June 2025
S1E4: Healthcare (Senior Living) with Jonathan Dobrovich
On the domin8 podcast, Stephen Saberin, Senior Partnerships Manager at Aptitude 8, talks with HubSpotters about the unique challenges they faced, how they tackled them, and what made the winning difference.
In Episode 4, Jonathan Dobrovich, Principal Services Consultant at HubSpot, breaks down a complex enterprise sale in the senior living space—where a surprise shift in priorities, custom-built calling infrastructure, and a multi-pronged rollout across B2B and B2C teams tested everyone’s agility. With 200+ sales seats, HIPAA considerations, and competing CRMs in the mix, Jonathan shares how building a phased implementation strategy (complete with role-based visuals) helped align stakeholders and secure the win.
Watch below or listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
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[00:00:00] I think one of the more gratifying things has been the team-based selling that we do and the value-based selling on the team-based side, it's been nice to really collaborate with Hub-Spotters on how to show somebody the vision for how to move into our platform.
[00:00:13]
[00:00:15] Welcome to the Domin8 Podcast. On this show, we talk with HubSpot sellers and sales support about their latest wins, pulling back the curtain to explore the challenges they ran into and the sales strategies they use to win the deal.
[00:00:28] I'm Steven Saberin, Senior Partnership manager for Aptitude 8, the world's top technical HubSpot consulting firm. I'm speaking with Jonathan Dobrovich. I hope I'm getting the last name correct there. Principal Services consultant with HubSpot. Jonathan, it's great to have you on the show today and look forward to hearing some of the details and interesting components of how you were able to successfully close this deal. So. Before we dive in, tell us a little bit, give us a little bit about your background, how'd you get started, as a service consultant [00:01:00] and make your way into the HubSpot ecosystem.
[00:01:03] Thanks for having me, Steven. Always like talking with you and working with Aptitude 8 too in general. Excited to be here, but in terms of myself I've been a hubspotter for nine and a half years. I actually got my start in support and I've had a very service focused track up until the past year where I moved into the pre-sales side of things, but spent a lot of time as a technical consultant at HubSpot and did about six to seven years of our premier and advanced onboardings, which was.
[00:01:28] Very, detail focused, implementation focused work. Over the past year though, I wanted to transition my skills into more of helping the broader org and taking some of that implementation experience into a more pre-sales role. So that helped align with my shift is into a services consultant where I'm more doing implementation strategy, working daily with partners, and helping pair the right implementation fit for our prospective customers.
[00:01:55] Interesting. What, were there any components, specifically [00:02:00] about your previous roles that you think really, lended themselves well to your current role and really helped you succeed as a services consultant?
[00:02:10] Yeah, I'd say there's two things that come top of mind. First is the project management side, and then second would be the. Technical scoping lens and how that applies to projecting and approaching projects in the right implementation resources that were fitting onto engagements. But talking about the project management side, I used to be doing the very detailed work of building out Asana project plans and creating plans that customers.
[00:02:38] Alongside me would implement, but I found that the details alone weren't enough along the way. I started abstracting those in the higher level timelines, right? The types of Gantt charts and things like that you would see. So a lot of that kind of like higher level abstracting would be how I start the projects.
[00:02:54] And so a lot of that I think is like the central point that kind of has helped me carry over into this services [00:03:00] consultant world. How to help tell the story of how somebody goes from considering to move to HubSpot as an example to implementing that for. Especially upmarket or larger corporations.
[00:03:10] Yeah.
[00:03:10] And then on the technical side, right, there's also the scoping fit, right? Like I've been hands-on and worked with customers directly and how they implemented HubSpot over three to four to five plus months, and sometimes longer engagements if we had really successful long engagements. So I think that kind of was me going from being hands-on to just being more of a consultant and how I spoke about capabilities and different types of fits.
[00:03:34] I'm sure that helps coming from almost the, like the project management side even particularly, 'cause it really helps you understand. Exactly what goes into some of these projects and setting right expectations because they, there's something, the planning fallacy, I know Noah talks about it all the time, where it's like even in your day-to-day life where if you're trying to plan out your week, there's always a mis set expectation, even like with your own self [00:04:00] as to how long something actually takes to get done.
[00:04:03] So I'm sure that directly helps you be successful in your current role.
[00:04:08] Yeah, you're absolutely right. And as like a lot of the times there's this what we can project implementations to generally take what the platforms allow from a speed perspective and then all the unique elements of customer comes in with. So we do have to gut check that right off the gate to see if things are feasible, right?
[00:04:26] Like it'd be nice if every engagement had a nice, healthy timeline, but some of them don't, right? So especially in those ones, when there's crunch timelines, that implementation experience really helps deconstruct what should be MVP, what should come after? 'cause we've had a sense of how difficult it is or how much it actually takes to get those things done.
[00:04:44] Oh yeah, absolutely. Yeah. The tight timelines are, I feel like we always, in this ecosystem, we're all dealing with that from time to time where it's, these like crazy timelines or, trying to get an extension on something, right? Because they, they realized last minute that they're trying [00:05:00] to, Hey, wait a minute, we actually don't like our current platform and we're trying
[00:05:02] Yeah.
[00:05:03] of it.
[00:05:03] And you're like, well, six months. I would've been a better time to have the conversation, but,
[00:05:07] Right.
[00:05:08] it's okay.
[00:05:10] Yeah, I'll just keep bringing the short timeframe once you to up to Aptitude 8. I'll let you guys handle that.
[00:05:15] well, thanks. Appreciate it. Oh man. Anyway, but okay. So. In your previous experiences, they're really lending all the, your previous experience lending really well to your current role. But zooming out from there even further, what,
[00:05:32] what do you find is the most rewarding part of selling in the HubSpot ecosystem
[00:05:36] apart from some of the other experiences that you have?
[00:05:39] And, what are you, yeah. Tell me a little
[00:05:41] Yeah,
[00:05:42] I think one of the more gratifying things has been the team-based selling that we do and the value-based selling on the team-based side,
[00:05:49] I'm trying to say, is like
[00:05:50] it's been nice to really collaborate with Hub-Spotters on how to show somebody the vision for how to move into our platform.
[00:05:57] Coming into this, maybe I had a just different predisposition to that, but [00:06:00] it's. It's very much collaborative and strategic. I found myself really enjoying that side of it. I think the thing that also helps that is HubSpot really values value-based selling. So not just selling like features and our capabilities, but trying to understand the customer use cases and then tailoring the content we're showing them to that.
[00:06:18] So it's it's just more contextual, right? Like I, I guess I had these. Coming into the services consultant role, which I've been here about a year now. I didn't traditionally have sales experience, so,
[00:06:27] those expectations kinda met realities and I was pleasantly surprised
[00:06:31] because of these things.
[00:06:35] Yeah. Very interesting. And I, always like to hear about the background and like how people got into it. And I feel like the, that resonates across the other conversations that I've had so far with
[00:06:47] Yeah.
[00:06:48] and anybody who's in the selling world, right? I know we don't directly sell, but at least currently.
[00:06:53] But so always interesting to hear how everybody al almost somehow touches
[00:06:58] the
[00:06:58] like.
[00:06:59] Team [00:07:00] selling and just the environment and the folks that we get to work with in that team environment,
[00:07:03] which
[00:07:03] I think is really unique and special in the HubSpot world.
[00:07:07] So
[00:07:08] Yeah,
[00:07:08] something that I would trade for, but.
[00:07:11] agreed.
[00:07:11] Switching paths here and getting into some of the meat switching gears. Give me a little background on, the client that we're gonna talk about today. How they came to you, like what state they were in when they first engaged, and, set the set the groundwork here.
