Lions & tigers & bears, Ai!

My thoughts following Hubspot Inbound 2023

I challenged myself to briefly recap my thoughts following Inbound 2023, Hubspot's industry conference. We'll cover 5 topics:

1. Why I didn't bring a computer to the conference
2. Hubspot and its strategy to dominate SMB and mid-market segments for CRM software
3. Insights about buying sales software in the time of sales tech mayhem
4. What we can learn about the state of GenAI from Hubspot's vision
5. AI overshadowed discussion about innovative go-to-market activities

1. Why I didn't take a computer to the conference

As part of an effort to practice Digital Minimalism (shoutout to Cal Newport), I left my backpack and laptop in my hotel room, opting to only bring my phone, a pocket-sized dot grid Moleskine notebook, and my trusty Le Pen to the conference. I tried to focus on being present for every session, interaction, and meeting I attended. The point isn't to just take better notes (although I did) but to be with yourself when those lightbulb moments occur, with only notification-free instruments in my hands. It wasn't perfect but not having my computer in front of me definitely helped. Highly recommend.

2. Hubspot and its strategy for SMB and Mid-market dominance

• Hubspot made it clear its strategy is to dominate and fortify the SMB and Mid-Market segments for CRM software, expanding product deeper across functions (marketing, sales, service). The brand consistently emphasized ease of use as core to their product growth strategy, from the CEO to the product GMs at the top, all the way down to the sales rep who demoed me Hubspot Sales Hub in the booth. Designing for ease of use implies trade-offs with complexity, which makes sense based on their target market focus.
• CTO Dharmesh Shah presented a clear vision and point of view about the direction of Generative AI through the introduction of the beta ChatSpot product. ChatSpot represents a long-term bet for Hubspot since it does not require core Hubspot CRM products to use, meaning, users of any CRM software can benefit from using Chatspot today. He also told a bunch of Dad jokes and disclosed he's an investor in OpenAI.

3. Insights about buying sales software in the age of sales tech mayhem

• One of my favorite things about conferences is the vendor floor and sessions are full of buyers/users, which is gold for a research nerd. I will break the buyers into two segments: first-time sales tech buyers and displacement shoppers.
• Almost every sales tech buyer I spoke to about their recent sales tech evaluations expressed confusion and anxiety over the decision-making process, caused mainly because they simply felt like they didn't know if they were making a good decision, often opting for a "safe" (cost, adopting simplicity, established vendor, etc) decision.
• First-time sales tech buyers seemed much more likely to buy a multi-module platform from a single sales tech provider, meaning, they're willing to purchase 2-3 modules from the Seller Action Hub (image below) and roll them out as part of a comprehensive portfolio to their sales team.
• Displacement shoppers were much more likely to displace only one module at a time meaning they're not going from 3 vendors to 1 in one buying cycle; instead, they'll move from 3 to 3, with plans to consolidate down to 2.
• The reasoning is two-fold: a) limited disruption to the business (it's quite disruptive to change any of these vendors) and b) contract lifecycle alignment (the terms of their current contract did not line up with the current buying cycle for onboarding a new vendor to displace another one).
• Unbundling the sales tech stack to consolidate is harder than buying for the first time, with the benefits of displacement often not worth the effort. Remember the audience: SMB and Mid-Market sales tech buyers.
• Mayhem

4. What we can learn about the state of GenAI from Hubspot's AI vision

• Hubspot presented a wide range of AI use cases, but Chatspot (the GenAI product) was the headliner. Here are my sketch notes:

• Chatspot users interface with GenAI via a guided, conversational user experience (UX). Chatspot users select from a pre-set list of prompts from a library to initiate a workflow. The user then chats with Chatspot to refine their result, then copy/paste it into a separate application.
• The application determines the intent of the prompt, collects insights for the use case from multiple data sources, and designs a response on behalf of the user, ultimately producing an output as a result. The product supports role-based use cases (e.g. for sales, building account lists, conducting account research, and drafting email messages).
• Any GenAI for Sales strategy is also an enterprise data strategy. There's a big "a-ha!" in the "insight generation" layer of the Chatspot application. The product knows which data to pull, how to summarize those data points into "atomic insights,", and then how to feed it into a bigger prompt. The design of the application acknowledges that the key to unlocking value with GenAI requires integration with enterprise data sources. Put another way, the value of the product is limited to the data it's connected to.
• Governance for GenAI is also still unclear. For Chatspot, it appears Governance is based on a) designing prompt guardrails, templates, and prompt libraries for users and b) controlling the types of data available for use within GenAI prompts.
• The adoption dependence on administrators' content governance skills reminds me of sales engagement applications' adoption issues. From 2018-2020, the administrator's limited skillset for leading and designing cadence strategy prevented SEA adoption. This problem will happen all over again with GenAI prompt libraries.
• Not enough people are talking about using GenAI for reporting, analytics, and visualizations. The product got a sliver of airtime in demos but anybody who's lost hours of their nights/ weekends putting together reports knows how immediately valuable that use case is for efficiency.
• Getting deeper results from GenAI today, via a conversational UX, still relies on the user to take an analytical, boolean, and creative approach to coaxing optimal results from the products. I fear the use of these tools will create a wider employment/earnings gap for those who cannot effectively utilize the applications. It will become like using Excel, but for jobs that require communication.
• Auto-GPT use cases are already here. I'll wait to talk about that in 2024. (sigh).

5. AI overshadowed discussion about innovative go-to-market ideas

• Lions and tigers and bears, Ai! Fear of obsolescence, Hubspot's effort to double down on AI, and an agenda full of sessions about AI for "___" created an environment where AI just dominated the conversation. The sessions about AI showed us how we can use the technology to execute our existing go-to-market strategy faster and with fewer resources.

• Sessions talking about innovative ideas in go-to-market stood in the shadow of sessions talking about AI. One panel led by Channing Ferrer was packed with B2B sales value. I captured 4 killer tactics:
• 1) Sales teams are getting more generous with their time for early-stage buyers to develop brand trust and relationships. Systematically this translates to earlier stage engagement, lighter qualification, and opportunities to engage creatively when they're ready to buy. This reminds me of High-Value-Offers.
• 2) Tech companies create product-led-growth moments for account expansion. For example, using bundling to introduce users to capabilities they would value by showing them the features within the product itself. This tactic helps drive inbound curiosity/demand for new bundles, facilitating account expansion opportunities.
• 3) Rebranding client meetings or interactions for setting a customer-centric intention. Not a new idea but cool to see it in practice. One idea discussed was rebranding the QBR (Quarterly Business Review) to a COR (Customer Objectives Review).
• 4) Ceding more control to buyers through buyer enablement programs. This depends on your target market but for tech companies, this has meant adopting Interactive Demonstration software, effectively turning what used to be a sales meeting ("the demo") into a highly personalized piece of content for different members of the buying team. Deals are getting done today with fewer live demo meetings.

So much for a "brief" recap.