Owning the Outcome

Hannah Collins Lee, co-founder and CEO of Second Mile, joins the pod to talk about one of the hottest topics in the business world: the four day work week. Hannah shares how the team ideated on, tested, and then fully implemented for Second Mile—and she walks us through what it now looks like in practice. She outlines exactly how the processes, operations, and employee expectations had to evolve to allow for this shift and how it now manifests in the team’s client engagements. Specifically with clients, she talks about the announcement out to clients, the initial receptiveness, and the increased accountability she now had to deliver results. We wrap with impact to the business—from the trickle down impact on numbers and KPIs over to the culture, work-life balance, and employee experience.

Ryan Burkett and Galen Dow talk about the potential of an Account-based RevOps Strategy (ABR) as a revenue opportunity. They discuss the differences between ABR and ABM, the importance of sales and marketing alignment, and the benefits of integrating account-based activities within the CRM. They also explore considerations for building an effective account-based marketing tech stack and emphasize the need for constant adaptation in the evolving agency life.

Matt Bolian, CEO and cofounder of Supered, brings his unique perspective from both the solutions partner and now app partner side on why managed services, agencies, and other people-centric organizations can be difficult to scale. Matt shares why a scaling strategy is so important, how partners should be prioritizing pathways towards scaling, and what opportunities are in front of those partners who are able to leverage the right systems, teams, processes, and technologies for scale. We then hone in on the idea of “tech-enabled” partners, where technology across the app ecosystem (specifically tools like Supered) can enable and support the growth of partners by increased capacity, improved margins, and higher client adoption of the platforms they implement.

This week's guest is Tom Richard, CEO and Co-founder of Unlimited Tech Solutions. As his organization knocks on the door of becoming an Elite-tiered solutions partner, Tom shares the selling and servicing frameworks that have proven to be successful in aiding his team's growth. We start with how he frames his organization in the ecosystem (and the name Unlimited Tech Solutions provides a great hint). We talk about the win-win approach his team takes to selling—regardless of whether it's pitching net-new services, reselling software, co-selling with HubSpot, or all of the above. He goes into detail as to how he prioritizes transparency and proper expectation setting. On the servicing side, he talks about his approach to scoping integrated tech stacks and complex configurations of HubSpot, something I know is top of mind for many.  And although it can present a great revenue opportunity, we also discuss the occasional headache-inducing experience of being hired to "rewire” the work done by others in a customer's HubSpot portal. 

Christopher Nault, Founder and CEO of Growth, discusses transitioning from a traditional marketing agency to revenue generation and ops consultancy within the HubSpot ecosystem. Insights on sales evolution, prospecting, and lead generation. Recommendations for carving out a place in the market. The value of visuals in sales strategies. Transition to an operations-focused organization. The use of generative AI in agency processes.

Tyler Samani-Sprunk, Chief Marketing Officer at Simple Strat, joins the show and pulls the curtain back on HubSpot Hacks—the highly successful YouTube channel the Simple Strat team manages to the tune of 18,000+ subscribers and 1.2 million video views. Tyler opens up to the history of HubSpot Hacks, where and how it began, and how it operates today. We discuss those early days, how the initial pilot was structured, how they measured success, and the methods used to accelerate its growth and scale their efforts. Tyler then explains how it's been integrated into Simple Strat’s systems and other go-to-market strategies, and he walks us through how a video view on YouTube turns into a paying client of Simple Strat. He also shares the quantifiable impact Simple Strat has seen from the channel across lead generation, opportunity close rates, revenue, and more.  We wrap with Tyler’s perspective on how others can uncover and leverage growth strategies like the one Simple Strat built with HubSpot Hacks—and he shares actionable tips for building your own growth playbook—whether it's through video-based content or otherwise. 

In this podcast, Dan Moyle discusses community-led growth and its importance for solutions partners. Topics include building communities within organizations, leveraging community as a growth lever, using ideal client profiles, and building and hosting communities on HubSpot. The speakers also highlight successful communities like the Bot Academy and HubSpot Academy, explore the benefits of Cohortium for community building on HubSpot, and discuss the challenges of measuring ROI and leveraging data in community development.

Gemma Price, CEO of HubGem, shares the history of HubGem and the path that led her towards specialization around the education space. We talk about the benefits of niche alignment for her team, her clients, and for the relationships she’s cultivated within HubSpot’s sales organization. Gemma also shares the risk partners face when making the decision to niche and the important considerations for after the fact—like hiring and training employees and resourcing accounts, to prospecting, sales conversations, and GTM strategies. Gemma also provides her perspective on the differences between “picking a niche” and “deep niche alignment” and what that looks like for HubGem. We wrap with Gemma's approach around HubSpot configuration for an industry that doesn’t have a traditional “sales” function you would envision adopting HubSpot—including some of the cool things she’s been able to build for her clients.

Kevin Barber, founder of Lean Labs, joins the pod to share his POV on the opportunities in front of HubSpot solutions partners with generative AI. He shares the ways in which his team has begun leveraging AI, what’s been replaced in their internal processes, and what’s been augmented and improved. We talk about the AI-prompt-powered solutions the team has both piloted and formally rolled out, like the Outline Optimizer and the Script Scrutinizer, and how Lean Labs handles the integration of these tools across their team and into their processes—from initial ideation, to test usage and prompt optimization, to ownership and involvement across the team, defining the completion criteria, and standardizing its usage and implementing it formally into their processes.

Neil Clarke, Digital Director at Quattro, joins the pod to discuss his process for building, maintaining, and prioritizing a small team—and how a lean operation has its advantages to both selling and servicing clients. Neil walks us through those advantages, value propositions, and how it manifests into Quattro’s go-to-market—including why & how it can be an attractive option for prospects comparative to larger organizations. We also talk about the intersection of team size and technical aptitude, the approach Neil's team takes for more complex engagements, and how team size isn’t indicative of a partner’s ability to effectively design and implement complex configurations of HubSpot.