HubSpot Products That Will Transform Your Business [Endless Customers Podcast S.1 Ep.13]

important thing and we need to talk about updates because they're always updating, they're always improving, they're always doing new things to help their customers, to help their users, and you have your finger on the proverbial pulse of what's going on. I feel like you are just the guru of all things HubSpot,

Alex
0:01:00
so let's get into it, let's talk about it.

Jess
0:01:02
I mean, it's kind of my job, right? I live, breathe, and think about constantly this tool called HubSpot, and it's my job to figure out what do all of our listeners out there in the internet lands need to know about on regular races. So I've got a couple of big updates this time. Maybe they're big, maybe they're just things that I've wanted for so darn long

Jess
0:01:23
that I'm just making them bigger in my brain, but I think there are a lot of cool applications and I'm excited to get into it with you today.

Alex
0:01:29
For those viewers and listeners out there that don't know, Jess is not only a guru with HubSpot, but you're also really good, and I think one of your best, one of your key talents is you take all this really technical stuff and you figure out how to bridge it and explain it in a way that business owners can implement and that they can understand so that it's not so like way above my pay grade, because a lot of it is technical. So I'm really excited to hear your insights and I think you're going to help a lot of

Alex
0:01:53 people today.

Jess
0:01:54
So let's just get right into it. Oh yeah, 100%. I mean, my job as a HubSpot trainer and coach is to make the technical more digestible. So if I'm not doing that on a day-to-day basis, I'm not doing my job right. So let's actually get into some of these new features. Let's do it. So the first thing that I have written down on my list is really understanding how you can use structure in HubSpot to create better rules for data integrity. Now that's the technical thing. So Alex, how much of that did you understand? I heard

Alex
0:02:22
structure and then I don't know what's going to happen to my blacked out man.

Jess
0:02:26
Yes, okay. So before we get too lost in the weeds, let's break it down. So the structure of your data simply means how consistent is it? How much does the data in individual pieces make sense? And when you bring it all together, can you run that shiny report that gives you that pulse

Jess

0:02:46
on the health of your business? And if you can't pull those reports today, then something is wrong with the structure of your data. So it's really simple when you think about it. If a building doesn't have the right structural supports in place, is that building going to stand? No, that doesn't sound good. It's going to fall down and no one wants their business to come crashing down around them.

Jess
0:03:05
And you'd be surprised how often I hear marketing, sales, and business leaders just overlook the fact that their organization is built on either really great data that gives them great insight to the health and stability of their business, or really crappy data that can sometimes show a misleading picture of what's actually going on. And if you're in that second camp, if you feel like the data that you're looking at on a day-to-day basis isn't representing reality,

Jess
0:03:36
if it's not passing the sniff test, that something doesn't smell right in the kitchen, you have to take a second look and figure out, okay, what's going on here? And when you see those problems, just don't panic and think, oh gosh, you know, everything is crumbling around me, as I mentioned earlier. There are things that you can do to help sure up that structure, make your business more structurally sound, and make sure that the data, the foundation of your organization, that data is structurally sound to hold up the whole organization. And one tiny little feature and update that came out this month that's really going to help

Jess
0:04:14
marketing and sales leaders uphold that structure is something called deal pipeline rules. So for the longest time a pipeline in HubSpot was essentially how you move an opportunity from initial conversations in the sales process to either close one, yay, we won the business, or close lost, we missed this time.

Alex
0:04:34
But clearly defining those two buckets, whichever one it falls in.

Jess
0:04:38
Exactly, you have to define every single stage of your sales process. And for those of us out there that have linear sales processes, where it's clear we start with a product demo, then we have a follow-up conversation, then we bring in an SME or an expert to have that technical discussion, then we present a contract and we have a closing meeting and then that business is either closed one or closed last.

Jess
0:05:01
For those of us that follow a very linear approach that doesn't necessarily skip steps, it's been a dream to work in HubSpot because you can go from one stage to the next and carefully gather your inputs and really use that data to the best of your ability.

Alex
0:05:17
Right, and the process is clearly defined, so it just, it makes sense that it just all lines up

Jess
0:05:20
that way. Exactly, for those of us that have a sales process that's not so linear, that can jump around a little bit, it can be hard to dictate exactly what you should be doing at every stage, where things fall. It can be really challenging to make the HubSpot pipeline work for every single business scenario, but there are workarounds and there are ways to do it.

