- Remind the Sales VP about the existing HubSpot Sales + CRM instance, and remind her of its capabilities. Ask if there is a specific reason they need Salesforce rather than what they already have, and suggest doing a cost benefit analysis that includes not only the price of both tools, but also how ingrained the existing HubSpot Sales tool is, and what it would cost in terms of time/money to implement Salesforce.
- Remind the Sales VP gently, but remember that your job is to implement what the Sales VP needs in order to maintain a productive business relationship. Don’t linger on the topic and risk offending her. Skip over doing any kind of discovery, and move on towards implementing Salesforce. This is a large company, and it won’t hurt them too much if they have more than one tool for doing the same thing.
- Suggest that the Sales VP forego the CRM idea altogether. Their team is too disorganized to benefit from a CRM, and are better off organizing their process in excel. Don’t mention the limited HubSpot instance their team is already using, because you want to avoid muddying the waters too much with complexity. Focus on Sales consulting, and try and convince the Sales VP to look beyond the need for a CRM.
- Take an educational approach towards consulting them on this issue, rather than pushing for any particular solution aggressively at first. Find out if it makes monetary and temporal sense to expand the existing HubSpot Sales instance vs. implementing Salesforce. Once you’ve made your decision regarding what’s best for their tech stack, remind the client that they’re obligated to follow your recommendations if they wish to retain you as a partner.
- How much would it cost to move to a different system?
- If this app were removed, what processes would be disrupted?
- How much are competitors charging for this same functionality?
- None of the above. They’re all good questions.
- Be straightforward with the CEO. She may not be satisfied with the CMS, but it’s too deeply ingrained to replace quickly. It will take time and money to properly replace it with a new CMS.
- Decline the project and move on. Let the CEO know you cannot meet their timeline, and therefore they aren’t a good fit for your services. Tell the CEO to buy a HubSpot technical consulting package.
- Tell the CEO to buy a HubSpot technical consulting package.
- Tell the CEO that they should forget about replacing the CMS, and should focus on replacing their CRM system instead.
- How, where, and when is a given app used?
- What metrics can be tracked through a given app?
- How quickly do you want to reduce the number of apps your company is using by 50%?
- What objects does this app touch most frequently?
- Demonstrate business acumen and build brand-equity
- Build long-term trust
- Convince the client to sign a larger contract
- Convince the client to shift their entire platform to HubSpot
- A & B
- Focus on how, where, and when an app is used in a business process, rather than the raw number of apps
- Focus on how ingrained an app is in the business’ operations, and how much it would cost to move to a different system
- Focus on identifying each app’s potential to meet more than one need for a company
- All of the above
- Save time by having the partner run the platform audit
- Save money by identifying apps that aren’t providing sufficient ROI
- Cancel multiple software contracts easily and without pain
- Save more than 50% of last year’s platform budget
- A & B
- Partners should strictly avoid performing technology audits for the clients, and focus on hands-off consulting and guidance
- Partners should always try to replace their client’s existing technology platform at the start of a project
- Partners could provide platform auditing both as a standalone service and as an addition to existing services
- Platform auditing is extremely easy for companies to do internally, and partners’ auditing services are only required for larger firms with greater access to resources
