If you work in B2B sales or marketing, you’re probably drowning in tools that promise to “revolutionize” your process. Spoiler: most don’t. This review is for folks who want to know if Gan is actually worth your attention, your budget, or the hassle of switching out what you already use. I’ll break down what Gan does well, where it falls short, and who should bother trying it.
What Is Gan, and Who Is It Actually For?
Gan pitches itself as a B2B go-to-market (GTM) platform meant to “seamlessly align sales and marketing.” Translation: it’s a tool that tries to centralize your lead tracking, account management, campaign execution, and reporting into one place. If you’re running a sales team, handling outbound, or wrangling with over-complicated CRM setups, Gan is trying to make your life easier.
Who should care? - Mid-sized B2B companies with actual sales and marketing teams (not a one-person shop) - Revenue leaders tired of messy spreadsheets and tool sprawl - Marketers who want to see what sales is doing (and vice versa) without pestering each other
If you just need a CRM, Gan might be overkill. If you’re looking to replace a Frankenstein stack of Salesforce, HubSpot, spreadsheets, and Notion docs—keep reading.
Setup and Onboarding: The Good, The Bad, The Reality
Setup is where a lot of “all-in-one” tools fall on their face. Gan does better than most, but it’s not plug-and-play.
What Works
- Clear onboarding flows: You don’t need to be a Salesforce admin to get started. There are guided checklists, some helpful tooltips, and video walkthroughs.
- Integrates with the usual suspects: Gan connects to Salesforce, HubSpot, Gmail, Outlook, Slack, and a few other big names. The integrations aren’t perfect (more on that below), but you won’t be totally siloed.
What Doesn’t
- Migration is tedious: If you’ve got messy data (and who doesn’t?), expect to spend real time cleaning it up before moving it into Gan. Their import tool chokes on inconsistent fields and custom objects.
- Integrations need babysitting: Some integrations, especially with legacy CRMs, break when fields don’t match up or if permissions aren’t set just right. You may need IT’s help.
Pro tip: If you’re thinking of moving to Gan, budget at least a few days for cleanup and mapping fields. Don’t believe the “up and running in an afternoon” line unless you’re starting from scratch.
Features That Actually Matter (and Some That Don’t)
Gan’s feature list is long, but here’s what’s actually useful in real life:
1. Centralized Account and Deal Management
- See everything in one view: You get a dashboard of accounts, opportunities, campaigns, and touchpoints. It’s less overwhelming than Salesforce but much more powerful than a spreadsheet.
- Collaboration is decent: Sales and marketing can add notes, share updates, and see what’s happening on an account without Slack DMs or endless meetings.
What’s not so great: Customizing the dashboard takes some patience. The defaults are okay, but if you want very specific views, be ready to tinker.
2. Automated Playbooks and Cadences
- Simple automation: You can set up sequences for outreach, follow-ups, and campaign triggers. It won’t replace Outreach or Salesloft for heavy-duty outbound, but it covers the basics.
- Marketing and sales sync: Playbooks can trigger tasks for both teams—e.g., marketing runs a campaign, and sales gets reminders to follow up.
Where it falls short: Limited conditional logic. If your playbooks get fancy (e.g., “if no reply after X days, escalate to manager, but only for accounts in EMEA”), Gan’s automations start to feel thin.
3. Reporting and Analytics
- Real-time dashboards: Pipeline health, campaign attribution, account engagement—all the stuff you need for pipeline reviews and board slides.
- No-nonsense filters: You can slice and dice by owner, stage, campaign, etc., without needing an ops person.
The letdown: Exports are clunky, and building custom reports takes trial and error. You’ll wish for a data analyst if you want anything beyond the basics.
4. Integration (The Reality)
Gan tries to be the hub for your go-to-market stack. In practice, here’s what’s solid and what’s not:
- Works well with Gmail/Outlook and Slack: Email and calendar sync are reliable (though not instant), and Slack notifications are handy.
- CRM integration is hit or miss: If you’re deep into Salesforce customizations, expect hiccups. For basic use cases, it’s fine.
Don’t bother: The integration with ad platforms and webinar tools is surface-level. You’ll still need to check those platforms for real detail.
What Gan Doesn’t Do (or Doesn’t Do Well)
Let’s be honest: no tool is a silver bullet. Here’s where Gan doesn’t deliver:
- No built-in dialer or deep call analytics: If your sales team lives on the phone, you’ll need another tool for call tracking.
- Marketing automation is basic: It’s not a replacement for Marketo, HubSpot, or Pardot. Email sends, nurture streams, and scoring are light.
- Limited support for complex territories or channel sales: Big orgs with lots of regions or partner programs will hit walls.
Ignore the hype about “AI-driven insights.” Gan has some lead scoring and suggestions, but it’s not magic. The models are only as good as your data, and most teams don’t have perfect data.
Day-to-Day Use: Productivity or Just Another Tab?
This is where Gan earns its keep—or doesn’t.
The Good
- Cleaner, faster UI than most legacy CRMs: Less clicking around, fewer tabs, and not as many slow page loads.
- Team visibility: Everyone sees the same info, so there are fewer “what’s the status on this account?” emails.
The Annoying
- Mobile app is just okay: You can check basics on the go, but don’t expect to do real work from your phone.
- Notifications can get noisy: You’ll want to spend time dialing these in, or you’ll start ignoring them—defeating the point.
Pricing and Value for Money
Gan is priced mid-to-high, depending on your team size and integrations. It’s not cheap, but it’s not outrageous.
What you’re paying for: - Fewer tools to juggle - Less spreadsheet wrangling - Some genuine collaboration between sales and marketing
What you’re not getting: - A miracle fix for bad process or sloppy data - Deep marketing automation or outbound power-user features
If you’re a small team, it’s probably overkill. For mid-sized orgs trying to wrangle growth and make sales and marketing play nice, it’s a fair deal—assuming you use most of what it offers.
Who Should Skip Gan?
- Solo founders or tiny teams—you’ll spend more time setting it up than using it
- Companies married to a heavily customized Salesforce or HubSpot setup
- Anyone expecting a “set it and forget it” experience
Who Should Try Gan?
- B2B teams frustrated with CRM/marketing tool sprawl
- Revenue leaders who want better account visibility and collaboration
- Mid-sized orgs aiming to scale without hiring a small army of ops people
Bottom Line
Gan isn’t a miracle cure, but it’s genuinely useful for B2B teams that want to streamline sales and marketing without duct-taping together a dozen tools. Don’t expect every feature to wow you, but if you’re after cleaner workflows and better team visibility, it’s worth a close look.
Keep it simple: Start with the basics, get your data in order, and roll Gan out to one team at a time. Don’t try to automate everything—just focus on making your process a little less painful. Iterate as you go, and don’t be afraid to ignore features that don’t actually help.