Jess
0:05:38
If you're in that first category where you follow that linear process for so long, you could actually have your sales reps skipping steps unintentionally. And you can have them just kind of moving a deal, oh, instead of one lane over until the next stage of your sales process, maybe they slip and make it two stages over. And that may seem like a small insignificant error, but that can have big consequences if it happens on a semi-regular basis, if folks aren't following that linear process because then the data becomes questionable. If we want to see how often are we closing a deal from the demo stage to a close one

Jess
0:06:14
stage, with HubSpot we can actually get that exact closing ratio.

Alex
0:06:19
That timeline, so you know from start to stop how long it takes to convert.

Jess
0:06:23
Yes. How long and how likely are you to close a deal? Say you're trying to do some backwards funnel math and you want to know how many demos do I need to book this month in order to have a successful month where I'm in the black. If you have those ratios down right, you can say, oh, I booked a demo this week.

Jess
0:06:40
I have a 50% chance of something making it from demo to closed one. I know that if I get them on the call and I can show them my process or my product or my service and we can actually go through the demo exercise, and I have a 50% likelihood to close because that is what the data tells me. That makes sense.

Alex
0:06:57
Yeah, that makes total sense. Total sense.

Jess
0:06:59
But Alex, what happens if your sales reps are skipping the demo stage 95% of the time?

Alex
0:07:06
You don't have accurate data. You don't know how long it takes, and then you can't make accurate decisions based upon

Alex

0:07:10 the data.

Jess
0:07:11
Exactly. So if you're doing this backwards funnel math to say, hey, it looks like for every deal that gets into that demo completed stage, 50% of the time that turns into closed one business. That assumption is only valid if you know that every single deal that makes it through your pipeline at some point lands in that demo completed stage. If you're skipping steps, then you don't know if that data is accurate. Then you don't know if you need 100 demos or 500 demos to hit your sales goals this quarter.

Jess
0:07:44
So the only way we can make really strong business decisions is if we have really strong data. The only way that we can avoid those unforced errors is if we really work with both our sales team to create strong processes that they follow on a consistent basis and with the tool itself to provide some of those structures some of those guardrails think of think of when you go bowling there's always that one person that needs the bumper lanes yeah and I'm not saying that there's any shame in going

Jess
0:08:16
bowling with the bumper lanes on hey I use it sometimes it's fun so I know I just want to let loose exactly yeah have a few beers relax many times you can

Alex
0:08:24
hand off the bumpers and do some trick shots or whatever.

Alex
0:08:27
Yeah, I get what you're saying.

Jess
0:08:28
Exactly, but no one wants to get in trouble. You don't want to be like bowling in someone else's lane. You want to make sure that you are consistently doing the right things every time. And one way to do that is by creating deal pipeline rules to make sure that people stay within those bumper lanes. So now you can limit deal creation to a single stage so that every single time a rep creates a deal, they're not skipping to the end of the process to say, oh, I sent out a contract yesterday.

Jess
0:08:52
I'm going to skip to stage seven, where we send out our contracts. And look, my closing ratio is so darn high. I never lose a deal, because every single time I enter something in the database, it's already closed one.

Alex
0:09:04
Right. Right. So you just sparked something with what you just said to me. So you always want to look good. You always want to be performing at your highest. But as a business leader, or if you're running your HubSpot portal, where do you set those standards so you know that people aren't

cheating the system or trying to skew the numbers where like,

Alex
0:09:20
oh, I skipped a few steps and now look, my close rate is, I don't know, 20% higher than it really should be because they're not reporting correctly. Exactly. You don't know who is your top performing sales rep

Jess
0:09:30
if Suzy is constantly only reporting on deals, but she's winning. Yeah. If she's DJ Khaled and all she does is win, you got to start to suspect that data might not be 100% accurate. So I think we have to look at how can we set up some of these deal pipeline rules. So like I said, limit deal creation to a single stage. You have to start at the beginning of the process. It has to be an accurate representation of going through every single step of the process. You can also restrict deals from moving and skipping stages like we were just talking about with the demo completed step.

