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Maintainers -ImageDr. Fabrizio Finozzi

CRM

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Why use HubSpot​

OET has adopted HubSpot as our CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system. This system enables us, among others to:

  • have a joint and up to date address book of all our contacts, with account holders ("owners") for all contacts;
  • automatically log and recordkey e-mails and other messages to clients, funders and partners, such that we know who has been contacted when about what, avoid situations where externals are contacted multiple times by different people, and are resilient to staff absences;
  • track all our leads and opportunities in one place, giving an auditable overview of our funnel and who is working on what, which we can also use to steer business development activities. In the longer term, we may add further functionality to our HubSpot implementation.

Who uses HubSpot​

All those who regularly do business development work have a so-called "core seat", i.e., will be able to upload data. This includes all Heads of Department and the CEO. The Finance Manager and other key operational staff have view access. If someone without a core seat wants to upload data, they can do this by forwarding it to someone with a core seat.

Setting up HubSpot​

If you are required to use hubspot, you will receive an invitation. Once that happens, you are expected to do the following:

  1. As soon as possible: make an account for HubSpot using the invitation you have received.
  2. As soon as possible: make sure to connect your OET e-mail address; giving HubSpot access to your e-mail. You can also give it access to your calendar if you wish. Note: 'personal e-mail' here means your OET e-mail. You do not have to connect a private e-mail address.
  3. As soon as possible: If you are willing to use the Google Chrome browser, install this connector. This is the recommended approach, as you can easily record e-mails and contacts, uploading them to Hubspot with a single click. If you are not willing to use Chrome, you can use a BCC e-mail address, see here for instructions.
  4. Over your next working week: Have a browse through HubSpot. The important menu items, for now, are all under the "CRM" menu tab:
  • Contacts: individual contact persons we are in touch with. Note especially the "Breeze record summary" in the top right, which is an AI-generated summary of recent contact (from all OET colleagues) with this person.
  • Companies: speaks for itself; contacts and companies are linked, so if you click on a company you can see the contacts there.
  • Deals: These are our leads and opportunities. These are linked to companies and/or contacts.

Using HubSpot​

  • If you make new contacts on behalf of OET, add them as contacts. If you use the Chrome plugin this is a single click. You can also connect Hubspot to your Google address book and automatically upload contacts. Add all as "non-marketing contacts" for now.
  • If you have a new lead or opportunity, you add them as a "deal". The easiest way to do this is to navigate to the company (create it if it doesn't exist), and then, in the bar on the right, under "Deals", click "new". Fill in as many of the fields as possible, but always includes
  • The project name
  • Its value in euros
  • The client (also add individual contacts at the client or at collaborators, if necessary). If the organization does not exist within HubSpot, add it.
  • The projected project start and end dates
  • The probability (note, this is subjective; use your best estimate and update it regularly)
  • The deadline for submission. If there is none, specify a reasonable internal deadline.
  • The deal owner (which person in the core business development team is responsible), and deal support (who else within OET is supporting)
  • If you send important e-mails to clients, funders, or partners, or receive important e-mails, log them either using the Chrome HubSpot connector or the bcc e-mail address, see above. You should always record the initial e-mail exchange with a (potential) new client (your e-mail, their response, or their e-mail, your response), any important e-mails related to the scope of the work, any quotations sent out, and anything related to contracts, including NDAs, MoUs, etc. It is up to you which other e-mails you want to log. When in doubt: do you think this e-mail would be useful to colleagues if they wanted to contact this person, or if you were suddently ill? If yes, log. Don't log personal/private e-mails or e-mails that are covered by an NDA that restricts sharing to a smaller group than those receiving this e-mail. If you use the Chrome connector you can set exclusions automatically.
  • Make sure connect these e-mails to the relevant contact. If they are about a deal that is already registered in HubSpot, also connect them to this specific deal.
  • If you use other means of communication (Whatsapp, LinkedIn), register important messages manually by going into the HubSpot portal, navigating to the contact, and registering a message. We might, at some point, get connectors for these tools. If you find yourself manually logging often, send a message to the Head of Peole and Culture so we can look into whether it's worth buying a connector.