Building Smarter CRMs with Maryanne McWhirter & Emily Hartzell

In this episode, we’re taking a look at how AI is supercharging CRMs and, specifically, exploring how HubSpot is transforming the way businesses manage customer relationships, sales processes, and marketing campaigns. 

Helping me break it all down are Maryanne McWhirter and Emily Hartzell, both VP/Senior Directors at LeadG2.  

Maryanne and Emily offer so many awesome points to think about, like: 

• How HubSpot is NOT just a CRM, but a robust marketing tool that allows you to see every step that a customer has taken in their buying journey 
• How HubSpot’s AI uses CRM data to craft tailored messages for personalized sales pitches 
• And, finally, why if you’re not automating repeatable processes in your CRM, you’re falling behind 

LINKS:

Maryanne McWhirter

Emily Hartzell

LeadG2

Matt Sunshine

The Center for Sales Strategy

Transcript

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AI in HubSpot CRM Optimization

Matt Sunshine 0:05

Welcome to Improving Sales Performance , a podcast highlighting tips and insights aimed at helping sales organizations realize , and maybe even exceed , their goals . Here we chat with thought leaders , experts and gurus who have years of sales experience from a wide range of industries . I'm your host , matt Sunshine , ceo at the Center for Sales Strategy , a sales performance consulting company . In this episode , we're taking a look at how AI is supercharging CRMs and specifically exploring how HubSpot is transforming the way businesses manage customer relationships , sales processes and marketing campaigns . Helping me break it all down are Maryanne McWhorter and Emily Hartzell , both VP Senior Directors at LeadG2 .

Matt Sunshine 0:59

Maryanne and Emily offer so many awesome points to think about , like how HubSpot is not just a CRM but a robust marketing tool that allows you to see every step that a customer has taken in their buying journey . How HubSpot's AI uses CRM data to craft tailored messages for personalized sales pitches . And , finally , why , if you're not automating repeatable processes in your CRM , you're falling behind . With that , let's start the conversation , all right ? So let's , Maryanne , let's come to you with this question . So before all this , ai CRMs were primarily just used for data entry and kind of like basic reporting . But now , with so many different AI tools available , what are some of the most time consuming tasks that can now be automated , and specifically with the HubSpot Sierra ?

Maryanne McWhirter 2:09

Yeah , because you could always piecemeal and try lots of different AI tools , but HubSpot has a lot built in so it eliminates the need to have to do that . So I'd say lead scoring is a big one that HubSpot has improved greatly upon just recently . Ai can prioritize leads based on engagement and intent and where they've been on your website pages and what forms they filled out , and you don't have to go in and manually do it anymore . But I'd say there's a lot . Data cleanup , I know is a big one and HubSpot sells that kind of as an add-on , but if you have a really dirty database , you can do data clean up all at once with AI . You know content suggestions , creating content generating , blog ideas and email templates just any type of content they would create in HubSpot .

Matt Sunshine 2:59

Yeah .

Maryanne McWhirter 3:00

I know , yeah , I touch everything .

Matt Sunshine 3:02

Some of the stuff you're doing with podcasting and creating blog posts .

Maryanne McWhirter 3:06

That's right .

Matt Sunshine 3:07

Just incredible .

Maryanne McWhirter 3:09

Yeah , uploading a piece of content and having it . They call it the remix , but it creates all different types of content from that type of content . Ai does it all Specifically , for the CRM .

Emily Hartzell 3:20

Hubspot and CRM tools now but I'm talking specifically about HubSpot have the ability to enrich um existing CRM uh records so you could have a contact that maybe historically you'd have to do some digging on your own go to LinkedIn , go to Google , go to the website page kind of like uncover things on your own Um , whereas HubSpot and you know all kinds of probably other CRMs like the Zoom Infos of the Worlds and stuff which are not CRMs , but it does a similar thing . Right , it's all in HubSpot now but you can actually enrich the data so it'll give you automatically like an org chart and you know who maybe you don't have an email address and it adds the email stuff like that . That will help kind of fill in the blanks .

Maryanne McWhirter 4:00

Yeah , it does research for you and it also does workflow automation , so like creating tasks for you based on you know customer intent right , what customers or what actions they're taking .

Emily Hartzell 4:14

So now do this based on that .

