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Scrambling to Find Customer Information With Every New Sales Rep
As the leader in K-12 fundraising, Snap! Raise depends on its institutional history and shared data to serve tens of thousands of clients and customers. But, prior to HubSpot, when turnover occurred in its remote sales workforce, new sales reps had to scramble to find key customer information and rebuild relationships if they had not been updated in real-time.
Snap! Raise’s remote sales team, including 85 sales reps and 10 sales managers, had developed their own methods of tracking customer and lead information, which meant that organizing, categorizing, and utilizing important customer information was a time-consuming, manual process.
“Agreements and other important documents often lived on paper in multiple areas,” says Meg Peterson, VP of Operations and Inside Sales at Snap! Raise. “We were overwhelmed with the volume of paper and needed a better way to organize and access it.”
Without a standardized process of sharing documentation across teams—and with the difficulties in updating and retrieving the history of customer interactions—Snap! Raise had to strike a balance between speed and accuracy in customer relationships.
Because data was inputted and evaluated by individual sales reps, new sales reps were often left with little context about customers and leads when they stepped into the role.
Meg explains:
“When sales reps left, much of the historic territory knowledge left with them if they didn’t update the database, which left new sales reps to start from scratch. They would have to walk in cold, shake the customer’s hand, and try to figure out where things were at.”
When the company launched, Snap! Raise implemented Salesforce for its key accounts team and had plans to roll it out more widely. But the team didn’t realize how much development work would be needed to roll Salesforce out to its remote sales team—or how complicated it would be to use.
“We weren’t ready to do an engineering round and build out Salesforce company-wide, which is usually the first step with them,” says Meg.
As a result, the remote sales team continued to use a variety of manual methods to manage sales information and contracts—and the Snap! Raise team started looking for a new solution.
They wanted a CRM platform that would be easy to use and customizable for its remote sales team. Furthermore, they wanted a platform that could go beyond sales to include marketing and customer service to align critical functions.
Snap! Raise soon landed on the HubSpot CRM platform, implementing Sales Hub, Marketing Hub, Service Hub, and CMS Hub.
Capturing Information While Selling Remotely
When Snap! Raise first rolled out the HubSpot CRM platform to its remote sales team, many reps were reluctant to adopt it. As is common, they wanted to stay with their own methods of managing leads and customers.
But as Snap! Raise continued to customize the HubSpot CRM platform and demonstrate how easy it is to use, they won over the sales reps.
Fortunately, by the time COVID-19 hit—and reps could no longer visit customers and leads in person—they were all avid users of the HubSpot CRM platform.
“Sales reps who were used to selling face-to-face are now at home, stuck in front of their computers,” says Meg. “They’re using HubSpot to reach out to customers and keep themselves organized.”
In this environment, Snap! Raise’s sales reps have a whole new appreciation for the HubSpot CRM platform—and couldn’t do without it.
“It’s one of those things where you don’t know you have a problem until you solve it,” says Meg. “Today, our sales reps rely on HubSpot to increase sales and find strategic opportunities to engage with our customers.”
One source of truth increases sales rep productivity
Today, Snap! Raise’s sales, marketing and customer service are all managed on the HubSpot CRM platform. All teams have access to centralized data, with customer agreements at their fingertips.
In fact, Snap! Raise has integrated the HubSpot CRM platform with SnapSign, so customers can sign agreements electronically.
“We can open up signed agreements at any time to review the terms,” says Meg. “Today, it’s a one-touch ticket to resolve these problems instead of lots of back and forth through email to try and sort things out.”
Now when new sales reps meet with customers and leads, they know the context of the relationship and aren’t walking in blind—and customers feel confident their needs are understood.
“New sales reps are set up for success because they know the context of the relationship before they walk in the door,” says Meg.
Having access to centralized data for customers and leads is also increasing sales rep productivity. Reps spend less time hunting for documents and getting up to speed on past customer interactions and more time selling.
More precise pipeline management
The HubSpot CRM platform is also helping Snap! Raise get more granular with deal management.
Today, Meg and her team have instituted multiple stages in their sales pipeline, which allows them to be more precise in their analysis and forecasting.
Meg explains:
“Since switching to HubSpot, we’re better able to forecast which deals are going to close. For example, we know that if a deal reaches the last stage in our sales pipeline, and meets certain parameters, it has a 92% chance of closing.”
Just as importantly, all of this data is readily available, so Meg can provide executives with real-time, accurate data without a lot of legwork.
Easy customization without a database admin
Snap! Raise is also able to customize the HubSpot CRM platform without hiring a database administrator.
“You can build HubSpot to be as simple or complex as you want,” says Meg. “We continue to iterate and integrate with other tools as we see how our teams are using the platform—and we have plans to take it even further.”
A built-in guide to best practices
Meg is also using the HubSpot CRM platform as a guide to improve Snap! Raises’ practices and processes.
“The HubSpot CRM isn’t just a platform for us,” says Meg. “It’s a guide to best practices so we can do things better and more efficiently.”
For example, the capabilities of the HubSpot CRM platform led Meg and her team to revamp their pipeline management process, using programmable automation and APIs to streamline processes, gain efficiencies and achieve cleaner data.
A true CRM partner
Meg has also been impressed by the support she’s received from her HubSpot account rep.
“My customer service manager has been with us the whole time,” says Meg. “She knows our business well and proactively comes to me with ideas and opportunities. She’s even invited me to speak with HubSpot’s product people. The contrast between the service I get with HubSpot and the service I had with Salesforce is night and day.”
For Meg, HubSpot is the true CRM partner she and her team wanted.
“HubSpot is truly invested in our business,” says Meg. “We’re not just a number to them—we’re a valued partner.”
A More Productive and Empowered Remote Sales Team
Since moving from Salesforce to the HubSpot CRM platform, Meg and her team have successfully extended the platform to its entire sales team, including its large remote salesforce.
Those reps are more productive today than ever before, now that they have a comprehensive solution that builds on existing sales history to ensure more robust engagement with customers and leads.
At the same time, sales managers love having data insights that allow them to provide real-time reporting to executives and get more granular and accurate in their sales forecasting.
Snap! Raise has also added marketing and customer service to the HubSpot CRM platform, keeping all three functions aligned.
Meg and her team are also customizing the platform to suit the needs of every department, without having to engage an expensive Salesforce developer. Consequently, Meg is very satisfied with their decision to switch from Salesforce to HubSpot.
“I love HubSpot,” says Meg. “I love the people who work there. And I love that they proactively include me in discussions for future development. It’s been a really nice partnership.”
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