Choosing the right software solution is never easy. Everyone says their system is the best and the wrong decision could have lasting repercussions. You’re right to want more information, but where should you look to get it? Here’s why we usually recommend approaching a Solutions Partner before hitting up HubSpot.
Most people won’t think twice about going direct to HubSpot, and that serves many organisations very well. After all, HubSpot has had more than a few years now to really iron out its sales process. Along the way, it’s learned a thing or two about helping to close and onboard new customers quickly, smoothly and efficiently.
But undeniably, there are also benefits to approaching a Solutions Partner first, and depending on your circumstances, they can actually outweigh going down the direct route.
What are those benefits and how is it that you can only unlock them by going down the Solutions Partner route? Read on to find out.
Contents
- Tailored service
- Getting the most from the discovery phase
- Personalised demos
- Real-world experience from industry experts
- Customised onboarding
- Faster time to value
- Growing better together
- Unlocking an ecosystem of integrations and possibilities
Tailored service
As a fast-growing, global company, HubSpot strives for consistency across its sales and onboarding process. Wherever its prospects are around the world, in whatever capacity they are reaching out to HubSpot’s sales team, and however quickly they want to move, its reps need to be able to guarantee a consistent standard of service, every time.
As a potential customer, there are a lot of benefits to this. You are guaranteed a quality experience, for one. For another, the reps you speak with are going to know the sales process like the backs of their hands. They follow it, day after day.
But what about when your requirements take you outside of that standardised process? There are so many reasons why you might need a more personalised experience, even at the sales stage. Those reasons are going to be unique to your organisation or circumstances and while HubSpot will go out of its way to accommodate its prospects’ needs, Solutions Partners tend to be better at this.
For starters, even the largest Solutions Partners are much smaller than HubSpot. This gives us a flexibility that large global organisations struggle to match because of their size. A great Solutions Partner will be able to adapt their sales process to meet your needs, whether that’s creating new internal content to help you understand the product, supporting you in your efforts to win stakeholder buy-in, or simply being available out of hours at predetermined times to take your calls and answer your questions.
Getting the most from the discovery phase
A key part of any B2B sales process is the discovery phase. HubSpot’s reps are proficient in digging into the prospects’ needs to recommend the right product solutions, but this is where the first crucial distinction arises between going to HubSpot directly and approaching a Solutions Partner. HubSpot is, first and foremost, a software company. Its product is its platform. Its goal is to match prospects with the right mix of HubSpot tools to fit their needs.
In contrast, Solutions Partners are selling their understanding of the HubSpot product and all the wrap-around services — strategy, delivery, platform support and a wide variety of third-party technologies that plug into it — to help their clients get the most from their new technology. We see it as helping you to unlock the full potential of the HubSpot platform. At the discovery phase, this can lead to real differences in terms of how HubSpot explores your needs vs. how a Solutions Partner does.
HubSpot is looking for the answers it needs to help set you up with the right Hubs and tiers. A Solutions Partner is looking at your marketplace, the challenges you’re facing, your annual targets etc. in order to define how it can serve you long-term to help you hit your goals.
Personalised demos
When considering a new platform, a hands-on demo is a must. There’s a reason we take a car for a test drive before signing on the dotted line. HubSpot’s sales reps know their way around all the Hubs, so whichever part of the platform a prospect is interested in, they can trust that their rep will be able to walk and talk them through all its features and applications.
But there’s something to be said on the subject of getting a demo from someone who has learned their way around all the Hubs vs. someone who lives and breathes one area of HubSpot in particular. On the Solutions Partner side of the fence, it’s much easier to get a demo from a subject matter expert with a truly envious understanding of how that part of HubSpot functions. Their day-to-day is not to sell the platform but to help their clients unlock the full capabilities from one particular Hub, be it Sales, Service, HubSpot CRM, or good ol’ fashioned Marketing. Wouldn’t you want that person showing you around?
Would you like us to walk you through HubSpot? We’re here to help.
Real-world experience from industry experts
1:1 time with an expert who knows a HubSpot Hub like nobody else has benefits that go way beyond the remit of a personalised demo. Subject matter experts come with bags of expertise and real-world experience, both in terms of using a Hub to solve a business challenge but also more broadly. It might be experience within a specific field like Sales or Marketing, or it could be industry expertise that they have to offer the prospect. If they are experts in more than one industry, they may even be able to advise prospects on transferable lessons or tactics.
