The 365 day growth plan from outbound agency to 3 x revenue growth in one year

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THE 365 DAY GROWTH PLAN: FROM OUTBOUND AGENCY TO 3X REVENUE GROWTH IN ONE YEARA Company Story of Why & How

JANI AALTONEN & TOMI YRJÖLÄSales Communications Oy

1. SALES COMMUNICATIONS

2. OUR JOURNEY

3. GOING INBOUND

4. HOW WE’RE ORGANIZED

5. WORKING WITH HUBSPOT & WHAT WE’VE LEARNED

AGENDA

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”How many of you areHubSpot partners?”

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”How many of you are goingto be HubSpot partners?”

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1 SALES COMMUNICATIONS

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Founded in May 2012

An Inbound Marketing & Sales Agency that helps S&M businesses….

What Is Sales Communications?

Generate Leads

Grow Their Business

Transform, conquer the digital

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Jani & Tomi

ü Back in 1997…ü #1 radio stationsü Finland’s first online chatü World’s first mobile radioü SBS Programmers of the Year

2000 – globally

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• We teach the new playbook of digitalized sales and marketing

• Operate with clients primarily in Northern Europe

• Inbound: From Smarketing strategy to planning and content

• Marketing As Service (MaaS) partner for currently over 35 clients

• 100% inbound – practice what u preach!

What We Do

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Where We Are

• Based in Helsinki, the Capital• Finland, population totals 5,4 million• World’s northernmost country per average square mile• Home of Nokia (or was…)

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What We Are

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The Finnish market

http://www3.weforum.org/

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“Economic growth is projected to resume in 2015 after three years of contraction.

Nevertheless, sluggish incomes and high unemployment will continue to weigh on private

consumption and remaining spare capacity will delay investments...”

What happened, man?

http://www.oecd.org/eco/outlook/finland-economic-forecast-summary.htm

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Why we love to be here

Inbound2014 Inbound2015 12 months

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2 OUR JOURNEY

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The GREATInnovationoccurs whenyou JUMP tothe next curve

”Guy KawasakiChief Evangelist of Canva

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0

250000

500000

750000

1000000

1250000

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

Axession (outbound telemarketing) Sales Comminucations (inbound marketing)

Start of the next curve

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The Outbound Days 2003 - 2013R.I.P.

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0

250000

500000

750000

1000000

1250000

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

AXESSION (outbound telemarketing)

A BID WAS MADE

LIFE WAS GOOD

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Outbound services

Sales pitch List of leads(Excel)

Booked customermeetings

2 500 € 1,75 € 195 € / each

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Sales training

How to getmeetings SuperDay

Various training to get more

meetings and activity to sales

Tämä slide pois

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We had 686 customers in 10 years

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When we started average telemarketer wouldget 12 meetings in one day

When we quit the number was 0,65

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Change in the air

If you book themthey will come?

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Change is really hard sometimes.

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Let’s go digital…

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Let’s go digital…

=Send email blasts

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WE SENT OVER 1 000 000 EMAILS IN 90 DAYS

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Jani, you areTHE BIGGEST SPAMMERin the whole of Scandinavia!You need to stop before you get in to trouble.

”William NaverstenOur Partner from Element AB

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I’m not going to stopuntill I have enoughevidence that this isNOT WORKING!

”

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End of story… No more!

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Your Old Customers...

...may buy the new services, but many will eventually leave!

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HubSpot was doing the right things

A philosophy. An attitude. Also some great software.

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3 GOING INBOUND

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2012 2013 2014 >>

7 licencessold in a year

0 licencessold in a year

17 licencessold in a year

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Everybody wanted to just sell us softwareHubSpot was the only one who sold (an delivered) a partnership..

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The decision to go inbound

”Do it!

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The decision to go inbound

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4 months of thinking…

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2 months of thinking…

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The deal!

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It took over 6 monthsto jump onboard!

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INBOUND 2014

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We Realized ThatWithout Investments…… you don’t stand a chance!

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@INBOUND2014 WE MADE THE DECISIONTO GO ALL ORANGE!

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Had a BLAST!

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One of our most important pictures ever!

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Timeline

START SILVER GOLD PLATINUM

April 4, 2014 June, 2014 September, 2014 End of 2015

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Thank You 4 the Mohitos!

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• We started producing lots of the right content for our buyer personas

• Blogs: Sales Communications / janiaaltonen.net

• Got our keywords in order

• Started weekly webinars (over 2 000 people have attended)

• Became the most proactive content marketer on the agency scene

After inbound 2014

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We started producing lots of the right content for our buyer personas

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Started weekly webinars (over 2 000 people have attended)

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Podcast about HubSpot

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Our Own Series on Growth

Podcasts

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YouTube Channel

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Lot’s of MoFu-content!

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#1 HubSpot Partner in Finland Marketing Grader!

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4 HOW WE’RE ORGANIZED

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8 people

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Sales & Marketing

Customers & Projects

Production & resources

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1. Content to get the right traffic to our site … AND CONVERT!

2. We use the HubSpot salestool (CRM) to track the ”Active today” list

3. Lead qualification is done by our sales team (2 persons)

4. 1st call is made if the lead is ok (sales qualified)

Sales & Marketing

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Criteria Emphasis

Is there a need? 40%

Is the decision maker involved? 25%

Do they want to change? 10%

Is the company the right size? 15%

Level of diginativeness? 5%

Do they want to grow? 5%

Qualifying Criteria

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• Conversion rate

• Number of marketing qualified leads

• Number of open leads

• How many opportunities closing this week / month?

• How does the next month look like?

KPI’s (new customer)

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Our sales process?

