HubSpot partners should understand the HubSpot sales process so they can better align their selling motions with HubSpot. Our shared customers will benefit from better outcomes if we understand this process and can sell and co-sell with HubSpot more successfully.
What is the purpose of a sales process?
Consistent sales processes are more than a set of requirements that need to be met, they are agreed upon processes used to close sales and increase their likelihood.
Activities & Exit Criteria
Stages will have activities and exit criteria associated with them. Using activities as a framework, you can determine what information to gather from a prospect. Exit criteria are the results needed to complete one stage and move on to the next.
Connect
Activities:
- Determine the prospect's role in the organization
- Identify specific business challenges and goals
- Assess the prospect's influence in the process
- Maintain a high level of understanding of service offerings
- Decide whether there is a compelling reason to change and/or a specific pain/opportunity that needs to be addressed
Exit Criteria:
- A clear understanding of the prospect's role within the organization
- Identification of specific business pains/opportunities
If activities have been performed and exit criteria has been met, create a deal
Tools & Training
Inbound Prospecting for Solutions Partners
The goal of this course is to teach you how to identify quality leads by looking at a prospect fit matrix, and how to start a conversation with them.
Alexa Rank is a measure of website popularity/success. Alexa ranks millions of websites in order of popularity, with a 1 ranking being the most popular. Alexa ranks a site based on its estimated traffic and visitor engagement over the past three months. The lower the Alexa rank, the more popular the website.
Using BuiltWith, you can discover what tools and technology a prospect is currently using. To improve your conversation with them, you can learn what software they currently use before talking to them.
Website Grader is a free tool that grades websites against key metrics such as site speed, seo, and more.
LinkedIn is likely already being used by your sales teams to connect with prospects. With LinkedIn Sales Navigator, they can accelerate these efforts with a variety of additional features. With LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you can turn the networking site into a lead-generation machine.
Sales Navigator lets you use LinkedIn to its full prospecting potential with advanced search features, lead recommendations, and even CRM integration at higher levels.
Connect Call Structure
Types of Stakeholders
Influencer - Traditionally a junior-level employee who's asked to research options before their superior is briefed. They do not have the budget or authority to make a final decision, but they can influence the decision maker. In the sales process, the influencer will contact the appropriate stakeholders (such as Finance or IT) on your behalf.
Evaluator/Expert - Often, decision makers in an organization turn to an "expert" when making a decision. Experts can influence a purchase decision but do not have the authority to make it. A technical expert is often involved in a decision process where the business is making a systems decision (think the Head of Sales Operations if you're selling CRM). To understand a key decision maker, ask the champion: "Who does the Decision Maker turn to for advice on this kind of decision? Or do they just decide alone?"
Champions - Are ultra influencers. They are your guides and your channel through the purchase process from the prospect's point of view. If your influencer provides you with information such as the product/service review process, how the decision is made, who participates in the decision, and/or if they make an introduction to a Decision Maker, you have a champion.
Decision Maker - Depending on their position in the decision-making hierarchy, they may be economic buyers or higher-ups. Purchasing decisions are made by decision makers. Making sure you understand their motivations is absolutely crucial since they make the final decision.
Detractors - Potentially able to stop the deal from going through. Make sure you identify them quickly so you can understand their concerns and involve them in meeting their needs. Examples: Tech, Security, Procurement, Legal
Discovery
Activities:
- Identify prospect’s business model
- Establish specific goals and challenges for the business
- Identify compelling use case
- Identify timeline
- Identify decision making process and decision makers
- Discuss investment
Exit Criteria:
- Identifying business goals and pain points
- Establishment of a compelling event
- Identification of the decision-making process
- Identified the competition
- Investment acknowledged
Tools & Training
Inbound Selling for Solutions Partners
This course will teach you how to better engage prospects and work through the discovery process. Also, you'll learn how to close deals.
Why Go HubSpot - Certification
In this course, you'll learn why each partner should have their own "why go HubSpot" educational pitch, how to construct it (with HubSpot soundbites), and how to evaluate its success.
In this guide, you'll find some of the best questions you can ask during the discovery/exploratory stage of the sales process.
“Why Go HubSpot” refers to the talk track our partners and direct reps leverage to describe and differentiate the HubSpot platform to prospects and customers. It is usually used in tandem with the "Why Go HubSpot" landing page.
28 Questions to Ask on a Discovery Call
A blog post from HubSpot's top sales trainer, Dan Tyre.
A simple, yet useful checklist on key actions to take within the discovery stage.
