Before using HubSpot CRM, Josh Harcus, Hüify’s Founding Principal was using what he called a ‘glorified spreadsheet’ to manage and track all of his business contacts. Although he tried lots of tricks like colour-coding and adding filters to make it more effective, there were many times a lead would fall through the cracks.
Josh explained how easy it was to miss adding notes or a follow-up date after meeting with a prospect. As a result, people were left hanging and would never get the information they were promised. Josh had a stark realization one day; the company he worked so hard to build was being rude to its customers and he was losing fans before he even got the chance to work with them. Something needed to change.
Josh began researching the CRM systems offered from companies like Salesforce and Base CRM, but when he came across HubSpot CRM he said it was the answer to everything he wanted. The system was simple and easy-to-use but had all the functionality he needed to manage and grow his business.
However, Josh confesses that in the first year of using HubSpot CRM, even though they were no longer forgetting to follow-up with their leads, they were still selling in a traditional way and had no real sales process in place. It wasn’t until January 2015, when they implemented an inbound sales process that the results really started to happen.
Becoming a Real AgencyJosh says it was at this point that the company took a huge leap forward and finally started acting like an agency. Once they had a solid sales process in place, they realized they now had a predictable pipeline for the first time. They were able to completely eliminate one-off projects and rely solely on their retainer-based business which meant they could prioritize their most profitable clients.
Within one year, Josh has been able to make five new hires. Now he doesn’t need to be involved in every activity and instead can act like a business owner, overseeing strategy and paving the road ahead for his agency. Because of the ease of use of the system he is quickly able to train new hires on the system and process, plus he has the visibility he needs to track progress and activity within HubSpot CRM without the need to micro-manage the team.
Hüify has completely changed its approach to sales. They have put a strategy in place that enables them to target leads who are already self-educated and in the consideration or decision stage of the buyer’s journey. Instead of spending marketing budget attending events or hosting information sessions, they began creating content that attracted their buyer personas at the consideration or decision stage, which now provides the sales team with a much more qualified lead further along in the buying cycle.
In fact, the majority of their sales meetings have been scheduled by the leads themselves using the Meetings app within HubSpot Sales. By including a “schedule time to talk with me” link in their email signature, the prospect is able to find a time that works for both parties and schedule a 15, 30, or 60 minute slot to talk to the rep about their needs. Josh says the team is absolutely hooked on it and it saves them about 20 hours every month on scheduling appointments.
As a result of using these sales tools, they have been able to reduce their sales cycle from 9 months to just 4 weeks! They have also been able to drastically reduce their CAC (cost to acquire a customer).