Last week, we had the privilege of attending a HubSpot User Group event. Below are five fun facts from the Hubspot Group Event with speaker Mark Roberge, CRO of HubSpot.
1. It’s not about sales, it’s about consultation.
The digital landscape is changing how we do business. It’s not a surprise, it’s just fact. If you want your business to be successful, you need to train your sales team to handle this evolution appropriately. By the time a potential customer reaches someone from your sales team, it’s likely that they have already done research on your product (via reviews and your website). The next step is to be consultative and helpful, not try to sell, sell, sell. Maybe provide information on other interesting aspects of your product that aren’t as obvious to someone who perused the website.
2. Content should be as fresh as produce from a farmers market.
Google is the master of rules for getting your site (and business) found online. The one thing that the Google bots find extremely delicious: fresh content. Companies not only have to toot their horns about how great their company and product is, but also show they are thought leaders in their field. For example, it’s not good enough to just sell cookware, you have to explain your deep passion for cooking products and how these pans are applicable to optimize every users’ cooking experience, with the engineering influenced by famous chefs like… Show that your company is not only passionate about the product, but also that the people working there really know everything there is to know about cookware.
3. People that can write are available…and everywhere!
Unfortunately for journalists, newspapers and magazines are not “coming up fast” or “in-demand of hundreds of writers” anymore. However, this is an excellent group of people that businesses looking for bloggers and social media writers can go after. Clearly, they have the caliber to write articulately and draw in your market. It’s about harnessing that talent, finding someone who can write passionately, and then drawing in your potential clients with this juicy content. Then, item number two should be just a social post away…
4. Potential clients love free stuff.
This really goes for anyone. Who doesn’t love free stuff? Your clients are no different. If you offer free white papers or product/service demos, people will come running. Now, to capture leads, make sure you have forms and landing pages in place for people to access that juicy content or demos. Bada boom bada bing! You’ve created a warm lead list for your sales team with people that have already shown interest in whatever it is you do (which means a shorter sales process for your team!).
5. Hiring: learn from your successes and mistakes.
This one isn’t much of a surprise, but definitely an important concept to remember. If you have excellent people on your team, think back to what it is that got them hired in the first place. What kind of personality traits did they have? What kind of experience did they have before working for you? An interesting fact about HubSpot was that the top two traits of successful sales people Mark Roberge hired was 1. Coachability and 2. Curiosity. Clearly, everyone will be looking for different traits unique to their industry and company, but keep track of the successes and some of the mistakes of previous hires.
