A lightweight stack audit for companies under 20 people: 5 areas, 30 minutes per area, a prioritized roadmap at the end.
This is not a deep technical audit. It is a structured review designed to surface the tools, gaps, and bottlenecks that are limiting GTM effectiveness -- and prioritize what to fix first before adding more complexity.
None. This playbook works without any foundation work complete. It often reveals issues that need to be fixed before any other playbook can run effectively.
Run this review:
- When onboarding a new client or team
- When outreach campaigns are underperforming without a clear explanation
- When pipeline is inconsistent or hard to track
- At the start of any new quarter as a calibration exercise
- A documented inventory of the current stack across 5 functional areas
- A gap assessment with a 1-3 priority score per area
- A prioritized fix list: what to address in the next 30, 60, and 90 days
- A recommendation on where to standardize vs. where to experiment
- A filled output template ready to share or action
What to assess (30 minutes):
- Where are you sourcing leads? (Manual research, purchased lists, scrapers, database tools)
- What is your list quality? (What is the average bounce rate on outreach campaigns?)
- What is the process for building a new list from scratch? How long does it take? Who does it?
- What tools are you using? (LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Apollo, Hunter, Clay, or other)
Questions to ask:
- Can you build a 200-contact list targeting a specific ICP segment in under 4 hours?
- Is there an ICP filter applied before building, or are lists broad?
- Are emails verified before loading into the sending tool?
What good looks like: You can build a targeted, verified list of 200 contacts in under 4 hours, with a bounce rate below 3% on send.
Common gaps:
- No systematic list-building process (it happens ad hoc)
- Emails not verified before sending, leading to deliverability damage
- No ICP filter applied before building (broad lists with low conversion rates)
What to assess (30 minutes):
- What is the current outbound tooling? (Reply.io, Instantly, Smartlead, Outreach, HubSpot sequences, or other)
- Is a separate domain used for cold outreach? (Not the primary domain)
- What does inbox warmup look like?
- How is sequence performance tracked? (Open rate, reply rate, meeting rate by sequence)
- Are sequences paused automatically on reply?
Questions to ask:
- What is the current reply rate across active sequences?
- When did the sending domain last get its SPF, DKIM, and DMARC verified?
- What is the daily send limit per inbox?
What good looks like: A dedicated cold email domain with SPF/DKIM/DMARC configured, a warmup tool running, sequences tracked by performance at the sequence level, and reply detection pausing sequences automatically.
Common gaps:
- Sending cold email from the primary domain (deliverability risk for all company email)
- No warmup tool running on cold email inboxes
- Performance tracked only at the campaign level, not the sequence level
- No automatic reply detection (contacts keep receiving follow-ups after they reply)
What to assess (30 minutes):
- Where are active deals tracked? (Spreadsheet, HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, or other)
- Do deal stages have clear entry and exit criteria, or are they loosely defined?
- Do all open deals have a next action and a date assigned?
- When was the pipeline last reviewed? How long does it take to get a full picture?
- How are contacts from events and referrals captured versus cold outbound contacts?
Questions to ask:
- How many open deals are there right now? What is the total estimated value?
- Which deals have had no activity in more than 14 days?
- What is the current close rate from proposal to signed?
What good looks like: One place where all active deals live with stages, values, next actions, and last contact date visible in a single view. Pipeline reviewed weekly in under 20 minutes.
Common gaps:
- Deal information spread across multiple tools (email, spreadsheet, CRM, notes app)
- Deals sitting in pipeline for weeks with no activity and no follow-up
- No standard follow-up cadence for deals that go quiet
- No close rate tracked over time (making it impossible to know if the pipeline is improving)
What to assess (30 minutes):
- Where are you publishing? (LinkedIn, website, newsletter, other)
- What is the publishing cadence? (Daily, weekly, monthly, inconsistent)
- Does the content directly address the problem the ICP has, or is it general industry content?
- Is there a clear, consistent point of view that distinguishes the content from the category average?
- Is content being repurposed into cold outreach (PS lines, DM openers, reference links)?
Questions to ask:
- What is the most recent post? How many days ago?
- What engagement does the typical post get from people who match the ICP profile?
- Has any piece of content generated an inbound conversation in the last 90 days?
What good looks like: Consistent publishing on one primary channel that generates engagement from the ICP type. A clear theme the author is known for among buyers in the target category.