Jess
0:10:04
You can't skip a step. You have to go from step one to step two to step three. And even if you're just briefly in that stage before moving on to the next, you're still forcing the sales reps to follow a consistent process so that the data, the foundation of your organization is strong, it's sturdy,

Jess
0:10:21
and you can make really great data-driven decisions as a result. You can also do things like restricting deals from moving backwards because maybe it doesn't make sense for your business to move backwards and forwards within deal stages. You can also control editing access. So maybe once we reach a certain stage, we don't want the BDR to be editing any sort of details. We want the closer or that final account executive to only have control of the deal at that process. But either way, there are plenty of pipeline rules

Jess
0:10:48
that you could go into your HubSpot portal today, right now, and set up within seconds to start to shore up that structure, to start to encourage that data integrity so that when you run these reports, you have total confidence that the information that you're seeing is accurate and it's an accurate picture of what's actually going on with your Salesforce.

Alex
0:11:09
It sounds like a great new advancement with the tools that are available and that you can leverage this because data is king, we know that, data is queen, whatever we want to call it, right? Data is the most important piece and you can't make informed decisions without real data. And it goes back to the principles of the ask and answer, we're like, you have to be honest and to build trust, that's how you do it, you have to keep it

Jess
0:11:30
real. Yeah. I mean, like I said, there's so many different ways that sales reps can either misrepresent their stats, but we're not going to make those assumptions that everyone out there is just trying to juice the stats to make themselves look great. Sometimes it's just honest human error and if we can reduce that level of human error, that's how we get better, that's how we understand

our data in a more precise way and that's how we really make those amazing data-driven decisions that can help push our business

Alex 0:11:58 forward.

Jess
0:11:59
So in that same vein, the second item that I wanted to bring forward is this tiny little update that I have been begging and praying for for probably a year now. I actually went inbound last fall and I met with the product team and I said, when are you going to give me this thing? And they're like, it's coming, Jess, it's coming. Let the crazy redhead slowly back out of the room. We promise it's coming.

Alex
0:12:23
You've been anxiously waiting.

Jess
0:12:24
I have been. This has been on the top of my wish list for a

Alex
0:12:27
while. I'm on that GMIC. What are we talking about here? What is this? It's not

Jess
0:12:30
gonna sound that exciting. None of the product updates this month are actually that exciting on paper, but the application is where they come in handy. So this is when you can report and analyze on playbook usage in your portal. So Alex, you might be thinking, what the heck is a playbook? A playbook is simply a tool in HubSpot that allows you to structure either outreach via customer service or via BDR outreach or sales rep outreach, and it gives you the ability to coach your new BDRs or new customer service reps on exactly what the script should look like when you're reaching out to these folks, what are the key pieces of information you're looking for on that Explorer call or

Jess
0:13:10
that Discovery call, how should you structure your notes for when that call is completed? And how should you make sure that the right information is being input back into the CRM because we know data is king and we have to make sure that if we are following the stages of our sales process, that the right information is being fed back into the machine. Because if we have flawlessly executed on our existing sales process, but we don't actually put it into the CRM to tell the other folks that it happened.

Jess
0:13:39
Did it actually happen?

Alex 0:13:40 No.

Jess
0:13:41
If a tree falls in the woods, no one hears it.

Jess
0:13:44
Does it happen?

Alex
0:13:45
I don't know.

Alex
0:13:46
That's an age-old question, right?

Alex 0:13:47 Exactly.

Jess
0:13:48
If a sales rep has a perfect sales call, but they don't log it in the CRM, my point of contention is that it didn't happen.

Alex
0:13:55
Yeah, it didn't happen. And that goes back to what you're saying about creating that consistency and creating those habits, those good habits, that structure.

Jess
0:14:02
Exactly, exactly. So, Playbooks, a really great tool, has been for a very long time, and I wanted to really leverage them with some of these larger sales teams that I work with. Because sometimes you have very important messages that you need to get out to your existing customer base, or you have to get them out to your existing prospect base.

Jess
0:14:22
Maybe there's a price increase that's coming. Maybe there's a new product offering, and you wanna make sure that all of your key customers know about this new product. So you tell your sales reps, here's how we're going to present this new product. Here are the key talking points that we want you to run through on your next customer check-in call. These are the types of questions we want you to ask on that call to make sure that the

Jess
0:14:43
right customer sentiment is being gathered. We want to make sure that this new product is being well received. And imagine you are a sales manager that is trying to corral 50 territory sales reps across all these United States.

