Zohray Brennan
If you know Intention.ly then you know that we’re HUGE fans of shiny and new — but it has to work. We jumped on AI right away, cutting through the hype to get to the actual substance. Because we keep an eye out for trends that aren’t just hype; they have to yield results. Our industry — and its success — is not about just the brand and being cool. It boils down to actual results that translate into keeping customers engaged, converting prospects, and driving revenue, while also being perceived as cool.
So it shouldn’t come as a shock that as a Platinum HubSpot Partner (humble brag) we are just as dedicated to uncovering the tools that will integrate well with HubSpot to drive efficiency, creativity, and ultimately, tangible business results.
Before we get into the tools we use, I want to review how we pick them. Our selection process involves a mix of in-person research — like HubSpot’s annual Inbound conference — and we conduct extensive online research and stay on top of the latest tech trends.
Our criteria for the tools is pretty stringent.
- Has to integrate with HubSpot
- Needs to have an intuitive and elegant interface (similar to HubSpot)
- Must have a low learning curve
- Has to integrate well with HubSpot
If you can’t tell, the emphasis on the integration is key. There are so many platforms, tools, and apps that say they “integrate” with a CRM but it’s not until you dive deep into the backend that you get to truly understand it. And even then, it’s sometimes challenging to understand all the nuances to get proper buy-in from everyone who uses HubSpot.
The List
Long story short: These are the 5 top tools from 5 startups that we at Intention.ly are using ourselves or planning to.
1. Lead Qualification Tool: Chilli Piper
There is nothing worse than sales wasting their time on leads that us marketers pass on only to get them rejected. There’s also nothing worse than trying to figure out if your marketing dollars contributed to the sale. With Chili Piper’s platform that integrates within HubSpot seamlessly, we’re able to consolidate form routing, chat, lead distribution, AND scheduling for your inbound and outbound channels. We’re testing it out now and will share our experience and the results when we have them — but we are confident this will help our lean sales team in weeding out the time wasters.
2. Event Tool: Hapily
Running successful events is HARD. Fun but hard. Hapily is absolutely adorable and easy to use but — most importantly — it’s in HubSpot so you’re able to quickly see who’s scanned your event QR code, RSVP’ed or registered, and/or attended across both virtual and IRL events. Plus you’re able to recognize deal attribution automatically — something that is tough via the list uploads or Zoom integration. So having everything within HubSpot instead of the different platforms has been a Godsend.
3. Texting: SalesMsg
Salesmsg is a great, easy-to-use texting tool that integrates within workflows, and allows you to text prospects and clients within HubSpot, ensuring that all communications are captured within the contact record. We use Salesmsg and like it for its transparent pricing and ease of use. We’ve cut down on no-shows to meetings and the fact that we can incorporate it into a nurture workflow has also created efficiencies while still allowing us to be personable. And if you know us, we are nothing BUT personable!
Bonus Tip: If you need a sophisticated call and texting solution then Kixie should be your go-to.
4. Productivity: Asana
What’s not to love about Asana? It’s an easy-to-use project management tool that allows you to have one task across multiple boards: a critical feature when you are dealing with multiple teams. The integration with HubSpot takes it to another level: when a deal is closed with a sales rep it effortlessly creates a task within Asana, that notifies relevant team members via a workflow that also triggers off associate automation. You’re also able to integrate Asana tasks within HubSpot workflows so that no one has to “remember” to create a task.
5. Data Enrichment & ABM: HubSpot’s Breeze Intelligence
WE ARE SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS! For one thing, with Breeze Intelligence, you can enrich your contacts’ data immediately with a simple click of a button within the record — so adding a missing phone number, email address, etc. This was not super surprising as HubSpot had acquired Clearbit, a data enrichment tool last year.
What was a nice surprise was the ABM tools that they layered on top of it via buyer intent which allows you to match the people who are on your site with your target accounts. In our opinion, this is critical to have if you do advertising, have a number of companies you are targeting to convert into customers or are trying to convert individual advisors that work at larger firms. There are more sophisticated tools such as Apollo.io, which we also love and handles outbound email marketing to protect your domain, but if you don’t need much more, this is perfect.
These features are currently in beta with the official launch slated for October but if you want to use them now, just click on your profile pic (upper right-hand corner) then scroll down to “product updates,” and search for buyer intent. Oh, and while you’re there, check out the slick new lead-scoring tool too!
Of course, not every tool is perfect for every company; it comes down to needs and budget. So feel free to reach out to me and let’s chat. Oh, and if you’re looking to jump to HubSpot learn more about our services here.
