January 30, 2025 • 28 mins
In this episode, we’re taking a look at how AI is supercharging CRMs and, specifically, exploring how HubSpot is transforming the way businesses manage customer relationships, sales processes, and marketing campaigns.
Helping me break it all down are Maryanne McWhirter and Emily Hartzell, both VP/Senior Directors at LeadG2.
Maryanne and Emily offer so many awesome points to think about, like:
- How HubSpot is NOT just a CRM, but a robust marketing tool that allows you to see every step that a customer has taken in their buying journey
- How HubSpot’s AI uses CRM data to craft tailored messages for personalized sales pitches
- And, finally, why if you’re not automating repeatable processes in your CRM, you’re falling behind
LINKS:
Maryanne McWhirter
Emily Hartzell
LeadG2
Matt Sunshine
The Center for Sales Strategy
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Matt Sunshine (00:05):
Welcome to Improving Sales Performance, a
podcast highlighting tips andinsights aimed at helping sales
organizations realize, and maybeeven exceed, their goals.
Here we chat with thoughtleaders, experts and gurus who
have years of sales experiencefrom a wide range of industries.
I'm your host, matt Sunshine,ceo at the Center for Sales
Strategy, a sales performanceconsulting company.
(00:27):
In this episode, we're taking alook at how AI is supercharging
CRMs and specifically exploringhow HubSpot is transforming the
way businesses manage customerrelationships, sales processes
(00:49):
and marketing campaigns.
Helping me break it all downare Maryanne McWhorter and Emily
Hartzell, both VP SeniorDirectors at LeadG2.
Maryanne and Emily offer so manyawesome points to think about,
like how HubSpot is not just aCRM but a robust marketing tool
that allows you to see everystep that a customer has taken
(01:11):
in their buying journey.
How HubSpot's AI uses CRM datato craft tailored messages for
personalized sales pitches.
And, finally, why, if you'renot automating repeatable
processes in your CRM, you'refalling behind.
With that, let's start theconversation, all right?
(01:39):
So let's, Maryanne, let's cometo you with this question.
So before all this, ai CRMswere primarily just used for
data entry and kind of likebasic reporting.
But now, with so many differentAI tools available, what are
(02:00):
some of the most time consumingtasks that can now be automated,
and specifically with theHubSpot Sierra?
Maryanne McWhirter (02:09):
Yeah, because you could always
piecemeal and try lots ofdifferent AI tools, but HubSpot
has a lot built in so iteliminates the need to have to
do that.
So I'd say lead scoring is abig one that HubSpot has
improved greatly upon justrecently.
Ai can prioritize leads basedon engagement and intent and
(02:29):
where they've been on yourwebsite pages and what forms
they filled out, and you don'thave to go in and manually do it
anymore.
But I'd say there's a lot.
Data cleanup, I know is a bigone and HubSpot sells that kind
of as an add-on, but if you havea really dirty database, you
can do data clean up all at oncewith AI.
You know content suggestions,creating content generating,
(02:54):
blog ideas and email templatesjust any type of content they
would create in HubSpot.
Matt Sunshine (02:59):
Yeah.
Maryanne McWhirter (03:00):
I know, yeah , I touch everything.
Matt Sunshine (03:02):
Some of the stuff you're doing with podcasting
and creating blog posts.
Maryanne McWhirter (03:06):
That's right .
Matt Sunshine (03:07):
Just incredible.
Maryanne McWhirter (03:09):
Yeah, uploading a piece of content and
having it.
They call it the remix, but itcreates all different types of
content from that type ofcontent.
Ai does it all Specifically,for the CRM.
Emily Hartzell (03:20):
Hubspot and CRM tools now but I'm talking
specifically about HubSpot havethe ability to enrich um
existing CRM uh records so youcould have a contact that maybe
historically you'd have to dosome digging on your own go to
LinkedIn, go to Google, go tothe website page kind of like
uncover things on your own Um,whereas HubSpot and you know all
(03:41):
kinds of probably other CRMslike the Zoom Infos of the
Worlds and stuff which are notCRMs, but it does a similar
thing.
Right, it's all in HubSpot nowbut you can actually enrich the
data so it'll give youautomatically like an org chart
and you know who maybe you don'thave an email address and it
adds the email stuff like that.
That will help kind of fill inthe blanks.
Maryanne McWhirter (04:00):
Yeah, it does research for you and it
also does workflow automation,so like creating tasks for you
based on you know customerintent right, what customers or
what actions they're taking.
Emily Hartzell (04:14):
So now do this based on that.
Matt Sunshine (04:26):
Lead nurturing sequence enrollment tasks set up
.
So maybe this question is you,maybe you've already answered
this question both of you kindof chiming in, but maybe not.
So let me ask it this way and,emily, I'll come to you with
this and even if even if you'vealready answered it, maybe
answer it again in response tothis question, because I think
this would be a really importantthing for people to distinguish
, important thing for people todistinguish, especially because
(04:50):
perhaps many people listening tothis are not CRM experts or CRM
pros.
Maybe they're early days intoCRM or they're you know, they're
just getting started, maybeeven just even evaluating.
So, with AI has madepersonalizing customer
interactions really easy.
I hear you talking about it.
(05:11):
What tools does HubSpot have tohelp you tailor like a
marketing campaign or salesoutreach with that?
Emily Hartzell (05:20):
Yeah, yeah, okay .
So let's first distinguish thedifference between what a CRM is
from, like, what a marketingtool would be.
So HubSpot has it all right.
Hubspot has all of this in oneplace, which is why HubSpot is
so attractive to businesses.
But the CRM in itself is justreally a database, right?
It's a database of yourcontacts, database of your
(05:42):
companies.
It's a way for sellers to tracktheir people, track their
customers, track their deals,track any interactions, emails
they've had for themselves toknow and to keep record of and
ultimately, like if they were tomove on to another job or get
promoted within the company,someone would be able to like
swoop in and keep going withthat sale.
Okay, so the marketing hub andthe content hub are layers of
(06:06):
HubSpot that are in addition tothe CRM.