[00:07:25] And we'll di dive into some of the details.
[00:07:28] Yeah. So, the scenario I have in mind is a senior living slash assisted care type of company a larger company. They had different elements of their business that they were approaching HubSpot on. There was a B2B element, and a B2C element. And I draw that distinction because there were clear processes.
[00:07:49] One side of the group covered and the other side covered as part of this. They were looking at HubSpot from a marketing and sales perspective. They also had a very heavy [00:08:00] inbound sales element as part of their business and some complex call routing logic that they were also coming into the equation with.
[00:08:09] It was a highly competitive deal. So there were certainly, a handful of other players that were as part of this. And in my role, right, as a services consultant, I'm not driving the entire ship, right? We have our sales reps, which are the centerpiece of helping drive a lot of that communication.
[00:08:24] Our sales rep had done a really good job of identifying the right types of champions early on as part of this so that we can help navigate their org because as I mentioned, there was B2B and B2C, so we had to be very conscious of how we were keeping each of the different groups up to speed on their different types of things, and.
[00:08:41] As we were coming down the pipe towards what implementation could look like, understanding what their milestones are for each of those goals and how to phase those types of things out.
[00:08:51] Outta curiosity? What were you competing against, right? What were we looking to replace from a tech stack perspective? I.
[00:08:58] Yeah. So [00:09:00] they were, I believe, using a competitor in the marketing side. But had built out some homegrown tech that they were supporting their sales and calling features with. Their calling was done through Twilio and Twilio Connect in particular. So they had some custom elements built out around that.
[00:09:18] But from like their sales and CRM perspective as they were looking to scale, they were looking to find a platform that was more like built out and robust that could handle that scale and growth a little more naturally rather than having to build it out internally with their own resources.
[00:09:34] Interesting. Okay. So what was the product mix for this client specifically?
[00:09:39] Yeah, so the product mix here in particular was enterprise suite. So marketing, sales and service enterprise. There's no doubt there was a sales focus as part of this. So over 200 sales seats. And then other considerations like business units phone number limit increases. And a handful of service seats on there.
[00:09:59] I think 30 or [00:10:00] 40 service seats. The sales was definitely the heart of this, right? The inbound kind of calling that this customer in particular had was the kind of central focus and the thing that dominated a lot of the early conversations where we were still looking for tech wins.
[00:10:15] interesting. Any integrations that you had to consider for this one?
[00:10:18] Yeah. Yeah. There definitely were at the center of this, there were kind of two custom integration considerations. This deal also had its natural share of like third party native apps and things like that. But the big focus initially was on from a calling piece, did we want to do a custom integration with their system that they built with Twilio Connect or did we wanna bring a third party app in like a Kie or an air call?
[00:10:41] So that was very much like the center of some of the integration conversations. They also had some backend systems for more CRM and purchase type data that we would also integrate with. So very much custom integration focused. But because of that centric element around the inbound calling, we had to really [00:11:00] focus on the calling integration and apps here, Leon.
[00:11:03] Interesting. Okay. So we have a senior living company that you're talking to here. It sounds they have marketing, there's a sales component, which is the biggest, like the CRM component paired with this calling and there is some services as well. But what was, I guess the biggest challenges or set of challenges that they came with?
[00:11:22] Or what was the kind of driving them out of their existing systems
[00:11:26] Yeah.
[00:11:26] the, looking outside of that.
[00:11:29] Yeah, so, the scalability of their existing systems were starting to press some of these pieces. Plus they were valuing the all in one element of HubSpot, helping. Better tied together their core backend system data with their people in the seats doing sales activities and their marketing communications here.
[00:11:48] So I think, at HubSpot we see that a lot, right? Like ease of use and all in one as some of those propositions here, plus they had those scale elements and that was really driving it. The challenge for them though was that we had a lot [00:12:00] of different groups that kind of all wanted these things at once.
[00:12:02] We had like their B2B side, there was a B2C sales, there was. B2B marketing types of efforts and B2C marketing efforts as part of this. So the challenge part is once we got through a lot of the technical wins was like quickly following with what the implementation strategy would be here and what that could look like as part of a timeline projection.
[00:12:23] Interesting. Okay, so very interesting. So there's the scalability component here. Was there any, like, how about reporting analytics? Was that a component for these guys?
[00:12:32] Yep.
[00:12:32] to see reporting across the, their various divisions or what'd that look like?
[00:12:37] Yeah. They did have a bi tool that they used for their reporting elements as part of this. But I think, HubSpot naturally positioned. Additional reporting and tying together that marketing to sales journey more naturally for them. So that was a major part of it. There was also another half, which was looking at their sales efficiency, especially from a calling perspective.
[00:12:59] They wanted [00:13:00] to make sure that they were responding to calls and requests in time. And so there was a light service element that also crept in here more towards the tail end in terms of how we had to position when those things were needed. But. Absolutely was a marketing and sales reporting focus.
[00:13:15] Yeah. Did we leave that BI tool in place and just add on with HubSpot reporting, or did we replace that BI altogether?
[00:13:22] We did leave it on here as part of this evaluation. Reporting's always a central factor for a lot of corporations, right? Naturally. So I think for here though, we had to frame up scope creep or how much we wanted to tackle as part of this. So. There was putting the integrations and the foundation and the raw in place and seeing how much we can get outta the HubSpot reporting, and then maybe in, hopefully like a year, they could explore if the HubSpot reporting does enough for them as part of this.
[00:13:50] yeah. Tell me. A little bit about the stakeholders involved either personalities or what exactly did were you dealing with on that [00:14:00] side, and was there anything that kind of took you out of left field that you weren't really expecting?
[00:14:05] Yeah personalities were good here. These were team members that were largely looking to make a change in volunteer information. We also. Were benefited from not having a formal RFP process. There were definitely RFP elements that helped structured a lot of the early evaluation. But what I mean to say is that for larger evaluations, RFPs can sometimes limit what a sales team can do because it puts more of a box and structure on this.
[00:14:34] But we had really strong, coordination with their kind of product owner who ended up being a good central person for communicating with executive leadership above and then going cross-functional across those different marketing sales, B2B, B2C types of groups here as part of that. And then there were the natural kind of subject matter experts that kind of set sat underneath that.
[00:14:55] But our sales rep on this one really did a great job of hammering out that relationship with [00:15:00] that kind of central champion as part of the deal process here. Especially that was through like a lot of the. Technical wins that we had to do, but especially as we got into the procurement stuff where like legal and pricing negotiations, then the partner selection and timeline implementation really helped us have a gut check to make sure we were moving in the right direction before we presented things formally to groups.
[00:15:22] So you mentioned earlier this was competitive. That's super helpful by the way, but you mentioned it was competitive. Was there, I know one of the things that we've dealt with on our side and together often is,
[00:15:33] Yeah.
[00:15:34] A inclination, an inclination towards another system. Was there any of that involved in here, or was the. the evaluation across systems pretty fair or just, how were they looking at that?
[00:15:47] Yeah. My recollection was that there was always interest and favorability in HubSpot's product and our ease of use really stood out there. But that there were executives that had other experience with other. [00:16:00] More established like CRMs that have been in the industry longer. Right? Like a dynamics or a sales force.
[00:16:06] So I'd say that, the teams that we interacted with were always very invested in learning about HubSpot and saw the kind of clear ease of use and central elements that we could provide. But we knew that on an executive level there might have been biases towards other systems. So I'd say that's really where that kind of knowledge of that competitive element kind of came in.