Matt Sunshine 4:26

Lead nurturing sequence enrollment tasks set up . So maybe this question is you , maybe you've already answered this question both of you kind of chiming in , but maybe not . So let me ask it this way and , emily , I'll come to you with this and even if even if you've already answered it , maybe answer it again in response to this question , because I think this would be a really important thing for people to distinguish , important thing for people to distinguish , especially because perhaps many people listening to this are not CRM experts or CRM pros . Maybe they're early days into CRM or they're you know , they're just getting started , maybe even just even evaluating . So , with AI has made personalizing customer interactions really easy . I hear you talking about it . What tools does HubSpot have to help you tailor like a marketing campaign or sales outreach with that ?

Emily Hartzell 5:20

Yeah , yeah , okay . So let's first distinguish the difference between what a CRM is from , like , what a marketing tool would be . So HubSpot has it all right . Hubspot has all of this in one place , which is why HubSpot is so attractive to businesses . But the CRM in itself is just really a database , right ? It's a database of your contacts , database of your companies . It's a way for sellers to track their people , track their customers , track their deals , track any interactions , emails they've had for themselves to know and to keep record of and ultimately , like if they were to move on to another job or get promoted within the company , someone would be able to like swoop in and keep going with that sale .

Emily Hartzell 6:01

Okay , so the marketing hub and the content hub are layers of HubSpot that are in addition to the CRM . So now it's building off of this database of clients , of contacts , of companies , of sales , qualified leads . It's building off of that . So the content hub uses AI . There's a lot of different ways it uses AI , but you can create AI blogs . So you could like give HubSpot a title and a couple of like quick bullet points or like a topic of you know what you wanted the blog to be about . We'll actually write a blog for you in like two minutes . It also has a case study feature where you can plug in some very small details about a client that you've had success with and it will give you an entire case study . There's also the social media agent , which is inside of the marketing hub , that you can actually plug in , like what you want your brand tone and the audience to be , and it will actually create social media posts on your behalf for you , and you just go in and select the posts you like and add it into your social calendar and move on with your day . So there's lots of really cool marketing tools .

Emily Hartzell 7:10

But why I wanted to distinguish the CRM from the marketing is because the marketing is a layer on top of the CRM that is an additional point of reference for sellers . So , for example , if a seller is going after a sales qualified lead or there's a prospect in their pipeline and they're , you know , looking at that record , they're able to see all of their interactions with that person , but they're also able to see all the marketing interactions right , so they can see every promo email , every social media post , what they've clicked on , where they've gone , any website page . So we call that like lead intelligence , but it's really just like a layer on the CRM that allows sellers to be able to see , like , what they're . You have a if a prospect isn't buying a certain product from your business but they're reading blogs about it on your website , like , it gives sellers ammo to be able to say , oh , maybe I'm talking about the wrong things to them or they're interested in this . So I hope that answered your question .

Matt Sunshine 8:05

Yeah , so I think I'm understanding . You got HubSpot , which is the name of a company , and underneath the name of that company is several different products , one being a CRM , another one being a marketing automation tool , another one being a content creation tool tool , another one being a content creation tool , another one being a sales enablement tool and another one being like a customer service Service . Yep , okay , got it , and those aren't the real names , but that's generally what they do Right .

Emily Hartzell 8:37

Sales hub content , hub Right .

Matt Sunshine 8:40

But I'm trying to speak in as . Yeah , layman's terms as possible , so that we don't get caught up in thinking oh well , I got HubSpot , that means I have this or I have that . Hubspot means that you have an Amazon account , right . It doesn't mean that you're taking advantage of everything that Amazon has to offer . It just means that you do business with Amazon .

Emily Hartzell 9:07

Right .

Matt Sunshine 9:08

HubSpot's . The same way , you could be doing marketing and not be taking advantage of the CRM , or you could be taking advantage of the CRM and not do marketing .

Emily Hartzell 9:17

Or the sales tools , or any of it .

Matt Sunshine 9:20

Got it . So , Marianne , how can HubSpot's AI products help sales teams be more efficient and effective ? Let me go deeper . Can you discuss or describe the role AI plays in generating personalized presentations or identifying upsell opportunities or improving forecasting ?

Maryanne McWhirter 9:50

Yes , so it does all those things and I feel like the way you just asked that question back to your , I liked the Amazon , I liked the Amazon metaphor there , but now you're asking what does sales hub offer and how is AI a part of Sales Hub , so like functioning words that we're using for what's in HubSpot ? That's really the question . And yes , I mean overall . What it's doing is it's eliminating the guesswork AI is allowing sales teams to focus on , to let their sales people focus on building those relationships and closing deals faster . Now Sales Hub without AI already had a lot of tools to help you do that and AI has just improved the speed . So the sales forecasting is really cool .