So now it's building off ofthis database of clients, of
contacts, of companies, of sales, qualified leads.
It's building off of that.
So the content hub uses AI.
There's a lot of different waysit uses AI, but you can create
AI blogs.
So you could like give HubSpota title and a couple of like
(06:28):
quick bullet points or like atopic of you know what you
wanted the blog to be about.
We'll actually write a blog foryou in like two minutes.
It also has a case studyfeature where you can plug in
some very small details about aclient that you've had success
with and it will give you anentire case study.
There's also the social mediaagent, which is inside of the
(06:51):
marketing hub, that you canactually plug in, like what you
want your brand tone and theaudience to be, and it will
actually create social mediaposts on your behalf for you,
and you just go in and selectthe posts you like and add it
into your social calendar andmove on with your day.
So there's lots of really coolmarketing tools.
But why I wanted to distinguishthe CRM from the marketing is
(07:14):
because the marketing is a layeron top of the CRM that is an
additional point of referencefor sellers.
So, for example, if a seller isgoing after a sales qualified
lead or there's a prospect intheir pipeline and they're, you
know, looking at that record,they're able to see all of their
interactions with that person,but they're also able to see all
the marketing interactionsright, so they can see every
(07:35):
promo email, every social mediapost, what they've clicked on,
where they've gone, any websitepage.
So we call that like leadintelligence, but it's really
just like a layer on the CRMthat allows sellers to be able
to see, like, what they're.
You have a if a prospect isn'tbuying a certain product from
your business but they'rereading blogs about it on your
(07:55):
website, like, it gives sellersammo to be able to say, oh,
maybe I'm talking about thewrong things to them or they're
interested in this.
So I hope that answered yourquestion.
Matt Sunshine (08:05):
Yeah, so I think I'm understanding.
You got HubSpot, which is thename of a company, and
underneath the name of thatcompany is several different
products, one being a CRM,another one being a marketing
automation tool, another onebeing a content creation tool
(08:26):
tool, another one being acontent creation tool, another
one being a sales enablementtool and another one being like
a customer service Service.
Yep, okay, got it, and thosearen't the real names, but
that's generally what they doRight.
Emily Hartzell (08:37):
Sales hub content, hub Right.
Matt Sunshine (08:40):
But I'm trying to speak in as.
Yeah, layman's terms aspossible, so that we don't get
caught up in thinking oh well, Igot HubSpot, that means I have
this or I have that.
Hubspot means that you have anAmazon account, right.
It doesn't mean that you'retaking advantage of everything
(09:03):
that Amazon has to offer.
It just means that you dobusiness with Amazon.
Emily Hartzell (09:07):
Right.
Matt Sunshine (09:08):
HubSpot's.
The same way, you could bedoing marketing and not be
taking advantage of the CRM, oryou could be taking advantage of
the CRM and not do marketing.
Emily Hartzell (09:17):
Or the sales tools, or any of it.
Matt Sunshine (09:20):
Got it.
So, Marianne, how can HubSpot'sAI products help sales teams be
more efficient and effective?
Let me go deeper.
Can you discuss or describe therole AI plays in generating
(09:42):
personalized presentations oridentifying upsell opportunities
or improving forecasting?
Maryanne McWhirter (09:50):
Yes, so it does all those things and I feel
like the way you just askedthat question back to your, I
liked the Amazon, I liked theAmazon metaphor there, but now
you're asking what does saleshub offer and how is AI a part
of Sales Hub, so likefunctioning words that we're
using for what's in HubSpot?
That's really the question.
And yes, I mean overall.
(10:12):
What it's doing is it'seliminating the guesswork AI is
allowing sales teams to focus on, to let their sales people
focus on building thoserelationships and closing deals
faster.
Now Sales Hub without AIalready had a lot of tools to
help you do that and AI has justimproved the speed.
So the sales forecasting isreally cool.
So AI improves the accuracy bylooking back at historical
(10:35):
trends what has happened withthat specific salesperson's
history of interactions withcontacts in the database before
they turn into closed one deals?
It looks at your pipelinehealth, how things are moving,
how things aren't moving, why.
It even looks at marketconditions.
You know, you tell it yourindustry so it can really
(10:57):
provide a lot of insights.
Ai can really help thoserevenue projections be even more
on point and I think that'sreally cool because Sales Hub
before AI could do that if allthe data in was data out.
But the AI really helps withoutside data as well as historic
data for that salesperson usingit.
(11:18):
So that's really cool, theforecasting and then
personalizing sales pitches.
Like, I mean, ai uses the CRMdata, yeah, which is history and
consumer behavior, and it cancraft tailored messages.
I mean it's kind of like thecontent hub too right.
It's creating content that'spersonalized to what's in the
(11:38):
CRM so the salesperson doesn'thave to sit there and do it.
If the information is all inthe CRM, salesperson doesn't
have to look at it and type itup themselves.
The AI can do that.
Emily Hartzell (11:49):
Part of the sales hub is the prospecting
agent.
So I know I mentioned, like thesocial media agent, there's the
prospecting agent which isinside of sales hub and I was.
It's still in beta so somecompanies you know you could
enroll in the beta and you mightstill not be accepted.
It's going to take some time toroll out, but we got early
(12:10):
access to it and I've startedkind of like playing around with
it and I was testing it theother week and I was just so
fascinated because you can takea prospect and enroll it.
So you actually have to enrollit in the prospect, the
prospecting agent and when youdo that you tell it.
You can actually have it golike autopilot, which I haven't
yet.
But you could say like go forit agent, you prospect for me.
But I didn't have it do thatand instead I said I'd like to
(12:34):
send X number of emails over Xperiod of time and I'd like you
to send them.
So then it scans.
So it takes about two or threeminutes after you enroll someone
.
It scans everything that's everhappened with that.
So they look at every singledeal ever, every single meeting
you've ever had, and it actuallylays out like all the facts and
bullet points and then youapprove the facts.
(12:56):
So you're like, yes, that isthe facts.
