai
Linkedin Outreach: Heyreach.io, Expandi.io
Multichannel Outreach: Lemlist.com, LaGrowthMachine.com

3. CRM Systems:

Keep track of your customer relationships.

Examples: Pipedrive.com, Breakcold.com, Hubspot.com, Attio.com, Folk.app, Close.com

Nice-to-Have Tools

4. Enrichment Tools:

Enrich your contacts with relevant information (phone number, email, etc.)

Examples: Bettercontact.rocks, Prospeo.io, fullenrich.com, Lemlist enrichment, Clay.com

5. Scraping Tools:

Scrape (contact) data (e.g. LinkedIn commenters).

Examples: Clay.com, phantombuster.com, Instant Data Scraper, bardeen.ai

6. VoIP Tools:

Add cold calls to your GTM motion.

Examples: Aircall.io, Phoneburner.com, Glencoco.com

7. Notetaker Tools:

Record your sales meetings and take notes. Add insights to your CRM.

Examples: Sybill.ai, Fireflies.ai, Attention.tech, tldv.io

8. Web Visitor Tools:

Identify your website visitors (high-intent leads)

Examples: RB2B.com, leadfeeder.com, snitcher.com

9. Trigger Tools:

Know the best time to reach out to your contacts. Identify (high intent) trigger events.

Examples: Trigify.io, Ocean.io

10. Outreach Infrastructure Tools:

Don’t become blocked by Google and co., and don't end up in Spam.

Examples: Mailforge, Maildoso.

Bonus: Lookalike Tools:

New product category. Let’s you build lookalike target lists based on your customers.

Examples: Ocean.io

Step-by-Step Guide for Your Outbound Tech Stack Implementation

Phase 1: Initial Setup

The initial setup phase is intended for early-stage startups that are just starting their outreach efforts.

This phase is crucial for determining the most effective customer profile segments, messaging, and channels (LinkedIn and email are recommended starting points).

Understanding how your audience interacts with your messaging across different channels is vital.

During this phase, you will run numerous small campaigns and multivariate tests to gather data and insights.

👉 Track your Outbound Campaigns

Since this is not mass outreach, you don't need to worry too much about domain rotation or other mass outreach regulations.

However, we recommend implementing a personalized touchpoint approach based on your contact search filters (e.g., "I've seen you grew in department X by more than Y%..."). Get creative at this stage.

👉 Trigger-based outreach is your friend.

Step 1.1: Define Your Initial Customer Profile

Action: Identify your initial customer profile and break it down into sub-profiles.
Example: For GTM Pioneers, the initial profile might be people in Europe interested in learning about GTM and shaping its future. Sub-profiles could include founders in Germany, Spain, etc., and sales leaders in these countries.
Why: With an Initial Customer Profile Breakdown, can you test different messages and different Target Audiences to learn what works best
Tip: Create detailed sub-profiles using demographic, geographic, and firmographic criteria.

In this example, we created a list of 34 different Initial Customer Profile Cohorts. These cohorts are differentiated by location, title/role, and language. The keywords are always the same and are chosen to ensure a higher level of intent, as they are relevant to the exact field we serve.

Step 1.2: Set Up a CRM System

Action: Integrate a CRM system like Pipedrive.com, Breakcold.com, Hubspot.com, Attio.com, Folk.app, Close.com
Why: A CRM will help you track interactions, manage leads, and build customer patterns.
Tip: Ensure your CRM integrates seamlessly with your outreach tools.

👉 How to synch Lemlist with Hubspot or Lemlist with Pipedrive.

Step 1.3: Gather Initial Contacts

Action: Sign up for LinkedIn Sales Navigator or Apollo.io.
Why: These tools will help you quickly gather a list of potential leads.
Tip: Export as many relevant contacts as possible during the trial period (e.g. using evaboot) to maximize value. LinkedIn Sales Navigator allows you to add up to 25 leads to a list in bulk. Create small lists for initial testing, but aim to gather as many contacts as possible during the trial. Tools like Evaboot can help maximize contact extraction.

!The following steps are just an example. You can also use Apollo.io to search for contacts and kaspr.io to download contacts!

Step 1.3.1. Create your search:

Step 1.3.2. Safe your search:

Step 1.3.3. Build lists:

Step 1.3.4. Download contacts with Evaboot:

👉 If you’re new to LinkedIn Sales Navigator, check out this awesome guide on how to use LinkedIn sales navigator.

