Vanguard Fire & Security Systems

How Implementing HubSpot Sales Shortened One Industrial Service Provider’s Sales Cycle

For many companies, establishing a defined, effective, and efficient sales process is a big ask. Your team is already busy selling. They don’t have the time to fuss with the “how”. They just need to do. But without a streamlined sales process, leads can fall through the cracks, and your sales team spends more time figuring out who’s handling what than actually closing.

Our Q1 sales enablement initiative for Vanguard Fire & Security resulted in:

The Challenge

Implementing an Efficient, Streamlined, & Visible Sales Process

This is the position our client, Vanguard Fire & Security Systems found themselves in when they came to Evenbound looking for both marketing & sales support. With no defined sales process and no visibility, it’s difficult to know where you are, and where you need to be. The Vanguard team needed a sales solution that would provide transparency across the board and the tools that could support a new sales initiative.

The Solution

A Cross-Channel Sales Enablement Initiative Designed to Create an Effective Sales Process, Support Sales Team Efforts, and Shorten the Sales Cycle

In January of 2020, following Vanguard’s HubSpot onboarding, we launched a full-fledged sales enablement initiative. Our sales enablement strategy was designed to give the Vanguard sales team tools that would support faster, more efficient sales, and the training they needed to use those tools successfully.

Deal Stages

The first step was moving the Vanguard team off of spreadsheets. We implemented sales pipelines in the HubSpot CRM that defined a solid, consistent sales process with deal stages that aligned with their goals. With defined deal stages the whole team could see, the Vanguard team no longer had to worry about visibility or accountability. Every prospect in the pipeline is easily visible, and Vanguard’s team administrator now assigns all new leads and tasks to the appropriate sales team member, ensuring no leads fall through the cracks.

Sales Leaderboards

With a solid sales process, Vanguard now needed visibility on how that process was working. Evenbound implemented sales leaderboards that enabled each sales rep to see what progress they were making in both a yearly and monthly context. Here’s how Leaderboards help reduce flywheel friction:

• Incentive – Not only do leaderboards give reps a clear picture of where they stand, but they also create an incentive to keep everyone engaged. As the sales team saw more deals entering the pipeline, they were inspired to keep adding their own deals, ensuring the long-term success of their new sales pipeline.
  
  
• Continuous Improvement – Sales leaderboards also proved an effective tool for improvement. When the team sat down for regular reporting meetings, they could ask sales leaders what tools were most effective for them. This helped foster a positive teamwork-focused environment, where the team could troubleshoot and improve efforts together. With a sales pipeline and sales leaderboards, we were well on our way to reducing friction in the Vanguard flywheel. Now we needed to implement solutions that could get the flywheel spinning faster.

Sequences & Meeting Links

Vanguard knew that industry conferences and tradeshows were one of their best opportunities to find new leads. They just needed the tools to better engage those qualified leads. We worked with the Vanguard team to automate sequences that would go out before and after events. Before sequences included meeting links, making it easy for prospects to schedule time with a Vanguard rep at their convenience, reducing friction and the back-and-forth communication that often goes along with setting up a meeting.

By the time their event rolled around, the Vanguard sales team had a full list of meetings set up with qualified prospects. This allowed them to optimize their time at the conference, prioritizing the rest of their available time to reach new leads. Following conferences, we deployed sequences to nurture new leads the sales team had met at the event.

These sequences offered an efficient way for sales reps to build on the personal connection they had made at the conference. Personalization tokens ensured sequences spoke directly to those new leads, effectively sending the right message, to the right person, at the right time, without costing the sales team time.

The Results

All the New Leads Vanguard Could Handle, and the Tools and Training To Close Them

By streamlining the Vanguard sales process and implementing tools that could help them convert qualified leads faster, Evenbound effectively helped Vanguard shorten their sales cycle. These improvements are represented by Vanguard’s Q1 results, with $2.8 million dollars closed, 921 new contacts, and 96 new customers this quarter alone.

With more leads coming in and a shortened sales cycle, Vanguard’s flywheel is spinning faster than ever. Of course, these results are a full credit to the Vanguard team’s investment in this sales enablement initiative. Their ability to onboard, embrace the HubSpot Sales Hub tools, and keep using them is what has truly delivered these results.

What’s Next?

A Solid Partnership Squarely Focused on Continuous Improvement

Evenbound is excited to keep moving forward with the Vanguard team. Our next steps will help the Vanguard team continue to improve and streamline their sales process.