Alex

0:14:57
That's not easy to do.

5 0:14:58 No.

Alex
0:14:58
That's a tough job.

Jess
0:14:59
And exactly. And every single one of those reps needs to have those key conversations with their customers about this brand new product update. One way to structure that outreach and to make sure that those reps have these sales enablement pieces in hand when they're having those conversations is to use a playbook to say,

Jess
0:15:16
hey Alex, this is what I want you to talk about, this is how I want you to say it, and I want you to make sure that you gather these pieces of information so we can then feed it back into that machine. Totally. Playbook works, but the one thing that playbooks were missing was an accountability structure. I could tell you to use the playbook, Alex, but then I would have to trust you and make sure that you actually log calls and actually log the playbook to say, yes, I did the thing.

Alex 0:15:41 Absolutely.

Jess
0:15:42
And I would be able to go into that individual deal or company record or customer record and see exactly, oh, okay, I see Alex logged this particular playbook on this record. Okay, he's used it at least once. I can see it with my own eyes. But I couldn't see in aggregate how many times did you log the playbook.

Alex 0:15:57 Oh, okay.

Jess
0:15:57
How many times have we actually gone through and leveraged this playbook with all of our key customers. Now, with Playbook Analytics, I can see a running list of how many times did Alex use this playbook to announce our new product to all of his key customers. I can see if Alex is doing his job because I want to trust you, Alex. I want to trust that you're gonna do the right thing.

Alex
0:16:17
I want you to trust me too, Jess.

Jess

0:16:18
I know, I know, but I trust the data, Alex.

Alex
0:16:21
You have to trust the data.

Jess
0:16:22
I have to trust the data. So I wanna make sure that you are using the tool correctly to make sure the data is getting into HubSpot. And if that's the case, a tool like Playbooks and being able to report and analyze on how Playbooks are being used can give that sales leader that confidence to say, yes, our new product updates have all been pushed out to our key customers. And we can say with confidence that everyone knows the new pricing structure, the new pricing strategy because I can see all those conversations logged in the tool in this particular structured way with these particular questions being asked, with this data being input back into the tool. All of that can now be tracked.

Jess
0:17:00
We can now have accountability. It's a beautiful thing.

Alex
0:17:02
It is a beautiful thing. It really is. And listen, I dabbled in sales in some previous engagements before I was here at Impact and perception is everything. Yes. So if you don't have a playbook, if you're rolling out a new tool, a new service item, a new product, whatever it is, if you don't have a playbook to play into that perception, that directly affects

Alex
0:17:19
how people look at the quality of the product. And they may love it, or if the delivery's wrong, they may hate it. So that really plays into your bottom line and how people interact with whatever the new thing is that you're rolling out. So it's critical to not only play into that perception, but then be able to report on that perception

Jess
0:17:35
and have real data to back it up. Consistency is key. We could work as sales reps for the same company, but if I have a certain style and approach and you have a certain style and approach, that's fine on a day-to-day basis. But when you have a really important message to get across to your customers that you cannot fudge the details on, that you need to get right, having that clearly defined in a playbook that really allows our reps to feel confident that they're giving the right information to the customer in the right moment.

Jess
0:18:05
That's how you enable them to sell their best. So we don't want to take that away. We just want to make sure that there's an accountability structure in there as well to make sure that the right message is being delivered to the right audience across the

Alex
0:18:16
board. Right. No, that's a good observation because everyone sells a little different and everyone is,

everyone's style is a little different. That's what makes us all unique and awesome, but you still want to try to create some of that consistency and having that playbook, those key pieces, whatever style you put on it, you still are hitting those same touch points.

Alex
0:18:31
So there's consistency across the board. And I think that's something that can be difficult to achieve if you don't have these things in place.

Jess
0:18:38
100%. It's all about, again, building that data integrity by creating these guardrails and putting the structure in place so that these simple mistakes don't happen anymore. So that is the goal of today's updates, is to show you how to create that structure for your own business so that you can have confidence

Jess
0:18:58
that when you see a 50% close rate on every deal that goes to demo, you can know that that's a real number that you can make business plans off of.

Alex
0:19:05
You said 50% close rate?

Jess 0:19:06 I mean.

Alex
0:19:07
That sounds, I'm sure we perked some ears up just hearing that 50% close rate.