And it then crafts tailoredemails based on the recordings
in the CRM, the calls it seesyou've had, like it knows you,
it knows your relationship withthis prospect, and then it makes
emails that make sense, whichis very cool and like, unlike
anything I would have thoughtHubSpot would be able to do,
(13:19):
it's like it's here.
Maryanne McWhirter (13:20):
It's very cool and unlike other AI,
because you don't have to log it.
You don't have to drag and drop.
Oh, I've had this conversation.
It looks at what's alreadythere and, if you are tracking
your emails, and the informationis automatically being put into
upspot, you're not having toput anything in.
Matt Sunshine (13:35):
Sure.
Maryanne McWhirter (13:35):
It's just doing it.
Emily Hartzell (13:36):
Right.
Matt Sunshine (13:37):
It's really amazing All right Switching
subjects a little bit, and Iguess Emily will come to you for
this one so I think in the lastsix months to a year, the idea
(13:59):
of using a virtual assistant ora chat bot has become easier and
easier.
You know, even people are morecomfortable talking to Alexa,
more comfortable talking to Siri, more comfortable with voice
commands, even when you go onsomeone's websiteots and the AI
(14:26):
powered virtual assistants andsentiment analysis tools how
those are impacting the way wedeal with customer satisfaction.
Emily Hartzell (14:37):
Yeah, yeah, I think it's a really good
question and I think one thingthat it makes me think about is
just, you know, historicallyit's been a bit difficult to
like prior to AI, prior to theability to have a big knowledge
base where it's pulling actualinformation from, and it's felt
a little like a tedious task toget your questions answered or
(15:02):
to actually speak with a personor you know, like you know, as
soon as it's an automatedmessage or whatever, that it's
not going to be the informationyou need, and I feel like AI is
really changing that.
I know we're talking a lot aboutHubSpot, but I'll speak
specifically to their servicehub and their ability to build
out a knowledge base, because Ithink it's really cool.
You can now have like layeredknowledge that you can provide
(15:28):
AI chatbots that will, um, giveas close to a human like answer
as possible, and then thechatbot will actually have a
human like conversation withsomeone, so it doesn't feel like
they're not really answeringyour question, but it's the
chatbots giving you the best itcan get based on the you know
(15:49):
nothing it has.
Yeah, it's now it's getting tothe point where these chatbots
are using ai and it's actuallygiving relevant information
that's truly answering questions, and so it's.
It's helping companies not haveto have the human power sitting
behind the desk to answer it,but rather having the human
power, having building therelationship with these people
(16:12):
and, you know, furthering theirupselling their company instead
of having to answer the mundane,tedious tasks.
And AI is actually answeringthe task, so they're actually
getting questions answered bychatbots.
Matt Sunshine (16:24):
And all go ahead.
Emily Hartzell (16:26):
No, no, go ahead .
Matt Sunshine (16:27):
I was just saying all of everything the two of
you have been talking about,which to me, just sounds
absolutely incredible, and Ican't figure out why anybody
listening to this wouldn't say,well, wow, we would be a better
organization if we had that.
And I think what they'd reallysay is if we had that and we
were using it, and we'll get tothat in a second.
(16:48):
But setting it all up isn'teasy, and that's something that
the two of you and all of LeadG2, that's what you do, right.
You set it all up, you makesure it works, and then you work
with companies to make surethat they use it and get the
results that they need.
Am I saying that simplisticenough?
Maryanne McWhirter (17:09):
That's right ?
Yeah, I think so.
Set it up and train right.
Make sure that you understandhow to use it.
All right.
Emily Hartzell (17:15):
So go ahead, go ahead, emily I was going to say
like, when we're talking aboutall this stuff, you know the
social media agent being able topost social media posts, the
like you have to give it theinformation that it needs in
order to do that, which requirestyping in your entire target
persona and all the buyinginformation.
That's just one example of many.
In order for your AI chatbot tohave a knowledge base to pull
(17:37):
from, you have to make theknowledge base, and all of that
stuff takes time.
So, like you were just saying,people do invest quite a bit of
money into having HubSpot astheir tool and you know feeling
like that investment alone isenough for the success, but I do
feel like a really big missingpiece is the usage and the
training that comes with thetool.
Matt Sunshine (17:58):
Yeah, it's kind of like in sports.
You can, you can buy asponsorship of a sports team.
You can buy a sponsorship of asports team, but unless you're
going to also take the time toactivate that sponsorship, it's
not really as valuable.
And it's the same with any ofthese tools you can make the
investment to invest in them,but unless you're going to make
(18:18):
the investment, the timeinvestment and the financial
investment to activate them anduse them, you're never going to
realize the full potential.
So on that, Marianne, I thinkso many people they only really
choose to learn a few of thetools that they have within
their CRM.
(18:39):
With more and more toolsbecoming available, how can
businesses ensure that peopleare staying ahead of the curve?
I guess another way to say thiswould be what features do you
see people not using enough?
Maryanne McWhirter (18:54):
Well, I'll take a second to just plug the
lead you to and say you don'thave to learn all the features,
you just have to hire an agencythat can tell you which ones are
going to work best for you andset it up for you.
And kind of getting set up theright way, like we were just
(19:16):
talking about, is important.
But features that are underusedI mean it varies right, like it
depends on who it is, but Iwould say automation in general.
I don't know workflows andautomation exist and I don't
think they take great advantageof that.
I think people overlook theadvanced opportunities for lead
(19:36):
nurturing that exists without atouch involved.
Right Like there's a lot ofautomation you could.
You could do AI, but that's new.
I think that's underusedbecause it's new and people are
learning and trying tounderstand where to start with
that customer.
Matt Sunshine (19:53):
I think the most underused thing.
Tell me know how you can saveyour proposal as a link
Documents.
Maryanne McWhirter (20:02):
Yeah, the documents tool.
Yeah, that's insane.
Matt Sunshine (20:05):
That's not new, but I think it's so underused
because why wouldn't you use it?
You get information like whenit's opened, and how long do
people stay on every single page?
Emily Hartzell (20:15):
Yeah, I agree stay on every single page.