Step 1.4: Implement a Multichannel Outreach Tool

Action: Choose and set up an outreach tool like Lemlist.com or LaGrowthMachine.com
Why: These tools allow you to manage email and LinkedIn outreach in one place.
Tip: Start with a small outreach campaign (about 100 contacts) to test and refine your messaging.

1.4.1. Connect your identity

1.4.2. Create first campaigns (use the templates from LaGrowthMachine)

1.4.3. Choose the Channels and Templates you want to use (Start with LinkedIn or when you want to start directly with LinkedIn and mail use this template).

!Audio performs very well on LinkedIn

1.4.4. Upload your contact list or paste the URL of your LinkedIn Sales Navigator Search

1.4.5. Create a campaign for each Initial Customer Profile Segment

1.4.6. Setup DNS Setting ()

👉 Read this article on DNS setup.

1.4.7. Run your campaigns. Numbers you should achieve:

30% Acceptance Rate (on LinkedIn)
50% Email open rate
<5% Email bounce rate
10% response rate (LinkedIn and Email)
3-5% interest rate/ positive responses

Step 1.5: Integrate a VoIP Tool

Action: Set up a VoIP tool like Phoneburner.
Why: VoIP tools streamline your calling process and keep records of your communications.
Tip: Use the tool’s analytics to refine your calling strategy.

Step 1.6: Utilize a Notetaker Tool

Action: Implement a notetaker tool like Fireflies.ai.
Why: Automatic note-taking saves time and ensures you capture important details from calls.
Tip: Review and categorize notes regularly to identify common themes and insights.

Step 1.6.1. You can integrate notetaker tools, VoIP solutions, and Multichannel Outreach Tools easily as you can see here:

Phase 2: Quality Enhancement

In Phase 2, you should build on the data patterns identified in Phase 1 to create a primary ideal customer profile and develop effective messaging.

The goal is to expand your outreach efforts to determine if they are sustainable and scalable.

Enhancing data quality and personalizing outreach are key. This involves obtaining email addresses, even if tools like Lemlist.com or LaGrowthMachine.com can't find a professional email address on the LinkedIn profile (data enrichment).

Personalized outreach using scraped information and timing your outreach based on triggers is crucial.

While a tool like Clay can handle these tasks, it may be too complex for inexperienced users.

Therefore, you can use different tools for each use case:

Bettercontact.rocks for waterfall data enrichment (alternatives: FullEnrich.com, Prospeo.com)
Instant Data Scraper for scraping (alternatives: Bardeen.ai, Phantombuster.com),
and Trigify.io for trigger-based outreach.

Step 2.1: Integrate Scraping Tools

Action: Set up scraping tools like Bardeen or IDS (Instant Data Scraper).
Why: These tools help build target account lists and personalize your outreach.
Tip: Use these tools to refine your contact lists based on specific criteria.

!This example demonstrates how to create an account list using a scraper. This list can help you find the right contacts for your target accounts, as outlined in Phase 1. If you want to automate this process, consider using Clay. However, automation is more appropriate for Phase 3, when transitioning from early-stage to growth-stage. You can also use this scraping method to compile contact lists from various web pages.!

Step 2.1.1. Search for results on a page you like to generate contacts or accounts from (in my example, companies that hire in the go-to-market space)

Step 2.1.2. Open your scraper (in my example Instant Data Scraper, but you can use others like bardeen.ai or phantombuster.com as well)

Step 2.1.3. Download your list as CSV

Step 2.1.4. Now you can create more personalized messaging for these scraped target accounts and the contacts you’ve found, such as "I just saw your job listing for XYZ on Indeed…".

Step 2: Implement Trigger Tools

Action: Use tools like Trigify to time your outreach.
Why: Timing your outreach based on triggers (e.g., job changes, funding rounds) increases response rates.
Tip: Set up alerts for key triggers relevant to your industry.

!As Trigify is in Beta, we can’t share Screenshots yet!

Step 2.2.1. Define your triggers (Here are some examples)

Step 2.2.2. Upload your contact lists

Step 2.2.3. Define your trigger workflow in Trigify

Alternative Step 2: Intent as a trigger

Step 2.2.1a. Create ICP list in Ocean.io (In our example we would look for StartUps with less than 50 employees in Germany and look for their founders and CROs)

Step 2.2.2a. Create Intent Keywords (In my example: Growth, Sales and Revenue related)

The list of Intent topics I have chosen in Ocean.io

Step 2.2.3a. Connect Intent and List

Connect your Intent topics with your ICP lists in Ocean.io

Step 3: Enrich Your Data

Action: Use enrichment tools like Prospeo.io or Bettercontact.rocks.
Why: Enriched data provides deeper insights into your leads, improving personalization.
Tip: Regularly update and clean your data to maintain its accuracy.

