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We're excited about the new ABM fuctionality in HubSpot. In reviewing the current setup for Buying Roles, I've noticed this field is listed as a Contact Property. I'd like to suggest making it a cross-object property that you can assign to a Contact within a specific deal, without making that role the Contact's ongoing Buying Role on their Contact Record. I'll try to explain...
Let's say HubSpot was selling Marketing Hub to ABC Company. The HubSpot Sales Rep creates a Deal and starts working through Alice Wondermaker, VP of Marketing (Decision Maker, Budget Holder), and a couple of the marketing team members, Jane Doe, Social Media Manager (End-User) and John Doe, Content Marketing Manager (Influencer) participate in the evaluation process. Ultimately the deal moves to Closed Won!
6 months later the HubSpot team says, let's try to upsell ABC company on buying Sales Hub. The HubSpot Sales Rep reaches out to the VP of Marketing and says Alice... imagine what you could do if your Sales team was working alongside you in HubSpot! ...and Alice says that's a great idea. I'll introduce you to our VP of Sales, Mark Geditdone.
Following an intro call Mark is interested so the the HubSpot Sales Rep opens a new Deal and adds the associated contacts related to this deal. Mark Geditdone, VP of Sales is now the Decision Maker, Budget Holder... but when they add Alice Wondermaker, she's still listed as the Decision maker... in this case she's is our Champion. When the sales rep makes that change, since it's a Contact Property, it Changes Alice's Buying Role under the initial Marketing Hub Deal you closed 6 months ago.
As you play this process out for later upselling ABC Company on ServiceHub, etc, you begin to see the issue compounds over time. For that reason, we're recommending the best practice of having Buyer Roles be assigned on a Deal by Deal basis. The "buying committe" of 6-7 people will likely change from deal to deal, but some of those people may have been involved in previous deals... playing a different "Buying Role".
This adjustment would then allow the HubSpot Account Manager for ABC Company to look at ABC Company Holistically and explore additional upsell opportunities, and understanding what who and what role each person played for each deal along the account growth management process.
I look foward to hearing your thoughts.
Best,
Doyle Slayton
Director of Revenue Operations
Wiley Education Services