Leveraging AI in CRM Optimization

Maryanne McWhirter 10:32

So AI improves the accuracy by looking back at historical trends what has happened with that specific salesperson's history of interactions with contacts in the database before they turn into closed one deals ? It looks at your pipeline health , how things are moving , how things aren't moving , why . It even looks at market conditions . You know , you tell it your industry so it can really provide a lot of insights . Ai can really help those revenue projections be even more on point and I think that's really cool because Sales Hub before AI could do that if all the data in was data out .

Maryanne McWhirter 11:11

But the AI really helps with outside data as well as historic data for that salesperson using it . So that's really cool , the forecasting and then personalizing sales pitches . Like , I mean , ai uses the CRM data , yeah , which is history and consumer behavior , and it can craft tailored messages . I mean it's kind of like the content hub too right . It's creating content that's personalized to what's in the CRM so the salesperson doesn't have to sit there and do it . If the information is all in the CRM , salesperson doesn't have to look at it and type it up themselves . The AI can do that .

Emily Hartzell 11:49

Part of the sales hub is the prospecting agent . So I know I mentioned , like the social media agent , there's the prospecting agent which is inside of sales hub and I was . It's still in beta so some companies you know you could enroll in the beta and you might still not be accepted . It's going to take some time to roll out , but we got early access to it and I've started kind of like playing around with it and I was testing it the other week and I was just so fascinated because you can take a prospect and enroll it . So you actually have to enroll it in the prospect , the prospecting agent and when you do that you tell it . You can actually have it go like autopilot , which I haven't yet . But you could say like go for it agent , you prospect for me . But I didn't have it do that and instead I said I'd like to send X number of emails over X period of time and I'd like you to send them .

Emily Hartzell 12:40

So then it scans . So it takes about two or three minutes after you enroll someone . It scans everything that's ever happened with that . So they look at every single deal ever , every single meeting you've ever had , and it actually lays out like all the facts and bullet points and then you approve the facts . So you're like , yes , that is the facts . And it then crafts tailored emails based on the recordings in the CRM , the calls it sees you've had , like it knows you , it knows your relationship with this prospect , and then it makes emails that make sense , which is very cool and like , unlike anything I would have thought HubSpot would be able to do , it's like it's here .

Maryanne McWhirter 13:20

It's very cool and unlike other AI , because you don't have to log it . You don't have to drag and drop . Oh , I've had this conversation . It looks at what's already there and , if you are tracking your emails , and the information is automatically being put into upspot , you're not having to put anything in .

Matt Sunshine 13:35

Sure .

Maryanne McWhirter 13:35

It's just doing it .

Emily Hartzell 13:36

Right .

Matt Sunshine 13:37

It's really amazing All right Switching subjects a little bit , and I guess Emily will come to you for this one so I think in the last six months to a year , the idea of using a virtual assistant or a chat bot has become easier and easier . You know , even people are more comfortable talking to Alexa , more comfortable talking to Siri , more comfortable with voice commands , even when you go on someone's websiteots and the AI powered virtual assistants and sentiment analysis tools how those are impacting the way we deal with customer satisfaction .

Emily Hartzell 14:37

Yeah , yeah , I think it's a really good question and I think one thing that it makes me think about is just , you know , historically it's been a bit difficult to like prior to AI , prior to the ability to have a big knowledge base where it's pulling actual information from , and it's felt a little like a tedious task to get your questions answered or to actually speak with a person or you know , like you know , as soon as it's an automated message or whatever , that it's not going to be the information you need , and I feel like AI is really changing that .

Emily Hartzell 15:13

I know we're talking a lot about HubSpot , but I'll speak specifically to their service hub and their ability to build out a knowledge base , because I think it's really cool . You can now have like layered knowledge that you can provide AI chatbots that will , um , give as close to a human like answer as possible , and then the chatbot will actually have a human like conversation with someone , so it doesn't feel like they're not really answering your question , but it's the chatbots giving you the best it can get based on the you know nothing it has . Yeah , it's now it's getting to the point where these chatbots are using ai and it's actually giving relevant information that's truly answering questions , and so it's . It's helping companies not have to have the human power sitting behind the desk to answer it , but rather having the human power , having building the relationship with these people and , you know , furthering their upselling their company instead of having to answer the mundane , tedious tasks . And AI is actually answering the task , so they're actually getting questions answered by chatbots .

Matt Sunshine 16:24

And all go ahead .

Emily Hartzell 16:26

No , no , go ahead .

