BRIAN HALLIGAN
KEYNOTE - INBOUND18
Brian Halligan is Co-founder and CEO of HubSpot. Prior to HubSpot, Brian was a venture partner at Longworth Ventures and VP of sales at Groove Networks, which was acquired by Microsoft. Previously, Brian was a Senior VP of sales at PTC. Brian serves on the board of directors for the Fleetmatics Group (FLTX), a global provider of fleet management solutions. He was named Ernst and Young's Entrepreneur of the Year in 2011, a Glassdoor 25 Highest Rated CEO in 2014 and 2015, and an Inc. Founders 40 in 2016.
HUBSPOT?WHAT IS HUBSPOT?
HubSpot is inbound marketing and sales software that helps companies attract visitors, convert leads, and close customers. HubSpot software includes all the tools you need to do inbound marketing, such as email, websites, SEO, marketing automation, analytics social media and much more.
All of us in the Inbound community have a model we have been using our whole careers, a model i call “Ye Olde Funnel”. I have been using the funnel for 28 years, my whole career and i am starting to see a couple cracks.
Let’s talk about the cracks!
When interviewing a customer we want to know, Who was the most influential voice in their head when they made the decision to buy a product. The answer is usually we were subscribed to your blog, we liked your content and your sales rep was very helpful. That is the answer we have been getting for 10 years! It was the same every time and that told me that Inbound marketing and sales were working as advertised.
However in the last 2 years the answer has changed dramatically. We asked the same question and the answer was “It was my friend that talked me into it,
The customer had been using the product her whole career” The answer had changed from sales and marketing being the loudest voice to word of mouth being the loudest voice. This strikes me as a sign of the times, like it or not trust is at an all time low in marketing and sales (about 5% on the trust index). Nobody trusts anybody anymore, marketers, sellers, vendors, media, social media, so who do they trust? They trust your customers. Now i am not saying this is the end for sales and marketers, we just need to tweak how we market and sell. The funnel shows customers being an output but in fact customers are actually an input to our business.
what do we do about the funnel?
I attended a great seminar by a man who knows a great deal about growth, a man by the name Jeff Bezos (CEO of Amazon) and how he described growth was fascinating. The way we grow is we increase the selection, the more selection, the better the customer experience, the better the customer experience the more traffic and word of mouth, the more traffic and word of mouth the more sales and so on and so forth. What impressed me the most was his alternative to the funnel, a fly wheel.
You need to apply a force to your flywheel. Simple idea, if you apply force the wheel spins, the more force you apply the faster the wheel will spin.
Where should you apply the force to get the biggest return?
Engage - 1990 - 2006
Sales reps - Sales reps had most of the information and customers had relatively low amount of information, sales reps could leverage the information gap and create trust.
Attract - 2006 - 2018
Marketing - Sales reps and the prospect have access to the same information at the same time. Making it necessary for marketers to create as much information as possible to pull people in.
Delight - 2018 - ????
Turn your customer into a walking talking flywheel, shift your engage and attract force into delight. Use your sales and marketing team to direct the focus on delighting the customers with experience rather than focusing too hard on the close.
Remove friction from your flywheel. Customers want an enjoyable but quick and easy experience.
If you are in the B2C industry the train is about to leave the station, you need to get 90% of the friction out of your business model. If you are B2B the train is parked at the station but its leaving soon. If you want to gain competitive advantage you need to utilize a low friction business model.
NOW - FUTURE
NOW
80% OF CUSTOMER INTERACTIONS ARE WITH AN EMPLOYEE. 20% SELF SERVICE.
FUTURE
20% OF CUSTOMER INTERACTIONS ARE WITH AN EMPLOYEE. 80% SELF SERVICE.
NOW
80% OF IT RESOURCES INVEST IN MAKING FRONT LINE EMPLOYEES MORE EFFICIENT.
FUTURE
80% OF IT RESOURCES INVEST IN MAKING THE CUSTOMER FRONT LINE MORE EFFICIENT.
WHAT I LEARNED
Customers influence customers! Allowing a customer to have a voice through out your business presence increases another customers trust in your company making them more likely to want to purchase from you. Having opinions readily available on your website decreases the time that a person has to spend searching through review websites. By allowing customers to share their experiences on your own website rather than review websites only, makes your company appear more honest if you display their opinion of you right on your front door.
how to implement it
Enable customers to ask questions directly on the product page, with answers displayed publicly for others to see. This helps reduce the time your team spends addressing repetitive inquiries while also making it easier for future customers to find the information they need, improving their overall buying experience. In addition, it builds trust by showing that your business is responsive and supportive.
Allow customers to rate and review products right from the product page. Create product pages that have a review section at the bottom with options like, star 1 to 5, leave a comment, upload an image (if they wish) of the product. An automatic email could be sent to the customer after a purchase to remind them to write a review. Page would only display the 5 most recent reviews with page expansion to view more to not overwhelm the customer. Several companies offer this addition.
Advertise what you do, not what you sell. Promos on what you do best, Customer Care, Fast Shipping, Free shipping, Technical information etc. Produce clear message ads that advertise the company as a whole. There is still a place for product advertising just don’t let it be the only advertising you do. Videos are a great way to engage and quickly fill the customer in on why you are impressive and the knowledge you have.