HubSpot for Professional Services Firms

To begin, let’s look at the professional services industry as a whole. The accounting sub sector alone generates around $180 billion a year and over $2 trillion is the combined revenue of all professional service firms in the United States (2018). And, approximately 9.3 million people are employed in the industry. This shows us that there is a lot of opportunity for growth.

The professional services industry has been faced with a number of disruptors including a diminishing talent pool, a technological revolution, and certainly new business models that include services that are personalized but maybe not ‘in person.’ Those firms that have pivoted and rolled with the punches have held on and maybe even flourished; those that sat stagnantly, likely haven’t survived. While the road has been long and dark, the profitability of the industry is looking up. With careful planning, professional service providers can get back to doing what they do best, serving others. Digitalization is essential to almost every industry, and it is certainly key in the professional services industry. What are the challenges you have been facing? 

More and more consumers are using software to complete many professional services like accounting. Firms in a multitude of vectors in the professional services industry will need to use sophisticated technologies in unique ways in order to compete and help their clients. 

With more and more consumers and businesses using accounting software programs, firms will need to use sophisticated technology in different ways to help their clients.

Other challenges facing the professional services industry is creating awareness of who they are and what they have to offer. Additionally, they struggle to align teams across departments as well as logistically connect remote workers with real-time customer information. Communicating internally as well as sharing expertise have also traditionally been a challenge for many professional services companies. Likewise, segmentation and targeting key accounts and high priority prospects needs to be a focus of growth for many in the industry.

Professional services companies are struggling to garner enough awareness around their brands to generate the leads they need to grow their practice. Part of that struggle is being able to impart their expertise to a buyer that has lees understanding of what they need to succeed. Also, professional service companies struggle to build authentic relationships with buyers, and when they do, they don’t know how to convert them into sales opportunities.

Alignment is a primary challenge for professional services companies. Being able to meet the needs of a variety of stakeholders has been challenging. Also, many companies struggle to make sure that remote workers and departments are aligned with real-time customer information, and they lack the tools to coordinate tasks and meeting schedules across teams.  

Communicating their expertise and thought-leadership is often challenging for professional service companies because they are busy providing services not writing or sharing that expertise on their website, internally, and/or across their social media networks. 

Targeting is essential for professional service companies to grow. They need to foster relationships with key accounts and segment their prospects so they can prioritize and nurture those leads. They also need to target their messaging for various key audiences and stakeholders. 

As with most industries, professional services has been hit with customers who have developed exceptionally high expectations. To put it bluntly, they are spoiled, and they want things, the way they want them; in fact, 69% of customers expect new ways to get professional services, for example remotely. The good news is that 84% of customers reward excellent service with future purchases and loyalty. Another important statistic to consider is the cost per lead which is on average $132. 

What else do consumers want?  They want things to be easy to use, whether it is your website, video content, booking appointments, and so on. They also want things to be customizable and personalized, and most of all, they want individualized treatment. 

Now, let’s think about how HubSpot can help you overcome the challenges facing your industry and meet the needs and wants of your buyers. 

HubSpot’s tools allow you to confront many of the disruptors in the industry from the diminishing talent pool to the technological revolution to new business models that include services that are personalized (but not necessarily in person). Nearly 50% of CFO’s plan to speed up plans to digitize, automate, and make everything doable, remotely. Firms have to cast nets for talent further and wider than before, and they have to adopt new business models, like subscription-pay and lay old ones to rest.

Now, let’s dig into how HubSpot has helped other professional services companies like yourselves.

As you can see, HubSpot has worked with many companies in the professional services space to solve challenges with awareness, alignment, communication, targeting and much more. Let’s take a look at a couple.

Townsend Security in Olympia, Washington is a small company specializing in helping enterprises meet compliance and mitigate risk of data breaches. They were struggling to create content that was converting into leads. With HubSpot’s help, they were able to increase their lead generation by 80%. 

The competition in their sector is fierce which meant they had to find a way to build awareness without the same budget as larger competitors. Their organic traffic was down by 38% and leads down by 23% until they doubled-down on website optimization and content creation. The insights and metrics provided by HubSpot helped them to strategize and make changes. The Sales Hub Pro and CRM also helped their sales and marketing teams to align and fight the competition. They were able to increase their traffic by 55%, increase leads 12 times what they were producing before and generated 600 leads. 

Ignite is a leadership community that provides mid-level leaders with an engaging learning platform and curriculum to help them thrive. With a cobbled tech stack, they were unable to prevent non-members from attending free events; they were unable to produce them efficiently; and they needed to switch from a consumer model to a corporate model. With Hubspot Payments, they increased free trial sign-up by 300%, and 50% less time was spent on payment management. They were also able to establish workflows that helped them automate event processes, and therefore, they were able to cut their their time spent on training production by 30%. Finally, they used HubSpot’s marketing tools to get in front of corporate clients more easily and demonstrate their value to their new target audience.

Eastridge provides global contingent workforce solutions for a broad range of clients here in the United States. Before Hubspot, they were struggling to standardize operations and systems as well as centralize campaigns. With HubSpot’s help they were able to increase their customer growth by 10%.

Eastridge had a lack of connectivity, no automation, and no standardized operations between sales and marketing. Likewise, they didn’t have access to reliable data to track leads and guide marketing. With HubSpot, they established workflows and automated processes, and with reliable data, they were able to group leads and track engagement. Likewise, they executed strategic marketing campaigns that aligned with sales processes and core services, then measure and evaluate their successes. 

As you can see, HubSpot can solve the sales, marketing, and operations challenges facing professional services companies today. HubSpot continues to be recognized for being world class in this space and was awarded for fastest implementation and most implementable in 2021. Who wouldn’t want that?