By Todd Hussey
For too many years I was a "gym lollygagger" going to the gym too inconsistently and when I did I measured my results on how much time I would spend there. I was basically checking the health check box and got zippo results. A few years ago I finally came to my senses and signed up for a personal trainer spending a pretty hefty monthly OPEX (Operating Expense) for a committed 12 months.
Yikes what did I do and why? Spending a good chunk of change every month for a 12-month commitment was going to make me take it seriously and also I now had a professional helping me meet my goals. But the light bulb moment came when I started my partnership with HubSpot, an inbound marketing and sales platform that helps companies attract visitors, convert leads, and close customers. What?
What does Investing in HubSpot and a Hiring a Personal Trainer Have in Common?
In early meetings with Hubspot execs they would refer to inbound marketing like going to the gym - you need to do the work every day to get the results. Blogging, social media, SEO, content creation, webinars, campaigns, etc. I was told inbound marketing is like lifting weights, the treadmill, calisthenics etc. - the more you do and the more consistent you are the better the results. If you are an "inbound lollygagger" like a "gym lollygagger" you'll get nowhere.
Why am I writing this? It's pretty simple as I see it. It's impossible to argue that the marketing and sales world hasn't turned upside down - it absolutely has. Just look at retail - brick and mortar sales are plummeting and Amazon sales are going through the roof - people are going through the buyer journey on-line. The buyer is now in control and the seller needs to "get found" and nurture them through the buyers journey. Whether the buyer is looking for a bicycle, TV or Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) – their process is the same. To execute inbound marketing you must go to the gym - if you don't you will fail. I have seen it far too often where the business owner says he/she is committed to inbound but gets impatient after a few short months and opts out. What does he/she usually do then? He/she hires a sales rep, hands that person a list (usually a few years old) and says "start calling". Yikes! Oh, and guess what - that rep is gone in less than six months.
Todd Hussey is Co-Founder and Partner at CSBexcellence a business consultancy that specializes in providing Managed Inbound Marketing services that enable scalable, cost-effective growth specifically for MSPs (Managed Services Providers) and CSPs (Cloud Solution Providers). The company was formed in 2010 as MSPexcellence and has become a respected source of strategic advisory services to technology vendors and business-building programs for their MSP and CSP partners.