BLOG

A Single Platform That Helps You Auto-Magically Align Sales and Marketing

Amar Sheth
Amar Sheth

In this edition of The Social Tool Series, I had the opportunity to sit down with Jeff Russo of HubSpot. Jeff is a Product Marketing Manager there and showed me the high-level possibilities of their CRM platform and sales insight tool called Sidekick.

For those of you that know HubSpot, you know them as a market leader in the Marketing Automation space. But did you know about HubSpot’s sales platform?

Check out the awesome demo here:

The CRM Proposition

HubSpot is generating a lot of interest with their CRM platform given that it’s free. There are premium paid features available but it was positively surprising to see the feature-richness of the core product that’s on offer for free here.

While some companies may not find their core product appealing, I believe HubSpot will continue to offer incredible CRM features with a mind on integration with marketing automation. And I really believe this is their core strategy.

Deep Integration with Marketing Automation

More than basic, the integration with its marketing automation platform is powerful. Sales leaders will love the features. Sales people can see prospect activity across all marketing assets, identify opportunities of interaction and lead with much greater intelligence than ever.

While most marketing automation platforms today have a Salesforce integration (and so does HubSpot, FYI), the way the information is presented is in my opinion far more seamless, accessible and easy to understand.

Since HubSpot started from a clean slate, I could tell from the UX that the product team has put a lot of thought into this.

Sidekick Notifications

Full disclosure, I’m a user of Sidekick and love what it offers. I’m able to see when my leads have downloaded our marketing assets or are on our website, reading content, opening e-mails, etc.

For marketing departments who are wondering how to enable and encourage sales reps to share content – the content you work so hard in creating, which ultimately sits there untouched – you should absolutely take a look at utilizing this.

The intelligence from Sidekick alone is powerful. The benefit is being to find where your leads are in the funnel and share relevant content that moves them further down the pipeline. In fact, I believe that if sales reps had access to information like this, they would share content far more often. Why? Because they would see the power of potential sales conversations at their fingertips.

{{cta(’54fd5136-edc2-4c6a-9b31-326f77bb6977′)}}

The Bottom Line

My overall impression of HubSpot’s sales platform was great. In fact, it was far better than I had originally thought. For sales leaders and professionals, integration with marketing automation is critical. Ultimately, once the power of sharing content is evident, tools like HubSpot’s CRM and Sidekick bring significant value.

If you haven’t checked out these tools, I’d encourage you to do so.

Did you like HubSpot’s sales platform? Have any thoughts or opinions? Tweet me @AmarSheth or connect with me on LinkedIn to discuss further.

Amar Sheth CTA 9 Step Thumb10 Step Book

Follow Us

Subscribe to our Newsletter

Get our latest blogs direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Subscribe to receive more sales insights, analysis, and perspectives from Sales For Life.

The Ultimate Guide to Social Selling