CRM

Felipe77
Member

Optimizing HubSpot for a Small, yet Global Consulting Firm with Specialized Services

SOLVE

Dear Contributors,

We are a consulting firm with team members spread across multiple countries, collaborating to sell and deliver highly specialized services. While we are beginning to implement HubSpot, selling significantly more is not a primary goal due to the nature of our work. Instead, our focus is on using HubSpot to strategically manage our business development (BD) efforts, better understand and optimize our sales funnel, and improve coordination across our global team.

Given our unique context, we would appreciate your insights on the following:

  1. Optimizing HubSpot for Specialized Services: Considering our focus on strategy and funnel management rather than high-volume sales, are there specific HubSpot tools or workflows that you recommend we prioritize?
  2. Collaboration Across Borders: With our team operating in multiple countries, are there best practices for using HubSpot to facilitate cross-border collaboration, such as managing shared BD efforts or tracking regional opportunities effectively?
  3. Avoiding Over-Automation: We aim to automate our BD processes intelligently. How can we strike a balance between automation (via workflows) and maintaining a personalized approach to managing our pipeline and client relationships?
  4. Tracking and Analyzing the Funnel: What are the most effective ways to use HubSpot for tracking and analyzing our sales funnel to drive strategic decisions? Are there specific reports or dashboards you recommend?

Your advice and experiences with implementing HubSpot in similar contexts would be incredibly helpful as we refine our approach.

Thank you for your time and insights.

Warm regards,
Felipe Gutierrez

3 Accepted solutions
Jnix284
Solution
Hall of Famer

Optimizing HubSpot for a Small, yet Global Consulting Firm with Specialized Services

SOLVE

Thanks for the tag @BérangèreL, happy to share some thoughts @Felipe77 for managing a global team and your questions about automation.

 

Consider what similarties and differences there are geographically - if you can map out how the processes differ regionally, you can determine if additional properties are needed to report on contacts, deals, etc.

 

Take the time to understand legislation in each country you operate in regarding data privacy and email communications - make sure your sales and marketing processes align, it's usually best to adopt the same strategy for all regions even if it is the most aggressive (such as GDPR) to avoid any potential overlap issues.

 

Map your processes first - use Lucidchart, Miro, or similar to map your processes and make sure you have tested them fully using manual processes before you start to automate. It's better to lay a solid foundation for automation before you start creating workflows, etc.

 

Be intentional - make sure that the data you capture is reported on or used for specific purpose in the sales/service process. Data entry for the sake of data entry is the worst mistake many users make when starting with a CRM.

 

I hope this helps you get started!


If my reply answered your question please mark it as a solution to make it easier for others to find.


Jennifer Nixon

View solution in original post

HubDoPete
Solution
Guide | Gold Partner
Guide | Gold Partner

Optimizing HubSpot for a Small, yet Global Consulting Firm with Specialized Services

SOLVE

Thanks @BérangèreL for including me.

@Jnix284 is 'right on the money' with being intentional and mapping process before layering on data.

 

Because you talk of quality over quantity and customer relationships, consider how your processes enable personalisation at scale. Adding consistency to managing relationships without it coming across as automated.

 

Some tips that might help here:

  • Decide 'off-platform' what good customer relationships look like. How many touch points, at what levels of the organisation, communication frequency and at what depth (checking in versus depth). Consider how you measure the effectiveness of these relationships, from simple scores like NPS to qualitative relationship indicators. Then engineer this into processes and into HubSpot.
  • Look at 1-1 automation tools such as Sequences rather than Workflows, to bring efficiency to communications that can be highly personalised 1-1 before sending.
  • Use Workflows to detect duration since last contact, to prompt team interactions, such as checking in with their customer contacts
  • Add OrgChartHub and use Target Accounts to map contacts and relationships per customer account, using association labels to indicate roles so you can represent and add process flows to your relationship process/goals in your portal.

I hope these help too!

best

Pete

 

View solution in original post

danmoyle
Solution
Most Valuable Member | Elite Partner
Most Valuable Member | Elite Partner

Optimizing HubSpot for a Small, yet Global Consulting Firm with Specialized Services

SOLVE

Hey there @Felipe77 and welcome to the Community! What a great example of how Community can help. The "How do YOU do it" question is such a treasure trove of insights. I'll +1 the responses from  @Jnix284 & @HubDoPete and add a little flavor of my own as well. 

 

Here are a few ideas on prioritizing the HubSpot tools available.