I agree, we have a seller atLeadG2 who's he's actually about
to celebrate 10 years here andhe was telling me the other day
about sequences that he feelslike even when he's out of
office, cause he's very good atsequences, he's very diligent in
enrolling people in sequences.
(20:35):
And he said even when I'm outof office, even when I'm not
paying attention to my computer,I always feel like I have air
coverage, like I'm always likethere, and he said all of my
sequences have my meeting link.
So he said the best feeling iscoming sitting down at my desk
in the morning and having ameeting booked with someone who
I've never met before but I'vebeen emailing for years, like
(20:57):
I've just been sending thememails and I have a meeting
booked, and I just thought thatwas really cool, like a good way
of saying that.
And I agree with Marianne LikeI don't think sequences are as
utilized as they should be and Ithink it's exactly what you
were just saying too, with likelayering the documents and
layering in the meeting linksand like having your automated
emails be good, automated emailslike not just sequences along
(21:20):
with the calendar link.
Huge, huge.
Attach a document in there tosee if they click on it.
Like, all of these thingstogether are really what's what
makes sequences even better.
Maryanne McWhirter (21:31):
But we could do a whole episode about the
like underutilized features ofHubSpot, Matt.
Matt Sunshine (21:35):
That would actually be a really good
episode.
To do is the most underusedthat could deliver the greatest
ROI.
We need to poll our consultantstoo, because we all see little
different peaks we need to comeup with, like the top five, the
top five most underused,underappreciated, underused,
(22:03):
underappreciated,under-recognized HubSpot tools
that everyone should be using,because they're just there, all
right.
Question AI We've been talkinga lot about it.
Emily Hartzell (22:09):
Mm-hmm.
Matt Sunshine (22:10):
And AI is awesome , but human intuition is awesome
too, and creativity is awesomeas well, and I don't think it's.
I think it's important that itremains and it doesn't go
anywhere.
So, emily, how can businessesstrike the right balance between
AI and human, human involvement, specifically with the CRM?
Emily Hartzell (22:33):
Yeah, I believe firmly that AI should help with
tasks that are likeadministrative tasks that will
take you time and energy, thatare not things that you need to
do manually anymore, so likebuilding you a list or
separating a list of yourprospects and putting it into
(22:54):
alphabetical order, or thingslike that that, like
historically, would have taken along time using AI to speed up
your process to allow you to godo other things.
I think that that is the beautyof AI and I also feel like, when
we enroll people in these likeautomated AI sequences and stuff
like that like you still needto call them, like you still
(23:15):
need to like pick up the phoneand call too, like these are,
you still have to like go andmeet them or put on a screen,
share with your proposal, orlike you still have to have
those moments of relationshipand building trust that AI just
will never be able to do.
But you can work smarter,getting people in your you know,
(23:37):
in your queue, your calendar,and then use your relationship
building and your you knowstellar personality to get that
deal to the close.
Maryanne McWhirter (23:48):
It's the people who are the most afraid
the salespeople who are the mostafraid of AI that need it the
most because it allows them tospend more time building
relationships and less timepoking around on HubSpot trying
to form a list of everybody whohas filled out a form on this
page in the past two months andthey don't know what to select
to build that and AI does it forthem right, like those are the
(24:09):
people who it's the impatient,not really wanting to spend a
lot of time with their computersalesperson, which is Matt.
What percentage of salespeople?
Matt Sunshine (24:20):
The yeah, the expression goes AI won't replace
people.
People that use AI effectivelywill replace people.
Emily Hartzell (24:27):
They don't.
Yeah, absolutely All right.
Matt Sunshine (24:30):
Final thoughts from each of you, and you guys
can decide who goes first.
What advice would you give anorganization who hasn't fully
embraced the AI capabilities oftheir CRM?
Maryanne McWhirter (24:44):
Don't be last.
You don't have to be first, butdon't be last.
You got to do it.
Start somewhere.
Don't try to do it all at once,but start somewhere.
I think we've given a lot ofsmall tips just here today.
I think if you took one of themand implemented it, don't be
the last one, because people aredoing it.
Matt Sunshine (25:00):
It's not a big idea, not a big deal, until you
find out your direct competitoris doing it at a really high
level, and then you're flatfooted and far behind, and
that's not a good feeling, emily.
Emily Hartzell (25:12):
I would say that , at least you know, at LEG2, we
do a lot of sales training.
We talk to a lot of salespeopleand I think the biggest thing
and I'm probably preaching toyou know the choir here but
ultimately showing sellers,showing organizations, how it's
going to make their lives easierand how they're going to see
(25:34):
more wins from it.
So, instead of just likeblanket talking about AI, like
use AI, just go use it.
Like talk about specifics andhow it will make an impact.
So like pulling up your screenshowing the prospecting agent
watching you enroll one personand just and like literally
(25:54):
talking through okay, this is,these are the emails that it
just made for me and it willsend them on its own, without me
even at my desk.
Like talking through the whyand how it's going to actually
make their lives easier, becauseI think a lot of times it's
just talked about in like ablanket sense, like AI will make
your life easier, but likeactually showing those specifics
(26:14):
I think will increase adoptionAll right, that's it.
Matt Sunshine (26:18):
Thank you so much .
I think that's a great way toend it and I and I think that
you're right, I think thatshowing the benefit of it, not
just showing what it can do, buthow it can help, and, marianne,
to your point, just do it.
Just just pick one, pick onething, start doing it, don't be
last Jump in, as someone that weall know once said.
Emily Hartzell (26:43):
You know, the best time to plant a tree is 20
years ago 20 years ago, and ifyou're not using it today, and
if you're not using a CRM, startthere.
Matt Sunshine (26:54):
Yeah, start using it.
All right, emily.
Marianne, thank you so much forjoining us today.
I know that there'll be peoplethat want to get a hold of you
or do some follow up Q&A withyou.
I will drop your LinkedInconnections in the show notes
and I know you're both veryaccessible on LinkedIn as you're
(27:15):
on there a lot, accessible onLinkedIn as you're on there a
lot.
And we thank everyone forjoining the show today and look
forward to you joining other andfuture broadcasts, future
episodes of the Improving SalesPerformance podcast.