It’s our take on HubSpot’s inboundagency retainer model*…

*Aidan O’Leary / Clodagh Higgins

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Started off…

Convert >> Nurture >> Sell>> Close >> MaaS

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Did the simple model work?

BlogE-book

WebinarWhitepaper

Free

€0

Hire Us

MaaScontract

€750-7200

*adapted from Aidan O’Leary / Clodagh Higgins

Objective?

A quick, efficientsell.

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cvcv

Free

Sales Process 2015

Try Us Work with Us Hire Us Grow with Us

*adapted from Aidan O’Leary / Clodagh Higgins

BlogE-book

WebinarWhitepaper

AssessmentStrategysession

WorkshopTraining Strategyprojects

MaaScontractWebsitesHubSpot

VAR

PersonnelCertificates

Pro > Enterprise

€0 €0-1500 €1500-8000 €750-7200 30K >> +100K

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Customers & Projects

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33 %of the revenuecomes fromretainers

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80 %of the revenuecomes fromclients thathave retainerdeals

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20 %of the revenuecomes fromwebsiteprojects

that convertsinto retainerdeals by

60%

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Our Strategy in 2015? Get the Chi Scores Up!

More activity. More results. Customers need help…

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Our CustomerCommitment Process

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Customer Commitment Process

Marketing performance

call 7 DA

YS Task & To-docall

Idea call Task & To-docall7

DAYS

7 DA

YS

1st weekof the month

Show the customerhow their marketingis performing and give them ideas howto make it better. Tie marketing into theirbusiness goals.

2nd weekof the month

Go through whatneeds to be donenext and agree the resources to do it.

3rd weekof the month

Give customer a fewideas on how to improve theirmarketing. Occasionally HubSpotChannel Manager willjoin and give input.

4th weekof the month

Go through whatneeds to be donenext and agree the resources to do it.

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Customer Commitment Process

Marketing performance

call 7 DA

YS Task & To-docall

Idea call Task & To-docall7

DAYS

7 DA

YS

1st weekof the month

Show to the customerhow their marketingis performing and give them ideas howto make it better. Tie marketing into theirbusiness goals.

2nd weekof the month

Go through whatneeds to be donenext and agree on the resources to do it.

3rd weekof the month

Give customer a fewideas on how to improve theirmarketing. Occasionally HubSpotChannel Manager willjoin and give input.

4th weekof the month

Go through whatneeds to be donenext and agree the resources to do it.

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Customer Commitment Process

Marketing performance

call 7 DA

YS Task & To-docall

Idea call Task & To-docall7

DAYS

7 DA

YS

1st weekof the month

Show to the customerhow their marketingis performing and give them ideas howto make it better. Tie marketing into theirbusiness goals.

2nd weekof the month

Go through whatneeds to be donenext and agree the resources to do it.

3rd weekof the month

Give customer ideason how to improvetheir marketing. Occasionally a HubSpot Channel Manager will join and give input.

4th weekof the month

Go through whatneeds to be donenext and agree the resources to do it.

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Customer Commitment Process

Marketing performance

call 7 DA

YS Task & To-docall

Idea call Task & To-docall7

DAYS

7 DA

YS

1st weekof the month

Show to the customerhow their marketingis performing and give them ideas howto make it better. Tie marketing into theirbusiness goals.

2nd weekof the month

Go through whatneeds to be donenext and agree the resources to do it.

3rd weekof the month

Give customer a fewideas on how to improve theirmarketing. Occasionally HubSpotChannel Manager willjoin and give input.

4th weekof the month

Go through whatneeds to be donenext and agree on the resources to do it.

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We Show Our Pricing!

Because we want our customers to know howmuch money they need to spend!

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Production

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2Writers / Bloggers

1Designer

3Coders

+

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5 WORKING WITH HUBSPOT & WHAT WE ’VE LEARNED

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The big picture

Sales Production Customerhappiness

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Fun!

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Positive pushing!

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• Bi-weekly sales call

• Bi-weekly customer /

development & CHI call

• 24/7 support >> amazing!

Together

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Receiving end?

• How to make a better business

• Grow the market!• Sales, campaigns

ideas, nurturingclients…

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What We’ve Learned?

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• Inbound requires a new business model, with its own kpi’s and metrics

• We’re selling change management, a new way of engaging with one’s environment

• Inbound works – we’re living proof (more importantly, so are our customers)

• Understanding our ideal customers is critical

• Inbound – and HubSpot – offer a real opportunity to develop a scalable business

• The early adopters are gradually giving way to new volumes of prospects, so sales is

changing

What we have learned

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Inbound requires a new business model, with its own distinct capabilities & kpi’s

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We sell change management, a new way of engaging in a digital ecosystem

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Inbound works – we’re living proof (more importantly, so are our customers)

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Understanding our ideal customers is critical

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Inbound – and HubSpot – offers a real opportunity to develop a scalable business

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The early adopters are still buying - but the market is maturing. So our approach is also evolving…

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• Business is more predictable

• Commitment goes both ways

• Buying and using the service is relatively easy

• The barriers to entry can be migitated with the right packages

• Flexible usage of resourced hours

Retainers

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For us, business is predictable

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Commitment goes both ways

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Buying and using the service is relatively easy

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The barriers to entry can be migitated with the rightpackaging

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Flexible usage of resourced hours

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SAY NO IF THE CUSTOMER FIT IS BAD

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1. Is there a real need?

2. How digital are they?

3. How committed is top management?

4. Do they understand that content marketing is expensive?

5. What is their willingness to change?

6. Are they used to buying services?

How to say no / when to say no…

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Pay them what they ’re worth.

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www.salescommunications.fi

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THANK YOU!