HubSpot’s Smart CRM: What We’ve Learnt From Inbound 2023

At Inbound 2023, the unveiling of the HubSpot Smart CRM emerged as one of the focal points of the company's eagerly-awaited keynote presentation. This new customer relationship management (CRM) software will change the way companies think about CRM and how they deploy it within their organisations.

Representatives of the Axon Garside team were in attendance, and following their return to UK soil, we’re thrilled to share exciting takeaways and key findings from the celebration of sales, marketing, service, operations and technology innovation.

In this article, we take a deeper look into Smart CRM, and look at how it will revolutionise the CRM space.

What is HubSpot's Smart CRM?

The HubSpot Smart CRM is a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool that uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML).

Combining these technologies into a CRM will enable businesses to automate lead generation campaigns, deploy and refine lead scoring and deliver personalised communications at all stages of the buyer's journey, at scale. The AI and ML capabilities will also play a pivotal role in analysing data to understand customer behaviour.

HubSpot Smart CRM will undoubtedly develop as businesses look for ways to improve their customer satisfaction, sales and decision-making while reducing the time it takes to complete repetitive tasks.

Core HubSpot Smart CRM Features

The main takeaway from Inbound 2023 is that the HubSpot Smart CRM platform will feature three core components, which will help you streamline your customer management.

Unified Customer Data

Over 75% of workers feel their teams within their organisation are siloed. The sales department will follow their processes, marketing teams have their own set of procedures in place, and the same goes for customer service.

Each of these departments may have their own CRM which is customised to their needs and requirements.  

As each team uses their CRM differently, any changes to the data may not be reflected in the other team’s databases. To illustrate, the sales team will update customer records with information regarding the close of a deal. This information will not be carried over to the service team who often need context to resolve any queries regarding the deal.

With HubSpot’s Smart CRM, all data used by each department is available on a single platform. This makes it easier for customer record updates to be made and shared with the whole company. 

Customer Intelligence

The best customer messaging resonates with your target market.

To achieve this, you need to know your customers inside out. Normally, you would conduct market research and interview customers or prospects to identify their pain points.

This is where personas come into play. Personas are a semi-fictional representation of the customers you want to engage with. Creating personas does take work, as you need to gather as much information beforehand.

But once you create a persona, it shouldn’t be set in stone. Over time, the needs and requirements of your target audience will evolve, and your persona should reflect this.

HubSpot Smart CRM will assist with tracking your customer interactions with your brand, whether that’s with a sales colleague, a customer service agent or your website. Unlike most CRM platforms, HubSpot’s intelligence tools connect to the bottom line. This means you can focus on the customer interaction that actually drives revenue for your organisation.

Inaccurately attributing revenue to campaigns, you’ll get a a bigger picture, and much deeper insight, into your customers’ behaviour during the buyer’s journey. Plus, when tracking their interactions, you’ll pick up on any recurring themes and discover any new pain points to help refine your messaging, and where you need to invest resources.

Customisation and Extensibility

While businesses often customise CRMs to meet their requirements, it’s rarely acknowledged how challenging it is to introduce these changes.

In some cases, customisation may be straightforward, and will only take seconds. But in others, complex integrations are used, and this can take up a significant period of time.

HubSpot Smart CRM has been introduced to resolve this issue for everyday CRM users.

A range of user-friendly features have been incorporated within the platform to introduce seamless customisation, and improved integration between business applications such as Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce and Intuit.

Plus, it’s designed with the future of your business in mind. HubSpot Smart CRM grows with you, enabling you to add more features and functionalities as and when needed.

HubSpot Smart CRM vs. HubSpot’s Legacy CRM

While the legacy offering has been beneficial for thousands of customers, the team behind HubSpot recognised there was a growing demand for intelligence over information, and there’s a clear distinction between the two.

Information tends to be raw and unprocessed. Intelligence, on the other hand, provides actionable insights after processing the information. To get this intelligence, CRM specialists need to go through reams of data, which often take a lot of time.

HubSpot’s Smart CRM has six hubs collectively known as the AI-powered System of engagement to help you process the data in CRM’s information to get your insights quicker.

These hubs are:

Marketing hub

Assists with the end-to-end management of all marketing campaigns, from content creation and sharing, all the way through to automated lead nurturing and scoring.

Sales hub

Sales hub gives your team the tools to effectively convert marketing-qualified leads (MQLs), along with the customer intelligence to give your sales teams the best opportunity to turn them into customers. It also enables outbound sales teams to personalise their outreach at scale with clever integrations, automated sequencing and playbooks.

Service hub

For post-sales, the service hub plays a critical role in customer retention. Here, you can make use of HubSpot’s knowledge base functionality, AI-powered live chat and bots, support ticketing processes, and NPS and custom feedback surveys.

CMS hub

The term content is king is still relevant today like when it was used back in 1996 by Bill Gates. As well as being able to build your entire website in HubSpot, you can also take advantage of HubSpot’s content assistant to help generate new blog ideas, craft social copy, draft emails and write paragraphs of text on a particular topic.

Operations hub

Operations hub gives you access to a unified toolset that connects apps, cleans and curates customer data, and enables more sophisticated automation to leverage data across your technology stack.

Commerce hub

Automate payments and subscriptions for streamlined customer onboarding. Keep customers informed with timely billing and invoicing that is automatically generated after customers complete a purchase.

In combining these AI-powered systems of engagements, you develop your portal of intelligence to make informed decisions, deliver personalised campaigns and assess the performance of your sales and marketing efforts through one platform.

How Does HubSpot Smart CRM Benefit B2B Businesses?

The B2B buyer’s journey is no longer linear, it’s more complicated. A study by Gartner shared how a typical B2B buying process involves six to 10 decision-makers, who each conduct their own research.

Each decision maker seeks to define their problem, explore a solution and see which supplier is best for their business. When the decision-makers come together, it becomes a case of scrutinising each product or service to see if it's the right fit.

With this in mind, your business needs to accommodate a dynamic buyer’s journey. Most leads turn cold if they’re not acted upon quickly. One study found that a lead is 9 times more likely to convert if contacted within 5 minutes of signing up. Manually, this isn’t possible.

HubSpot Smart CRM allows users to implement automated workflows to initiate contact and take advantage of the platform’s AI and ML capabilities to deliver personalised experiences. 

Why The HubSpot Smart CRM Is A Game Changer

AI and ML were key talking points from this year’s Inbound and, with HubSpot’s new Smart CRM, it promises to transform the way B2B businesses will interact with their customers.

The tool will play a pivotal role in helping you align with the ever-growing complexities of the buyer’s journey. Plus, it’ll provide a deeper insight into your customers to deliver a more tailored experience.

The six AI-powered hubs within the Smart CRM system provide an integrated platform for processing CRM data efficiently and effectively, from marketing and sales to service and operations.

In essence, HubSpot's Smart CRM empowers businesses to adapt to the evolving demands of B2B buyers, ensuring that leads are nurtured effectively and personalised experiences are delivered promptly, ultimately contributing to improved customer satisfaction and sales growth.