dbt Labs
Free (dbt Core), Cloud starts at $100/mo
Best for
dbt is what turns a pile of raw CRM data into something your revenue team can actually use. Without it, your warehouse is just an expensive storage closet. The open-source Core version is powerful enough for most teams — Cloud adds scheduling and a UI that non-engineers appreciate. If your RevOps team is writing the same SQL queries every week, dbt eliminates that entirely.
dbt (data build tool) lets teams write SQL models that transform raw data in your warehouse into clean, tested, documented datasets. It brings software engineering practices — version control, testing, documentation — to data transformation.
Why outbound teams use it
Your outbound data is only as good as the models underneath it. dbt lets RevOps build account scoring models, pipeline health dashboards, and rep performance metrics that update automatically. Instead of a weekly CSV export and a spreadsheet, you get a living data layer that everyone trusts because it’s tested and version-controlled.
Where it fits in the stack
dbt sits between your data loader (Fivetran, Stitch) and your BI layer (Looker, Tableau). Raw data lands in the warehouse, dbt transforms it into business-ready models, and your analytics tools query those models. It’s the transformation layer that makes everything downstream reliable.
Watch out for
dbt requires SQL proficiency. It’s not a drag-and-drop tool — your team needs someone who can write and maintain data models. For teams without a dedicated analytics engineer, the learning curve is real. Start with a few high-impact models (pipeline velocity, account health) rather than trying to model everything at once.
Integrations
Need help building your outbound stack?
Get expert advice on which tools fit your team, budget, and process.
Companies using dbt Labs
Other Data Infrastructure tools
Airflow
Data InfrastructureAirflow is the tool you don't know you need until your data team is managing 15 different scripts running on cron jobs that break every other week. It brings order to data pipeline chaos — scheduling, dependency management, monitoring, and retries all in one place. Not a revenue team tool directly, but the data infrastructure that makes tools like Snowflake and reverse ETL actually reliable. If you don't have data engineers, this isn't for you.
Fivetran
Data InfrastructureFivetran solves one problem and solves it well: getting data from point A to point B without babysitting. For outbound teams, that means your CRM data, marketing automation data, and product usage data all land in one warehouse automatically. The real value isn't the connectors — it's the schema handling. When Salesforce changes a field, Fivetran adjusts. No broken pipelines at 2 AM.
Snowflake
Data InfrastructureSnowflake is where serious revenue teams centralize their data. When you outgrow CRM reporting and need to join marketing data, product usage data, and sales data in one place, Snowflake is the answer. The reverse ETL play is where it gets interesting for outbound — pipe product usage signals back into Salesforce to trigger sequences based on real behavior, not guesswork. Overkill for teams under 50 people. Essential above that.