Thank you so much.
Maryanne McWhirter (27:31):
Thanks for having us.
Matt Sunshine (27:34):
This has been Improving Sales Performance.
Thanks for listening.
If you like what you heard,join us every week by clicking
the subscribe button.
For more on the topics coveredin the show, visit our website,
thecenterforsalesstrategycom.
There you can find helpfulresources and content aimed at
improving your sales performance.
You
Welcome to Improving Sales Performance, a
podcast highlighting tips andinsights aimed at helping sales
organizations realize, and maybeeven exceed, their goals.
Here we chat with thoughtleaders, experts and gurus who
have years of sales experiencefrom a wide range of industries.
I'm your host, matt Sunshine,ceo at the Center for Sales
Strategy, a sales performanceconsulting company.
(00:27):
In this episode, we're taking alook at how AI is supercharging
CRMs and specifically exploringhow HubSpot is transforming the
way businesses manage customerrelationships, sales processes
(00:49):
and marketing campaigns.
Helping me break it all downare Maryanne McWhorter and Emily
Hartzell, both VP SeniorDirectors at LeadG2.
Maryanne and Emily offer so manyawesome points to think about,
like how HubSpot is not just aCRM but a robust marketing tool
that allows you to see everystep that a customer has taken
(01:11):
in their buying journey.
How HubSpot's AI uses CRM datato craft tailored messages for
personalized sales pitches.
And, finally, why, if you'renot automating repeatable
processes in your CRM, you'refalling behind.
With that, let's start theconversation, all right?
(01:39):
So let's, Maryanne, let's cometo you with this question.
So before all this, ai CRMswere primarily just used for
data entry and kind of likebasic reporting.
But now, with so many differentAI tools available, what are
(02:00):
some of the most time consumingtasks that can now be automated,
and specifically with theHubSpot Sierra?
Maryanne McWhirter (02:09):
Yeah, because you could always
piecemeal and try lots ofdifferent AI tools, but HubSpot
has a lot built in so iteliminates the need to have to
do that.
So I'd say lead scoring is abig one that HubSpot has
improved greatly upon justrecently.
Ai can prioritize leads basedon engagement and intent and
(02:29):
where they've been on yourwebsite pages and what forms
they filled out, and you don'thave to go in and manually do it
anymore.
But I'd say there's a lot.
Data cleanup, I know is a bigone and HubSpot sells that kind
of as an add-on, but if you havea really dirty database, you
can do data clean up all at oncewith AI.
You know content suggestions,creating content generating,
(02:54):
blog ideas and email templatesjust any type of content they
would create in HubSpot.
Matt Sunshine (02:59):
Yeah.
Maryanne McWhirter (03:00):
I know, yeah , I touch everything.
Matt Sunshine (03:02):
Some of the stuff you're doing with podcasting
and creating blog posts.
Maryanne McWhirter (03:06):
That's right .
Matt Sunshine (03:07):
Just incredible.
Maryanne McWhirter (03:09):
Yeah, uploading a piece of content and
having it.
They call it the remix, but itcreates all different types of
content from that type ofcontent.
Ai does it all Specifically,for the CRM.
Emily Hartzell (03:20):
Hubspot and CRM tools now but I'm talking
specifically about HubSpot havethe ability to enrich um
existing CRM uh records so youcould have a contact that maybe
historically you'd have to dosome digging on your own go to
LinkedIn, go to Google, go tothe website page kind of like
uncover things on your own Um,whereas HubSpot and you know all
(03:41):
kinds of probably other CRMslike the Zoom Infos of the
Worlds and stuff which are notCRMs, but it does a similar
thing.
Right, it's all in HubSpot nowbut you can actually enrich the
data so it'll give youautomatically like an org chart
and you know who maybe you don'thave an email address and it
adds the email stuff like that.
That will help kind of fill inthe blanks.
Maryanne McWhirter (04:00):
Yeah, it does research for you and it
also does workflow automation,so like creating tasks for you
based on you know customerintent right, what customers or
what actions they're taking.
Emily Hartzell (04:14):
So now do this based on that.
Matt Sunshine (04:26):
Lead nurturing sequence enrollment tasks set up
.
So maybe this question is you,maybe you've already answered
this question both of you kindof chiming in, but maybe not.
So let me ask it this way and,emily, I'll come to you with
this and even if even if you'vealready answered it, maybe
answer it again in response tothis question, because I think
this would be a really importantthing for people to distinguish
, important thing for people todistinguish, especially because
(04:50):
perhaps many people listening tothis are not CRM experts or CRM
pros.
Maybe they're early days intoCRM or they're you know, they're
just getting started, maybeeven just even evaluating.
So, with AI has madepersonalizing customer
interactions really easy.
I hear you talking about it.
(05:11):
What tools does HubSpot have tohelp you tailor like a
marketing campaign or salesoutreach with that?
Emily Hartzell (05:20):
Yeah, yeah, okay .
So let's first distinguish thedifference between what a CRM is
from, like, what a marketingtool would be.
So HubSpot has it all right.
Hubspot has all of this in oneplace, which is why HubSpot is
so attractive to businesses.
But the CRM in itself is justreally a database, right?
It's a database of yourcontacts, database of your
(05:42):
companies.
It's a way for sellers to tracktheir people, track their
customers, track their deals,track any interactions, emails
they've had for themselves toknow and to keep record of and
ultimately, like if they were tomove on to another job or get
promoted within the company,someone would be able to like
swoop in and keep going withthat sale.
Okay, so the marketing hub andthe content hub are layers of
(06:06):
HubSpot that are in addition tothe CRM.
So now it's building off ofthis database of clients, of
contacts, of companies, of sales, qualified leads.
It's building off of that.
So the content hub uses AI.
There's a lot of different waysit uses AI, but you can create
AI blogs.
So you could like give HubSpota title and a couple of like
(06:28):
quick bullet points or like atopic of you know what you
wanted the blog to be about.
We'll actually write a blog foryou in like two minutes.
It also has a case studyfeature where you can plug in
some very small details about aclient that you've had success
with and it will give you anentire case study.
