How Small Agencies Can Climb to the TOP: Focus, Training, and Collaborative Journeys

Pete Nicholls, Director of HubDo, the only 100% wholesale-only Platinum HubSpot Partner, talks about his company's purpose: to help smaller (1 to 5 employee), inbound (mostly B2B) agencies grow and to deliver client success. As a partner for HubSpot partners, HubDo has identified areas where small and start-up agencies typically have problems—marketing the agency, the sales process, service delivery, and growth issues, such as hiring staff and managing finances—and provides the tools, programs, services, and a collaborative "incubator" to nurture these agencies as they grow.

HubDo offers 1) Hubspot Certified Training, 2) HubDoClub, a community of SilverPeak graduates (explanation to follow), with access to a library of recorded MasterClasses and discounted PandaDoc (document automation) services, and 3) several HubDo Services. By "grouping" a lot of smaller clients, HubDo is able to offer services that HubSpot cannot scale at the individual, small agency level—full-time people working with small agencies one-on-one would be inefficient and prohibitively expensive.

Pete discusses why his company adopted the Hubspot platform: HubSpot's completeness of vision regarding inbound marketing, its ability to execute, its dedication to R&D investment, and the quality of its software. HubSpot offers an integrated suite of CRM, Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, and Service Hub software, popular enough that third parties have built ancillary software around the HubSpot platform. Agencies may use the stripped-down, HubSpot-branded components for free for an unlimited amount of time. Beyond that, pricing is tiered, based on supported functions. Startups can apply for scholarships to accelerate their marketing and sales traction. HubDo works exclusively with HubSpot partners or those considering the HubSpot platform.

Pete presented "How to Grow Your Small Agency: Pro Tips from the Silver Peak Team" at HubSpot's Inbound 2018. The biggest takeaway from this compilation of HubDo's Silver Peak participant responses is that marketing agencies often fail to market themselves.

HubDo's 9-month Silver Peak program provides a roadmap, instructor-led sales education, weekly coaching sessions, and collaborative group dynamics to empower small agencies to become HubSpot Silver partners . . . or even to go beyond that. To qualify as a "Silver" HubSpot partner, the first level of recognized accomplishment, an agency must sell services that generate as least $1,125 in monthly recurring revenues for licenses sold within the past year. The next Silver Peak team is scheduled to start its climb in April 2019. For more information about joining the "expedition," see: https://www.hubdo.com/silverpeak

Pete observes that LinkedIn has proven to be a very effective B2B channel, and the number one channel for agencies. The marketing channel that works best all-around? The human channel.

Pete also talks about LinkedIn's social selling index, which measures how effective you are at establishing your professional brand, finding the right people, engaging with insights, and building relationships—and provides tips on improving your score. LinkedIn's Social Selling Index can be found at: https://www.linkedin.com/sales/ssi. Pete stresses the importance of focus by noting that, when an agency can recognize and say "no" to a "bad fit" client, the universe tends to bring them the right kind of clients.

Pete can be contacted on Twitter @hubdo, on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/penichol/. His company's website is: https://www.hubdo.com/