[00:16:25] It didn't affect us maybe in our day-to-day with this, but we understood the milieu of the deal happening, that there were these other considerations. And that we'd have to be aggressive as we moved down the kind of pricing structure, and especially as we got through from like a vendor of choice, there were still like, two vendors at that tail end, right?
[00:16:43] We started to get some of that like competitive pricing feedback come back, which really pushed us to be a little bit more aggressive.
[00:16:50] Yeah. Did you have any blockers or champions specifically?
[00:16:58] There was not a technical [00:17:00] blocker or a blocker that I remember there, but there, there was definitely that central champion point of contact.
[00:17:06] Awesome. So I wanna dive a little further into the specific challenges that you encountered. So interested to hear about those and what roadblocks may have come up
[00:17:16] Yep.
[00:17:16] How did you uncover those working through the deal.
[00:17:20] Yeah, so one of the challenges that came up is scope change that. Was presented late in the evaluation process, and by that to frame up, there'd been a part of the deal that represented like the bigger chunk, right? The. The group that had more sales seats and maybe more technical requirement elements.
[00:17:39] And then there was other groups within the org that were interested in moving to HubSpot. And towards the, maybe like second third of the evaluation, once we'd been vendor of choice here, the B2B group in this particular example, came in with a need to be implemented first, potentially.
[00:17:55] So we needed to. Make sure that we did some additional [00:18:00] discovery on that B2B group, which was gonna come in a little bit earlier in the implementation period, while also not risking and jeopardizing the B2C, which was that larger component of that, and had other foundational data architecture and integration elements underneath it.
[00:18:15] So, the challenge there was really making sure that I was in strong alignment with the implementation partner and the customer as part of this. And there was also a lot still in flight here as to what the deal was fully taking shape to be. But that was one challenge that came up. And I think what we wanted to make sure that we did is the proper type of discovery on this new addition without compromising the overarching timeline we were trying to push towards.
[00:18:38] So. How I overcame that challenge was by taking some of my implementation skills and volunteering the first kind of draft of what an implementation timeline could be here. Now, this isn't something I, as a service consultant will do in every deal, right? Oftentimes we want the partners in these scenarios owning and leading that because you're gonna be the ones implementing these things.
[00:18:58] But I needed to create like an [00:19:00] abstract of this that we could test internally and then the partner could validate and then we could bring to the customer that helped present those types of things. So that's what I did, right? I took some time to work on an implementation timeline and use that to collaborate.
[00:19:13] And again, by implementation time, I'm talking about like a high level abstract here, but it was something that helped project out the course of what B2B could look like coming into HubSpot over a period of time. And use that as the kind of litmus test. We're also evaluating a handful of the different like scenarios as part of this 'cause how you roll out.
[00:19:34] Groups was also interesting. What I'm trying to say is did we wanna tackle this for everything from B2B marketing and sales and any of their service elements? Did we wanna do marketing entirely and men's sales and then service entirely mixing each of the groups. So, factored a lot of that kind of stuff in here as we thought about the way we blended their rollout.
[00:19:55] Change management is always a huge part of the [00:20:00] conversation.
[00:20:00] I think one of the major ones that we're seeing nearly every single deal that we work with now, right? It's,
[00:20:07] Yeah.
[00:20:08] What is the order of operations? What is the best way to drive the adoption along with. Ensuring that change management happens.
[00:20:15] Yeah.
[00:20:15] that can be really tricky dealing with in the beginning, particularly when you're working between, your team and our partner team how did you, make sure everybody was aligned with all of that and how did you maintain that through this deal and then, this surprise where you're like, oh, by the way, we've got this whole other like approach and deal component that we're gonna need to consider.
[00:20:37] Like
[00:20:38] how did you go
[00:20:38] by
[00:20:39] about making sure that everybody was aligned in that strategy,
[00:20:42] which sounds was a fantastic strategy.
[00:20:44] Yeah,
[00:20:45] it worked out well in terms of helping sell and close that, and fortunately did post implementation as well. But
[00:20:51] I'd say
[00:20:51] is
[00:20:52] it is a balance between listening to the immediate needs, but also understanding like the larger milestones and priorities throughout. Not being blindsided by [00:21:00] the immediate request coming in here.
[00:21:01] Like it could have been easy to just slap that urgent focus right at the beginning here.
[00:21:05] But what I made sure is that the time for the data architecture and process design was alongside that so that it wasn't being done that first someone was being done independent of that. I guess coming from my implementation days, right, like the data architecture and foundation, 'cause we're talking about not just, the.
[00:21:25] Contacts and company and opportunity standard object type stuff, but how we want custom objects or associations to be plugged in.
[00:21:32] So I think that was it, right? Giving that group
[00:21:34] that initial group they need to come in.
[00:21:35] Some of its quick wins to meet its urgency, but making sure that we built the foundation into that implementation plan and that
[00:21:42] kind of
[00:21:43] set the
[00:21:43] like
[00:21:43] centering of things.
[00:21:44] I think
[00:21:45] it also gave the partner in
[00:21:46] this scenario,
[00:21:46] permission to be okay with that because they had time and space to do the foundational stuff
[00:21:51] Right.
[00:21:52] And weren't putting the cart before the horse,
[00:21:54] so to speak, as part of this. Yeah. Hopefully that helps answer anything I can clarify on that strategy.[00:22:00]
[00:22:00] No that's super useful. Anything
[00:22:02] specifically with the senior care space that you saw in this deal
[00:22:07] that's unique to that space that. We should consider when talking to other, care living facilities.
[00:22:15] Yes, there was something that was specific to this, the kind of call out here, and I think in particular was closing the loop on how their services and their recommendations would come about.
[00:22:27] What I mean to say is as a provider, they helped find the right types of matching services for senior care or assisted living care. But that would often end at a certain point when they went into that facility because those are independent groups and different elements there. So, this might be specific to this space, right?
[00:22:45] People that help select different types of vendors and things like that. But then. If there aren't, database integrations or things like that where we can pipe in, the subscription or deal revenue as part of that. So I think that was one of the other challenges as part of this is [00:23:00] helping give them some metrics for how to track success, knowing that there were limitations in bringing all of the closed loop elements back into this.
[00:23:08] There's other industries though, that have this too, right? Anything that kind of acts as a distributor. It enters this black box of like, how effective was that thing when you're handing it off to an independent entity.
[00:23:22] Was there a,
[00:23:23] was there any clear
[00:23:24] kind of
[00:23:25] aha moment for them that made HubSpot the clear choice
[00:23:30] for,
[00:23:30] for their operations?
[00:23:31] Any specific feature or piece that made them decide to choose HubSpot?
[00:23:40] Yeah, so if I had to give you a simple answer and then expand from there,
[00:23:44] I'd say
[00:23:45] like
[00:23:45] it was automation and workflows.
[00:23:47] Now, part of this is also we needed to make sure that
[00:23:50] our HIPAA and sensitive data feature set had been rolled out. That also helped open the door to this client in particular so that in combination with
[00:23:58] automation and workflows.
[00:23:59] [00:24:00] In addition to our ability to integrate and extend the platform by connecting data
[00:24:04] and things like that, a lot of the time that we spent in here was looking at their kind of like lead routing and lead distribution. And so
[00:24:11] I think the workflow tool in particular helped provide a really nice visualization
[00:24:15] to how they go and construct that kind of stuff, rather than being stuck in more complex logic and bullying, coding based type avenues that they were used to.
[00:24:26] Right. They were able to see what workflows very easily gave them the ability to tie things into that ties into HubSpot's, like all in one elements, right? So, before we get to things like workflows, we're talking about CRM and object structure and compatibility, all that stuff.
