Upside Down at INBOUND: An Agency Owner’s Perspective

Each year we attend HubSpot’s annual INBOUND Conference, including the virtual sort, and we’re often blown away by new product announcements and the general sense of optimism exuded by the HubSpot faithful. And typically that sentiment is shared by many agency representatives navigating various sessions and networking spaces. Historically, product announcements are met with cheers and a sea of nodding heads in the convention center.?

While this year was no exception, the feeling was a bit different. Perhaps it was a combination of guarded optimism and unfamiliar anxiety.??

For the most part, the reaction was more introspective in nature than the traditional knock-your-socks-off variety. This time, heads were fixed firmly in place as we got a glimpse of HubSpot’s future—our collective future. Cheers were replaced by murmurs. That’s not to say that we and all those around us weren’t amazed. We were. We are.?

This year just hit differently. I think what we collectively experienced was an awakening, an understanding that our worlds were about to be turned upside down. The most dramatic change to come to HubSpot in quite some time will be HubSpot AI, a system-wide function that will have a profound impact on the way we all do business.?

Simply put, this INBOUND was unlike any other in recent memory because the landscape has shifted so precipitously in such a short time—largely due to the meteoric rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI), which unlike other technological advances will be a true game changer. While we didn’t need INBOUND to tell us that—mainly because we at Hypha HubSpot Development are already working on ways to integrate this into our systems and processes—the depth of the features were eye-opening.?

As HubSpot CEO Yamini Rangan said during the event in reference to the rise of AI: “More has happened in our industry in the past nine months than other industries have seen in the last nine years.”?

AI: This Is Not a Drill

For years we’ve heard about artificial intelligence, but this year AI was the central theme of nearly every presentation. In years past it was the Internet of Things (IoT), pronouncements about the potential of voice commands and virtual assistant technology, augmented reality (AR), chatbots, wearable tech, and much more. Every year, HubSpot partners were debriefed in advance by the brilliant minds in Cambridge. Some of the promises fell short. Others manifested as predicted. Despite the ballyhooed declarations about how various forms of tech would interrupt the industry, more often than not we clearly understood our place amidst the changes.?

And that’s what was different this year.?

Don’t get me wrong. It’s not that we aren’t included in the calculus going forward. In fact, the executives at HubSpot made it clear that the most viable path forward is to deepen the mutual commitment between HubSpot and the community of Solutions Partners that facilitate services on the platform.?

Partners Remain Part of the Calculus?

On that note, Yamini doubled down on prior assertions that the partner community participation would need to dramatically increase as a percentage of overall growth in order to meet the moment.?

Compared to prior years' announcements, the relative silence reflected what I can only characterize as awe. The mood was more contemplative than cynical. I’ve often joked that when HubSpot makes major product announcements at INBOUND, we can’t wait to start using them…by the next INBOUND. (I’m only half joking about this because it usually takes a while for new tools to be tested, improved, and mainstreamed.) More to the point, new releases and updates—whether they’re fully viable or not—take time to learn and implement.?

This fact alone makes partners necessary. Clients and users typically don’t have the time or bandwidth to stay current with existing technology let alone exciting new features and updates. That’s what makes the HubSpot partner community so vibrant. And it’s exactly why there’s tension between the new AI features, HubSpot’s expectation of its partners, and where the customer fits into the next stage of our journey together.?

The Growth of AI & Simmering Tension?

The nature of the AI-related product updates is acceleration. Everything is going to be faster, easier, and more intuitive. As AI moves into the “generative” phase it leans more into the intelligent and away from the artificial. To be clear, I’m neither an optimistic futurist who envisions a utopian landscape nor a pessimistic seer who laments a dystopian hellscape. The promise of generative AI and the dangers are equally clear, and it’s encouraging that people so integral to the evolution of this technology are open about their potential misgivings.?

My specific critique is the way in which many in the partner community (present company included) are constructed. Most of us are built to meet the challenges of today. In a normal period, we would have time to absorb the platform updates coming our way and make incremental changes to our organizational structures and workflows to incorporate them.?

That’s no longer the case.

Our organization has been around for more than 20 years. When we became a HubSpot partner it was the most important decision we ever made. It completely changed the trajectory of our company and the way we approached work. I view the new changes in much the same light. At INBOUND, the company formally unveiled HubSpot AI, which effectively means sales, service, and marketing hubs are all going to be significantly impacted by artificial intelligence. And the very nature of generative AI means that they are going to improve at a much faster pace than we are used to.

