Connect, learn, grow.
That's the spirit in which sales, marketing and customer service professionals from around the world gatheredSept. 8-10 at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center at INBOUND, thehighly anticipated HubSpot event in which power2Cloud participated with part of its team, for the second year in a row.
While power2Cloud overseas celebrated the milestone of Platinum Partner HubSpot in 2022, it returned to INBOUND23 as a HubSpot Diamond Partner just one year later.
What is INBOUND? It is hard to tell those who have never been there.
As soon as you cross the threshold of this multi-story building, you find the podcast area, the space for cotton candy, the LinkedIN lounge with screen-printed cappuccino, the corner for professional photos for the Connect profile, but also food trucks, music, the HubSpot Academy community, Black at Inbound, exhibition areas, corners in which to play while learning.
HubSpot more than a platform is above all a community that at INBOUND unites Solutions Partners, but also App Partners, speakers, sponsors (such as Aircall, Apollo, Google, LinkedIN, TikTok and Vimeo), suppliers and end users.
In addition to very interesting product releases, metrics and keynote speakers, there is engaging networking here that brings together Australia and America and very cross-functional professionals who are eager to ride the wave of change, share best practices and challenges through valuable content and strategies that address the questions and needs of potential customers while continuing to retain current ones.
Putting the user at the center of every interaction and creating a valuable, personalized, timely and empathetic relationship continues to be a mantra for HubSpot.
Its customer centric, inbound and data-driven vision is the infinite horizon to strive for with the support of a CRM and a single platform that streamlines and simplifies the daily activities of marketing, sales, customer service and operations teams to bring value to every interaction.
"This has been a truly inspiring edition," commented Yamini Rangan, brilliant HubSpot CEO. "We have already seen major changes in technology, but what makes this time different from others is the speed of change offered by Artificial Intelligence.
How will companies evolve? That's what we focused on at HubSpot."
Think of the advent of the cloud, and long before, for example, the invention of the steam engine, today Artificial Intelligence is irreversibly revolutionizing our certainties. Indeed, in this new scenario it is not only digital tools that are changing, but also the way we work, buy, interact, and create. What is being revolutionized is the whole customer journey!
"Artificial intelligence does not want to steal your job, but the companies that use it do," is this provocation shared by Dharmesh Shah founder and CTO of HubSpot.
Thereare many professionals and companies that are alsousing AI right now to structure texts, diversify and optimize the tone of voice of content, search for new ideas, but also create multi-channel campaigns, consult advanced reporting for leads or manage intelligent forecasts for sales negotiations.
If you think about it, processes have already changed, because thanks to AI you are able to optimize the work right away. Ideating and creating something new has become quick and easy with interactions with ChatSpot or ChatGPT.
You can talk to Chat Spot as you would to a friend, without technicalities, and you can receive spectacular information!
"With AI," Yamini Rangan continues, "we have moved from the information age to the intelligence age. The Internet has facilitated access to endless information, now AI is doing the same with intelligence and will have a profound impact on knowledge work and creative work!
It is a point of no return, irreversible. Artificial Intelligence will forever change the way we perceive customer experience and marketing.
A better approach to understanding this concept would be to think of AI without the word artificial and focus on what is left, intelligence. Thanks to AI, companies can not only access intelligence, but act on it.
At HubSpot, we believe the best way to use this intelligence is to foster connection with customers. Marketing, sales and customer service can leverage AI to deeply understand their customers, provide relevance and connect throughout the customer journey at scale."
Lots of new features were unveiled at INBOUND23 to help all teams with content optimization and rewriting, but that's not all. Numerous new tools identify what to prioritize among sales interventions in analyzing pipeline opportunities, offering more comprehensive and rapid assistance.
AI is also an opportunity to create valuable content faster without losing humanity.
However, the presence of AI alone is not enough; it is necessary to know how to interrogate tools such as ChatSpot and make the best use of features included in platforms such as HubSpot, putting human and creative work at the forefront.
Somewhat like fake news, today there is a struggle to distinguish what is AI-generated and what is not. Even the audience at INBOUND23 struggled to answer correctly.
The important thing, however, is to establish internal Policies for the use of AI in the enterprise-as Jasper Head of Marketing Meghan Keaney Anderson mentioned in her beautiful speech-and a statement of transparency to customers, who can know if your content, for example, was also created using AI.
The HubSpot 2023 focus is to "do more with less, " shared Jen Bergren, operations manager at Remotish, a HubSpot RevOps and WebOps agency.
The new features ,some available from the Professional version, provide a workspace for the sales team that consolidates the entire qualification experience in HubSpot.