[00:24:42] So why I say workflows is
[00:24:45] coming back to those core process things that they needed to do, how they matched providers, how they did lead distribution. Those are two areas which workflows, I think in particular, really solved well for them.
[00:24:57] Nice. Very informative. [00:25:00] Appreciate the response on that in the end, I guess at the end, how did you secure buy-in from the team and, what was the, how did you finalize that this engagement?
[00:25:10] Yeah, so the implementation strategy and like the timeline visual is I think the thing that really pushed this. From a place of we feel good about HubSpot into, we want to choose HubSpot, and we see a plan here as part of that. So I mentioned how earlier I'd done the kind of like high level version of that, but I let the partner really fully bake that plan out and own that and drive that through.
[00:25:32] So I think my internal corporation there helped make sure that our service solution is fully aligned and positioned well. As part of that. And. Presenting and articulating that helped us fully go to that next stage of like legal procurement and pricing negotiations which really sealed the deal.
[00:25:49] As part of that, part of my visualizations though, I also incorporated a new element of trying to like visualize who does what. So I think that in particular this was my first time [00:26:00] experimenting with something like that, but I. Try to blend like where partner services would come in versus things that their dev teams would need to contribute on versus where HubSpot support and resources would come in.
[00:26:10] So it helped tell a little bit more of a human narrative to a timeline. In particular, I think those pieces were or helped that tail end move much faster.
[00:26:20] I think it helps the client or the, the prospect, visualize and picture themselves in the tool, right? So
[00:26:27] yeah.
[00:26:28] a huge component of selling. If they can see themselves doing X and using this in a certain way
[00:26:35] Yep.
[00:26:35] well on your way to, having a successful sale there.
[00:26:38] So
[00:26:39] A hundred percent agree. It also helps us, like on the service side, sneak in more about process, right? Like you can articulate what UAT looks like, what pilot looks like, or especially for larger sales groups, how we plan to move those types of things across. And I find customers are receptive to you being thoughtful and careful with this, right?
[00:26:57] There's an element of we want it yesterday. That kind of [00:27:00] comes into any different type of deal or prospect. But for when you get into the details of implementation, like doing it the right way matters a little bit more than doing it fast. I had to be judgmental there.
[00:27:12] It does well, it's delivering long-term value over, something and you're gonna have a much,
[00:27:17] Yeah.
[00:27:18] yeah. It's delivering long-term value. So is there anything in this process, and I know we're running up on time, but is there anything you would've done differently in hindsight?
[00:27:29] Yeah, I'd say in hindsight I would try to bring some of the implementation planning more forward. What I'm trying to say is that in deals there is often this like heavy emphasis on discovery and reverse demo elements early to collect information and then having to go and get those wins to be vendor of choice.
[00:27:51] And it could feel challenging, like you're putting things ahead of time. So if you're starting to project out the timeline of that. Before you've gotten those types of [00:28:00] things. You also sometimes have deals like this where you have to spend a lot of time in those technical pieces, which eats up and consumes a lot of time and energy and resources for this.
[00:28:09] So I guess what I'm trying to say is we had to bring that implementation in after we got the vendor of choice, but I wish it was prepared and weave in throughout more so that there was more of like a continuous conversation there that could also help me like. Prevent or better align on some of the scope creep we talked about earlier as part of this, right?
[00:28:27] Ideally as like the implementation strategist, I don't want unexpected things coming up. Right? So it'd be like preventing that or knowing about that earlier in the process.
[00:28:38] Interesting. Okay. there anything. this client or the industry specifically, right, that you had to consider working with them or specific discovery avenues that you had to uncover to make sure that you could be successful.
[00:28:53] Yeah. One of the areas that was interesting here was consent management. Now, I don't mean that [00:29:00] just necessarily from a marketing consent management, but it was also from like an inbound calling perspective. So HubSpot really, we had to think about our solutioning there, especially on the calling element of this, right?
[00:29:10] Things like forms. SMS or more transactional ways to capture consent a little bit more programmatically. From a calling perspective, though, you have like humans on a front end that need to ask for or capture certain types of consent. And I don't just mean are we recording your call? I mean talking to, human beings about their health concerns and about permissions to take certain different areas and.
[00:29:34] Find vendor selections for them, right. And that kind of thing. So we had to spend a lot of time on the inbound calling and consent management and what that would look like in the HubSpot platform. And it was leveraging some of the communication subscription elements that we have there, versus thinking about if we need a custom object or custom properties for managing that.
[00:29:51] As people shifted into being in HubSpot when they're fielding inbound calls through the different integration elements we'd set up.
[00:29:59] Interesting. [00:30:00] Very interesting.
[00:30:01] Have you seen yourself, have you seen calling and consent come up in, in some of your implementations too? Have you handled that in different ways or is that maybe more of an issue thing that I brought up here?
[00:30:12] We have, I think that we've seen it along the lines particularly on like in insurance, right? Like
[00:30:18] Yeah.
[00:30:19] fields that have tons of regulatory compliance. So there's just so many of those. Way beyond GDPR or any of that, that, that come into it. So it's, consent and, either double opt in and then also when you're looking at like global companies that maybe
[00:30:37] Yeah.
[00:30:37] a couple different countries and then you're looking at various solutions that they have to consider, across the board.
[00:30:43] And sometimes they'll just say, Hey, we're gonna take the most stringent. Regulations and apply 'em across the board just to simplify things. But
[00:30:50] Yeah,
[00:30:50] wait, it's definitely something we've run into.
[00:30:53] making me grateful that this was mostly US based and I.
[00:30:59] Is there any [00:31:00] advice that you'd give to any of us a deal in this space? And what would those pieces of advice be?
[00:31:10] Well, timeline's gonna be like the saving grace here, right? So I'd say it's like. Work on that timeline and that presentation, and don't be afraid to use that as like a litmus status for where things are at with customers. I'm biased here though. I've worked in services and implementation and I think like that in particular drives a ton of confidence in things and we obviously want the platforms and the pricing and all that stuff to work out here.
[00:31:35] At the end of the day, especially for large, complex businesses, we still have to do a lot of the human work of migrating processes across. So it's lean into those types of timelines early and often. I think that they're great barometers for the entire deal to center around. It helps you articulate your processes and key steps along the way.
[00:31:56] It helps project to your prospects, your [00:32:00] customers. When they have to make certain decision points. And then it's also like the starting point you hand your implementation teams. So I see like multiple like things around that. But really just drive like your timeline processes and how you kind of craft and present those to your customers.
[00:32:14] And it'll be saving you time down the road and just help drive like stronger adoption and usage.
[00:32:21] Very valuable and completely resonate because that it gives the client. A perspective, they may not have done these as many times as we run into this,
[00:32:31] Right,
[00:32:32] So there's a lot of unknowns and there's always apprehension in unknowns.
[00:32:37] right.
[00:32:37] if you can do that really well, they become comfortable with what that journey's gonna look like.
[00:32:43] And then more comfortable moving forward because again, you've breaking down the barriers. You've, lit up a dark room that they really didn't know about. So that's I
[00:32:51] Exactly. And on the services side, that's what a client wants. They want us to drive what the path forward should be with our best practices. So it's a way for. [00:33:00] Austin as deal teams to take that first step, right? And help volunteer that experience.
[00:33:06] Awesome. thank you so much, Jonathan for joining me, sharing the knowledge, insights, the story behind, this deal, getting across the line and everything in between. It's been really interesting to hear about these challenges you faced and strategies that really helped you succeed.
