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HubSpot, Inc. Transforming the Marketing Model Source: Compiled…
HubSpot, Inc.
Transforming the Marketing Model
Source: Compiled from interviews and information provided by HubSpot, Inc. www.
hubspot.com. © 2012, Cengage Learning.
Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah, the founders of HubSpot®, met at MIT in 2004. The
company is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, directly across from the campus where it
was first envisioned. Both Halligan and Shah were interested in the transformative impact
of the Internet on small businesses and were early students of Web 2.0 concepts. After two
years of discussions and early work, in June 2006 the company was officially founded and
funded.
The most interesting aspect of the Internet’s impact on business from HubSpot’s
perspective is how it has changed the nature of shopping and, subsequently, the shape of
every vendor’s sales funnel. Ten years ago, if a company was interested in buying a new
product or service, it started by attending trade shows, reading industry journals, and going
to seminars to learn more. Early in the process, it would engage directly with key vendors’
salespeople who would provide product information.
Today, that same process looks very different. The potential customer starts by
Googling relevant keywords. The prospect spends time on each vendor’s site, subscribing
to the most interesting vendor blogs, perhaps joining an industry discussion forum, etc.
Relatively late in the decision cycle, the prospect engages the vendor’s salespeople
directly. That first vendor conversation today is much different from the one a decade ago
because the prospect often knows as much about the vendor’s product as the sales rep does
and the prospect is already much more “qualified.”
The Internet has tended to make every marketplace more efficient. Just as eBay makes
the niche market for Pez dispensers, the Internet as a whole is making niche markets for
intellectual property law, system dynamics consulting, and food brokerage more efficient.
It used to be that the size of a firm’s sales force was the key to finding the most new
customers, but that is not necessarily the case today. The good news for small businesses is
that on the Internet, no one can tell if you are a sole proprietorship or a large consultancy.
The Internet disproportionately favours small businesses because it enables them to
position their niche products so that they are available to everyone who is shopping for
them, regardless of the prospective customer’s location. HubSpot Inbound Marketing
Software helps over 4,000 customers to generate traffic and leads through their websites,
and to convert more of those leads into customers. Its vision has been to provide a killer
marketing application and provide great advice to small businesses, enabling those
companies to leverage the disruptive effects of the Internet and “get found” by more
prospects.
Web Case 06: HubSpot, Inc.
Most small businesses have a website that behaves like their old paper-based
brochures, but just sits online. It is rarely updated, is not given significant visibility by
search engines, has low traffic levels, does not encourage return visits, does not
enable/track conversions, etc. What HubSpot does is transform that relatively static
website into a modern marketing machine that produces the right leads and helps convert a
higher percentage of them into qualified opportunities.
HubSpot focuses on tools to help the small business owner create, optimize, and
promote content; capture, manage, and nurture leads to win more customers; and learn to
make smart marketing investments that get results. Some of the tools it provides include
social media, blogging, search engine optimization, and content management.
Questions
1. How has the salesperson’s role changed because of Internet marketing? Consider
differences in prospecting and presentation.
2. Do you agree with HubSpot that a prospect is more “qualified” to make purchasing
decisions when it uses information found on the Internet?
3. How might the salesperson’s compensation be different or the same with Internet sales
versus traditional sales methods?
4. Should a new small business rely solely on Internet promotion? What other methods
should it use?
Content of the Memo should include:
a) a summary of the case;
b) listing of the relevant facts or statistics;
c) each individual question and their answers;
d) listing of all sources used
