That may not come as a revelation: These days, a new app or AI-enabled tool emerges every week, promising to make sales reps more productive and efficient. While technology is crucial, part of the problem is the growing gap between how sales reps sell and what prospects and customers expect from the process. Deliver a bad customer experience and 96% of customers say they would leave.
In this post, we explain why your sales team needs a platform that facilitates connection and look at the best new HubSpot Sales Hub features.
Customer connection drives growth
With talk of a looming recession, purse strings are tight. Growth has stagnated, sales team headcounts are low, and reps are struggling to hit their targets. We empathize because the pressure is on. Yet by striving for growth at all costs, you can lose sight of what matters most: connecting with customers.
Sales leaders agree that building trusting relationships remains key in B2B sales. Prospects also expect sales teams to be more informed than ever before. They want help diagnosing and solving their problems, not a rehash of product features — Google can offer that, and even Generative AI can, too.
So, changing buyer behavior means stepping up to build stronger connections. It means closing the connection gap.
But we are hearing from our clients that reps spend less time nurturing relationships and more on mind-numbing admin. It is estimated sales teams dedicate as much as 40% of their time to non-selling activities. And those unmet targets aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. The result is a despondent team with a productivity problem.
Fortunately, there is a way through. HubSpot research shows that “connecting consistently throughout the customer journey drives 19% more growth in terms of deals closed.” The best way to do that is with a robust customer platform.
Why your team needs a connected customer platform
Before we go further, let us explain what we mean by “customer platform.”
A customer platform enables businesses to grow by facilitating connections at scale. It is powered by artificial intelligence (AI), complete with a CRM (Customer Relationship Management software) and engagement hubs for every team — Marketing, Sales, Service, and Operations.
All of these hubs need to talk to each other, share insights and information and be connected in real time. Since this post aims at helping sales leaders, we’ll focus on the technology as it relates to sales.
What’s different about the customer platform is it places the customer at the heart of everything. How does that benefit sales? Reps can power productivity through relevancy. Essentially, it provides the contextual insight needed to deliver enhanced value. That results in:
- Better connections and more relevant experiences
- Better rep and team productivity (which translates to growth)
- Better visibility and collaboration across teams, including Marketing and Service.
Reaping the rewards while closing the connection gap looks like this:
- Focused prospecting armed with intelligent tools
- Closing more deals through a consistent, streamlined sales process
- Achieving revenue goals and efficiently scaling team performance.
And let’s not forget AI allows teams to do all of it with ease.
As AI for sales becomes more sophisticated, it will play a bigger role in the sales process. In fact, according to a 2021 Gartner survey, "88% of chief sales officers have already invested in or are considering investing in AI analytics tools and technologies."
An AI-powered, all-in-one sales platform sounds like a dream come true. But it’s the real deal. This platform actually goes by a name, one you probably know well: HubSpot.
Related: Customizing Your HubSpot CRM is a Superpower
New features in HubSpot Sales Hub
HubSpot never stops enhancing its software, as we all saw when it announced the latest product updates at INBOUND 2023. One of the biggest launches was the newly improved Sales Hub. It still works for businesses of any maturity, now easier to use.
As part of its customer platform, HubSpot Sales Hub contains sales engagement tools connected to Smart CRM. Together, they provide everything needed to power productivity through relevance.
HubSpot’s freshly updated software ecosystem for sales teams and more.
Salted Stone’s sales team was pretty darn thrilled about the latest sales software updates. Here’s what they say are the best new HubSpot Sales Hub features. Please note: some features are in beta and available in certain product tiers.
Simpler prospecting
Sales reps must learn how to build trust with prospects quickly. Sales Hub’s prospecting workspace is exactly what it sounds like — a single view of prospects, goals, and activities. Reps have all the tools and data at their fingertips to make swift, impactful decisions. The best bit is there’s no need to switch between apps or hunt down information.
HubSpot Sales Hub’s prospecting workspace keeps sales reps laser-focused.
And it’s now even easier to follow up leads and progress them through the pipeline.
Research has found that salespeople spend an average of 13 working hours per week just on email. In other words, you're likely spending a third of your work week drafting, sending, reading, and managing emails.
With HubSpot AI content assistant you could save up to 2 hours a day. Select the type of email you need, who you are selling to, and a few words on what you want to communicate. Then click 'generate' and AI does the rest!
AI-powered email authoring minimizes the effort of churning out emails.
Savvier sequences
Recall that 40% of time that’s lost on non-selling activities. No wonder automation is a must-have for top-performing sales reps.
Sequences let reps set up automated emails personalized to the recipient and experiment with A/B testing. Then, pinpoint which combination of steps converts using sequence step analytics. To understand how your outreach ties into performance, there are reporting tools as well.
Monitor sequence performance and find out what works with A/B testing.
Smoother deals
This set of features keeps you and your team focused on the most valuable deals. Deal tags keep deals in tidy categories with help from colored labels and presets. Helping reps keep on top of their deals is a new sidebar containing recent touchpoints.
Most importantly, HubSpot Sales Hub has pipeline and velocity metrics for a snapshot of overall sales health.
The Sales Hub deals board helps track and close the most valuable deals.
Faster forecasting
Along with AI Assistant in Smart CRM, Sales Hub leverages AI to minimize busy work. Take predictive forecasting. You can compare manual forecasts against an AI-powered projection, then adjust your play to make them happen.
Reliable projections are vital for any sales team. That’s why accuracy tracking monitors the accuracy of forecast submissions. They only become more reliable over time. Reps can also harness insight into pipeline performance throughout the quarter, keeping everyone on track.
Peer into the future with HubSpot’s new predictive forecasting.
We realize you probably already have a mish-mash of sales software and tools. Fortunately, Sales Hub complements other CRMs, and there are some 600 app integrations for sales.
So, what about the pricing, we hear you ask. Surely all these features packed into a powerful AI-driven sales CRM must cost a lot, right?
HubSpot Sales Hub starts at just AU$20 per seat for small teams and AU$126 per seat for mid-sized businesses. That gives your team access to forecasting, coaching playlists, ABM tools and automation, prospecting workspace, call transcription, sequences, and more.
Power productivity with HubSpot Sales Hub
The sales profession is here to stay, but the role in influencing sales has been redefined. Connection enables growth, and arming your sales team with a connected customer platform will ensure everybody comes out on top.
If you’re curious about adopting Sales Hub or testing its new features, we can help. As an Elite HubSpot Partner, we have been deeply rooted in the ecosystem since 2012. Let us show you how to unlock the true power of HubSpot.