Jess
0:19:11
I don't know what your close rate is, listener out there, but I'm sure that given the right HubSpot reporting and the right data, you too can find it in the tool. You just gotta make sure the data's correct.

Alex
0:19:20
So for business leaders, for sales managers, right, how do they go about implementing these guardrails, these strategies, these confines, so that their sales teams can still have their style, they can still bring their personality, while also bringing this consistency to get them to hopefully 50% close rates. That would be amazing.

Alex
0:19:39
How does one do that?

Jess
0:19:41
So if you're on Sales Hub Professional or Sales Hub Enterprise or Service Hub Professional or

Service Hub Enterprise, you already have access to the Playbooks tool. That has been around for a long time now. What's gonna be different is that when you go to Sales in the upper navigation and you navigate to Playbooks,

Jess
0:19:56
and then you'll finally see this Analyze tab that allows you to see all of these great reports. This will give you that accountability structure that you've been looking for to make sure that playbooks are being used in the right way in the right moment. In terms of using those deals pipeline rules, all you need to do is go into your settings

Jess
0:20:14
for the deal section, and now you'll be able to see when you're setting up the deal stages, there'll be a little tab that says pipeline rules, and it's honestly just a flip of a switch. You can fix this right now today just by going to your deal settings and turning some of these things on.

Alex
0:20:30
Thanks HubSpot. That sounds amazing. One click, click a button, turns it on, and now you have access to all this amazing information.

Jess
0:20:37
Well, your sales team then has to input the data.

Alex 0:20:39 Okay, fair.

Jess
0:20:40
Okay. And I would venture that you should probably tell your sales team that you're putting these rules in place. And so for those folks that have been kind of fudging the system, they're gonna get a rude awakening real quick. So maybe tell them ahead of time, like, hey, we're going to start limiting the fact

Jess
0:20:55
that you cannot skip stages anymore. You know, that's something you're going to see tomorrow, starting Monday. So definitely tell people ahead of time. People don't like when you change the rules on them without, you know, giving them a heads up. But these are subtle changes that most folks will already be on board with because they will already be following the right process. And for those that are occasionally screwing up or occasionally having these little missteps, this is going to be a way to guard against that.

Alex 0:21:23 I love it.

Jess
0:21:24
Yeah. So in terms of other things that got me really excited this month, there is... So I have warm

affection for my friends on the HubSpot e-commerce team. This is a new up and coming product group that they got a lot of love at Inbound because HubSpot finally allows you to process payments in HubSpot.

Alex
0:21:41
Yeah, this was a huge announcement.

Jess
0:21:42
Oh, gosh, yeah. It was a big deal. It still is a big deal. They just announced that you can now collect international payments. That's a huge deal. That's groundbreaking. But one of the things that I'm so, so, so excited about is that now, if you are already an e-commerce business that has been using a tool called Stripe to structure your payment processing.

Jess
0:22:03
You can actually connect your Stripe account to HubSpot so that you get the best of both worlds. Because before, you might have been saying to yourself, wow, I really like the idea of having all of my payment data tied into my customer data all in one tool. We talk about that all the time, that HubSpot can be our single source of truth. But the challenge is that if you already have

Jess
0:22:22
infrastructure built in another tool, that something as crucial as collecting payments for your organization, you might not want to tear down one house to rebuild it in another.

Alex
0:22:32
Right, and we know that two POS systems can be a dense landscape and a lot of companies struggle with that. It's like trying to find the right vendors that they trust and that they like and then integrating that with their CRM. There's layers to that and it can be expensive too.

Jess
0:22:47
It can be expensive. If you're paying for HubSpot, if you're using this tool already and you're also paying for a Stripe account, you can now integrate the tool together, which means that you can still collect payments through Stripe just the way that you have been doing so all along. There's no disruption to that process. What's new is that those payments will be recorded and recognized as HubSpot payments as well. That data will be integrated into the tool. That's great.