Here are some very interesting new features if you work in the sales team:
"You can't maintain what you can't measure."
Business growth, customer growth, and personal growth are connected.
"If you want to be part of a community of Customer Success evangelists, to solicit thoughts that drive sustainable growth for your business, you need to provide and communicate value to your customers," Daphne Costa Lopes, Head of Customer Success at HubSpot, reminded in her very interesting talk.
It happens to lose a customer even when the health status is green, why does it happen?
Often the relationship fails because customers don't see enough value to keep paying for your product/service, or they don't know how much value they are getting because of you, or it happens that they get value but believe they can do just as well, maybe even better, elsewhere."
Business growth, customer growth, and personal growth are connected.
"If you want to be part of a community of Customer Success evangelists, to solicit thoughts that drive sustainable growth for your business, you have to provide and communicate value to your customers," Daphne Costa Lopes, Head of Customer Success at HubSpot, reminded us in her very interesting talk.
It happens to lose a customer even when the health status is green, why does it happen?
Often the relationship fails because customers don't see enough value to keep paying for your product/service, or they don't know how much value they are getting because of you, or it happens that they get value but believe they can do just as well, maybe even better, elsewhere."
This is why it is necessary to consistently and consistently define and measure value throughout the customer journey to retain customers, co-creating success plans and customized activities for specific people.
The work of the Customer Success Manager (CSM) in the future will involve several aspects, here are the main ones:
"How many dead Slack channels are you a part of?"- Evan Hamilton, a veteran community builder with entities such as HubSpot Reddit, Nextdoor, and Coursera, talked about the pitfalls that doom most communities and how you can plan and iterate a new way to successfully launch community and all without huge resources.
"You have to be aware that every community dies and it's all about value. What are you providing for your community members? "Giving them a space to connect is not enough!"
To build a community around your brand, you need to set goals for those in it and for your employees. Think about what you hope they get out of being part of your community-that's a sure way to drive engagement."
The role of Community Managers in improving relationships among colleagues (especially for hybrid or remote work) can be a prerequisite in the company in which you work. It is not easy to nurture corporate culture and cross-fertilization between different teams. If you are a large company all the more so.
The antidote to the isolation of hybrid and remote work, such as lack of employee engagement is managing relationships with the same Community Management principles you would use with your customers.
INBOUND is not only a container of professional stories, but also personal and inspirational ones, such as those that took turns on the main stage.
Among the most interesting was certainly that of Kim Scott who recalled how to lead a team with "radical candor." A philosophy that continues to inspire a management revolution that emphasizes the importance of direct and honest communication, promoting caring for one's team.
Originally Radical Condor, in Italian Radical Sincerity, was just a book, translated into 20 languages. Today it has become a global training company formed by Kim Scott and Jason Rosoff.
"Making sure you focus on good things in a specific and sincere way," Kim Scott recalls, "by promoting radical honesty that is humble, helpful, immediate, given in person, privately if it's a criticism or in public if it's a compliment, and not personalized, an aspect that highlights well the difference between subjective criticism and objective feedback."
One presence that did not go unnoticed was Reese Witherspoon, the Hollywood actress who became famous for the film "Legally Blonde," whom perhaps few know as an entrepreneur and founder of the production company Hello Sunshine.
"I started so young and rejection was such an early aspect of my life that I learned a long time ago that other people's opinions of me are none of my business."
After revealing her "beige flag" to the INBOUND audience, Witherspoon shared her tips on how to maintain friendships while balancing a busy schedule. "Edit," she stated without hesitation, "My grandmother used to tell me, people are either radiators or they're drains. Keep the radiators and get rid of the drains! Everyone knows after the age of 40, if you are not contributing to my life, go away."
Another important thought, often discussed today, is one offered by Andrew Huberman, eminent neuroscientist, tenured professor of neurobiology at Stanford University, host of the popular Huberman Lab Podcast.
It was he who shared an approach toward effective concentration and intense creativity alternated with rest as a powerful combination. Small changes in daily behavior, such as meditation, physical activity and breaking work down into uncluttered, manageable tasks can improve production and productivity.
Also on the main stage was Morgan DeBaun, founder and CEO of Blavity, Inc, a leading player in impressive media innovation, who spoke about content, growth and community as a craft.
Blavity, Inc's mission is to "economically and creatively support Black Millennials across the African world so they can pursue the work they love and change the world in the process."
An important theme also hosted in the spaces of Black at Inbound, the networking group founded by Devyn Bellamy, which brings together Black professionals from all sectors who want to learn, understand, know within a space they can identify with.