Increasing New Deal Value by 92% YOY with HubSpot Sales Pro
AWARD WINNER HubSpot 2021 | Grow Better Sales Award Winner
Recognizes a HubSpot Partner who has demonstrated expertise in Sales and CRM solutions that drive tremendous impact in HubSpot.
CraneWorks also uses HubSpot CRM for a completely-unified sales and marketing system.
OVERVIEW Houston-based equipment sales & rental company moves CRM to HubSpot.
CraneWorks has been a leader in crane and equipment rental for over 30 years. In 2020-2021, construction spending rose drastically to create a $1.36 trillion industry.
With an increase in demand for construction equipment rentals, it was crucial for CraneWorks to have reliable, robust systems in place to serve their prospects and leverage the opportunity to increase sales revenue.
CraneWorks turned to their HubSpot partner agency, Instrumental Group, to audit and improve their HubSpot Sales Pro system. They entered into a sales enablement contract and started the iterative process of equipping the sales team with the resources they need to close more deals.
GOALS Improving how the sales team responds to new opportunities.
Robbie Stevens, Marketing Director at CraneWorks, and John Drinane, Director of Revenue Acceleration at Instrumental Group, identified the following goals:
- Improve lead response time (speed to lead)
- Increase efficiency with lead routing from 6%
- Reduce admin burden on SDR & marketing teams
- Create a single source of truth for high-value deals
An audit of CraneWorks’ system revealed opportunities to optimize their lead flow, utilize automation to reduce friction, and use HubSpot's advanced features to enhance sales.
SOLUTIONS Customized CRM with automation.
Increasing the # of Automatically Routed Leads
Manual lead routing was causing a significant strain on resources and slowing down lead response time. In fact, only 6% of leads were being automatically routed due to the complexity of the sales territory assignments and the system’s over-emphasis on form-only conversions.
The Instrumental team included more leads in the automatic routing system by reorganizing workflow triggers to recognize non-form sources such as chatbot inquiries.
Previously, the lead routing workflows were triggered by forms only; now, any inbound qualified sales lead is routed automatically.
Accommodating Zip Code-Based Routing
The next challenge was complex zip code-based sales territories. When the system was built in 2018, we developed custom HubDB code to match zip codes with specific sales territories and set up a workflow to route leads accordingly. This system was prone to error and wasn’t effective at eliminating the administrative burden on the sales and marketing teams.
With the ever-evolving HubSpot app ecosystem, by the time we addressed the issue in 2021, we vetted and leveraged Mapsly, which integrates with HubSpot bi-directionally via a native API-based connector.
Mapsly enabled us to seamlessly implement no-code geo-automation based on zip code territories for the sales team. In addition to saving time on manual routing, this move reduced the amount of upkeep required when new SDRs joined the team or added or changed a sales territory.
Putting High-Value Leads Front and Center
We set up a lead and deal scoring to identify high-intent leads to increase the amount of time SDRs spent on high-value leads.
We also reorganized the sales pipeline with new definitions of entrance and exit criteria to more intelligently route leads to SDRs based on location and service interest.
These efforts aimed to reduce the amount of manual effort spent on unqualified and/or non-routed leads.
Building a Compelling KPI Dashboard
We knew that adoption would be crucial to success. Therefore, we created team buy-in by building a dashboard with Sales KPIs, including pipeline forecasting, lead response time, and revenue to source attribution.
With a single source of truth, SDRs could feel confident that their large potential commissions were in the hands of a robust system.
RESULTS Accurate, timely routing makes a difference.
SDRs can now respond quickly and effectively to prospects. With the old system, less than 6% of leads were automatically routed. In Q4 2021, 85% of leads were automatically routed with the HubSpot and Mapsly integration. With better lead routing and management, the team was able to increase their impactful sales activities YOY.
85% Automated Lead Routing
13% Increase in SDR Activity
With effective routing, lead response is two days or less than a third of the previous quarter's response time and down from as high as 10.5 weeks at one point in 2020.
IMPACT Creating true organizational value.
The new strategy and system represented an organizational win. Robbie was excited to show the new strategy and system to senior executives at CraneWorks, and even more excited to unveil the more efficient system to the sales and marketing team members.
The system is a single source of truth and makes the most of available data on leads to route and qualify them effectively. The team benefits from KPIs and data that clarify lead ownership, activity volume, and revenue attribution.
The future is bright for CraneWorks as they continue their upward sales trajectory and continue leveraging HubSpot Sales Pro, Marketing Enterprise, and CMS software. In 2022, CraneWorks plans to focus on improving the MOFU experiences for leads by leveraging personas and creating separate chatflows for different business areas. They also launched a new website that focuses on conversion and boosting traffic through HubSpot's robust SEO features.
CraneWorks truly understands the power of a fully-integrated tech stack for fine-tuning their customers' journeys, improving operations, and ultimately improving the bottom line.
"Here at CraneWorks, we’re very bought into the HubSpot ecosystem. One of the many reasons is how well HubSpot plays with others, allowing us to heavily customize the software to our needs.
Whenever we come up with a cool new idea that requires a third-party integration, we never have to wonder whether the HubSpot side is going to work. And in those rare cases when we do hit a roadblock, it seems like all we need to do is wait because HubSpot is constantly adding third-party integrations, and the ideal solution for our needs will show up soon."