Frankenstein Tech Stack
When Botkeeper closed its Series A financing, its sales leadership team was ready to put more resources into sales—so they implemented a new CRM solution.
Unfortunately, problems with that solution soon emerged, forcing the team to add additional tools, which led to an increasingly unruly tech stack.
“We had Salesloft, SurveyMonkey, Jira, HelloSign, and Calendly in addition to our CRM,” says Jessica Veiga, CMO at Botkeeper. “Within a very short amount of time, we had a whole Frankenstein thing going on.”
3 Admins Needed to Manage
It quickly became apparent that the sales team would need dedicated internal support to manage all these tools—and the CRM in particular.
They started by hiring one admin and then had to add two more.
Because every update and change had to go through the admins, it created a development bottleneck.
“It took eons to get things done,” says Jessica.
Disconnect Between Sales and Marketing
The Frankensteined tech stack also contributed to the growing disconnect between sales and marketing.
“I had zero visibility into how our marketing was impacting our sales pipeline for the longest time,” says Jessica.
Jessica knew that marketing was generating leads, but the sales team couldn’t see or work those leads in its CRM.
“Marketing was essentially driving leads into a brick wall,” says Jessica. “Sales wasn’t working them because they weren’t seeing them.”
Consolidating on the HubSpot CRM Platform
Eventually, the sales leadership team decided the situation was untenable.
“We looked at what we were paying for the CRM software, the additional tools, the admins and consultants, and it was hundreds of thousands of dollars,” says Jessica.
Just as importantly, the sales leadership team saw the value in implementing a solution that would align sales, marketing, and service on one platform.
Thus, the team decided to move forward with the HubSpot CRM Platform, implementing Sales Hub, Marketing Hub, Service Hub, CMS Hub, and Operations Hub.
There was only one catch: the existing CRM contract was due to renew in three months—so they’d have to make the switch fast.
2-Month Implementation
Thanks to HubSpot CRM’s easy-to-use interface, Botkeeper successfully removed its existing CRM from four departments—sales, marketing, business development, and customer success—and implemented the HubSpot CRM platform before the old contract expired. In total, they migrated 300+ people, including 60+ sales users.
“In just two months, we undid everything and created it properly in HubSpot, which included internal training and replacing third-party tools with native HubSpot applications,” says Jessica. “We then used the third month for some residual tweaks.”
One Central Contact Record
With the HubSpot CRM Platform, sales, marketing, and service information is all available in one place. Sales reps can see prior interactions with marketing, and vice versa, all on the contact record.
“Reps can see a contact’s prior engagement with us, whether that’s visiting our website or downloading a form,” says Jessica. “It’s valuable intel they can use for better conversations with our leads and customers.”
Closed-Loop Reporting
With sales and marketing on the same platform, Botkeeper benefits from closed-loop reporting, which allows marketing to evaluate lead sources and focus on the best ones.
“We can pull data on contacts, companies, website content, in-person events, and more, and tie that data to deals created and closed—all without leaving HubSpot,” says Jessica.
Self-Serve Reporting
Anyone at Botkeeper with authorization can use HubSpot’s closed-loop reporting without needing admin help, from sales reps to marketing managers to C-Suite leaders.
“We monitor churn, lead acquisition, pipelines, and performance. We use it to compile data for board meetings and then slice and dice it,” says Jessica. “I’m constantly spinning up new reports to answer our questions.”
Even individual sales reps can create their own custom reports.
“If I’m a rep and want to know how I’m doing against my past performance or the team as a whole, I can easily set that up on my dashboard,” says Jessica.
Lead Attribution with Custom Objects
One of Jessica’s favorite reports forecasts leads from events and sponsorships.
Botkeeper uses custom objects and programmable automation in Operations Hub to make the data associations necessary to attribute leads to different events. Botkeeper's custom coded workflows make it straightforward to execute complex logic.
Jessica creates a custom object for every event and then monitors that event as if it's a deal in the pipeline. She can then attribute leads to those events and even forecast leads for similar events.
“I can look months ahead and know when we can expect a pop of leads from different events—and know what that will mean for opportunities and deal creation.” says Jessica.
Information for Decision Making
With this closed-loop, flexible reporting, Botkeeper has the intel it needs to make informed decisions.
Jessica explains:
“We can forecast lead flow and calculate what that will mean for Q1 of the following year, for example. Do we need to add on another event or run a new campaign in February? Will we have a gap in May? Do we need to hire more staff? If so, when? In short, the information we get from the HubSpot CRM Platform touches every aspect of our business.”
Execute on Ideas in Real Time
Just as importantly for Jessica, she can execute on ideas in real-time without needing to rely on an administrator.
“Before, rolling up fields and associating fields would have had to go through an admin— the only person with the keys to the castle,” says Jessica. “Now, I can experiment and execute on ideas myself in real-time and take out the middleman.”
Personalized Web Experience
Botkeeper’s website is hosted on HubSpot’s CMS Hub, which allows Jessica and her team to deliver personalized experiences to web visitors.
“I can deliver a custom experience to every person with whatever variations I want in any way I want,” says Jessica. “It’s epic.”
CMS Hub also provides her team with valuable intel.
“My reps can see if a lead is on our site right now or if they’ve just filled out a form. It gives us the ability to take the most appropriate action,” says Jessica.
Plus, account reps and business development reps can slice, dice, and filter their views of web visitor behavior to get the insights they need.
Excellent Communication and Support
Botkeeper’s sales, marketing, and service teams have been thrilled with the level of support they’ve received from HubSpot.
Jessica likes having 24/7 chat support in particular.
“I can chat with them at 2:00 a.m. and get a reply,” says Jessica. “They’ve gone above and beyond many, many times.”
One time, Jessica and a HubSpot support rep hit a wall with an issue. The HubSpot rep championed the issue internally to find a solution and kept Jessica informed at every juncture.
“He matched my pace and urgency, and followed up with me throughout the day. It allowed me to keep my team informed, which gave them peace of mind,” says Jessica. “The level of communication was incredible.”
Saving $100Ks Every Year
Since removing its old CRM and consolidating sales, marketing, and service on the HubSpot CRM Platform, Botkeeper is saving hundreds of thousands of dollars every year in subscription costs, outside consultants, and internal admins.
The three FTEs that Botkeeper had to hire to support its old CRM have been deployed to other important tasks.
“We save massive amounts of time in no longer having to fix data, reconcile data, and comb through the nonsense,” says Jessica.
Jessica wholeheartedly recommends the HubSpot CRM Platform to others who want new insights with closed-loop reporting.
“Rip off the bandaid and get what you need,” says Jessica, “because you can make the change in weeks, not years.”
-1.png)
.png)