There's also the social mediaagent, which is inside of the
(06:51):
marketing hub, that you canactually plug in, like what you
want your brand tone and theaudience to be, and it will
actually create social mediaposts on your behalf for you,
and you just go in and selectthe posts you like and add it
into your social calendar andmove on with your day.
So there's lots of really coolmarketing tools.
But why I wanted to distinguishthe CRM from the marketing is
(07:14):
because the marketing is a layeron top of the CRM that is an
additional point of referencefor sellers.
So, for example, if a seller isgoing after a sales qualified
lead or there's a prospect intheir pipeline and they're, you
know, looking at that record,they're able to see all of their
interactions with that person,but they're also able to see all
the marketing interactionsright, so they can see every
(07:35):
promo email, every social mediapost, what they've clicked on,
where they've gone, any websitepage.
So we call that like leadintelligence, but it's really
just like a layer on the CRMthat allows sellers to be able
to see, like, what they're.
You have a if a prospect isn'tbuying a certain product from
your business but they'rereading blogs about it on your
(07:55):
website, like, it gives sellersammo to be able to say, oh,
maybe I'm talking about thewrong things to them or they're
interested in this.
So I hope that answered yourquestion.
Matt Sunshine (08:05):
Yeah, so I think I'm understanding.
You got HubSpot, which is thename of a company, and
underneath the name of thatcompany is several different
products, one being a CRM,another one being a marketing
automation tool, another onebeing a content creation tool
(08:26):
tool, another one being acontent creation tool, another
one being a sales enablementtool and another one being like
a customer service Service.
Yep, okay, got it, and thosearen't the real names, but
that's generally what they doRight.
Emily Hartzell (08:37):
Sales hub content, hub Right.
Matt Sunshine (08:40):
But I'm trying to speak in as.
Yeah, layman's terms aspossible, so that we don't get
caught up in thinking oh well, Igot HubSpot, that means I have
this or I have that.
Hubspot means that you have anAmazon account, right.
It doesn't mean that you'retaking advantage of everything
(09:03):
that Amazon has to offer.
It just means that you dobusiness with Amazon.
Emily Hartzell (09:07):
Right.
Matt Sunshine (09:08):
HubSpot's.
The same way, you could bedoing marketing and not be
taking advantage of the CRM, oryou could be taking advantage of
the CRM and not do marketing.
Emily Hartzell (09:17):
Or the sales tools, or any of it.
Matt Sunshine (09:20):
Got it.
So, Marianne, how can HubSpot'sAI products help sales teams be
more efficient and effective?
Let me go deeper.
Can you discuss or describe therole AI plays in generating
(09:42):
personalized presentations oridentifying upsell opportunities
or improving forecasting?
Maryanne McWhirter (09:50):
Yes, so it does all those things and I feel
like the way you just askedthat question back to your, I
liked the Amazon, I liked theAmazon metaphor there, but now
you're asking what does saleshub offer and how is AI a part
of Sales Hub, so likefunctioning words that we're
using for what's in HubSpot?
That's really the question.
And yes, I mean overall.
(10:12):
What it's doing is it'seliminating the guesswork AI is
allowing sales teams to focus on, to let their sales people
focus on building thoserelationships and closing deals
faster.
Now Sales Hub without AIalready had a lot of tools to
help you do that and AI has justimproved the speed.
So the sales forecasting isreally cool.
So AI improves the accuracy bylooking back at historical
(10:35):
trends what has happened withthat specific salesperson's
history of interactions withcontacts in the database before
they turn into closed one deals?
It looks at your pipelinehealth, how things are moving,
how things aren't moving, why.
It even looks at marketconditions.
You know, you tell it yourindustry so it can really
(10:57):
provide a lot of insights.
Ai can really help thoserevenue projections be even more
on point and I think that'sreally cool because Sales Hub
before AI could do that if allthe data in was data out.
But the AI really helps withoutside data as well as historic
data for that salesperson usingit.
(11:18):
So that's really cool, theforecasting and then
personalizing sales pitches.
Like, I mean, ai uses the CRMdata, yeah, which is history and
consumer behavior, and it cancraft tailored messages.
I mean it's kind of like thecontent hub too right.
It's creating content that'spersonalized to what's in the
(11:38):
CRM so the salesperson doesn'thave to sit there and do it.
If the information is all inthe CRM, salesperson doesn't
have to look at it and type itup themselves.
The AI can do that.
Emily Hartzell (11:49):
Part of the sales hub is the prospecting
agent.
So I know I mentioned, like thesocial media agent, there's the
prospecting agent which isinside of sales hub and I was.
It's still in beta so somecompanies you know you could
enroll in the beta and you mightstill not be accepted.
It's going to take some time toroll out, but we got early
(12:10):
access to it and I've startedkind of like playing around with
it and I was testing it theother week and I was just so
fascinated because you can takea prospect and enroll it.
So you actually have to enrollit in the prospect, the
prospecting agent and when youdo that you tell it.
You can actually have it golike autopilot, which I haven't
yet.
But you could say like go forit agent, you prospect for me.
But I didn't have it do thatand instead I said I'd like to
(12:34):
send X number of emails over Xperiod of time and I'd like you
to send them.
So then it scans.
So it takes about two or threeminutes after you enroll someone
.
It scans everything that's everhappened with that.
So they look at every singledeal ever, every single meeting
you've ever had, and it actuallylays out like all the facts and
bullet points and then youapprove the facts.
(12:56):
So you're like, yes, that isthe facts.
And it then crafts tailoredemails based on the recordings
in the CRM, the calls it seesyou've had, like it knows you,
it knows your relationship withthis prospect, and then it makes
emails that make sense, whichis very cool and like, unlike
anything I would have thoughtHubSpot would be able to do,
(13:19):
it's like it's here.
Maryanne McWhirter (13:20):
It's very cool and unlike other AI,
because you don't have to log it.
You don't have to drag and drop.
Oh, I've had this conversation.
It looks at what's alreadythere and, if you are tracking
your emails, and the informationis automatically being put into
upspot, you're not having toput anything in.