Jess
0:23:11
And for someone like, you know, our customers that really love seeing the ROI of their content, imagine being able to say, hey, this customer just signed up for a monthly subscription with us, and they are now paying us X amount per month. Let's go back into their HubSpot contact record to see what's the very first piece of content that they viewed that eventually led them to that journey to sign up and actually pay us real money. Before, it was just, well, we created this deal, we marked it as closed one, but

Jess
0:23:41
we just went through a lot of examples of how deal data, when entered incorrectly, can be very

misleading. But the money doesn't lie. If you have actual money tied back to a contact record, then you can know with full certainty exactly what is the ROI of that content because you can actually tie back that contact's first page scene, if it's a blog post on your website, if it's a video on a service page, you can tie back those activities and behaviors to the actual money that came through the door for your business. That's true ROI.

Alex
0:24:13
That's huge. And it's not just great for sales, it's great for your marketing team too because you're directing dollars to content. Exactly. Which sometimes can be really hard to do and people have a hard time navigating that scenario of like, I'm making content but we're not sure where the traffic is coming from and we don't have the data to back up so this really clearly defines those pieces so that you can track it and you can know how to lean

Jess
0:24:32
into more of that content to try to attract more people. Exactly Alex you understand now. I mean the money doesn't lie that is the big key takeaway if you can tie the content back to the money then it's really easy to see what you should be doubling down on.

Alex 0:24:47 Love it.

Alex
0:24:48
In my head I'm like, money, money, money, money.

Jess
0:24:50
Yeah, we had some DJ Khaled earlier, now we got money, money, money. We the best.

13
0:24:54
Yes, exactly.

Jess
0:24:55
And as a bonus, if you are, you know, again, if you have a Stripe account and you have a HubSpot account, there is really no downside to turning this integration on because it's really just getting all the information that you need into one tool. Totally.

Alex
0:25:08
Now, if you have Stripe and HubSpot, like what are you waiting for? What are you waiting for, exactly. I feel like, just push the button. Just do it.

Jess
0:25:12
Turn it on. See what the consequences are later. It's gonna be fine. The other thing that you can do though is then you have all of the power of HubSpot's automation at your fingertips to just super drive your results and make sure that you can actually trigger automations off of those payments.

Jess
0:25:30
So say you wanted to create a payment-based workflow to send your customers a survey 30 days after they make a purchase. You can do that and you can know with confidence this is the actual purchase date because now we have purchasing information directly in Hotspot.

4
0:25:43
How cool is that?

Jess
0:25:44
So it opens up a whole new world of possibilities that we can explore.

Alex
0:25:47
And it opens up a whole new level of customer service that you can provide as a business. That's concierge level service. It is. And it feels personal. It does. And that's what you want, that's how you build trust, right?

Jess
0:25:57
That's what it's all about.

Jess
0:25:58
Exactly, exactly.

4
0:26:00 Very cool.

Alex
0:26:01
So I'm still tracking, I'm following, like I'm picking up what you're putting down. This is really exciting. I'm sure if I went into HubSpot, I wouldn't be able to navigate this nearly as well as you, but I feel like...

Jess
0:26:09
You know, that's why you might need some HubSpot training. If you need some guidance on exactly how to navigate the tool, how to set some of the stuff up, we could sit down, maybe off camera, so that you don't embarrass by how much clicking around you have to actually do.

Alex
0:26:23
I'm definitely going to do books in time with you.

Jess
0:26:25
But we could work together. I can take anyone and make them a HubSpot guru. Just give them enough time.

Alex
0:26:30
And that goes for anybody out there watching or listening, too, Jess is amazing. So if you need help with consulting, advice, anything, reach out, don't hesitate.

Jess
0:26:37
I would say with confidence, most average schmios out there probably won't need as much time as Alex, but you know,

11
0:26:42
we'll get them there.

Alex
0:26:43
Thanks, I love you too.

Alex
0:26:45
All right, so what else have we got on the docket?

Alex
0:26:46
What else is exciting?

Alex
0:26:47
What's on the top of the list for you for this new update?

Jess
0:26:52
I mean, like I said, I was so gosh darn excited about the fact that you can now see Playbook Analytics. Like, this was on my wish list for so long. And they finally gave it to me, but I got one more wish. I really want to see Playbooks available on the HubSpot mobile app. Because in that example that I was just talking about with those territory reps, I love those sales reps

Jess
0:27:13
that are constantly trying to keep their CRM up to date while they're out on the road

Alex
0:27:16
Yeah boots on the ground exactly It's hard to do that when you're in certain territories and there's Wi-Fi issues and you're on your tablet You're on your phone It could be it's just another reason to not do it, right exactly

Jess
0:27:26
If you got to wait until the year back at your home base at the end of the week Then you got to enter in all that data like that is a big time suck And I want my sales reps to be more efficient than that so if the amazing mobile app could somehow include playbooks in the near future stages, I wanna be notified. I wanna see what stage it's moving into and some of these key properties. Okay, check, I

can do that.