In the past, the experience within the platform was the same—meaning what was possible for one was possible for all. That’s going to change. Each of us will have the ability to manipulate the hubs in ways that make sense for us individually. We’ll be able to construct new views in the CRM, build custom modules more easily, and create campaigns on the fly. On the content side, which has long been our calling card, we will be able to immediately generate custom content based on queries rather than scouring search engines for knowledge gaps and keyword trends.?

As we processed what HubSpot was revealing at INBOUND, this much became clear: The most accomplished users of specific hubs will be able to cross hubs with ease and use them with proficiency. Writers will gain the ability to design, and vice versa. Sales and marketing professionals will be indistinguishable from one another. The ever-expanding universe of apps will be more connected than ever and give users the ability to leverage external tools as though they’re native to the platform.?

All of this is awe-inspiring. And it’s within this awe where the tension lives.?

HubSpot’s tools will empower us to work quickly and strategically. They will also break down barriers on the client side and foster immediate adoption within organizations like a toddler picking up an iPad for the first time.

In the beginning, users (customers) won’t know how to do any of this because they lack the foundational knowledge required to make the platform sing. So we remain vital to the process. Once the groundwork is established and we empower our customers to consolidate their tech stacks and utilize HubSpot across multiple divisions, the more entrenched it will become in their organizations. As the platform becomes more dynamic and intuitive and begins to impact the organizational behavior and workflows on the client side, the less we will be required. And that’s okay. Scary, no doubt, but okay.?

We’ve been here before.?

It’s no different than the great migration to the cloud. Think about how quickly the world moved from a widespread refusal to enter credit card information on a website to having all our data stored in a Chrome extension or a payment app on our phones. In far less time we will live in a world where a semi-competent user will be able to input several prompts to construct a robust and secure business environment that is fast, strategic, and secure.?

HubSpot’s tools will empower us to work quickly and strategically. They will also break down development barriers on the client side and foster immediate adoption within organizations like a toddler picking up an iPad for the first time. In this sense, I think it’s reasonable to assume that there will be a very steep bell curve that invigorates the partner ecosystem before falling like a stone.?

The AI Bell Curve?

At the very top of the client food chain, internal departments within large organizations will require onboarding and training from outside consultants, but only minimally so. At the lower end of the SMB market, the DIY urge will only increase and budgets will be thin to non-existent for agencies with substantial overhead.?

Thus, for the foreseeable future, the opportunity for fully constituted agencies (payroll, benefits, shared technology, perhaps office space) will primarily exist in that middle range. And that’s a good place to be. Likewise, there will be seemingly endless opportunities on the lower end of the SMB spectrum and a good deal of opportunity for Elite-level partners to perform complex integrations.?

The more immediate issue will be one of perception. I’m sure I speak for many agency owners when I say that the perception of our value proposition declined precipitously upon the launch of ChatGPT. It didn’t matter that it was rough and hardly ready for prime time. It quickly conveyed a sense of unbridled opportunity, thereby planting the seed in the customer’s mind that our services will soon be reduced to prompts and bots.?

And therein lies the tension. Our skill set will be more necessary than ever, but the hype surrounding AI has already devalued our services. And doing our jobs well means building an intuitively generative platform that can be navigated internally on the client side. Will we be the digital marketing equivalent of chauffeurs who construct autonomous vehicles and teach passengers how to navigate independently??

The answer is yes.?

Yes, and…

There are, of course, a multitude of factors that will make the rollout asymmetrical among industries and service providers alike. On the industry side of the equation, issues ranging from compliance and privacy concerns to proprietary and legacy system rot will frustrate the pace of change. When it comes to service providers, smaller, more nimble shops may actually have an easier time navigating the changes than their large-scale counterparts who rely on an increasingly anachronistic retainer model. As a result, it’s easy to envision a period of instability with decorated platform specialists leaving large shops in droves to hang out a shingle of their own.?

Will we be the digital marketing equivalent of chauffeurs who construct autonomous vehicles and teach passengers how to navigate independently??

This portends a period of intense competition that reflects that top end of the aforementioned bell curve—a flood of providers undercutting the market and performing well combined with increased demand from large organizations for high-level, cross-divisional consulting.?

It’s going to be a dizzying time.?

Then there are those who will simply give up and exit the partner program in search of something more familiar and stable. There will be a temptation to niche down further within industries or disciplines. To pick a lane and stay in it. And I get it.?

I don’t think there’s a right or a wrong way forward. I’m not clever enough to figure that out and I think the variables are too numerous and diverse to suggest a clear path for any given solutions partner. All I can do is speak from experience.?