Matt Sunshine (13:35):
Sure.
Maryanne McWhirter (13:35):
It's just doing it.
Emily Hartzell (13:36):
Right.
Matt Sunshine (13:37):
It's really amazing All right Switching
subjects a little bit, and Iguess Emily will come to you for
this one so I think in the lastsix months to a year, the idea
(13:59):
of using a virtual assistant ora chat bot has become easier and
easier.
You know, even people are morecomfortable talking to Alexa,
more comfortable talking to Siri, more comfortable with voice
commands, even when you go onsomeone's websiteots and the AI
(14:26):
powered virtual assistants andsentiment analysis tools how
those are impacting the way wedeal with customer satisfaction.
Emily Hartzell (14:37):
Yeah, yeah, I think it's a really good
question and I think one thingthat it makes me think about is
just, you know, historicallyit's been a bit difficult to
like prior to AI, prior to theability to have a big knowledge
base where it's pulling actualinformation from, and it's felt
a little like a tedious task toget your questions answered or
(15:02):
to actually speak with a personor you know, like you know, as
soon as it's an automatedmessage or whatever, that it's
not going to be the informationyou need, and I feel like AI is
really changing that.
I know we're talking a lot aboutHubSpot, but I'll speak
specifically to their servicehub and their ability to build
out a knowledge base, because Ithink it's really cool.
You can now have like layeredknowledge that you can provide
(15:28):
AI chatbots that will, um, giveas close to a human like answer
as possible, and then thechatbot will actually have a
human like conversation withsomeone, so it doesn't feel like
they're not really answeringyour question, but it's the
chatbots giving you the best itcan get based on the you know
(15:49):
nothing it has.
Yeah, it's now it's getting tothe point where these chatbots
are using ai and it's actuallygiving relevant information
that's truly answering questions, and so it's.
It's helping companies not haveto have the human power sitting
behind the desk to answer it,but rather having the human
power, having building therelationship with these people
(16:12):
and, you know, furthering theirupselling their company instead
of having to answer the mundane,tedious tasks.
And AI is actually answeringthe task, so they're actually
getting questions answered bychatbots.
Matt Sunshine (16:24):
And all go ahead.
Emily Hartzell (16:26):
No, no, go ahead .
Matt Sunshine (16:27):
I was just saying all of everything the two of
you have been talking about,which to me, just sounds
absolutely incredible, and Ican't figure out why anybody
listening to this wouldn't say,well, wow, we would be a better
organization if we had that.
And I think what they'd reallysay is if we had that and we
were using it, and we'll get tothat in a second.
(16:48):
But setting it all up isn'teasy, and that's something that
the two of you and all of LeadG2, that's what you do, right.
You set it all up, you makesure it works, and then you work
with companies to make surethat they use it and get the
results that they need.
Am I saying that simplisticenough?
Maryanne McWhirter (17:09):
That's right ?
Yeah, I think so.
Set it up and train right.
Make sure that you understandhow to use it.
All right.
Emily Hartzell (17:15):
So go ahead, go ahead, emily I was going to say
like, when we're talking aboutall this stuff, you know the
social media agent being able topost social media posts, the
like you have to give it theinformation that it needs in
order to do that, which requirestyping in your entire target
persona and all the buyinginformation.
That's just one example of many.
In order for your AI chatbot tohave a knowledge base to pull
(17:37):
from, you have to make theknowledge base, and all of that
stuff takes time.
So, like you were just saying,people do invest quite a bit of
money into having HubSpot astheir tool and you know feeling
like that investment alone isenough for the success, but I do
feel like a really big missingpiece is the usage and the
training that comes with thetool.
Matt Sunshine (17:58):
Yeah, it's kind of like in sports.
You can, you can buy asponsorship of a sports team.
You can buy a sponsorship of asports team, but unless you're
going to also take the time toactivate that sponsorship, it's
not really as valuable.
And it's the same with any ofthese tools you can make the
investment to invest in them,but unless you're going to make
(18:18):
the investment, the timeinvestment and the financial
investment to activate them anduse them, you're never going to
realize the full potential.
So on that, Marianne, I thinkso many people they only really
choose to learn a few of thetools that they have within
their CRM.
(18:39):
With more and more toolsbecoming available, how can
businesses ensure that peopleare staying ahead of the curve?
I guess another way to say thiswould be what features do you
see people not using enough?
Maryanne McWhirter (18:54):
Well, I'll take a second to just plug the
lead you to and say you don'thave to learn all the features,
you just have to hire an agencythat can tell you which ones are
going to work best for you andset it up for you.
And kind of getting set up theright way, like we were just
(19:16):
talking about, is important.
But features that are underusedI mean it varies right, like it
depends on who it is, but Iwould say automation in general.
I don't know workflows andautomation exist and I don't
think they take great advantageof that.
I think people overlook theadvanced opportunities for lead
(19:36):
nurturing that exists without atouch involved.
Right Like there's a lot ofautomation you could.
You could do AI, but that's new.
I think that's underusedbecause it's new and people are
learning and trying tounderstand where to start with
that customer.
Matt Sunshine (19:53):
I think the most underused thing.
Tell me know how you can saveyour proposal as a link
Documents.
Maryanne McWhirter (20:02):
Yeah, the documents tool.
Yeah, that's insane.
Matt Sunshine (20:05):
That's not new, but I think it's so underused
because why wouldn't you use it?
You get information like whenit's opened, and how long do
people stay on every single page?
Emily Hartzell (20:15):
Yeah, I agree stay on every single page.
I agree, we have a seller atLeadG2 who's he's actually about
to celebrate 10 years here andhe was telling me the other day
about sequences that he feelslike even when he's out of
office, cause he's very good atsequences, he's very diligent in
enrolling people in sequences.
(20:35):
And he said even when I'm outof office, even when I'm not
paying attention to my computer,I always feel like I have air
coverage, like I'm always likethere, and he said all of my
sequences have my meeting link.
