What are most agencies doing wrong and what is my key takeaway from HubSpot's Agency Partner Pipeline Generation Bootcamp in Dublin? That's what I'm covering in this post.
How I was Trained by Two Inbound Marketing Evangelists
As you know by now, I'm a big fan of aligning the sales and marketing teams of organizations, so keeping myself up to date and optimizing strategies are part of my day-to-day life as a Channel Consultant.
That's one of the main reasons I was more than happy to learn that our sales guru Dan Tyre and sales enablement guru David Weinhaus were holding a Pipeline Generation Bootcamp for selected HubSpot's Agency Partners here in Dublin.
I mean, these guys are part of the reason why the inbound industry and thousands of organizations have succeeded and the amount of knowledge they are sitting on is evergrowing. I just couldn't let this opportunity pass me by, so I joined in..
What's Covered in The Pipeline Generation Bootcamp
The 2 day Bootcamp followed by 6 weeks of training sessions aim to provide organizations with all the tools needed in order for them to grow their business and take it to the next level.
Topics, best practices and discussion topics included:
- Personal Motivation: What, how and why do things motivate you and what can you do with that knowledge?
- Inbound Sales Philosophy, Theory & Value: Inbound vs. Outbound marketing and the value it brings etc.
- Building a lead list: What, how and why you should work with a lead list.
- Connect & Exploratory Call: What you should do instead of cold calling.
- Email Prospecting: How to get the most out of your emails when reaching out to a prospect.
- Prospecting in the Long run: Building a sustainable business with a long-term strategy.
What Did I Learn?
Organizations all around the world have a lot in common, especially when it comes taking care of leads.
When asked what organizations usually do when facing a prospect who is not a good fit (e.g. a prospect who you cannot offer your services to), the most common answer was that they thank the bad prospect for their time and end the conversation. This is wrong. Organizations should be answering "we help them out anyways".
Why should You Help Bad Prospects anyways?
It's important to remember that a bad prospect does not have to be a bad fit forever. E.g the outcome can change in the future; they could become a good fitting-prospect through nurturing, refer prospects to you, promote you through word of mouth or leave stellar reviews etc. All because you helped.
How to Handle Bad Prospects
These are some examples of how you can always be helping your bad prospects:
- Be an advisor: If you're sitting on knowledge regarding the sector the bad prospect is active in then help them out by mentioning what you've seen others within the same sector do in order to overcome their challenges. If you don't know this, then skip try out the next bullet point.
- Point them in the right direction: If you can't help them, who can? Help them by pointing them into the right direction
- Send them resources: You're probably sitting on a ton of information, why not share something you think would help the bad prospect tackle their challenges, e.g. be it articles, webinars, certification videos.
Always be Helping
I have many key takeaways from HubSpot's Agency Partner Pipeline Generation Bootcamp but if I would stick to one then my favorite is: "You can always help".
I'm not saying you should spend multiple hours on helping a bad fit prospect, 10-15 minutes should be enough. And think about it, those few minutes could be affecting the future outcome of your business in more ways than you know. So why not just try it out? You can always help. 
Any thoughts you want to bounce off regarding this blog post, inbound marketing or open roles? Let me know!