[00:33:23] So, appreciate you joining.
[00:33:25] Thank you very much for having me on, Steven. It's been great chatting with you.
[00:33:28] Thanks for tuning in. You can connect with me, Steven Saberin on LinkedIn to keep the conversation going. Check out Aptitude 8 at aptitude8.com to learn how we're partnering with sellers and solutions teams to drive success. Until next time, keep selling, keep learning, and keep dominating.
[00:33:45] Thanks for joining us.
[00:33:46]
[00:00:13]
[00:00:15] Welcome to the Domin8 Podcast. On this show, we talk with HubSpot sellers and sales support about their latest wins, pulling back the curtain to explore the challenges they ran into and the sales strategies they use to win the deal.
[00:00:28] I'm Steven Saberin, Senior Partnership manager for Aptitude 8, the world's top technical HubSpot consulting firm. I'm speaking with Jonathan Dobrovich. I hope I'm getting the last name correct there. Principal Services consultant with HubSpot. Jonathan, it's great to have you on the show today and look forward to hearing some of the details and interesting components of how you were able to successfully close this deal. So. Before we dive in, tell us a little bit, give us a little bit about your background, how'd you get started, as a service consultant [00:01:00] and make your way into the HubSpot ecosystem.
[00:01:03] Thanks for having me, Steven. Always like talking with you and working with Aptitude 8 too in general. Excited to be here, but in terms of myself I've been a hubspotter for nine and a half years. I actually got my start in support and I've had a very service focused track up until the past year where I moved into the pre-sales side of things, but spent a lot of time as a technical consultant at HubSpot and did about six to seven years of our premier and advanced onboardings, which was.
[00:01:28] Very, detail focused, implementation focused work. Over the past year though, I wanted to transition my skills into more of helping the broader org and taking some of that implementation experience into a more pre-sales role. So that helped align with my shift is into a services consultant where I'm more doing implementation strategy, working daily with partners, and helping pair the right implementation fit for our prospective customers.
[00:01:55] Interesting. What, were there any components, specifically [00:02:00] about your previous roles that you think really, lended themselves well to your current role and really helped you succeed as a services consultant?
[00:02:10] Yeah, I'd say there's two things that come top of mind. First is the project management side, and then second would be the. Technical scoping lens and how that applies to projecting and approaching projects in the right implementation resources that were fitting onto engagements. But talking about the project management side, I used to be doing the very detailed work of building out Asana project plans and creating plans that customers.
[00:02:38] Alongside me would implement, but I found that the details alone weren't enough along the way. I started abstracting those in the higher level timelines, right? The types of Gantt charts and things like that you would see. So a lot of that kind of like higher level abstracting would be how I start the projects.
[00:02:54] And so a lot of that I think is like the central point that kind of has helped me carry over into this services [00:03:00] consultant world. How to help tell the story of how somebody goes from considering to move to HubSpot as an example to implementing that for. Especially upmarket or larger corporations.
[00:03:10] Yeah.
[00:03:10] And then on the technical side, right, there's also the scoping fit, right? Like I've been hands-on and worked with customers directly and how they implemented HubSpot over three to four to five plus months, and sometimes longer engagements if we had really successful long engagements. So I think that kind of was me going from being hands-on to just being more of a consultant and how I spoke about capabilities and different types of fits.
[00:03:34] I'm sure that helps coming from almost the, like the project management side even particularly, 'cause it really helps you understand. Exactly what goes into some of these projects and setting right expectations because they, there's something, the planning fallacy, I know Noah talks about it all the time, where it's like even in your day-to-day life where if you're trying to plan out your week, there's always a mis set expectation, even like with your own self [00:04:00] as to how long something actually takes to get done.
[00:04:03] So I'm sure that directly helps you be successful in your current role.
[00:04:08] Yeah, you're absolutely right. And as like a lot of the times there's this what we can project implementations to generally take what the platforms allow from a speed perspective and then all the unique elements of customer comes in with. So we do have to gut check that right off the gate to see if things are feasible, right?
[00:04:26] Like it'd be nice if every engagement had a nice, healthy timeline, but some of them don't, right? So especially in those ones, when there's crunch timelines, that implementation experience really helps deconstruct what should be MVP, what should come after? 'cause we've had a sense of how difficult it is or how much it actually takes to get those things done.
[00:04:44] Oh yeah, absolutely. Yeah. The tight timelines are, I feel like we always, in this ecosystem, we're all dealing with that from time to time where it's, these like crazy timelines or, trying to get an extension on something, right? Because they, they realized last minute that they're trying [00:05:00] to, Hey, wait a minute, we actually don't like our current platform and we're trying
[00:05:02] Yeah.
[00:05:03] of it.
[00:05:03] And you're like, well, six months. I would've been a better time to have the conversation, but,
[00:05:07] Right.
[00:05:08] it's okay.
[00:05:10] Yeah, I'll just keep bringing the short timeframe once you to up to Aptitude 8. I'll let you guys handle that.
[00:05:15] well, thanks. Appreciate it. Oh man. Anyway, but okay. So. In your previous experiences, they're really lending all the, your previous experience lending really well to your current role. But zooming out from there even further, what,
[00:05:32] what do you find is the most rewarding part of selling in the HubSpot ecosystem
[00:05:36] apart from some of the other experiences that you have?
[00:05:39] And, what are you, yeah. Tell me a little
[00:05:41] Yeah,
[00:05:42] I think one of the more gratifying things has been the team-based selling that we do and the value-based selling on the team-based side,
[00:05:49] I'm trying to say, is like
[00:05:50] it's been nice to really collaborate with Hub-Spotters on how to show somebody the vision for how to move into our platform.
[00:05:57] Coming into this, maybe I had a just different predisposition to that, but [00:06:00] it's. It's very much collaborative and strategic. I found myself really enjoying that side of it. I think the thing that also helps that is HubSpot really values value-based selling. So not just selling like features and our capabilities, but trying to understand the customer use cases and then tailoring the content we're showing them to that.
[00:06:18] So it's it's just more contextual, right? Like I, I guess I had these. Coming into the services consultant role, which I've been here about a year now. I didn't traditionally have sales experience, so,
[00:06:27] those expectations kinda met realities and I was pleasantly surprised
[00:06:31] because of these things.
[00:06:35] Yeah. Very interesting. And I, always like to hear about the background and like how people got into it. And I feel like the, that resonates across the other conversations that I've had so far with
[00:06:47] Yeah.
[00:06:48] and anybody who's in the selling world, right? I know we don't directly sell, but at least currently.
[00:06:53] But so always interesting to hear how everybody al almost somehow touches
[00:06:58] the
[00:06:58] like.
[00:06:59] Team [00:07:00] selling and just the environment and the folks that we get to work with in that team environment,
[00:07:03] which
[00:07:03] I think is really unique and special in the HubSpot world.
[00:07:07] So
[00:07:08] Yeah,
[00:07:08] something that I would trade for, but.
[00:07:11] agreed.
[00:07:11] Switching paths here and getting into some of the meat switching gears. Give me a little background on, the client that we're gonna talk about today. How they came to you, like what state they were in when they first engaged, and, set the set the groundwork here.
[00:07:25] And we'll di dive into some of the details.
[00:07:28] Yeah. So, the scenario I have in mind is a senior living slash assisted care type of company a larger company. They had different elements of their business that they were approaching HubSpot on. There was a B2B element, and a B2C element. And I draw that distinction because there were clear processes.