Matt Sunshine 16:27

I was just saying all of everything the two of you have been talking about , which to me , just sounds absolutely incredible , and I can't figure out why anybody listening to this wouldn't say , well , wow , we would be a better organization if we had that . And I think what they'd really say is if we had that and we were using it , and we'll get to that in a second . But setting it all up isn't easy , and that's something that the two of you and all of LeadG2 , that's what you do , right . You set it all up , you make sure it works , and then you work with companies to make sure that they use it and get the results that they need . Am I saying that simplistic enough ?

Maryanne McWhirter 17:09

That's right ? Yeah , I think so . Set it up and train right . Make sure that you understand how to use it . All right .

Emily Hartzell 17:15

So go ahead , go ahead , emily I was going to say like , when we're talking about all this stuff , you know the social media agent being able to post social media posts , the like you have to give it the information that it needs in order to do that , which requires typing in your entire target persona and all the buying information . That's just one example of many . In order for your AI chatbot to have a knowledge base to pull from , you have to make the knowledge base , and all of that stuff takes time . So , like you were just saying , people do invest quite a bit of money into having HubSpot as their tool and you know feeling like that investment alone is enough for the success , but I do feel like a really big missing piece is the usage and the training that comes with the tool .

Matt Sunshine 17:58

Yeah , it's kind of like in sports . You can , you can buy a sponsorship of a sports team . You can buy a sponsorship of a sports team , but unless you're going to also take the time to activate that sponsorship , it's not really as valuable . And it's the same with any of these tools you can make the investment to invest in them , but unless you're going to make the investment , the time investment and the financial investment to activate them and use them , you're never going to realize the full potential . So on that , Marianne , I think so many people they only really choose to learn a few of the tools that they have within their CRM . With more and more tools becoming available , how can businesses ensure that people are staying ahead of the curve ? I guess another way to say this would be what features do you see people not using enough ?

Maryanne McWhirter 18:54

Well , I'll take a second to just plug the lead you to and say you don't have to learn all the features , you just have to hire an agency that can tell you which ones are going to work best for you and set it up for you . And kind of getting set up the right way , like we were just talking about , is important

Maximizing CRM Potential With AI

Maryanne McWhirter 19:17

. But features that are underused I mean it varies right , like it depends on who it is , but I would say automation in general .

Maryanne McWhirter 19:26

I don't know workflows and automation exist and I don't think they take great advantage of that . I think people overlook the advanced opportunities for lead nurturing that exists without a touch involved . Right Like there's a lot of automation you could . You could do AI , but that's new . I think that's underused because it's new and people are learning and trying to understand where to start with that customer .

Matt Sunshine 19:53

I think the most underused thing . Tell me know how you can save your proposal as a link Documents .

Maryanne McWhirter 20:02

Yeah , the documents tool . Yeah , that's insane .

Matt Sunshine 20:05

That's not new , but I think it's so underused because why wouldn't you use it ? You get information like when it's opened , and how long do people stay on every single page ?

Emily Hartzell 20:15

Yeah , I agree stay on every single page . I agree , we have a seller at LeadG2 who's he's actually about to celebrate 10 years here and he was telling me the other day about sequences that he feels like even when he's out of office , cause he's very good at sequences , he's very diligent in enrolling people in sequences . And he said even when I'm out of office , even when I'm not paying attention to my computer , I always feel like I have air coverage , like I'm always like there , and he said all of my sequences have my meeting link .

Emily Hartzell 20:46

So he said the best feeling is coming sitting down at my desk in the morning and having a meeting booked with someone who I've never met before but I've been emailing for years , like I've just been sending them emails and I have a meeting booked , and I just thought that was really cool , like a good way of saying that . And I agree with Marianne Like I don't think sequences are as utilized as they should be and I think it's exactly what you were just saying too , with like layering the documents and layering in the meeting links and like having your automated emails be good , automated emails like not just sequences along with the calendar link .

Emily Hartzell 21:22

Huge , huge . Attach a document in there to see if they click on it . Like , all of these things together are really what's what makes sequences even better .

Maryanne McWhirter 21:31

But we could do a whole episode about the like underutilized features of HubSpot , Matt .

Matt Sunshine 21:35

That would actually be a really good episode . To do is the most underused that could deliver the greatest ROI . We need to poll our consultants too , because we all see little different peaks we need to come up with , like the top five , the top five most underused , underappreciated , underused , underappreciated , under-recognized HubSpot tools that everyone should be using , because they're just there , all right . Question AI We've been talking a lot about it .

