Romi and Ryan are heading to Boston for Inbound 2019

By Ryan Watkins August 31, 2019 | 5 min read

"Two full sessions and heaps of questions!"

Such was the scenario for our very own CXO, Romi Dexter, when she spoke at Inbound 2018 in Boston last year.

But Romi nailed her talk at HubSpot Partner Day and answered as many questions as she could. Romi, along with our CEO, Ryan Watkins, had very valuable takeouts at Inbound 2018.

Here are Romi's takeouts from #Inbound2018

1. Word-of-mouth is now the strongest referral source

It's so much cheaper to retain existing customers than to find and recruit brand new ones. Make sure that you're always sliding customers and removing friction at every point, so you can turn them into your advocates and build additional customers.

2. Maximising your return by differentiation offers & Flywheel maximisation/optimisation

Find out what truly differentiates you from your competitors and communicate that at every touchpoint. Understand how you can optimise and refine across the entire funnel, not just upfront, and you'll get a much greater return of both your time and investment.

3. A single view of your customer and automation is key to building a sustainable business

Trying to get back all the data from multiple systems to get a true reflection of the return on marketing investment is close to impossible. So make sure you build or integrate a single platform to set up your business for success.

4. Remove friction when people are trying to buy from you

Make sure that all of your key information is available up front when people are navigating your website. Put prices, or at least pricing indicators, if you have a complex product up on your site, so people know if they're even in the realm of doing business with you.

5. AI is now moving from a buzzword to a reality

If you don't start to leverage AI now, then you're going to get left behind. HubSpot's latest marketing enterprise product will be able to do hundreds of thousands of individual tests across your entire funnel to optimise and maximise your conversions as well as revenue.

Here's Ryan's major takeout from #Inbound 2018

Sales models have changed from time to time. In the 70s and 80s, there was a massive "field sales" mentality. It got replaced when there was an increase in the efficiency of phone use. Salespeople started calling first to schedule a time for a meeting.

Then in the 90s, things moved very heavily to telemarketing because salespeople could talk to more people per hour on the phone.

But over time, decision-makers have become less responsive to cold outreach - whether that's someone knocking on their door or giving them a cold call on the phone.

Prospects are now more responsive to content that helps them make a buying decision. One of the key stats that Ryan remembers is that in the US, 90% of the decision-makers won't answer a cold call. So if you dial a hundred numbers, only ten people will answer your phone and there is no guarantee of closing the sale.

People are consuming 5-8 pieces of content before they buy. But marketers can't just market for a particular demographic or persona - they have to market for their sales teams as well! Inbound marketing is important, but once the personas have engaged with your content, you need to help your sales team sell to them as well.

In a nutshell:

Inbound marketing is great to attract leads in but without a sales process aligned to that marketing it is far less effective;
Account-based marketing (AMB) will help your salespeople attract better clients and close better deals;
A combination of inbound marketing and inbound selling will help the leads you generate through inbound marketing turn to customers more effectively.

Back to Inbound 2019

A year has passed and Inbound 2019 is on its way. Romi and Ryan are all set to attend this four-day event that'll be held from 3rd to 6th September in Boston. 250+ speakers will share their wisdom on inbound marketing and business growth with 24,000+ attendees.

Ryan's Top Picks For Inbound 2019

1. The Secret Sauce for ABM: Maximizing New Business & Lifetime Value

Now it's time to move beyond the hype to discover how the most innovative marketers are practising ABM. See what works and what doesn't so you can quickly and easily get up and running with ABM.

2. The Customer Revolution—What Empowered Customers Want, How to Build Your Flywheel Around Them, and Why They Are the New Secret to Growth

Customers today are smarter, technically savvy, and expect things immediately. If you want to win them and keep them, you’ll have to fight any friction they feel with your company. When you win the battle versus friction, you create happy customers, and happy customers are the best marketing money can buy.

3. Customer Retention for SaaS: Real-Life Strategies to keep your Customer Forever

For most SaaS businesses, the main focus is growth. Often that translates to stabilising and increasing the sales coming in, but how do we get those customers to stick around so the money isn't just walking straight back out the door?

Overall Ryan is focused on sales and offerings by HubSpot, and how marketing and sales work together.

Romi's Top Picks For Inbound 2019

1. From No ABM Program to Award-Winning ABM Program in Just One Year

A walk through the evolution of a four-person marketing team developing an ABM program, with a special focus on what and how they messed up along their way to becoming an award-winning ABM program.

2. Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah Spotlight

Brian and Dharmesh have led the inbound movement as co-founders of HubSpot since the company was created in 2006. Their session always provides an excellent insight to what we can expect from HubSpot and CX in the coming year.

3. 10 Things I've Learned from Putting on 500+ Webinars

A blueprint for combining advanced concepts & human engagement to maximize leads & new business.

4. Stop Leaving Customer Experience To Chance! Unlock The Power of XM

What can easily destroy even the best marketing strategy? Poor customer experience! That's why experience management (XM) can't be an afterthought.

5. HubSpot Analytics Mastery: Turn Data into Actionable Insights in 15 Minutes or Less

10 key reports in HubSpot Analytics and how to use them to identify immediate marketing optimization opportunities

Watch the Founders of HubSpot, Live!

The founders of HubSpot will be speaking at Inbound 2019. This will be streamed live, so you can watch it even if you're here in New Zealand. Simply follow this link.

Here are the timings:

Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah kick off at 2:30 pm EST
Catch our HubSpot halftime show at 4:00 am EST
Christopher O’Donnell’s HubSpot Product Spotlight kicks off at 4:30 pm EST

We will be posting updates throughout the week, stay in the loop and connect with us on our social channels.

Consume Inbound 2019 in a single webinar!

Romi and Ryan are offering a free webinar in which they'll share their key takeouts from Inbound 2019. They're consolidating a four-day event into a single webinar and you won't want to miss it.