Jess
0:27:48
I like what you said though, not to interrupt,

Alex
0:27:49
but you're trying to really dig deep into the why. So it's not just like, sure, we'll figure this out. It's like, wait, let's get a deeper understanding of what you're trying to accomplish.

Jess
0:27:57
To all of my HubSpot admins out there, never fail to ask the follow-up question. You will save so much time with revisions and to constantly try to figure out what's the next best thing. If you just ask that one tiny little question up front, why are we doing this? What do you want?

Alex
0:28:14
That's good advice.

Jess
0:28:15
And if you ask that question up front, you can get to the bigger vision, that bigger picture. Right, so you did that.

Alex
0:28:20
Yeah, exactly.

Alex
0:28:21
What ended up being the bigger, what was the why behind it?

Jess
0:28:23
The why is that the sales team was changing, the sales process was changing, we really needed to have a pulse from a leadership perspective and as middle managers on exactly what deals were in our pipeline, what deals were getting movement and moving in the right direction, which deals had new next steps outlined or identified,

Jess
0:28:43
you know, when was that next call booked or when was that priority updated so that we can really keep a pulse on exactly what's moving and shaking in our pipeline. For folks that live and breathe in the pipeline every single day, the sales reps, they know what's moving and shaking. The challenge is to get that information out of their head and into a digestible format for sales leaders or anyone on the leadership team that might be busy going in between meetings.

Jess
0:29:07
But now, if you create a continuous activity stream in a sales Slack channel where it's just a constant sort of slacking or pinging or updating, saying, okay, this deal moved this stage. You're

essentially taking all the actions that a rep has done throughout the day and creating a little notification with key pieces of information that is fed into Slack every single time. And that creates that continuous activity feed so that if my CEO is running in and out between meetings and he, at the end of the day, wants to see, okay, what movement do we have,

Jess
0:29:38
he can go to that Slack stream and say, okay, this is what's happened.

Alex
0:29:41
Here's the snapshot.

Jess 0:29:42 Exactly.

Alex
0:29:43
The TLDR, the quick stuff, so that you don't have to get all the way into the weeds on it.

Jess
0:29:46
It's the same thing as scrolling through updates on any of your favorite social media channels. You want to see who's posted Instagram photos this week to see what's going on in people's lives. Same concept, very different channel.

Alex
0:30:00
It's like the highlights you want the highlight reel and in you do care But you don't need to know every facet of every single deal. You just need to get that quick snapshot So you're plugged in and you know enough and if you need to learn more you can and if not

Jess
0:30:12
You know exactly where you stand and one of the things I love about the slack integration to HubSpot is that it always includes A deal link to say okay, you saw this snapshot Do you want to jump into the deal to see the full context of the picture? You click on a link takes you exactly to that deal nice You can learn more so it really does create that the best of both worlds. You have that snapshot view, you have that timeline that's constantly being updated with those new activities that, you know, leadership has that pulse on the situation,

Jess
0:30:35
but at any point if they see something a little bit off or they see something that's exciting, that's moving in the right direction that they want to dig into, they can instantly go to that deal and see that information

9
0:30:43
and help us out.

Alex

0:30:44
I love it, that's really cool. I love that you use this as an example too, because we're not different than any other business out there, we also have issues and things that we have to learn from and grow from and changes that we have to implement and that's just part of scaling and growing a business. It's just part of the game. And we're definitely not, just because we're really tight

Alex
0:31:02
with HubSpot, we have great connections with HubSpot, we still are learning and growing too, like everybody else.

Jess
0:31:06
You always have to be challenging yourself to try something new or to meet the needs of the moment. So just never settle for, hey, this is how we've always done it, let's try this the same way again. Ask if something that you need is really worth it to build and to create a system for, and usually there's a way to do it in HubSpot if you try hard enough.

Jess
0:31:23
You just gotta find someone who likes trying things, and I like trying things.

Alex
0:31:26
Yeah, I think I know somebody that does that

8
0:31:28
right over here sitting across from me.