[00:07:49] One side of the group covered and the other side covered as part of this. They were looking at HubSpot from a marketing and sales perspective. They also had a very heavy [00:08:00] inbound sales element as part of their business and some complex call routing logic that they were also coming into the equation with.
[00:08:09] It was a highly competitive deal. So there were certainly, a handful of other players that were as part of this. And in my role, right, as a services consultant, I'm not driving the entire ship, right? We have our sales reps, which are the centerpiece of helping drive a lot of that communication.
[00:08:24] Our sales rep had done a really good job of identifying the right types of champions early on as part of this so that we can help navigate their org because as I mentioned, there was B2B and B2C, so we had to be very conscious of how we were keeping each of the different groups up to speed on their different types of things, and.
[00:08:41] As we were coming down the pipe towards what implementation could look like, understanding what their milestones are for each of those goals and how to phase those types of things out.
[00:08:51] Outta curiosity? What were you competing against, right? What were we looking to replace from a tech stack perspective? I.
[00:08:58] Yeah. So [00:09:00] they were, I believe, using a competitor in the marketing side. But had built out some homegrown tech that they were supporting their sales and calling features with. Their calling was done through Twilio and Twilio Connect in particular. So they had some custom elements built out around that.
[00:09:18] But from like their sales and CRM perspective as they were looking to scale, they were looking to find a platform that was more like built out and robust that could handle that scale and growth a little more naturally rather than having to build it out internally with their own resources.
[00:09:34] Interesting. Okay. So what was the product mix for this client specifically?
[00:09:39] Yeah, so the product mix here in particular was enterprise suite. So marketing, sales and service enterprise. There's no doubt there was a sales focus as part of this. So over 200 sales seats. And then other considerations like business units phone number limit increases. And a handful of service seats on there.
[00:09:59] I think 30 or [00:10:00] 40 service seats. The sales was definitely the heart of this, right? The inbound kind of calling that this customer in particular had was the kind of central focus and the thing that dominated a lot of the early conversations where we were still looking for tech wins.
[00:10:15] interesting. Any integrations that you had to consider for this one?
[00:10:18] Yeah. Yeah. There definitely were at the center of this, there were kind of two custom integration considerations. This deal also had its natural share of like third party native apps and things like that. But the big focus initially was on from a calling piece, did we want to do a custom integration with their system that they built with Twilio Connect or did we wanna bring a third party app in like a Kie or an air call?
[00:10:41] So that was very much like the center of some of the integration conversations. They also had some backend systems for more CRM and purchase type data that we would also integrate with. So very much custom integration focused. But because of that centric element around the inbound calling, we had to really [00:11:00] focus on the calling integration and apps here, Leon.
[00:11:03] Interesting. Okay. So we have a senior living company that you're talking to here. It sounds they have marketing, there's a sales component, which is the biggest, like the CRM component paired with this calling and there is some services as well. But what was, I guess the biggest challenges or set of challenges that they came with?
[00:11:22] Or what was the kind of driving them out of their existing systems
[00:11:26] Yeah.
[00:11:26] the, looking outside of that.
[00:11:29] Yeah, so, the scalability of their existing systems were starting to press some of these pieces. Plus they were valuing the all in one element of HubSpot, helping. Better tied together their core backend system data with their people in the seats doing sales activities and their marketing communications here.
[00:11:48] So I think, at HubSpot we see that a lot, right? Like ease of use and all in one as some of those propositions here, plus they had those scale elements and that was really driving it. The challenge for them though was that we had a lot [00:12:00] of different groups that kind of all wanted these things at once.
[00:12:02] We had like their B2B side, there was a B2C sales, there was. B2B marketing types of efforts and B2C marketing efforts as part of this. So the challenge part is once we got through a lot of the technical wins was like quickly following with what the implementation strategy would be here and what that could look like as part of a timeline projection.
[00:12:23] Interesting. Okay, so very interesting. So there's the scalability component here. Was there any, like, how about reporting analytics? Was that a component for these guys?
[00:12:32] Yep.
[00:12:32] to see reporting across the, their various divisions or what'd that look like?
[00:12:37] Yeah. They did have a bi tool that they used for their reporting elements as part of this. But I think, HubSpot naturally positioned. Additional reporting and tying together that marketing to sales journey more naturally for them. So that was a major part of it. There was also another half, which was looking at their sales efficiency, especially from a calling perspective.
[00:12:59] They wanted [00:13:00] to make sure that they were responding to calls and requests in time. And so there was a light service element that also crept in here more towards the tail end in terms of how we had to position when those things were needed. But. Absolutely was a marketing and sales reporting focus.
[00:13:15] Yeah. Did we leave that BI tool in place and just add on with HubSpot reporting, or did we replace that BI altogether?
[00:13:22] We did leave it on here as part of this evaluation. Reporting's always a central factor for a lot of corporations, right? Naturally. So I think for here though, we had to frame up scope creep or how much we wanted to tackle as part of this. So. There was putting the integrations and the foundation and the raw in place and seeing how much we can get outta the HubSpot reporting, and then maybe in, hopefully like a year, they could explore if the HubSpot reporting does enough for them as part of this.
[00:13:50] yeah. Tell me. A little bit about the stakeholders involved either personalities or what exactly did were you dealing with on that [00:14:00] side, and was there anything that kind of took you out of left field that you weren't really expecting?
[00:14:05] Yeah personalities were good here. These were team members that were largely looking to make a change in volunteer information. We also. Were benefited from not having a formal RFP process. There were definitely RFP elements that helped structured a lot of the early evaluation. But what I mean to say is that for larger evaluations, RFPs can sometimes limit what a sales team can do because it puts more of a box and structure on this.
[00:14:34] But we had really strong, coordination with their kind of product owner who ended up being a good central person for communicating with executive leadership above and then going cross-functional across those different marketing sales, B2B, B2C types of groups here as part of that. And then there were the natural kind of subject matter experts that kind of set sat underneath that.
[00:14:55] But our sales rep on this one really did a great job of hammering out that relationship with [00:15:00] that kind of central champion as part of the deal process here. Especially that was through like a lot of the. Technical wins that we had to do, but especially as we got into the procurement stuff where like legal and pricing negotiations, then the partner selection and timeline implementation really helped us have a gut check to make sure we were moving in the right direction before we presented things formally to groups.
[00:15:22] So you mentioned earlier this was competitive. That's super helpful by the way, but you mentioned it was competitive. Was there, I know one of the things that we've dealt with on our side and together often is,
[00:15:33] Yeah.
[00:15:34] A inclination, an inclination towards another system. Was there any of that involved in here, or was the. the evaluation across systems pretty fair or just, how were they looking at that?
[00:15:47] Yeah. My recollection was that there was always interest and favorability in HubSpot's product and our ease of use really stood out there. But that there were executives that had other experience with other. [00:16:00] More established like CRMs that have been in the industry longer. Right? Like a dynamics or a sales force.
[00:16:06] So I'd say that, the teams that we interacted with were always very invested in learning about HubSpot and saw the kind of clear ease of use and central elements that we could provide. But we knew that on an executive level there might have been biases towards other systems. So I'd say that's really where that kind of knowledge of that competitive element kind of came in.
[00:16:25] It didn't affect us maybe in our day-to-day with this, but we understood the milieu of the deal happening, that there were these other considerations. And that we'd have to be aggressive as we moved down the kind of pricing structure, and especially as we got through from like a vendor of choice, there were still like, two vendors at that tail end, right?
[00:16:43] We started to get some of that like competitive pricing feedback come back, which really pushed us to be a little bit more aggressive.
[00:16:50] Yeah. Did you have any blockers or champions specifically?