Step 2.3.1. Start finding the contact data of your target ICPs

Step 2.3.2. Upload your contact list (like the one you’ve downloaded with evaboot)

Step 2.3.3. Start Waterfall Enrichment over all tools you want to check

Phase 3: Advanced Integration

When you're ready to expand your outreach efforts and you're still getting reasonable response rates from phase 2, and you have a large target market, it's time to consider account-based enrichment.

Enrichment tools such as BetterContact are not enough at this stage. You need to enrich data at the account level to find suitable contacts and then enrich their contact data further.

Clay is a comprehensive tool that can handle all these enrichment tasks in one place. If Clay seems too complicated, consider hiring an agency.

You can also follow a setup similar to the one in the image below.

Your enrichment and outreach infrastructure becomes more complex at this stage. To avoid being blocked by email providers like Google or Yahoo, you need to implement domain rotation, email warm-up, and other best practices for mass outreach.

Consider separating LinkedIn and email outreach when scaling your cold outreach efforts. Although it's not mandatory, better results can be achieved by using tools that are solely focused on one outreach channel rather than a single tool for all channels.

While using a multichannel approach may save time, the best results are generated at scale by using different engagement tools for different channels. You can connect the channels in your list building through logic, for example, by putting a contact in a list for LinkedIn outreach if the person hasn't responded via email yet.

For LinkedIn, you can continue using LaGrowthMachine or HeyReach.io

Other alternatives include Expandi.io and Dripify.

Smartlead.ai, Lemlist.com, and Woodpecker.co are great options for email outreach.

Make sure you have the proper infrastructure in place with tools like Mailforge or Maildoso. Some tools, like Lemlist.com, already have an integrated infrastructure feature.

Step 3.1.: Contact Data Generation

Action: Utilize RB2B for web visitor data, Sales Navigator or Apollo.io for contact data, and Bardeen for personalization.
Why: Combining data sources ensures comprehensive and accurate contact information.
Tip: Cross-reference data from multiple sources to verify accuracy.

Step 3.2.: Connect Different Tools and Data Sources

Action: Use Zapier.com or Make.com to connect your tools.
Why: Integrating tools through automation platforms streamlines workflows and data sharing. Most tools have direct connections but sometimes you need an extra connection between your data sources, channels, and tools.
Tip: Set up automated workflows for common tasks like lead nurturing and follow-ups.

Step 3.3.: Enhance Outreach Strategies

Action: Implement email tools like Instantly or Smartleads and LinkedIn outreach tools like Expandi or Heyreach.
Why: Diversifying outreach channels increases your reach and engagement.
Tip: Use A/B testing to refine messaging and determine the most effective outreach strategies.

Step 3.4.: Implement Education and Enablement Tools

Action: Integrate tools like Grw.ai for ongoing training and development.
Why: Continuous learning and development keep your team sharp and adaptable.
Tip: Schedule regular training sessions and monitor progress through analytics.

Typical Pitfalls to Avoid

Overengineering the Tech Stack: Start simple and avoid unnecessary complexity.
Overspending on Tools: Be mindful of costs and only invest in essential tools initially.
Neglecting Training: Ensure your team understands how to use the tools effectively.
Lack of Iteration: Continuously refine your approach based on feedback and results.

Final Thoughts

Building the right outbound GTM tech stack for your early-stage SaaS startup is crucial for achieving your growth goals.

Start with a simple, cost-effective, efficient setup, then iterate and expand based on your initial successes.

Note: Many other great tools are available for your outreach setup, but we’ve focused on a few to avoid overwhelming you. Remember, the key is to build a tech stack that supports rapid iteration and feedback, allowing you to refine your approach as you grow. Good luck, and happy selling✌🏽!

Happy growth 🚀

Alex & Christian

3 ways I can help you grow your SaaS to €1 million ARR 🚀

Build your GTM strategy with my free SaaS GTM Strategy Workbook (helped 3000+ SaaS leaders)
Get access to 90+ actionable SaaS growth tactics (helped 200+ SaaS leaders) - 100% positive ROI guarantee.
Work 1-on-1 with me - GTM Advisory for early-stage SaaS founders on their way to €1 million ARR (1 free spot - limited to 8 founders).

A guest post by