Tracking demos

[JErnst]

Hi there,

I'm looking for the best way to track sales demos in HubSpot. Our SEs get a kicker based on the number of demos they do each quarter. 

Is there something more automated and reportable than logging activities on a deal for each demo completed?

Jeff

[jolle · Accepted solution]

Hey @JErnst, 

Very good question! Are you using HubSpot Meetings by any chance? This sounds like an excellent use case for your SEs. 

Here's the hubSpot Knowledge Base article on creating and managing HubSpot Meetings links. Meetings are an activity type in HubSpot reporting, so you can very easily report on the number of demo meetings booked by user. This tool will also give you the option to set meeting reminders which tend to be super helpful for reps and leads!

Alternatively, you could also use a HubSpot form for demo requests. You could create a custom single checkbox property like "Has Scheduled Demo" and add it as a hidden field with the checkbox selected. That would automatically mark the contact once they schedule a demo through the form, allowing you to easily report on the number of contacts that have filled out the form for each SE contact owner. If nothing else, the SE could set the custom property to "Yes" once they've scheduled a demo.

Lastly, if you're working out of the deal pipeline and have a "Demo Scheduled" stage, you could build a workflow (assuming you have a Professional-level subscription) that would update that custom property at the contact level if a contact has an associated deal that enters the "Demo Scheduled" stage. You could then build reports/lists that pull in those contacts by owner accordingly.

Hope this helps!!

[jolle · Accepted solution]

Hey @JErnst, 

Very good question! Are you using HubSpot Meetings by any chance? This sounds like an excellent use case for your SEs. 

Here's the hubSpot Knowledge Base article on creating and managing HubSpot Meetings links. Meetings are an activity type in HubSpot reporting, so you can very easily report on the number of demo meetings booked by user. This tool will also give you the option to set meeting reminders which tend to be super helpful for reps and leads!

Alternatively, you could also use a HubSpot form for demo requests. You could create a custom single checkbox property like "Has Scheduled Demo" and add it as a hidden field with the checkbox selected. That would automatically mark the contact once they schedule a demo through the form, allowing you to easily report on the number of contacts that have filled out the form for each SE contact owner. If nothing else, the SE could set the custom property to "Yes" once they've scheduled a demo.

Lastly, if you're working out of the deal pipeline and have a "Demo Scheduled" stage, you could build a workflow (assuming you have a Professional-level subscription) that would update that custom property at the contact level if a contact has an associated deal that enters the "Demo Scheduled" stage. You could then build reports/lists that pull in those contacts by owner accordingly.

Hope this helps!!

[karstenkoehler]

Hi @JErnst,

I would consider logging meetings the best option. You can specify a meeting type for demos. In Professional subscriptions, you can then create reports to track how many demos were held and by whom. (I don't think it gets simpler than that in HubSpot.)

Without a Professional subscription, reporting options are limited, that's very true.

Let me know if you have any follow-up questions!

[JErnst]

Karsten, my subscription price would go up 10 times in order to define a Meeting Type. Can you think of a way to do this without Professional?

[karstenkoehler · Accepted solution]

Hi @JErnst,

Custom reports are a Professional feature, there isn't any way around that. If that's not an option, this means that reporting will have to happen outside of HubSpot.

The first options that come to mind would be import2 data migration and Ultimate Data export. Alternatively, there's always the HubSpot Engagements API. These should allow you to export meetings and report on them in Mircrosoft Excel or Google Sheets, for example.

If you don't want to use any additional software solution, it would come down to SEs manually tagging records in HubSpot, e.g. updating a date property "Demo held date" on contact records. You could then filter contacts by contact owner where "Demo held date" is populated and within a specific date range.

Best regards!