HubSpot has revolutionized the world of sales and marketing. From their inception as a startup in 2005 until today, HubSpot has grown into a sales and marketing software powerhouse with over 23,000 customers in 90 countries.

Like most disruptive technologies, HubSpot became ubiquitous by making inbound marketing software affordable and usable to even the smallest of businesses. Their product suite has grown to include CRM and Sales Prospecting software and they've recently announced that they will be rolling out Customer Fulfillment software early in 2018.

Many HubSpot customers don't take advantage of the full potential of the software due to a lack of knowledge and/or resources. They aren't interested in a full-blow retainer arrangement where management of the inbound marketing program is outsourced to a certified HubSpot partner. Nonetheless, they could use a little help to really take advantage of the potential of the HubSpot inbound marketing software.

Enter the HubSpot Consultant. Here are 4 ways a HubSpot consultant can help you grow your professional services business.

1. Building out your inbound marketing foundation

The execution of a successful business development program is always preceded by a well-thought out professional services marketing strategy. An experienced HubSpot consultant can help you translate your strategy into execution that is built in HubSpot. Here are some of the elements of a well-thought out inbound marketing foundation:

• SEO strategy based on content clusters. HubSpot describes content clusters as follows, "SEO is now shifting to a topic cluster model, where a single “pillar” page acts as the main hub of content for a overarching topic and multiple content pages that are related to that same topic link back to the pillar page and to each other. This linking action signals to search engines that the pillar page is an authority on the topic, and over time, the page may rank higher and higher for the topic it covers. The topic cluster model, at its very essence, is a way of organizing a site’s content pages using a cleaner and more deliberate site architecture." A good HubSpot consultant will help you build out your content clusters based on your business and the products/services you sell. This should be the core of your inbound marketing efforts.
• Keyword strategy. Your keyword strategy is a follow-on to your content clusters. A HubSpot consultant will help you choose the keywords that support your SEO strategy and teach you how to track them in the Keywords module of the software.
• Content creation strategy. Again, this is a corollary to your content cluster strategy. Your "pillar" pages will most likely be created in the services/solutions section of your website. Your content creation strategy will identify topics you will cover in your content marketing and strategically create links back and forth between the "pillar" pages and the content you create, whether it be blog posts, videos, webinars or infographics.
• Create workflows to support your sales process. Lead qualification and prioritization are essential for professional services firms to maximize the return on limited sales resources. A HubSpot consultant can help you use the software to:
  • Identify the leads with the highest probability of becoming a profitable customer
  • Provide timely notification when a high-quality lead is generated
  • Create automated processes to quickly reach out to high-quality leads

These are just a few of the elements of an inbound marketing foundation. By harnessing the knowledge of a good HubSpot consultant, you can build an effective business development process that you and your team can execute.

2. HubSpot training for you and your team

You've purchased HubSpot and you may have received some rudimentary training from the HubSpot support team. While the HubSpot trainers are well-versed in the software and the general topic of inbound marketing, they're probably not familiar with your business model. The internal HubSpot people are specialists, not generalists.

The inbound marketing arena today is ultra-competitive; it's no longer enough to publish a few blog posts and wait for the sales-ready leads to pour in. This is where a HubSpot consultant who knows your business and your industry adds value. They can train you and your team to use HubSpot strategically to support your business development function.

For example, Rapidan Inbound specializes in the professional services industry. We know that most professional services business have the following characteristics:

• High customer lifetime values - professional services customers are buying knowledge that they need for their business to function effectively. The lifetime value of that customer typically ranges from $10,000 upwards.
• The number of deals needed to hit sales goals are relatively low - this is a corollary of high customer lifetime values, because the per deal value is high, you don't need hundreds of deals a quarter to hit your number.
• There is a high potential for cross-sells, upsells and referrals - because professional services business help their customers with key business functions, there are many opportunities to do more and different things for them. If you really help them, they will introduce you on favorable terms to other businesses that have needs for your services.

A HubSpot consultant that specializes in your industry can train you and your people to use the software to support your business development strategy.

3. Integrate technology elements into a seamless whole

Most professional services business can execute most of their business development process within the HubSpot growth stack: marketing, CRM and sales outreach. Truth be told, most professional services businesses don't need the capabilities of a CRM like Salesforce.

But some professional services businesses do need Salesforce. And most will use webinar software, video marketing software and other technologies that work best when integrated with the core marketing software.

A HubSpot consultant can integrate all of your technology components so that they support your business development process. For example, people who register for GoToWebinar events need to be added to your contact database in HubSpot. Or you may need inbound leads that are generated in HubSpot to be transferred to Salesforce so that they can be promptly addressed by sales.

If you're using HubSpot as your CRM/Sales tool like we are, a HubSpot consultant can help you effectively automate your customer lifecycle value from lead to sales opportunity to customer.

4. HubSpot Optimization Audit

Some businesses have been using HubSpot for a while and want to make sure they are getting the most out of their investment. These businesses can benefit from having a Certified HubSpot Partner who knows their business model evaluate how they're using HubSpot and make suggestions on how to improve their usage of the software.

HubSpot is a feature-rich tool that is continuously being updated. Business managers that are focused on running their own businesses don't have the time or resources to become a HubSpot expert. A HubSpot optimization audit is an affordable way to acquire the expertise that they don't have the time or internal resources to develop. 

The consequence of the HubSpot Optimization Audit is an action plan to implement unused elements of the software and better use elements that are currently being used. You can then decide whether to execute it internally or hire a consultant in a DIFM  (Do It For Me) arrange it to put the plan in motion.

If you're one of the 23,000+ businesses that are using HubSpot, a good HubSpot consultant can help you grow your business. Look for someone who knows your business and is a Certified HubSpot Partner to ensure good results. If you're looking for long-term help with your sales and marketing, hiring a HubSpot consultant is a good way to see what you will get before committing to a more extensive relationship.