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VID HubSpot, Inc. Transforming the Marketing Model Brian Halligan and Dharmesh S

ID: 357555 • Letter: V

Question

VID HubSpot, Inc. Transforming the Marketing Model Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah, the founders of so that they are available to everyone who is shopping for HubSpot, met at MIT in 2004. The company is based in them, regardless of the prospective customer's location. Cambridge, Massachusetts, directly across from the cam HubSpot Inbound Marketing Software helps over 4,000 pus where it was first envisioned. Both Halligan and Shah customers to generate traffic and leads through their web- were interested in the transformative impact of theInr sites, and to convert more of those leads into customers. net on small businesses and were early students of Web 2.0 Its vision has been to provide a killer marketing applica concepts. After two years of discussions and early work on and provide great advice to small businesses, enabling in June of 2006 the company was officially founded and those companies to leverage the disruptive effects of the Internet and "get found" by more prospects. The most interesting aspect of the Internet's impact orn business from HubSpot's perspective is how it has changed like their old paper-based brochures, but just sits online. the nature of shopping and subsequently the shape of every It is rarely updated, is not given significant visibility by vendor's sales funnel. Ten years ago, if a company ws search engines, has low traffic levels, does not encourage interested in buying a new product or service, started retrvisits, does not enable/track conversions, etc. What Most small businesses have a website that behaves attending trade shows, reading industry journals, and going to seminars to learn more. Early in the process, it would engage directly with key vendors' salespeople who would provide product information. HubSpot does is transform that relatively static website into a modern marketing machine that produces the right leads and helps convert a higher percentage of them into qualified opportunities. Today, that same process looks very different. The potential customer starts by googling relevant keywords. ness owner create, optimize, and promote content; cap- The prospect spends time on each vendor's site, subscrib ture, manage, and nurture leads to win more customers; ing to the most interesting vendor blogs, perhaps joining and learn to make smart marketing investments that an industry discussion forum, and so on. Relatively late get results. Some of the tools it provides include social in the decision cycle, the prospect engages the vendor's media, blogging, search engine optimization, and content salespeople directly. That first vendor conversation today management. s much different from the one a decade ago because the prospect often knows as much about the vendor's pr uct as the sales rep does and the prospect is already much HubSpot focuses on tools to help the small busi- View the video and answer the questions that follow. Questions The Internet has tended to make every marketplace more efficient. Just as eBay makes the niche market for . How has the salesperson's role changed because of Pez dispensers, WWI shovels, and 1975 World Series ticket Internet marketing? Consider differences in prospect stubs more efficient, the Internet as a whole is making niche markets for intellectual property law, system dynam- 2. Do you agree with HubSpot that a prospect is more ics consulting, and food brokerage more efficient. It used ified" to make purchasing decisions when it to be that the size of a firm's sales force was the key to find- uses information found on the Internet? ing the most new customers, but that is not necessarily the 3. How might the sa case today. The good news for small businesses is that on the Internet, no one can tell if you are a sole proprietorship ing and presentation. lesperson's compensation be differ- ent or the same with Internet sales versus traditional ancy The Internet disproportionately favors small busi- nesses since it enables them to position their niche products 4. Should a new small business rely solely on Internet promotion? What other methods should it use?

Explanation / Answer

Internet has played an important role in changing the rules of the sales persons. At the technology is increasing at the point of development where everything is going digital.Sales persons are also getting affected by the same. If a salesperson does not have a specific information or knowledge of the internet then overall effectiveness of his job would be widely reduced. By knowing about different strategies with which promotion can be done over the internet and other platforms would be very beneficial for and sales person. Most of the presentations are done online which could be must delivered. This effectiveness of delivery of presentation and projecting the prospectus is directly depending on the current state of internet which is being used as a main tool to provide information to the customer as well as developing a platform for sales person to increase the chances of selling the product.

Definitely the product is more qualified if the specific information is available over the internet. Disqualification also increases if the product also has reviews and reviews impact the overall sales of the product in the general as well as online buying. Information about the product definitely provides an extensive support to the overall sales structure of the specific service or the product which would be very beneficial for the organisation for increasing the overall sales in a specific region.

Compensation of the internet sales is much easier than the traditional sales method. Internet has hassle-free availability which is based on the claims made by the customer as well as the seller. Unlike the traditional way internet has been very beneficial for claiming as it does not required to physically go anywhere for claiming the specific compensation.

Totally relying on internet for promotion for a small business would not be appropriate as local business directly offer their services at a local scale. Using a mixed strategy of promoting the organisation over internet as well as other traditional mediums of promotion would be appropriate approach for a small firm.