Common gaps:
- Publishing gaps of 2-4 weeks (resets any momentum built)
- Content focused on what you do rather than what the buyer struggles with
- No distribution strategy beyond posting (relying only on followers to see it)
- Not referencing content in outreach sequences as proof of expertise
What to assess (30 minutes):
- What manual tasks in the GTM motion could be automated? (List research, email personalization, lead enrichment, follow-up scheduling, content repurposing)
- What AI tools are currently in use? (Claude, GPT, Perplexity, Gemini, or other)
- What workflow tools are in use? (n8n, Zapier, Make, or other)
- Where are leads falling through manual handoffs?
- What repetitive tasks consume the most time per week?
Questions to ask:
- How is email personalization currently done? Manual research per contact or templated at scale?
- Are follow-ups being triggered manually or automatically based on deal stage?
- What would you automate first if you had 2 hours to set it up?
What good looks like: The repetitive parts of GTM (list enrichment, email personalization at scale, follow-up scheduling, content repurposing) are handled by tools or workflows. Human focus is on decisions and conversations.
Common gaps:
- Manual research taking 30+ minutes per batch of contacts
- No automated follow-up (relying on memory to follow up with stale deals)
- Not using AI for first drafts of outreach or content
- No workflow connecting lead source to CRM (manual data entry between tools)
After reviewing all 5 areas, score each one:
1 = Critical gap (actively limiting current GTM effectiveness)
2 = Improvement opportunity (would meaningfully improve results with low effort)
3 = Working well enough (do not change in the next 90 days)
Fix in the first 30 days: Everything scored 1. These are the gaps that are actively costing you now.
Fix in days 31-60: Everything scored 2. These are improvements that compound over time.
Do not touch in the first 90 days: Everything scored 3. Leave it and focus on higher priorities.
Fill this in as you complete each area review:
AREA 1: Lead Generation and List Infrastructure
Current tools: [list]
What is working: [description]
Critical gaps: [list]
Priority score: [1/2/3]
First fix: [specific action]
AREA 2: Outreach and Sequencing
Current tools: [list]
What is working: [description]
Critical gaps: [list]
Priority score: [1/2/3]
First fix: [specific action]
AREA 3: CRM and Pipeline Management
Current tools: [list]
What is working: [description]
Critical gaps: [list]
Priority score: [1/2/3]
First fix: [specific action]
AREA 4: Content and Brand Presence
Current state: [description]
What is working: [description]
Critical gaps: [list]
Priority score: [1/2/3]
First fix: [specific action]
AREA 5: AI and Automation
Current tools: [list]
What is working: [description]
Critical gaps: [list]
Priority score: [1/2/3]
First fix: [specific action]
30-DAY ROADMAP:
1. [Highest priority fix with specific steps]
2. [Second priority fix with specific steps]
3. [Third priority fix with specific steps]
- stack-audit.md -- Pre-filled output template with examples for each area
| Area | What good looks like |
|---|---|
| List building | 200 verified contacts built in under 4 hours |
| Email deliverability | Bounce rate below 3% on every send |
| Outreach performance | Reply rate above 1%; open rate above 30% |
| Pipeline visibility | Full pipeline review completable in under 20 minutes |
| Content cadence | No publishing gap longer than 5 days on primary channel |
| Follow-up speed | Every reply handled within 4 business hours |
| Automation baseline | No manual task taking more than 30 min/week that could be automated |
Trying to fix everything at once. The prioritization framework exists for a reason. Start with the critical gaps. Adding new tools to a broken foundation adds complexity, not results.
Skipping deliverability review. Cold email infrastructure problems (no warmup, no SPF/DKIM/DMARC, sending from primary domain) silently destroy campaigns. This is the most common hidden issue.
Not having a single pipeline view. Deals spread across email threads, spreadsheets, and CRM are deals waiting to fall through. Consolidate to one tool even if it is imperfect.
No content strategy before publishing. Publishing without a defined theme and audience produces content that builds no authority and attracts no buyers. Theme first, output second.
Automating before the manual process works. If you cannot do a task consistently by hand, automating it will not fix the underlying problem. Get the manual version working first.
Not tracking the right metrics. "How many did we send" is not a useful metric. Reply rate, positive reply rate, and meeting booked rate tell you whether the system is working.