HubSpot is a different company now. It’s approaching $2 billion in revenue and along the way, it went through painful mass layoffs and broke a few promises. That’s to be expected. I’ve long held that every seven years a business changes. Culture. Objectives. Goals. Everything. Running a business is a moving target and it requires flexibility and an open mind. As a HubSpot partner, we’ve both soared and flown dangerously close to the ground. We’ve had the hot hand and gone ice cold. It’s why I was among the tepid crowd of attendees at INBOUND trying to get a sense of whether the news washing over me was a warm bath or a tsunami. Honestly, I think it’s a bit of both.?

Crossroads

So where does that leave us?

With a few days in the rearview mirror, here are my thoughts as it relates to the future of HubSpot Solutions Partners.

Expectations

What used to take a year to mainstream will only take months. HubSpot’s AI-enabled features are very real and will be pulled into daily workflows at a blistering pace compared to prior platform enhancements.?

Agency Business Development

The biz dev environment is tricky right now. Several reps confirmed the slowdown in deal flow this year. Interest rates, uncertainty, inflation, and economic factors out of our control exacerbated an already tenuous time due to the perceptual changes surfaced by the launch of ChatGPT. Sales outreach will need to be more consultative right off the bat. More than ever we will be tasked to solve problems first, drive new leads, and engagement second. The sheer volume of changes to martech and salestech requires us to channel our inner platform consultants before being invited to perform marketing and sales services. Bottom line: everyone in your organization needs to become a HubSpot expert.?

Agency Architecture

The above statements lead to the inevitable question of how best to organize your team to meet changing demands. Knowing that platform consultancies can and hopefully will lead to strategic engagements, it’s shortsighted to overhaul an agency team completely. Replacing content specialists and designer/developers with platform specialists and consultants means eliminating crucial components of longer-term engagements. The trick is to balance the period in between. Fortunately, the tools are becoming more intuitive and HubSpot is more committed than ever to providing the requisite training to skill up en masse.?

Should we believe Yamini?

I’m wholeheartedly in the “you bet” camp on this one. Because she was at the helm during the mass layoffs and office closures, there’s a palpable feeling that Yamini represents a culture shift at HubSpot. If you’re one of the hundreds caught in the layoff crossfire, you’re validated. And if you’re one of the agencies that was “de-tiered,” you are as well. HubSpot isn’t Brian and Dharmesh’s little engine that could anymore. It’s about forward-looking statements, earnings calls, and confidentiality agreements. This is our new shared reality as partners. It’s also (still) the best agency partner (reseller, solutions, app partner, whatever you want to call it) program in the world.?

I believe all the bandages have been ripped off for the foreseeable future and we are living in the new reality. Therefore, I believe you can set your expectations accordingly and take Yamini at her word that this is a partner-centric growth model and we are inextricably bound together in the pursuit of growth and success.?

Content Still Reigns Supreme

Websites will be storage facilities for information rather than buffets. We won’t have to entice people with all-you-can-eat neon signs or run specials on various platforms to get people there. Queries will be conducted via chatbot and responses delivered directly. The 80-plus% of site views that are irrelevant will fall away. Site traffic will plummet but intent signals will become more clear as a result. So don’t freak out when traffic dies. Learn to sleuth out engagement and have automated solutions (demos and chats) ready to meet users where they are. Gate nothing. Sell nothing. Just teach and create content like your life depends on it. (Because it does.)?

Content will have to be more authoritative than ever. That means better sourcing and many more links, footnotes, charts, videos, and posts. Just forget about doing it over time; instead, be prepared for deep dives with your clients and publish enough information at the beginning of an engagement to fill a book. Get rid of the content plans, biweekly publishing cadence, and quarterly check-ins. In this new environment, we’ll have one shot to overhaul entire websites and drop content on the SERPs like a bomb. From there, it’ll be incumbent on you to update and iterate, and let your chatbot do the hard work of surfacing queries that cannot be answered from existing content. Forget keyword research. Let the user guide the way.?

As Yamini stated at INBOUND: “AI is not only changing the technology landscape, it’s causing your customers’ expectations to change pretty dramatically. So that means standing still here is not an option. You need to evolve. You need to evolve how you connect with customers.”?

Beware Privacy

There will be a temptation as we move up the enterprise ladder to deanonymize traffic data. Be careful with this one. These tools are powerful ways to build ABM strategies. But the higher you go, the more you’ll run into privacy issues depending upon the jurisdiction of the business your clients pursue. As agency owners we need to take great care in protecting our shops from privacy violations and I don’t hear enough chatter about this.?

Accessibility

The last word goes to accessibility. Many of HubSpot’s tools remain inaccessible to users with disabilities. More frustratingly, however, very few providers are using what’s known and available to us in the developer toolkit to make the public-facing parts of the user experience as accessible as possible. If you’re interested in learning more about our journey in accessibility, we’ve partnered with a few organizations on an informational guide to help businesses navigate this vital world.?