So he said the best feeling iscoming sitting down at my desk
in the morning and having ameeting booked with someone who
I've never met before but I'vebeen emailing for years, like
(20:57):
I've just been sending thememails and I have a meeting
booked, and I just thought thatwas really cool, like a good way
of saying that.
And I agree with Marianne LikeI don't think sequences are as
utilized as they should be and Ithink it's exactly what you
were just saying too, with likelayering the documents and
layering in the meeting linksand like having your automated
emails be good, automated emailslike not just sequences along
(21:20):
with the calendar link.
Huge, huge.
Attach a document in there tosee if they click on it.
Like, all of these thingstogether are really what's what
makes sequences even better.
Maryanne McWhirter (21:31):
But we could do a whole episode about the
like underutilized features ofHubSpot, Matt.
Matt Sunshine (21:35):
That would actually be a really good
episode.
To do is the most underusedthat could deliver the greatest
ROI.
We need to poll our consultantstoo, because we all see little
different peaks we need to comeup with, like the top five, the
top five most underused,underappreciated, underused,
(22:03):
underappreciated,under-recognized HubSpot tools
that everyone should be using,because they're just there, all
right.
Question AI We've been talkinga lot about it.
Emily Hartzell (22:09):
Mm-hmm.
Matt Sunshine (22:10):
And AI is awesome , but human intuition is awesome
too, and creativity is awesomeas well, and I don't think it's.
I think it's important that itremains and it doesn't go
anywhere.
So, emily, how can businessesstrike the right balance between
AI and human, human involvement, specifically with the CRM?
Emily Hartzell (22:33):
Yeah, I believe firmly that AI should help with
tasks that are likeadministrative tasks that will
take you time and energy, thatare not things that you need to
do manually anymore, so likebuilding you a list or
separating a list of yourprospects and putting it into
(22:54):
alphabetical order, or thingslike that that, like
historically, would have taken along time using AI to speed up
your process to allow you to godo other things.
I think that that is the beautyof AI and I also feel like, when
we enroll people in these likeautomated AI sequences and stuff
like that like you still needto call them, like you still
(23:15):
need to like pick up the phoneand call too, like these are,
you still have to like go andmeet them or put on a screen,
share with your proposal, orlike you still have to have
those moments of relationshipand building trust that AI just
will never be able to do.
But you can work smarter,getting people in your you know,
(23:37):
in your queue, your calendar,and then use your relationship
building and your you knowstellar personality to get that
deal to the close.
Maryanne McWhirter (23:48):
It's the people who are the most afraid
the salespeople who are the mostafraid of AI that need it the
most because it allows them tospend more time building
relationships and less timepoking around on HubSpot trying
to form a list of everybody whohas filled out a form on this
page in the past two months andthey don't know what to select
to build that and AI does it forthem right, like those are the
(24:09):
people who it's the impatient,not really wanting to spend a
lot of time with their computersalesperson, which is Matt.
What percentage of salespeople?
Matt Sunshine (24:20):
The yeah, the expression goes AI won't replace
people.
People that use AI effectivelywill replace people.
Emily Hartzell (24:27):
They don't.
Yeah, absolutely All right.
Matt Sunshine (24:30):
Final thoughts from each of you, and you guys
can decide who goes first.
What advice would you give anorganization who hasn't fully
embraced the AI capabilities oftheir CRM?
Maryanne McWhirter (24:44):
Don't be last.
You don't have to be first, butdon't be last.
You got to do it.
Start somewhere.
Don't try to do it all at once,but start somewhere.
I think we've given a lot ofsmall tips just here today.
I think if you took one of themand implemented it, don't be
the last one, because people aredoing it.
Matt Sunshine (25:00):
It's not a big idea, not a big deal, until you
find out your direct competitoris doing it at a really high
level, and then you're flatfooted and far behind, and
that's not a good feeling, emily.
Emily Hartzell (25:12):
I would say that , at least you know, at LEG2, we
do a lot of sales training.
We talk to a lot of salespeopleand I think the biggest thing
and I'm probably preaching toyou know the choir here but
ultimately showing sellers,showing organizations, how it's
going to make their lives easierand how they're going to see
(25:34):
more wins from it.
So, instead of just likeblanket talking about AI, like
use AI, just go use it.
Like talk about specifics andhow it will make an impact.
So like pulling up your screenshowing the prospecting agent
watching you enroll one personand just and like literally
(25:54):
talking through okay, this is,these are the emails that it
just made for me and it willsend them on its own, without me
even at my desk.
Like talking through the whyand how it's going to actually
make their lives easier, becauseI think a lot of times it's
just talked about in like ablanket sense, like AI will make
your life easier, but likeactually showing those specifics
(26:14):
I think will increase adoptionAll right, that's it.
Matt Sunshine (26:18):
Thank you so much .
I think that's a great way toend it and I and I think that
you're right, I think thatshowing the benefit of it, not
just showing what it can do, buthow it can help, and, marianne,
to your point, just do it.
Just just pick one, pick onething, start doing it, don't be
last Jump in, as someone that weall know once said.
Emily Hartzell (26:43):
You know, the best time to plant a tree is 20
years ago 20 years ago, and ifyou're not using it today, and
if you're not using a CRM, startthere.
Matt Sunshine (26:54):
Yeah, start using it.
All right, emily.
Marianne, thank you so much forjoining us today.
I know that there'll be peoplethat want to get a hold of you
or do some follow up Q&A withyou.
I will drop your LinkedInconnections in the show notes
and I know you're both veryaccessible on LinkedIn as you're
(27:15):
on there a lot, accessible onLinkedIn as you're on there a
lot.
And we thank everyone forjoining the show today and look
forward to you joining other andfuture broadcasts, future
episodes of the Improving SalesPerformance podcast.
Thank you so much.
Maryanne McWhirter (27:31):
Thanks for having us.
Matt Sunshine (27:34):
This has been Improving Sales Performance.
Thanks for listening.
If you like what you heard,join us every week by clicking
the subscribe button.
For more on the topics coveredin the show, visit our website,
thecenterforsalesstrategycom.
There you can find helpfulresources and content aimed at
improving your sales performance.
You
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