Emily Hartzell 22:09

Mm-hmm .

Matt Sunshine 22:10

And AI is awesome , but human intuition is awesome too , and creativity is awesome as well , and I don't think it's . I think it's important that it remains and it doesn't go anywhere . So , emily , how can businesses strike the right balance between AI and human , human involvement , specifically with the CRM ?

Emily Hartzell 22:33

Yeah , I believe firmly that AI should help with tasks that are like administrative tasks that will take you time and energy , that are not things that you need to do manually anymore , so like building you a list or separating a list of your prospects and putting it into alphabetical order , or things like that that , like historically , would have taken a long time using AI to speed up your process to allow you to go do other things .

Emily Hartzell 23:05

I think that that is the beauty of AI and I also feel like , when we enroll people in these like automated AI sequences and stuff like that like you still need to call them , like you still need to like pick up the phone and call too , like these are , you still have to like go and meet them or put on a screen , share with your proposal , or like you still have to have those moments of relationship and building trust that AI just will never be able to do . But you can work smarter , getting people in your you know , in your queue , your calendar , and then use your relationship building and your you know stellar personality to get that deal to the close .

Maryanne McWhirter 23:48

It's the people who are the most afraid the salespeople who are the most afraid of AI that need it the most because it allows them to spend more time building relationships and less time poking around on HubSpot trying to form a list of everybody who has filled out a form on this page in the past two months and they don't know what to select to build that and AI does it for them right , like those are the people who it's the impatient , not really wanting to spend a lot of time with their computer salesperson , which is Matt . What percentage of salespeople ?

Matt Sunshine 24:20

The yeah , the expression goes AI won't replace people . People that use AI effectively will replace people .

Emily Hartzell 24:27

They don't . Yeah , absolutely All right .

Matt Sunshine 24:30

Final thoughts from each of you , and you guys can decide who goes first . What advice would you give an organization who hasn't fully embraced the AI capabilities of their CRM ?

Maryanne McWhirter 24:44

Don't be last . You don't have to be first , but don't be last . You got to do it . Start somewhere . Don't try to do it all at once , but start somewhere . I think we've given a lot of small tips just here today . I think if you took one of them and implemented it , don't be the last one , because people are doing it .

Matt Sunshine 25:00

It's not a big idea , not a big deal , until you find out your direct competitor is doing it at a really high level , and then you're flat footed and far behind , and that's not a good feeling , emily .

Emily Hartzell 25:12

I would say that , at least you know , at LEG2 , we do a lot of sales training . We talk to a lot of salespeople and I think the biggest thing and I'm probably preaching to you know the choir here but ultimately showing sellers , showing organizations , how it's going to make their lives easier and how they're going to see more wins from it . So , instead of just like blanket talking about AI , like use AI , just go use it . Like talk about specifics and how it will make an impact . So like pulling up your screen showing the prospecting agent watching you enroll one person and just and like literally talking through okay , this is , these are the emails that it just made for me and it will send them on its own , without me even at my desk . Like talking through the why and how it's going to actually make their lives easier , because I think a lot of times it's just talked about in like a blanket sense , like AI will make your life easier , but like actually showing those specifics I think will increase adoption All right , that's it .

Matt Sunshine 26:18

Thank you so much . I think that's a great way to end it and I and I think that you're right , I think that showing the benefit of it , not just showing what it can do , but how it can help , and , marianne , to your point , just do it . Just just pick one , pick one thing , start doing it , don't be last Jump in , as someone that we all know once said .

Emily Hartzell 26:43

You know , the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago 20 years ago , and if you're not using it today , and if you're not using a CRM , start there .

Matt Sunshine 26:54

Yeah , start using it . All right , emily . Marianne , thank you so much for joining us today . I know that there'll be people that want to get a hold of you or do some follow up Q&A with you . I will drop your LinkedIn connections in the show notes and I know you're both very accessible on LinkedIn as you're on there a lot , accessible on LinkedIn as you're on there a lot . And we thank everyone for joining the show today and look forward to you joining other and future broadcasts , future episodes of the Improving Sales Performance podcast . Thank you so much .

Maryanne McWhirter 27:31

Thanks for having us .

Matt Sunshine 27:34

This has been Improving Sales Performance . Thanks for listening . If you like what you heard , join us every week by clicking the subscribe button . For more on the topics covered in the show , visit our website , thecenterforsalesstrategycom . There you can find helpful resources and content aimed at improving your sales performance . You