Did you know, for example, that BabelQuest holds one of the first Advanced Implementation Certifications (AIC) in the UK, recognising our Expert Practices team’s ability to deliver complex CRM implementations?
By choosing to approach a Solutions Partner first, the prospect has near-unlimited access to experts with an intimate understanding of their business challenges, industry and the Hub/ functionality/wider Partner services on offer.
To tap into our insights and experience, head over to the blog now.
Customised onboarding
HubSpot offers a standardised onboarding service that many organisations use to successfully roll out their new platform. Others, particularly those with complex setups or bespoke requirements, choose to benefit from onboarding delivered by a Solutions Partner, offering a more personalised experience and onboarding that meets their precise needs.
We can implement and configure the full HubSpot Growth Suite so that it delivers exactly what each of our clients needs. This includes collating and importing customer data into HubSpot CRM and setting up the CRM system around the sales process so that they benefit from the full configuration of contacts, deal stages, sequences and automation. We help them to define their reporting requirements across every Hub and carry out any training necessary to ensure their team(s) can unlock the full potential of the HubSpot platform.
Find out more about BabelQuest’s HubSpot Onboarding services.
Faster time to value
This follows nicely from the training we’ve just touched on. One of the biggest hurdles when rolling out a new software is getting the team bought into it and up to speed with it. It’s no elephant in the room to say that these kinds of investments can come with hefty price tags. The faster you can upskill all the individuals/teams who will be using the platform, the faster you can start seeing a return from it. (And the faster you’ll be able to prove what good decision you made investing in it in the first place.)
Rather than engaging HubSpot, then reaching out to Solutions Partners three-to-six months down the line when the platform isn’t giving up all its secrets and you’re not quite seeing the functionality/result you were looking for, why not start by speaking with a Solutions Partner whose sole focus is helping you to unlock that value across the whole business?
Every month, prospects struggling to unlock the full potential of the HubSpot platform come to us looking for support. Yes, it’s an out-of-the-box toolset, but getting the configuration and adoption right is crucial to making it work for your business. If our prospects had come to us first before approaching HubSpot, they would have been able to draw from our experiences from day one to set up the platform around the needs and applications of their business.
Growing better together
A key distinction between engaging HubSpot over a Solutions Partner is that once HubSpot has sold a licence and onboarded you, you’re on your own. While this won’t be an area of concern for businesses with teams of dedicated, in-house HubSpot specialists, in our experience it is quite normal for organisations to seek expert, ongoing support in this matter.
It almost goes without saying that the longer you interact with a Solutions Partner, the more you’ll come to trust each other. There are so many benefits to building strong relationships with a Solutions Partner that it warrants its own article just to go through them all, but key amongst them has to be having someone from the very beginning of your HubSpot experience who’s able to help you make the most of your platform and work with you for as long as you want them to. While it’s natural for some businesses to want to engage new partners after a certain period of time, many others work with Solutions Partners for upwards of four years or more, leaning on and learning from their partner’s expertise and deep understanding of their unique business requirements to maximise their HubSpot investment.
Unlocking an ecosystem of integrations and possibilities
When all’s said and done, the key reason why you might consider engaging with a Solutions Partner before you speak with HubSpot is that HubSpot is out to sell its suite of products, while a Solutions Partner is selling that and so much more. The ecosystem of integrations and possibilities surrounding HubSpot is so broad now that really making the most of the product requires more than just expert HubSpot knowledge.
A Solution Partner’s real-world experiences in this area are invaluable, giving a prospect considering HubSpot for the first time the ability to see exactly how the platform and its integrations can be configured to work for their business. This is often when we get brought into deals, when they are slightly more complex than out-of-the-box instances and need integrations, either bespoke or existing.
HubSpot itself acknowledges that customers with a Solutions Partner will get more from their platform/use more of the rich functionality.
“You want to grow your business faster. We're in the growth business. Explore our partner programs, find the one that's right for you, and let's start growing better together.” HubSpot, Partner Program
If you’re reaching out to BabelQuest, we’ll learn the ins and outs of your business. We’ll learn all about your industry. We’ll each learn how the other prefers to work and communicate. You’ll have direct contact with genuine experts in the fields of HubSpot, sales, marketing, copywriting and business consultancy. We’ll challenge each other to deliver the best work we can, and you’ll learn to depend on our team to implement projects or campaigns that exceed your expectations, hit your goals and drive up business.
We hope this helps you to think again about whether you engage HubSpot or one of their global community of Solutions Partners first. If you’d like to chat with us, just get in touch.