  • Customize deal pipelines and stages to reflect your unique sales process. Don't leave them as-is. But remember to keep them customer-centric. This will help you visualize your BD efforts and identify potential roadblocks.
  • Think of HubSpot's CRM as a way to manage more than customer relationshpips - think of it as full-journey client management. This should help your distributed team track all interactions in a more collaborative way. Lifecycle stage, lead status, and maybe even the Leads Object can help with this. Once again, cutomize it to your current flow while using some of the best practices from others here.
  • Put those reporting and analytics tools to work! These wil help the team glean insights into your sales funnel and make data-driven decisions. Track call & meeting types to measure the types of interactions your team is having, make sure folks are using it, and build reports & dashboards that matter.

Speaking of collaboration, here are a couple of thoughts on that for your global team.

  • Set up shared pipelines and deal stages that accommodate regional differences while maintaining a unified view of your global BD efforts. You can segment by Deal owner and other properties within the unified pipleine.
  • I love the team collaboration features like task assignments, templates, snippets, playbooks, and @mentions, to help keep team members across different countries aligned on opportunities and client interactions.
  • Use those custom properties to track region-specific information, allowing for both global and localized reporting.

There's also a balancing act between automation and personalization. My boss @remingtonbegg once differentiated between automation and "automatic." Just because we CAN automate something doesn't mean we SHOULD. And also, not everything can be magically automatic. 

 

So Id use HubSpot's workflows for routine tasks like lead nurturing and internal notifications, but avoid over-automating client communications. 1:1 emails are still great!


Also, with the proliferation of generatie AI tools (especially in HubSpot), we have cool new tools like AI-driven lead scoring to help prioritize high-potential opportunities without losing the personal touch.


Plus, email templates and sequences in HubSpot can help with initial outreach. Just remember to customize content for each client to maintain a personalized approach.


Finally, bring it all together with reports, dashboards, and analysis.

  • Create custom dashboards that focus on key metrics relevant to your specialized services, such as deal velocity, win rates, and pipeline health. I like to start with one of HubSpot's dashboard templates for inspiration, but quickly make it my own with additional reports (from the library, custom, and the reporting suites), external content if needed, and of course adding "text, images, or video" for context and analysis.
  • Remember to use the funnel reporting tools to identify bottlenecks and optimize your BD process. This includes Customer Journey reporting (if you have Enterprise level).
  • Not a HubSpot tool, but a reminder to put regular review cycles into practice to analyze funnel metrics and adjust your strategy accordingly. All the pretty dashboards mean nothing if you don't comunicate them. 😊

I hope that helps! I'm glad @BérangèreL tagged me. It was fun thinking through this and hopefully adding additional value! Happy HubSpotting! 

 

Did my answer help? Please "mark as a solution" to help others find answers. Plus I really appreciate it!


Dan Moyle

HubSpot Advisor

LearningOps | Impulse Creative

emailAddress
dan@impulsecreative.com
website
https://impulsecreative.com/

View solution in original post

4 Replies 4
danmoyle
Solution
Most Valuable Member | Elite Partner
Most Valuable Member | Elite Partner

Optimizing HubSpot for a Small, yet Global Consulting Firm with Specialized Services

SOLVE

Hey there @Felipe77 and welcome to the Community! What a great example of how Community can help. The "How do YOU do it" question is such a treasure trove of insights. I'll +1 the responses from  @Jnix284 & @HubDoPete and add a little flavor of my own as well. 

 

Here are a few ideas on prioritizing the HubSpot tools available.

  • Customize deal pipelines and stages to reflect your unique sales process. Don't leave them as-is. But remember to keep them customer-centric. This will help you visualize your BD efforts and identify potential roadblocks.
  • Think of HubSpot's CRM as a way to manage more than customer relationshpips - think of it as full-journey client management. This should help your distributed team track all interactions in a more collaborative way. Lifecycle stage, lead status, and maybe even the Leads Object can help with this. Once again, cutomize it to your current flow while using some of the best practices from others here.
  • Put those reporting and analytics tools to work! These wil help the team glean insights into your sales funnel and make data-driven decisions. Track call & meeting types to measure the types of interactions your team is having, make sure folks are using it, and build reports & dashboards that matter.

Speaking of collaboration, here are a couple of thoughts on that for your global team.

  • Set up shared pipelines and deal stages that accommodate regional differences while maintaining a unified view of your global BD efforts. You can segment by Deal owner and other properties within the unified pipleine.
  • I love the team collaboration features like task assignments, templates, snippets, playbooks, and @mentions, to help keep team members across different countries aligned on opportunities and client interactions.
  • Use those custom properties to track region-specific information, allowing for both global and localized reporting.

There's also a balancing act between automation and personalization. My boss @remingtonbegg once differentiated between automation and "automatic." Just because we CAN automate something doesn't mean we SHOULD. And also, not everything can be magically automatic. 

