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For businesses in the 10-50M range working in project-based industries, leveraging HubSpot efficiently is a game changer.
This article digs deep into advanced HubSpot strategies and hacks, showing how to automate, optimize, and scale sales processes. If you’re in project sales and want to boost productivity, this comprehensive guide is designed to elevate your HubSpot game.
1. HubSpot's Craftsmanship & Scalability
HubSpot’s greatest strength lies in its scalability and the philosophy of being "crafted, not cobbled." This approach allows businesses to grow seamlessly, from simple CRM setups to more complex, fully integrated solutions. Start small with HubSpot's basic CRM—track deals, log calls, and manage notes—and expand to marketing automation, sales workflows, operations handovers, and even customer service tools.
For businesses selling projects with long lead cycles, HubSpot’s flexibility is a must. It’s structured so that as your needs evolve, you can build on top of your existing system, eliminating the need to migrate to another platform.
Key Takeaway: With HubSpot, you’re not just setting up a CRM—you’re investing in a tool that can grow with your business needs.
2. Mastering Sequences: Nurture Prospects Like a Pro
HubSpot’s sequences feature enables businesses to streamline how they nurture leads through personalized follow-up emails, tasks, and LinkedIn activities. While workflows automatically trigger based on specific actions, sequences allow you to personally tailor outreach efforts for each lead.
You can easily enroll prospects in sequences that include automated emails, manual tasks, or calls to action. For instance, create a 4-part video series to educate your clients, with automated follow-up actions like a LinkedIn connection request or a task to call them at the right stage. This personalized approach increases engagement while making it easier to stay on top of multiple leads at once.
Key Takeaway: Sequences are highly customizable and can include manual steps like calls, making them ideal for personalized lead nurturing.
3. Workflows: Automating the Nurture Journey
While sequences focus on individual contacts, workflows let you automate tasks for each stage of your pipeline. For example, when a deal reaches the nurture stage, you can set workflows to send personalized emails, assign follow-up tasks, or even shift ownership of the deal to another team member.
One powerful use of workflows is automating internal communications and follow-ups, which ensures that no task falls through the cracks. For example, when a Discovery Call is scheduled, workflows can automatically send an internal notification to confirm meeting times with your executive assistant or other team members. This eliminates manual steps and keeps the deal pipeline moving efficiently.
Key Takeaway: Automate manual tasks at each stage of the pipeline for more efficiency and less human error.
4. Deal Properties: Simplifying Sales Qualification
Understanding your deals at a glance is crucial for managing a large sales pipeline. Many businesses miss out on this efficiency by only recording basic deal info like name, value, and stage. However, custom deal properties let you add relevant data points such as buyer type, backstory, or preferences.
For instance, you can create dropdown menus for CRM preferences, buyer types, or project details, making it easier for your sales reps to quickly fill in crucial information. This minimizes manual input errors and improves team collaboration by ensuring everyone has the right data at their fingertips.
Key Takeaway: Use custom deal properties to gain instant visibility into deals and improve how your team collaborates.
5. Exit Criteria and Custom Deal Records
One of the most effective ways to guide your sales team through complex deals is by setting exit criteria for each deal stage. This ensures that certain fields or tasks are completed before moving a deal from one stage to the next. For example, after a discovery meeting, the salesperson might need to complete a BOP (Backstory, Objective, Process) before moving the deal forward.
Having custom deal records with structured fields also simplifies data input, ensuring important details like CRM type, buyer needs, or even preferences like whiskey type (great for sending personalized gifts!) are not overlooked. This not only helps in managing client relationships better but also streamlines internal workflows.
Key Takeaway: Make sure your CRM collects essential deal data using exit criteria and structured fields for a smoother sales process.
6. The Power of Automating Internal Tasks
One of the most overlooked but highly effective features of HubSpot is the ability to automate internal processes. For example, every time a deal reaches a certain stage, like scheduled meeting, an internal task is automatically assigned to a team member to confirm the meeting. This removes the need for back-and-forth communication and manual tracking, saving time and avoiding mistakes.
Internal tasks can also trigger sending personalized emails or gifts, depending on the information stored in custom fields. For example, based on the whiskey preference mentioned earlier, an automated task could be generated to send a specific bottle of whiskey to a high-priority client.
Key Takeaway: Leverage HubSpot workflows to automate internal processes, eliminating the risk of manual errors and enhancing team efficiency.
7. Implementing Activity-Based Properties
Managing a long sales cycle means having a clear understanding of how engaged a prospect is. With HubSpot, you can track activity-based properties like the number of calls, emails, or meetings logged against a deal. This insight is essential for evaluating the health of a deal and understanding when more engagement is needed to push it through the pipeline.
For instance, a deal that has less than three touchpoints in the last 30 days might be flagged as needing follow-up, whereas a deal with ten or more logged activities could signal that it’s ready to close.
Key Takeaway: Use activity-based properties to keep track of deal engagement and ensure no deal goes cold.
8. Customizing Your CRM for Peak Efficiency
One of HubSpot’s most valuable features is the ability to customize your CRM layout. You can arrange key deal properties to be instantly visible on each record, saving your team from scrolling through endless data fields. For example, having “Deal Score,” “Next Steps,” or “Close Date” front and center ensures that critical information is always at hand.
You can also customize internal notifications so team members receive real-time alerts when a deal reaches critical stages, such as needing approval or hitting a key milestone.
Key Takeaway: Customizing your CRM layout improves sales efficiency and keeps your team focused on what matters most.
Why Bravo: The HubSpot Partner for Project Sales Teams
Mastering HubSpot for your project sales team is all about taking advantage of the platform's full range of customizable features. From automating internal tasks to leveraging sequences and workflows, HubSpot provides the tools to streamline and optimize your sales pipeline, making your sales team more efficient and your customer interactions more meaningful.
If you're ready to unlock the full potential of HubSpot for your project-based business, Why Bravo & its team of highly trained practitioners can help you start implementing these advanced hacks. The more you customize and automate your workflows, the more your team can focus on what they do best—closing deals.
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