[00:16:58] There was not a technical [00:17:00] blocker or a blocker that I remember there, but there, there was definitely that central champion point of contact.
[00:17:06] Awesome. So I wanna dive a little further into the specific challenges that you encountered. So interested to hear about those and what roadblocks may have come up
[00:17:16] Yep.
[00:17:16] How did you uncover those working through the deal.
[00:17:20] Yeah, so one of the challenges that came up is scope change that. Was presented late in the evaluation process, and by that to frame up, there'd been a part of the deal that represented like the bigger chunk, right? The. The group that had more sales seats and maybe more technical requirement elements.
[00:17:39] And then there was other groups within the org that were interested in moving to HubSpot. And towards the, maybe like second third of the evaluation, once we'd been vendor of choice here, the B2B group in this particular example, came in with a need to be implemented first, potentially.
[00:17:55] So we needed to. Make sure that we did some additional [00:18:00] discovery on that B2B group, which was gonna come in a little bit earlier in the implementation period, while also not risking and jeopardizing the B2C, which was that larger component of that, and had other foundational data architecture and integration elements underneath it.
[00:18:15] So, the challenge there was really making sure that I was in strong alignment with the implementation partner and the customer as part of this. And there was also a lot still in flight here as to what the deal was fully taking shape to be. But that was one challenge that came up. And I think what we wanted to make sure that we did is the proper type of discovery on this new addition without compromising the overarching timeline we were trying to push towards.
[00:18:38] So. How I overcame that challenge was by taking some of my implementation skills and volunteering the first kind of draft of what an implementation timeline could be here. Now, this isn't something I, as a service consultant will do in every deal, right? Oftentimes we want the partners in these scenarios owning and leading that because you're gonna be the ones implementing these things.
[00:18:58] But I needed to create like an [00:19:00] abstract of this that we could test internally and then the partner could validate and then we could bring to the customer that helped present those types of things. So that's what I did, right? I took some time to work on an implementation timeline and use that to collaborate.
[00:19:13] And again, by implementation time, I'm talking about like a high level abstract here, but it was something that helped project out the course of what B2B could look like coming into HubSpot over a period of time. And use that as the kind of litmus test. We're also evaluating a handful of the different like scenarios as part of this 'cause how you roll out.
[00:19:34] Groups was also interesting. What I'm trying to say is did we wanna tackle this for everything from B2B marketing and sales and any of their service elements? Did we wanna do marketing entirely and men's sales and then service entirely mixing each of the groups. So, factored a lot of that kind of stuff in here as we thought about the way we blended their rollout.
[00:19:55] Change management is always a huge part of the [00:20:00] conversation.
[00:20:00] I think one of the major ones that we're seeing nearly every single deal that we work with now, right? It's,
[00:20:07] Yeah.
[00:20:08] What is the order of operations? What is the best way to drive the adoption along with. Ensuring that change management happens.
[00:20:15] Yeah.
[00:20:15] that can be really tricky dealing with in the beginning, particularly when you're working between, your team and our partner team how did you, make sure everybody was aligned with all of that and how did you maintain that through this deal and then, this surprise where you're like, oh, by the way, we've got this whole other like approach and deal component that we're gonna need to consider.
[00:20:37] Like
[00:20:38] how did you go
[00:20:38] by
[00:20:39] about making sure that everybody was aligned in that strategy,
[00:20:42] which sounds was a fantastic strategy.
[00:20:44] Yeah,
[00:20:45] it worked out well in terms of helping sell and close that, and fortunately did post implementation as well. But
[00:20:51] I'd say
[00:20:51] is
[00:20:52] it is a balance between listening to the immediate needs, but also understanding like the larger milestones and priorities throughout. Not being blindsided by [00:21:00] the immediate request coming in here.
[00:21:01] Like it could have been easy to just slap that urgent focus right at the beginning here.
[00:21:05] But what I made sure is that the time for the data architecture and process design was alongside that so that it wasn't being done that first someone was being done independent of that. I guess coming from my implementation days, right, like the data architecture and foundation, 'cause we're talking about not just, the.
[00:21:25] Contacts and company and opportunity standard object type stuff, but how we want custom objects or associations to be plugged in.
[00:21:32] So I think that was it, right? Giving that group
[00:21:34] that initial group they need to come in.
[00:21:35] Some of its quick wins to meet its urgency, but making sure that we built the foundation into that implementation plan and that
[00:21:42] kind of
[00:21:43] set the
[00:21:43] like
[00:21:43] centering of things.
[00:21:44] I think
[00:21:45] it also gave the partner in
[00:21:46] this scenario,
[00:21:46] permission to be okay with that because they had time and space to do the foundational stuff
[00:21:51] Right.
[00:21:52] And weren't putting the cart before the horse,
[00:21:54] so to speak, as part of this. Yeah. Hopefully that helps answer anything I can clarify on that strategy.[00:22:00]
[00:22:00] No that's super useful. Anything
[00:22:02] specifically with the senior care space that you saw in this deal
[00:22:07] that's unique to that space that. We should consider when talking to other, care living facilities.
[00:22:15] Yes, there was something that was specific to this, the kind of call out here, and I think in particular was closing the loop on how their services and their recommendations would come about.
[00:22:27] What I mean to say is as a provider, they helped find the right types of matching services for senior care or assisted living care. But that would often end at a certain point when they went into that facility because those are independent groups and different elements there. So, this might be specific to this space, right?
[00:22:45] People that help select different types of vendors and things like that. But then. If there aren't, database integrations or things like that where we can pipe in, the subscription or deal revenue as part of that. So I think that was one of the other challenges as part of this is [00:23:00] helping give them some metrics for how to track success, knowing that there were limitations in bringing all of the closed loop elements back into this.
[00:23:08] There's other industries though, that have this too, right? Anything that kind of acts as a distributor. It enters this black box of like, how effective was that thing when you're handing it off to an independent entity.
[00:23:22] Was there a,
[00:23:23] was there any clear
[00:23:24] kind of
[00:23:25] aha moment for them that made HubSpot the clear choice
[00:23:30] for,
[00:23:30] for their operations?
[00:23:31] Any specific feature or piece that made them decide to choose HubSpot?
[00:23:40] Yeah, so if I had to give you a simple answer and then expand from there,
[00:23:44] I'd say
[00:23:45] like
[00:23:45] it was automation and workflows.
[00:23:47] Now, part of this is also we needed to make sure that
[00:23:50] our HIPAA and sensitive data feature set had been rolled out. That also helped open the door to this client in particular so that in combination with
[00:23:58] automation and workflows.
[00:23:59] [00:24:00] In addition to our ability to integrate and extend the platform by connecting data
[00:24:04] and things like that, a lot of the time that we spent in here was looking at their kind of like lead routing and lead distribution. And so
[00:24:11] I think the workflow tool in particular helped provide a really nice visualization
[00:24:15] to how they go and construct that kind of stuff, rather than being stuck in more complex logic and bullying, coding based type avenues that they were used to.
[00:24:26] Right. They were able to see what workflows very easily gave them the ability to tie things into that ties into HubSpot's, like all in one elements, right? So, before we get to things like workflows, we're talking about CRM and object structure and compatibility, all that stuff.
[00:24:42] So why I say workflows is
[00:24:45] coming back to those core process things that they needed to do, how they matched providers, how they did lead distribution. Those are two areas which workflows, I think in particular, really solved well for them.
[00:24:57] Nice. Very informative. [00:25:00] Appreciate the response on that in the end, I guess at the end, how did you secure buy-in from the team and, what was the, how did you finalize that this engagement?