 

So Id use HubSpot's workflows for routine tasks like lead nurturing and internal notifications, but avoid over-automating client communications. 1:1 emails are still great!


Also, with the proliferation of generatie AI tools (especially in HubSpot), we have cool new tools like AI-driven lead scoring to help prioritize high-potential opportunities without losing the personal touch.


Plus, email templates and sequences in HubSpot can help with initial outreach. Just remember to customize content for each client to maintain a personalized approach.


Finally, bring it all together with reports, dashboards, and analysis.

  • Create custom dashboards that focus on key metrics relevant to your specialized services, such as deal velocity, win rates, and pipeline health. I like to start with one of HubSpot's dashboard templates for inspiration, but quickly make it my own with additional reports (from the library, custom, and the reporting suites), external content if needed, and of course adding "text, images, or video" for context and analysis.
  • Remember to use the funnel reporting tools to identify bottlenecks and optimize your BD process. This includes Customer Journey reporting (if you have Enterprise level).
  • Not a HubSpot tool, but a reminder to put regular review cycles into practice to analyze funnel metrics and adjust your strategy accordingly. All the pretty dashboards mean nothing if you don't comunicate them. 😊

I hope that helps! I'm glad @BérangèreL tagged me. It was fun thinking through this and hopefully adding additional value! Happy HubSpotting! 

 

Did my answer help? Please "mark as a solution" to help others find answers. Plus I really appreciate it!


Dan Moyle

HubSpot Advisor

LearningOps | Impulse Creative

emailAddress
dan@impulsecreative.com
website
https://impulsecreative.com/
HubDoPete
Solution
Guide | Gold Partner
Guide | Gold Partner

Optimizing HubSpot for a Small, yet Global Consulting Firm with Specialized Services

SOLVE

Thanks @BérangèreL for including me.

@Jnix284 is 'right on the money' with being intentional and mapping process before layering on data.

 

Because you talk of quality over quantity and customer relationships, consider how your processes enable personalisation at scale. Adding consistency to managing relationships without it coming across as automated.

 

Some tips that might help here:

  • Decide 'off-platform' what good customer relationships look like. How many touch points, at what levels of the organisation, communication frequency and at what depth (checking in versus depth). Consider how you measure the effectiveness of these relationships, from simple scores like NPS to qualitative relationship indicators. Then engineer this into processes and into HubSpot.
  • Look at 1-1 automation tools such as Sequences rather than Workflows, to bring efficiency to communications that can be highly personalised 1-1 before sending.
  • Use Workflows to detect duration since last contact, to prompt team interactions, such as checking in with their customer contacts
  • Add OrgChartHub and use Target Accounts to map contacts and relationships per customer account, using association labels to indicate roles so you can represent and add process flows to your relationship process/goals in your portal.

I hope these help too!

best

Pete

 

BérangèreL
Community Manager
Community Manager

Optimizing HubSpot for a Small, yet Global Consulting Firm with Specialized Services

SOLVE

Hi @Felipe77, I hope that you are well!

Thanks for asking the HubSpot Community!

I'd like to share these resources that might be of interest to you:

- The solution from @Drew_Cohen on this post "Tracking lead origination"
- How To Improve Cross-Team Collaboration
- The solution from @StefaniUAT on this post "Hit me with your best personalization / smart content tips 🙂"
- Create custom funnel reports (BETA)

Also, I'd love to put you in touch with some of our Top Experts: Hi @HubDoPete, @danmoyle and @Jnix284 do you have tips and insights to share with @Felipe77, please?

Have a wonderful day and thanks so much!

Best,
Bérangère


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Jnix284
Solution
Hall of Famer

Optimizing HubSpot for a Small, yet Global Consulting Firm with Specialized Services

SOLVE

Thanks for the tag @BérangèreL, happy to share some thoughts @Felipe77 for managing a global team and your questions about automation.

 

Consider what similarties and differences there are geographically - if you can map out how the processes differ regionally, you can determine if additional properties are needed to report on contacts, deals, etc.

 

Take the time to understand legislation in each country you operate in regarding data privacy and email communications - make sure your sales and marketing processes align, it's usually best to adopt the same strategy for all regions even if it is the most aggressive (such as GDPR) to avoid any potential overlap issues.

 

Map your processes first - use Lucidchart, Miro, or similar to map your processes and make sure you have tested them fully using manual processes before you start to automate. It's better to lay a solid foundation for automation before you start creating workflows, etc.

 

Be intentional - make sure that the data you capture is reported on or used for specific purpose in the sales/service process. Data entry for the sake of data entry is the worst mistake many users make when starting with a CRM.

 

I hope this helps you get started!


If my reply answered your question please mark it as a solution to make it easier for others to find.


Jennifer Nixon