Sales Communications session @inbound15

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THE 365 DAY GROWTH
PLAN: FROM OUTBOUND
AGENCY TO 3X REVENUE
GROWTH IN ONE YEAR
A Company Story of Why & How
JANI AALTONEN & TOMI YRJÖLÄ
Sales Communications Oy

2. 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 are
HubSpot partners?”

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”How many of you are going
to 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 stations
ü Finland’s first online chat
ü World’s first mobile radio
ü 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 averagesquare 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 Inbound201512 months

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2 OUR JOURNEY

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The GREAT
Innovation
occurs when
you JUMP to
the next curve
”
Guy Kawasaki
Chief 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)
Startofthe
nextcurve

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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 customer
meetings
2 500 € 1,75 € 195 € / each

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Sales training
How to get
meetings
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 would
get 12 meetings in one day
When we quit the number was 0,65

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Change in the air
If you book them
they 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 are
THE BIGGEST SPAMMER
in the whole of Scandinavia!
You need to stop before you get in
to trouble.
”
William Naversten
Our Partner from Element AB

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I’m not going to stop
untill I have enough
evidence that this is
NOT 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 licences
sold in a year
0 licences
sold in a year
17 licences
sold in a year

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Everybody wanted to
just sell us software
HubSpot 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 months
to jump onboard!

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INBOUND 2014

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We Realized That
Without Investments…
… you don’t stand a chance!

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@INBOUND2014 WE MADE THE DECISION
TO 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 companythe 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 inbound
agency 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?
Blog
E-book
Webinar
Whitepaper
Free
€0
Hire Us
MaaS
contract
€750-7200
*adapted from Aidan O’Leary / Clodagh Higgins
Objective?
A quick,
efficient
sell.

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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
Blog
E-book
Webinar
Whitepaper
Assessment
Strategy
session
Workshop
Training
Strategy
projects
MaaS
contract
Websites
HubSpot
VAR
Personnel
Certificates
Pro >
Enterprise
€0 €0-1500 €1500-8000 €750-7200 30K >> +100K

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Customers & Projects

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33 %
of the revenue
comes from
retainers

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80 %
of the revenue
comes from
clients that
have retainer
deals

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20 %
of the revenue
comes from
website
projects
that converts
into retainer
deals 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 Customer
Commitment Process

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Customer Commitment Process
Marketing
performance
call
7DAYS Task & To-do
call
Idea call Task & To-do
call
7DAYS
7DAYS
1st week
of the month
Show the customer
how their marketing
is performingand
give them ideas how
to make itbetter. Tie
marketinginto their
business goals.
2nd week
of the month
Go through what
needs to be done
next and agree the
resources to do it.
3rd week
of the month
Give customer a few
ideas on how to
improve their
marketing.
Occasionally HubSpot
Channel Manager will
join and give input.
4th week
of the month
Go through what
needs to be done
next and agree the
resources to do it.

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Customer Commitment Process
Marketing
performance
call
7DAYS Task & To-do
call
Idea call Task & To-do
call
7DAYS
7DAYS
1st week
of the month
Show to the customer
how their marketing
is performingand
give them ideas how
to make itbetter. Tie
marketinginto their
business goals.
2nd week
of the month
Go through what
needs to be done
next and agree on
the resources to do it.
3rd week
of the month
Give customer a few
ideas on how to
improve their
marketing.
Occasionally HubSpot
Channel Manager will
join and give input.
4th week
of the month
Go through what
needs to be done
next and agree the
resources to do it.

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Customer Commitment Process
Marketing
performance
call
7DAYS Task & To-do
call
Idea call Task & To-do
call
7DAYS
7DAYS
1st week
of the month
Show to the customer
how their marketing
is performingand
give them ideas how
to make itbetter. Tie
marketinginto their
business goals.
2nd week
of the month
Go through what
needs to be done
next and agree the
resources to do it.
3rd week
of the month
Give customer ideas
on how to improve
their marketing.
Occasionally a
HubSpot Channel
Manager will join and
give input.
4th week
of the month
Go through what
needs to be done
next and agree the
resources to do it.

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Customer Commitment Process
Marketing
performance
call
7DAYS Task & To-do
call
Idea call Task & To-do
call
7DAYS
7DAYS
1st week
of the month
Show to the customer
how their marketing
is performingand
give them ideas how
to make itbetter. Tie
marketinginto their
business goals.
2nd week
of the month
Go through what
needs to be done
next and agree the
resources to do it.
3rd week
of the month
Give customer a few
ideas on how to
improve their
marketing.
Occasionally HubSpot
Channel Manager will
join and give input.
4th week
of the month
Go through what
needs to be done
next and agree on
the resources to do it.

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We Show Our Pricing!
Because we want our customers to know how
much money they need to spend!

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Production

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2
Writers /
Bloggers
1
Designer
3
Coders
+

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5 WORKING WITH HUBSPOT &
WHAT WE ’VE LEARNED

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The big picture
Sales Production
Customer
happiness

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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, nurturing
clients…

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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 right
packaging

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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!