Lead Data Divided Between Two Systems
Novus’ Marketing Manager, Nathan Innis, was well aware that having sales and marketing on two different platforms was leading to inefficiencies and incomplete information.
The sales team would have to search both Salesforce CRM and its marketing platform to get the full picture of a lead. The process was so taxing, sales reps would often circumvent it, leading them to pursue leads with only partial information and not updating their CRM with reliable data.
“If you wanted to see how often a lead visited our website, opened our emails, or read our blog posts, you had to jump from one system to the other,” says Nathan. This time-sucking process was often ignored by reps.”
Nathan also had reservations about the Salesforce interface’s ease of use, and the amount of time it took new reps to train and drive usage.
Nathan and his team decided it was time to examine how they were using the platform more closely.
Nathan and his team conducted an internal audit and realized they weren’t getting full value out of their Salesforce package.
“We simply weren’t using the tool and its capabilities effectively,” says Nathan. “It just didn’t make sense to stay with it.”
Therefore, Nathan and his team started looking at other options, intending to unite sales and marketing onto one platform.
With HubSpot recently expanding the capabilities of Sales Hub, it didn’t take long for Nathan and his team to decide to move to HubSpot.
Uniting Sales and Marketing Onto One Platform with HubSpot
At first, Nathan worried the sales team would be reluctant to switch from Salesforce, but as soon as they started using HubSpot, they were sold.
“People are often resistant to change,” says Nathan. “But the difference between Salesforce and HubSpot is night and day. It’s like switching from Windows 95 to the modern era.”
In fact, Nathan didn’t hear any real complaints from the sales team, which he considered a home run. Everyone started using it without hesitation, aided by HubSpot’s included 24/7 support and free HubSpot Academy if needed.
Using built-in Sales Engagement tools to streamline personalized outreach
Novus is using sequences to queue up automated sales emails in series and set follow up tasks to ensure timely outreach. They also use templates to speed up the outreach process even further.
Reps can quickly personalize each email before sending by drawing details from the CRM, such as the last marketing email opened or last website activity. They can also use segmented marketing lists.
"The sales team can log in to HubSpot and see all the information all in one place,” says Nathan. “They can conduct their next move, right there, inside of HubSpot, or have that page open when emailing leads. It’s our source of truth for contacts, companies, and deals."
Using robust reporting and analytics to get full visibility into the health of their business
Sales managers are using their reporting dashboard to set up and run reports for weekly sales meetings. They’re also using them to monitor sales productivity.
“The sales team logs all their meetings, calls and emails in one place,” says Nathan. “So it gives us a full-funnel view of every stage of the pipeline.”
Novus’ CEO, Andrea Gentilini, is such a fan of HubSpot reporting, he often uses it as inspiration for Novus’ own reporting tools.
“HubSpot has figured out how to make data digestible to a wide audience,” says Nathan. “It sets a great example for us and other companies.”
Connecting their business-critical tools to HubSpot
Novus is a big user of applications, so Nathan was relieved when he saw HubSpot’s long list of integrations and its flexible API.
Today, Novus is using integrations with Databox, Segment and Zapier, for greater insights without the hassle of additional logins.
Having an expert account manager who’s always by their side
Nathan is also happy to have a dedicated account manager to help with questions and keep his team up to date on the latest HubSpot products and features.
“Compared to a lot of products out there, we’ve found HubSpot to be very responsive and helpful,” says Nathan.
Sales and Marketing Unify Around Shared Objectives
Having sales and marketing on the same platform is improving collaboration between sales and marketing, unifying them around shared objectives.
“Today, sales and marketing are much more aware of what the other side is doing,” says Nathan. “It’s helping us collaborate and complement each other seamlessly and more effectively.”
Also, Novus’ marketing team can deliver rich and tailored outreach to leads efficiently, with complete information at their fingertips.
As a bonus, Novus achieved an estimated 70% savings by switching from Salesforce to HubSpot CRM.
Nathan continues to find opportunities to save by unsubscribing from third-party services he no longer needs thanks to his HubSpot tools. Most recently, he removed Sprout Social, which he was using to schedule social media posts.
Nathan couldn’t be happier with the decision to put sales and marketing onto one platform.
“HubSpot has carefully thought through the entire sales and marketing experience,” says Nathan. “The efficiency and synergies that come from managing them all in one space is really powerful.”