16 Free Sales Voicemail Templates
Free and proven sales voicemail templates you can use every day.
The use of video for sales has become a necessity. With this in-depth guide, you will learn how to research prospects before a demo, feel confident in your video presentation, and send follow-up emails and videos that close. Get access to the entire collection by downloading this guide.
Discovery Call Structure
1. Open the call- Build rapport
- Review challenges
- Set agenda
- Pull up prospect's deal record to record GPCT (snippet - #sbd)
- Business Overview
- Marketing, Sales, Services Processes
- Challenges that HubSpot can help solve (Growth, Efficiency, ROI)
- Summarize no more than 3 challenges
- Reframe as challenges that HubSpot can help to solve
- Link Sales, Marketing, and Services challenges to the overall business goals or challenges
- Explain how Inbound and HubSpot's tool can solve for their unique challenges
- Make a recommendation
- Walk through the proposed pricing on our pricing page.
- Only demo Starter packages on the Discovery Call. If your prospect wants a demo for Pro packages, book a separate session for Solution Demo.
- (If you did not demo)Recommend a demo, schedule for specific date and time, pull in decision makers.
- (if you did the demo) Ask for the sale.
Solution Demo
Activities
- Reconfirm pain/gain for all stakeholders
- Reconfirm decision making process
- Solution mapped to pain
- Discuss which offering to move forward with
Exit Criteria
- Agreement that partner’s services meets their needs
- Competitor comparison conducted (if applicable)
- Agreement on which option(s) to move forward with
- Confirmation on next steps and decision making process
Tools & Training
This is a free individual enterprise-version of HubSpot's suite of products that each Solutions Partner has access to. To learn more about setting your account up, visit this page.
This certification in Academy was created to help partners learn to demo each of HubSpot's products as if you were a solutions engineer.
7 Key Principles of Value-Based Selling
Demo Framework
Description
The framework below is a best practice for deciding which tools to demo and how they should be positioned during a demo.
Relevance/Context
You should customize the demo or select the tools based on the Buyer Persona since we sell solutions, not just features. As soon as you understand the typical challenges of the user persona, you can ask questions to ensure you understand their pains and needs.
Impact
Without a framework, you run the risk of not accurately addressing your prospect's goals and challenges. Also, you may find it difficult to structure your Demo presentation and end up simply presenting features rather than targeted solutions.
Example:
This framework helps you to create a personalized demo in four easy steps:
- Document the prospect's challenges
- Document the consequences
- Select your themes (a maximum of 2 themes)
- Select your tools (a maximum of 3 tools)
Business Considerations
Activities:
- Address all objections from decision makers and key stakeholders
- Address any outstanding technical objections
- Address security, procurement, legal and financial objections
- Develop mutually agreed upon close plan
Exit Criteria:
- “Yes” on solution* if we meet final financial and legal terms
- Agreement on implementation plan and timeline
- Legal, security and procurement objections overcome
Tools & Training
Inbound Selling for Solutions Partners
This course will teach you how to better engage prospects and work through the discovery process. You'll also learn how to close the deal.
Joint evaluation plans (JEPs) are mutually agreed upon steps between a sales rep and their prospect that cover every step necessary to arrive at a purchase decision. A sales rep who does not have a JEP runs the risk of losing control of the sale and missing key steps in the buyer's evaluation.
A free strategic template for your account-based marketing, sales and management.
Objection Handling
Ultimate Guide to Objection Handling
HubSpot blog highlighting 40 common sales objections and how to respond to them.
Pricing & Terms
Activities:
- Finalize any outstanding pricing and terms
- Set target date for signature and start date
- Setup contract signer with HubSpot login
Exit Criteria:
- Verbally agree to final pricing, terms and start date
- Payment link sent with instructions
- Committed date for completing online forms.
Out for Signature
Activities:
- Answer any final questions from decision maker
Exit Criteria:
- Contract for Partner’s Services Signed
- Contract for HubSpot Signed
- Confirmation Link Signed (if needed)
Closed Won
Activities:
- Complete detailed notes for your delivery team
- Ask customer for referrals within network
- Confirm upsell/cross sell plan
Resources & Training
- View and manage your partner dashboard
- Cross-Selling and Upselling: The Ultimate Guide - 5 min
- 5 Signs Your Customer is Read for an Upsell - 3 min
- 6 Tips to Learn How to Upsell and Cross-Sell - 4 min
- 5 Templates to Win, Retain, and Delight Your Clients (includes QBR template)
- What is a Quarterly Business Review? (QBR)