[00:25:10] Yeah, so the implementation strategy and like the timeline visual is I think the thing that really pushed this. From a place of we feel good about HubSpot into, we want to choose HubSpot, and we see a plan here as part of that. So I mentioned how earlier I'd done the kind of like high level version of that, but I let the partner really fully bake that plan out and own that and drive that through.
[00:25:32] So I think my internal corporation there helped make sure that our service solution is fully aligned and positioned well. As part of that. And. Presenting and articulating that helped us fully go to that next stage of like legal procurement and pricing negotiations which really sealed the deal.
[00:25:49] As part of that, part of my visualizations though, I also incorporated a new element of trying to like visualize who does what. So I think that in particular this was my first time [00:26:00] experimenting with something like that, but I. Try to blend like where partner services would come in versus things that their dev teams would need to contribute on versus where HubSpot support and resources would come in.
[00:26:10] So it helped tell a little bit more of a human narrative to a timeline. In particular, I think those pieces were or helped that tail end move much faster.
[00:26:20] I think it helps the client or the, the prospect, visualize and picture themselves in the tool, right? So
[00:26:27] yeah.
[00:26:28] a huge component of selling. If they can see themselves doing X and using this in a certain way
[00:26:35] Yep.
[00:26:35] well on your way to, having a successful sale there.
[00:26:38] So
[00:26:39] A hundred percent agree. It also helps us, like on the service side, sneak in more about process, right? Like you can articulate what UAT looks like, what pilot looks like, or especially for larger sales groups, how we plan to move those types of things across. And I find customers are receptive to you being thoughtful and careful with this, right?
[00:26:57] There's an element of we want it yesterday. That kind of [00:27:00] comes into any different type of deal or prospect. But for when you get into the details of implementation, like doing it the right way matters a little bit more than doing it fast. I had to be judgmental there.
[00:27:12] It does well, it's delivering long-term value over, something and you're gonna have a much,
[00:27:17] Yeah.
[00:27:18] yeah. It's delivering long-term value. So is there anything in this process, and I know we're running up on time, but is there anything you would've done differently in hindsight?
[00:27:29] Yeah, I'd say in hindsight I would try to bring some of the implementation planning more forward. What I'm trying to say is that in deals there is often this like heavy emphasis on discovery and reverse demo elements early to collect information and then having to go and get those wins to be vendor of choice.
[00:27:51] And it could feel challenging, like you're putting things ahead of time. So if you're starting to project out the timeline of that. Before you've gotten those types of [00:28:00] things. You also sometimes have deals like this where you have to spend a lot of time in those technical pieces, which eats up and consumes a lot of time and energy and resources for this.
[00:28:09] So I guess what I'm trying to say is we had to bring that implementation in after we got the vendor of choice, but I wish it was prepared and weave in throughout more so that there was more of like a continuous conversation there that could also help me like. Prevent or better align on some of the scope creep we talked about earlier as part of this, right?
[00:28:27] Ideally as like the implementation strategist, I don't want unexpected things coming up. Right? So it'd be like preventing that or knowing about that earlier in the process.
[00:28:38] Interesting. Okay. there anything. this client or the industry specifically, right, that you had to consider working with them or specific discovery avenues that you had to uncover to make sure that you could be successful.
[00:28:53] Yeah. One of the areas that was interesting here was consent management. Now, I don't mean that [00:29:00] just necessarily from a marketing consent management, but it was also from like an inbound calling perspective. So HubSpot really, we had to think about our solutioning there, especially on the calling element of this, right?
[00:29:10] Things like forms. SMS or more transactional ways to capture consent a little bit more programmatically. From a calling perspective, though, you have like humans on a front end that need to ask for or capture certain types of consent. And I don't just mean are we recording your call? I mean talking to, human beings about their health concerns and about permissions to take certain different areas and.
[00:29:34] Find vendor selections for them, right. And that kind of thing. So we had to spend a lot of time on the inbound calling and consent management and what that would look like in the HubSpot platform. And it was leveraging some of the communication subscription elements that we have there, versus thinking about if we need a custom object or custom properties for managing that.
[00:29:51] As people shifted into being in HubSpot when they're fielding inbound calls through the different integration elements we'd set up.
[00:29:59] Interesting. [00:30:00] Very interesting.
[00:30:01] Have you seen yourself, have you seen calling and consent come up in, in some of your implementations too? Have you handled that in different ways or is that maybe more of an issue thing that I brought up here?
[00:30:12] We have, I think that we've seen it along the lines particularly on like in insurance, right? Like
[00:30:18] Yeah.
[00:30:19] fields that have tons of regulatory compliance. So there's just so many of those. Way beyond GDPR or any of that, that, that come into it. So it's, consent and, either double opt in and then also when you're looking at like global companies that maybe
[00:30:37] Yeah.
[00:30:37] a couple different countries and then you're looking at various solutions that they have to consider, across the board.
[00:30:43] And sometimes they'll just say, Hey, we're gonna take the most stringent. Regulations and apply 'em across the board just to simplify things. But
[00:30:50] Yeah,
[00:30:50] wait, it's definitely something we've run into.
[00:30:53] making me grateful that this was mostly US based and I.
[00:30:59] Is there any [00:31:00] advice that you'd give to any of us a deal in this space? And what would those pieces of advice be?
[00:31:10] Well, timeline's gonna be like the saving grace here, right? So I'd say it's like. Work on that timeline and that presentation, and don't be afraid to use that as like a litmus status for where things are at with customers. I'm biased here though. I've worked in services and implementation and I think like that in particular drives a ton of confidence in things and we obviously want the platforms and the pricing and all that stuff to work out here.
[00:31:35] At the end of the day, especially for large, complex businesses, we still have to do a lot of the human work of migrating processes across. So it's lean into those types of timelines early and often. I think that they're great barometers for the entire deal to center around. It helps you articulate your processes and key steps along the way.
[00:31:56] It helps project to your prospects, your [00:32:00] customers. When they have to make certain decision points. And then it's also like the starting point you hand your implementation teams. So I see like multiple like things around that. But really just drive like your timeline processes and how you kind of craft and present those to your customers.
[00:32:14] And it'll be saving you time down the road and just help drive like stronger adoption and usage.
[00:32:21] Very valuable and completely resonate because that it gives the client. A perspective, they may not have done these as many times as we run into this,
[00:32:31] Right,
[00:32:32] So there's a lot of unknowns and there's always apprehension in unknowns.
[00:32:37] right.
[00:32:37] if you can do that really well, they become comfortable with what that journey's gonna look like.
[00:32:43] And then more comfortable moving forward because again, you've breaking down the barriers. You've, lit up a dark room that they really didn't know about. So that's I
[00:32:51] Exactly. And on the services side, that's what a client wants. They want us to drive what the path forward should be with our best practices. So it's a way for. [00:33:00] Austin as deal teams to take that first step, right? And help volunteer that experience.
[00:33:06] Awesome. thank you so much, Jonathan for joining me, sharing the knowledge, insights, the story behind, this deal, getting across the line and everything in between. It's been really interesting to hear about these challenges you faced and strategies that really helped you succeed.
[00:33:23] So, appreciate you joining.
[00:33:25] Thank you very much for having me on, Steven. It's been great chatting with you.
[00:33:28] Thanks for tuning in. You can connect with me, Steven Saberin on LinkedIn to keep the conversation going. Check out Aptitude 8 at aptitude8.com to learn how we're partnering with sellers and solutions teams to drive success. Until next time, keep selling, keep learning, and keep dominating.
[00:33:45] Thanks for joining us.
[00:33:46]