How We Implemented CRM in 5 Days

When launching we decided to implement a CRM system from the beginning, we wanted to develop what good looked like early on. This meant when scaling our inbound and outbound sales efforts, we were built on a strong foundation.

We decided on HubSpot as our platform of choice. The rationale behind this was that HubSpot had the capabilities required to getting working fast, it was easy to configure and it had a marketplace with the key integrations we would require such as Clearbit, Slack, Gmail, etc. We selected the CRM professional and Marketing Hub starter package. We decided this based on wanting some marketing functionality, such as form builder, but not fully being convinced that HubSpot’s marketing hub would be our primary mass engagement tool.

The first thing we did was create an account and familiarise ourselves with the interface. We then spent some time defining our contact and deal strategy, which would serve as the foundation for our CRM implementation.

Defining Contact and Deal Strategy

Before we could start importing data and setting up integrations, we needed to have a clear understanding of how we planned to manage our contacts and deals within the CRM. This involved identifying the key information we needed to track. As a PLG company ourself, the out of the box options required alterations to align with how we will interact with our customers. We also took the time to set up custom fields and properties to ensure that our data would be organised and easy to access with the end internal user having the info they needed, when they needed it.

Data Import

Once we had our strategy in place, we were ready to start importing our data into the CRM. We exported our existing contact and deal information from our previous rudimentary system and used the import tools in HubSpot to quickly and easily bring the data into our new CRM. We had 3 key sources where we were managing customer interactions: Our email domain, previous CRM  systems and our Slack channels. Data importing from our email domain will be described below.  As for the other 2 sources, we were able to import the export the preexisting data into a CSV file. We had to organise our data to align with the HubSpot data model and then use the import tools they offer. As part of this we had to map what columns related to what fields within the contact record. Once that step was completed we could create the contacts on HubSpot.This process allowed us to maintain our existing data and continue working with our existing contacts and deals without any disruption.

Email Integration

One of the key features of our CRM is the ability to integrate with our email system. This allows us to track and manage our email communications directly within the CRM, and ensures that all of our contact and deal information is kept up-to-date. We set up the email integration in just a few minutes using the Gmail for HubSpot Google Chrome extension.At this stage we had many email interactions from individuals who were not being logged in HubSpot. To fix this, we were able to export preexisting contacts from Google and import those contacts into HubSpot. We followed these instructions.

Website Integration

Next, we integrated our website that was built on Webflow with HubSpot. This involved installing the HubSpot tracking code on our website, which allowed us to track visitor behaviour and see how they were interacting with our website. This allowed us to better understand every touchpoint individuals had with our website and the content we were creating.

We also used HubSpot's forms feature to create custom forms on our website, which allowed us to capture lead information and add it directly to our HubSpot CRM.

Creating Forms

Once our website was integrated with HubSpot, we created landing pages and forms to capture lead information. The forms were easy to create and customise using HubSpot's drag-and-drop form builder, and we were able to quickly add them to our website and analyse page success rate. The navigation and the ability to edit to make something visually appealing was a challenge using the design tools that HubSpot offer, so we elected to take the form as raw HTML and make the edits within Webflow.

Data Enrichment

HubSpot can help do some of the heavy lifting when it comes to initial data enrichment. Once contacts are created, through changes in the contacts setting page you can trigger the creation of a company (if they do not yet exist) in HubSpot. This is done through the analysis of the email domain that is used to sign up to Userled with. That company record also has key data auto-populated. This will save us time and give us a better understanding of the background of our contacts and customers. We are planning on enhancing our data enrichment further. We currently use Clearbit Visitor reports which can be set up for free, but would like to begin using some of the 3rd party data enrichment tools that sit on HubSpot’s marketplace.

Automation

Slack is our primary tool of internal engagement, therefore the integration between HubSpot was vital. we have created workflows to trigger notification within Slack was vital. We also created rules based triggers that led to engagement journeys based on the details of the contact.

And from that we were live! Next up will be seeing how we can enrich our data further, improve our conversions and enable our team to have more personalised conversations with each customer.

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