My Approach to HubSpot Consulting

HubSpot does a fantastic job of selling itself as a Revenue Generator in a box. And it CAN do all the sales, marketing, and service things you want it to; it just isn't as easy as you think.

The thing is, there are layers to HubSpot. Taken out of the box it's fairly easy to get most things up and running, like adding forms to your website or launching an email.

The next layer down things get a bit more technical. This is where you need to begin customizing your CRM, integrating your other tools, building automation, ensuring GDPR compliance, and things that don't come natively to most people.

At the bottom is a deeply technical world of customization and coding, where HubSpot can literally do just about anything you want, like automating an entire free trial experience from initial form submission to account creation to onboarding email sequences, tagging in sales when a PQL is identified, generating the contract and renewals, assigning an account manager and on and on. It can do all that and so much more.

It's a big enchilada. Here's how I approach it:

First, complexity should only come incrementally. If you're just starting a business, you don't need to mess with the third layer for a long time. Even if you're established and have a full-time Ops person, building a deeply technical process may be overly disruptive if your CRM is a mess (for example).

So before you get too fancy, I think you need to get your basics lined out. That includes a properly-segmented CRM, consistent branding across marketing assets, established reporting structures and lifecycles, and operational processes that work together. 

Second, I want to teach you to fish. You shouldn't have to be dependent upon agencies or consultants to make a move in HubSpot. The more responsibility and expertise you can develop in-house, your internal capabilities will expand and you'll save a lot of money long-term.

I can build some great stuff for you, but the real value comes from me teaching you how to do it yourself (then adding in some quality assurance).

Third, I want to help you collaborate. If you want it to shine, HubSpot can't just be marketing's tool, or sales' tool. Revenue is a co-dependent process (involving customer success as well) so every process needs to be built with the end result in mind. 

For example, marketing can decide on a definition for an MQL, but if sales isn't aligned with it, those MQLs will never turn into opportunities. 

Sales can decide on a new disqualification process, but if marketing isn't in the conversation, there won't be any change in the demand focus and bad leads will continue to show up on sales' doorstep.

Coming from a demand background, trust me, sales and marketing need to be in the same room for a lot of HubSpot conversations.

Finally, I build for architecture and not just randomness. Like I mentioned at the top - HubSpot can do all sorts of neat automation. What you want to avoid is Random Acts of Automation - everything should fit within a process architecture that's predictable and well-documented, so there's no mystery in the system or rogue processes that are conflicting with each other.

In short: I want you to settle in with HubSpot for the long-term, which means incremental scaling, team-wide collaboration, internal knowledge, and building an operational architecture. 

Simple, right?