Jess
0:31:29
Yeah, he likes to tinker.

Alex
0:31:30
Yeah, just a little bit.

Jess 0:31:30
A little bit.

Alex
0:31:31
A little tinker.

Alex
0:31:32
So we've covered a lot of ground, a lot of really great updates. Any final thoughts, anything that everyone else that's listening needs to know about, or something that is really top of mind for you before we wrap up today?

Jess

0:31:42
I think the biggest thing top of mind is that HubSpot is going through a bunch of pricing changes that's definitely gonna make a splash in the marketplace. So more of these changes will come into effect in early March, so depending on when you're listening to this, you might already know more than I do at this point, but the key thing to know is that HubSpot is moving to a seats-based pricing model. And this is only for net new customers that are buying HubSpot for the first time. So

Jess
0:32:11
if you are an existing HubSpot customer, don't worry, relax, this one's not for you.

Alex
0:32:16
You're an OG. You get grandfathered in.

Jess
0:32:18
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't worry. Not going to affect you right now.

Alex
0:32:21
So net new only.

Jess
0:32:22
Net new only, but starting in March when you go to purchase HubSpot, it will be a simple conversation of how many folks need to be in the tool, what do they need to do in that tool, what is their role, their function, what access do they need, what different tools do they need access to and you're going to switch to this seat based pricing model. Now one of the really cool things coming out about the seat space approach is that there are no more seat minimums based on your tier. In the past, if I had a really amazing sales team that was coming off a sales force and needed a bunch of advanced functionality and they wanted to move to HubSpot, they might be forced into

Jess
0:32:57
Sales Hub Enterprise because they needed that level of functionality. But Sales Hub Enterprise in the past historically has come with 10 sales seats. Now this is a really tiny team that only maybe needs four or five, but they're gonna have to pay for those additional seats because that's how it was packaged in the past. Moving forward, you can pay for as many seats as you need. So just because you hear a seat space pricing model doesn't necessarily mean you're gonna pay more or you're gonna pay less.

Jess
0:33:23
You're just gonna buy the right amount of HubSpot for you and adjust accordingly. So I'm really excited to see how this can help my bigger customers, my smaller customers. I think it's gonna be a really interesting shift that's gonna allow for a better apples to apples comparison because a lot of the other CRMs in this space have already been doing seats-based pricing models.

Jess
0:33:41
So when you wanted to try to compare HubSpot to, say, a Salesforce or another tool, it's honestly more confusing because Salesforce was structuring their pricing in one way. HubSpot was doing it a

completely different way. So now it'll be a little bit easier to make a direct comparison. And you can buy the best tool and in the best level that makes sense for you.

Alex
0:33:59
And for whatever size business you may be in or what size sales team you have.

Jess
0:34:02
So it makes more sense.

Alex 0:34:03
I love that.

5
0:34:04 That's great.

4
0:34:05 Very cool.

Alex
0:34:06
Well, Jess, we covered a lot of ground. I really appreciate all your insights. I feel like I'm going to have to hit you up after this to show me some of these tools and some of these new things. I need your help for sure. The HubSpot noob over here. I'm the video guy.

Alex
0:34:17
You know that.

Jess
0:34:18
I know. I ask you video questions. You ask me HubSpot questions. This is the symbiotic relationship that we've built over years. So we can keep that relationship going strong.

Alex
0:34:26
Absolutely. Jess, I love having you on the show. Thanks for being here. For everyone listening and watching that maybe have more follow-up questions or want to dig a little bit deeper, how can they get in touch with you to follow up and learn more?

Jess
0:34:35
I mean, you can always book time with me. I'm usually available on the Impact website, so you can reach out on the HubSpot mastery section. There's a little link at the bottom to book a time with a coach. Hey, guess what? I'm usually that coach. So you can reach out to me that way. I'm also on LinkedIn, so you can check out

Jess 0:34:50

what we've been working on and posting on around there. But in general, if you have questions, if you wanna talk HubSpot, I'm always down for a nerdy HubSpot conversation, so reach out.

Alex
0:35:00
Jess, thank you for your time. Everyone out there watching and listening, thank you for tuning into the Endless Customers Podcast. We'll see you on the next episode. We'll see you on the next episode.

Alex 0:35:07 Bye!

Transcribed with Cockatoo