Prior to HubSpot, Commission Factory used a CRM tool called Close, which was more basic in nature than HubSpot and offered little in the way of marketing automation capabilities for their team. Along with this, Commission Factory had no dedicated marketing resource, with a budget that was focused primarily on trade shows and some search engine marketing. “We used a more basic CRM called ‘Close’, which had very little in the way of marketing or automaton capabilities. In terms of marketing, we had no dedicated resource and the budget focused mainly on trade shows and some SEM.”
The company recognised that in order to move forward and continue growing, they needed an all-in-one platform that could bolster their existing sales efforts in terms of data capture and optimisation, while also providing a better level of support for their marketing needs. This was the catalyst that started their search for the right solution. “We were looking for a CRM that would help us to continue capturing sales data effectively, while also helping with our marketing efforts as well.”
The search for an all-in-one solution
During their search, Commission Factory had a specific set of needs that they wanted the solution to satisfy. These spanned across both sales and marketing, and included the ability to engage large amounts of contacts in a personal way rather than just one-to-one, and automate their sales activities to save time and streamline processes. “We wanted the ability to market to large amounts of existing, new or lost customers. From a sales perspective, we liked the additional functionality of things like Calendars, Sequences etc. Ultimately, we wanted to increase the automation of our sales efforts and utilise a more robust marketing platform.”
While they had looked into using other tools such as Salesforce, or staying with Close, Commission Factory opted for HubSpot’s all-in-one platform, that checked all the boxes for their sales and marketing needs. “We originally looked at Salesforce and also considered staying with Close. However, the automation options for both sales and marketing made HubSpot the best solution for what we needed at the time.”
A well-oiled sales and marketing machineAfter choosing to go with HubSpot, Commission Factory began the onboarding process, and set about getting everyone up to speed with HubSpot’s tools so they could hit the ground running. “The onboarding process seemed about as hassle-free as you could expect for a company with thousands of leads that needed to be transferred. We leaned on our Account Manager and utilised the HubSpot Academy to get up to speed, and HubSpot’s support section is also excellent. The ongoing service has also been outstanding.”
Commission Factory use their suite of Marketing, Sales and Service Hub Enterprise tools in a variety of ways. They use Sequences, Lists and Workflows to automate prospecting, as well as the Meetings function to seamlessly manage calendars. Along with these, Trent mentioned that the Target Accounts tool will be very valuable for his team in the future. “Sequences really speeds up our prospecting and follow-up. Target Accounts, I can see becoming very valuable moving forward in our salespeople staying on top of their important accounts. We also use some of the features in tandem with each other, such as Workflows, which fit in around some of our other processes.”
Trent is also looking forward to sinking his teeth into more Sales Hub Enterprise features, particularly the robust reporting capabilities that will help him build a more complete picture from a management perspective. “Robust reporting is always great to have from a management point of view. I use the Reporting tool for my departmental reporting, as well as with individuals for coaching, and will continue to expand my use of this.”
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