Looking for the right B2B go-to-market (GTM) tools can feel like sorting through a junk drawer. There’s a lot of shiny stuff, but what actually helps you grow your business without turning your process into a Rube Goldberg machine? This guide’s for folks running (or scaling) a B2B company who want to cut through the marketing fluff and actually get their team moving.
Below you'll find a practical breakdown of top GTM categories, honest takes on what matters, and where you might want to save your money—or your sanity.
What’s a GTM Tool, Really?
Let’s get one thing straight: “GTM tool” is a buzzword that covers a lot. In practice, it means any software that helps you bring your product or service to market, find customers, and (hopefully) make sales. For this guide, we’ll focus on the most useful categories for growing businesses:
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
- Sales Engagement
- Product Demos & Enablement
- Marketing Automation
- Data & Analytics
- Revenue Intelligence
We’ll look at a few of the most popular options in each. If you’re deep in enterprise territory, you might have a longer list, but these are the big ones for most teams.
1. Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
What it does: Tracks prospects, customers, deals, and interactions so nothing falls through the cracks.
Top picks: Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive
What Works
- Salesforce: Still the 800-pound gorilla. Insanely customizable, integrates with almost anything, and can handle complex sales ops. But it's overkill for many.
- HubSpot: Cleaner interface, easier to set up, good for companies that want CRM + marketing in one spot. Less flexible as you scale.
- Pipedrive: Simple, visual, and affordable. If you want “drag and drop, get out of my way,” this is it.
Honest Take
- Don’t get seduced by features you don’t need. Most growing teams want fast setup, basic pipeline tracking, and integrations with email/calendar.
- Salesforce is great... if you have a Salesforce admin. Otherwise, you’ll spend more time configuring than selling.
- If your team hates the CRM, they won’t use it. Test drive with your actual sales reps.
Pro tip: Most CRMs let you start free or cheap. Don’t sign a multi-year contract until you’ve lived with it for at least three months.
2. Sales Engagement Platforms
What it does: Helps your reps send emails, make calls, and follow up at scale—ideally without sounding like a robot.
Top picks: Outreach, Salesloft, Apollo
What Works
- Outreach & Salesloft: Both are strong for email sequencing, call tracking, and analytics. Outreach is a bit more robust, Salesloft a little easier for beginners.
- Apollo: Combines outreach tools with a built-in lead finder. Decent for small teams that want “all-in-one,” but don’t expect magic leads.
Honest Take
- Automated sales outreach can backfire. If your team’s blasting generic templates, you’ll get flagged as spam—and ignored.
- Integration is key. If this doesn’t play nice with your CRM and email, it’ll double your admin headaches.
- You probably don’t need every feature. Focus on easy-to-build sequences and tracking replies. The rest is gravy.
Pro tip: Use these tools to augment real conversations, not replace them.
3. Product Demos & Enablement
What it does: Lets you show off your product in a way that’s quick, interactive, and (hopefully) clear.
Top picks: Arcade, Demostack, Walnut
What Works
- Arcade: Great for building interactive, self-guided demos that live on your website or in emails. Easy to update, no engineering required.
- Demostack & Walnut: Both focus on live demo environments, letting you spin up “sandbox” versions of your product for sales calls.
Honest Take
- Don’t build custom demos by hand if you can help it. Unless you have a huge sales engineering team, you’ll burn out fast.
- Interactive, self-serve demos are underrated. Buyers want to kick the tires without booking a meeting.
- Avoid tools that require heavy dev involvement. You’ll never keep them updated.
Pro tip: Make sure your demo tool tracks engagement—knowing which slides or features get clicks is gold for future pitches.
4. Marketing Automation
What it does: Handles email campaigns, lead nurturing, and (sometimes) paid ad management.
Top picks: HubSpot, Marketo, ActiveCampaign
What Works
- HubSpot: Still the easiest to get started. Good all-in-one for content, email, and basic lead scoring.
- Marketo: More powerful, but expect a learning curve and a price tag to match.
- ActiveCampaign: Cheaper, decent automation builder, but not as slick for B2B teams with complex needs.
Honest Take
- Don’t over-automate. If your “lead nurture” is just a drip of generic emails, you’ll annoy more people than you convert.
- Measure what matters. Fancy dashboards are fun, but if you aren’t tracking actual conversion to pipeline, you’re wasting time.
- Watch out for “all-in-one” promises. Most of these tools are good at a few things, mediocre at the rest.
Pro tip: Start with a single, targeted campaign and see if it moves the needle before wiring up every possible workflow.
5. Data & Analytics
What it does: Helps you figure out who’s visiting your site, which campaigns work, and where deals are getting stuck.
Top picks: Google Analytics, Tableau, Clearbit
What Works
- Google Analytics: Free, integrates everywhere, but getting less useful for B2B as privacy rules clamp down.
- Tableau: Slick dashboards for folks who love charts. Expensive, but powerful for larger teams and data nerds.
- Clearbit: Fills in the blanks on who’s visiting your site, helps with lead enrichment.
Honest Take
- Don’t drown in dashboards. If you’re spending more time making reports than taking action, something’s wrong.
- Attribution is never perfect. Even the fanciest tools can’t tell you exactly why a deal closed. Use this data to spot trends, not to micromanage.
- Most teams need basics: Traffic, lead source, and pipeline movement. Don’t overthink it.
Pro tip: Assign one person to “own” reporting and make sure insights actually get discussed weekly—not just emailed and ignored.
6. Revenue Intelligence
What it does: Surfaces insights about deals, forecasts, and team activity so you can see what’s actually in the pipe.
Top picks: Gong, Chorus, Clari
What Works
- Gong & Chorus: Both record sales calls and use AI to pick out topics, next steps, and risks. Gong’s a little more polished, Chorus a bit more affordable.
- Clari: Focuses on forecasting and pipeline health, not just call analysis.
Honest Take
- AI summaries are getting better, but not perfect. Don’t expect the tool to close your deals or magically spot every risk.
- Great for coaching. Listening to real calls (or reading transcripts) is the only way to know what’s actually happening.
- Expensive for small teams. Unless you’ve got 5+ reps, you may not get your money’s worth.
Pro tip: Use call analysis to spot patterns—like which objections come up most—not just to “score” your reps.
What to Ignore (or Delay)
Here’s what not to worry about right away:
- Enterprise-grade everything: Don’t buy the tool you “might need in 3 years.” Buy what helps today.
- Endless integrations: If you don’t have someone to maintain them, they break and cause more headaches than they solve.
- Tools with vague ROI promises: If a demo can’t show you real, practical results, skip it.
How to Choose (and Not Lose Your Mind)
- List your actual bottlenecks. Don’t buy a tool because your competitor uses it; buy because it solves your problem.
- Test with real users. If your sales or marketing team hates it, you’ll never see the value.
- Start with one tool per category. You can always add more bells and whistles later.
- Push for month-to-month contracts first. Avoid lock-in until you’re sure.
- Track real outcomes. More pipeline? Shorter sales cycles? If you can’t measure it, don’t keep paying for it.
Final Thoughts: Keep It Simple, Iterate Often
There’s no “perfect” GTM tool stack—just the one your team actually uses. Start with problems, not features. Get feedback, adjust as you go, and don’t be afraid to ditch tools that slow you down. Most growing businesses only need a handful of solid tools to get moving. Everything else is just noise.
Keep it simple. Move fast. And remember—no tool will ever replace knowing your customer and getting the basics right.