So, you’re trying to scale your B2B sales team and everyone’s telling you to buy new software. The vendors say their tools are “game-changers.” Your LinkedIn is full of “GTM stack” hot takes. But what’s actually worth your time—and your budget?
This guide is for founders, sales leaders, and operators who need a practical way to pick the right GTM (go-to-market) software, not just the shiniest. If you’re eyeing tools like Nooks but don’t want to get burned, keep reading.
Step 1: Get Clear on Your Sales Team’s Real Needs
Before you even look at a demo or pricing page, stop. What are you actually trying to fix or improve? Most teams waste money because they’re fuzzy on this.
- Are reps spending too much time on manual tasks?
- Is your pipeline drying up because of bad prospecting?
- Are you missing key data to improve conversion rates?
- Do you just need to make more calls, faster?
Write down the top 3 bottlenecks. Be brutally honest. If you don’t know, ask your team—or better yet, watch them work for a day. You’ll spot what’s really slowing them down.
Pro tip: Don’t buy software to “keep up” with competitors. Buy it to solve a real problem.
Step 2: Make a Shortlist of GTM Tools That Match Those Needs
Now that you know your pain points, make a shortlist. This is where you might come across tools like Outreach, Salesloft, Apollo, or Nooks. Don’t just Google “best sales tool”—that gets you a bunch of generic lists with affiliate links.
What to look for: - Specific fit: Does the tool actually address your bottleneck? (e.g., If your team’s struggling with cold calling, a dialer like Nooks is more useful than a fancy CRM add-on.) - Integrations: Will it work with your CRM, email, and calendar? If not, you’ll create more problems than you solve. - User experience: Is it something your team will actually use, or will they avoid it? - Pricing transparency: If you can’t get a straight answer on price, that’s a red flag.
Ignore: Tools that promise “all-in-one” magic. Jack-of-all-trades platforms rarely excel at the thing you actually need.
Step 3: Put Vendor Claims to the Test
Every vendor has case studies and glowing testimonials. That’s their job. Your job is to poke holes.
How to reality-check: - Ask for references from similar companies. Not just their hand-picked “best” customer. - Request a real-life demo. Not a canned walkthrough, but your data, your workflows. - Test the edge cases. Will their dialer work with your call scripts? Can their enrichment tool handle your messy data? - Trial or pilot: Push for a real trial. If a vendor resists, ask yourself why.
Nooks, by the way, makes it dead simple to trial their AI-powered dialer with your actual team. If your reps are stuck dialing one-by-one, it’s easy to see how parallel dialing or real-time coaching (their big selling points) could actually save time—if they work for your workflow.
Step 4: Dig Into Usability and Adoption (Don’t Skip This)
This is where most teams mess up. The fanciest tech in the world is useless if your reps don’t use it—or if it slows them down.
What to watch out for: - Clunky interfaces: If your team groans during the demo, run. - Training burden: How long will it take everyone to get up to speed? - Support: Will you get real help, or just a help center full of videos? - Mobile and remote: If your team is hybrid or remote, does the tool work outside the office?
Pro tip: Ask the vendor what percentage of accounts actually reach “full adoption” after 3 months. Watch them squirm.
Step 5: Check for Data Quality and Reporting (No, Really)
You can’t scale what you can’t measure. Some tools promise “actionable insights” but bury you in dashboards.
What actually matters: - Are reports accurate and up to date? - Can you easily pull the metrics that matter—like dials per hour, connect rate, pipeline by rep? - Can you trust the data, or is it full of duplicates, “test” records, or missing info? - How easy is it to export your data if you ever switch tools?
A tool like Nooks, for example, is only valuable if you can see the impact—calls made, meetings booked, time saved. If you can’t measure it, you’re flying blind.
Ignore: “AI-powered insights” unless you can see exactly what the AI is doing and why. Black boxes are for magicians, not sales leaders.
Step 6: Scrutinize Pricing—Watch for Gotchas
Every SaaS tool is “affordable”—until you read the fine print.
Questions to ask: - Are there hidden costs? (Onboarding, support, minimum seats, overages.) - What happens if you need to scale up or down? (Can you drop licenses if reps leave?) - Is the price locked in, or will it jump at renewal? - What features are paywalled? (Many tools withhold key features behind “Pro” tiers.)
Don’t feel bad about negotiating. Most vendors expect it. And if you’re getting pressure to “sign by end of quarter,” that’s a sign they want the deal more than you do.
Step 7: Plan for the Future, But Don’t Overbuy
It’s tempting to buy a tool with every bell and whistle “for when we grow.” Resist. Buy for the team you have, not the team you wish you had.
How to future-proof without wasting cash: - Choose tools that can grow with you, but start with the core features. - Avoid long-term contracts unless you’ve tested adoption. - Check for easy integrations with other tools down the line. - Ask about the vendor’s roadmap—are they building what you’ll actually need?
The Bottom Line: Keep It Simple, Iterate Fast
Scaling a B2B sales team is hard enough without drowning in tools. The right GTM software, whether it’s Nooks for faster dialing or something else, should make your reps’ lives easier—not add another layer of busywork.
Focus on your biggest bottleneck. Take vendors’ claims with a grain of salt. Test for real-world fit, not just marketing promises. And if a tool isn’t working for your team after a month? Cut bait and try something else.
Buying sales software isn’t a one-time decision. Stay skeptical, stay flexible, and keep your process as simple as possible. That’s how you actually scale.