Use inbound principles to build and strengthen your company’s future
We’re in a major shift in a fundamental aspect of how businesses grow, how buyers purchase, and how businesses build meaningful conversations and customer relationships. Companies who align their mission, strategies, action plans, and tools with the way buyers think, learn, discover, and purchase will have a huge competitive advantage. Organizations need to adjust their mindset and build a strategic foundation to deal with these facts and not just update a business plan.
Inbound Organization shows leaders how to build their company's future around Inbound principles and strengthen the structural foundations necessary to deal with the changes in buyer behavior. It explains how and why Inbound ideas and how to create a remarkable customer experience belong in the boardrooms and on the desks of founders, entrepreneurs, business leaders, and anyone who has a responsibility to lead their organizations into the future.
• Discover the foundation of inbound principles
• Learn how to put ideas into practice today
• Read about organizations that successfully apply the principles of Inbound
• Keep your business on course to succeed amidst buyer changes
Stay ahead of the curve and learn how to use Inbound principles to ensure you’re always ahead of the curve.
Table of Contents:
Foreword xiii
by Brian Halligan, CEO and Chairman, HubSpot
Preface xxi
Our Stories xxvii
Acknowledgments xxxv
Introduction xxxvii
Chapter 1 Doing Business in the Twenty-First Century 1
Change Happens Gradually, Then Suddenly 1
Increased Competition from Everywhere 4
Chapter 2 Buyer Expectations Have Changed 6
Today’s Customer Will Not Be Tomorrow’s Customer 7
Traditional Industries Are Not Immune to the Challenge 10
Why the Inbound Organization Philosophy Is the Right Approach 11
Chapter 3 The Building Blocks of an Inbound Organization 14
The Disruptive Impact of Inbound 15
Chapter 4 Inbound Assessment and the MSPOT 19
Inbound Organization Assessment 19
Creating an MSPOT 28
Chapter 5 Start with Your Mission 33
What Is Your WHY? 33
Document Your Mission 35
Chapter 6 Building a Culture That Reflects Inbound Values 40
Trust, Transparency, and Accountability 42
Putting People First 45
Teams and Teamwork 47
Chapter 7 Inbound Decision Making 51
Inbound Decisions 53
Use Good Judgment 56
Chapter 8 Create an Inbound Operating System 58
Creating Your Culture Code 59
Open Communication Spaces and Tools 62
Employee Feedback Mechanisms 64
Regularly Scheduled and Structured Interactions 65
Chapter 9 Find Inbound People 68
Inbound Recruiting—The Candidate Experience 71
How Do You Find the Right Employees for a People First Culture? 74
Chapter 10 Cerasis—Culture Creating a Movement around a Mission 76
Chapter 11 Inbound Strategies—Change from Selling to Helping People 84
An Inbound Strategy Defined 87
Be Honest with Yourself and Your Team 89
Chapter 12 Inbound Strategies Are Engagement Focused 92
Connecting Emotionally 93
Delivering the Right Help at the Right Time 95
Try Before You Buy 96
Chapter 13 Inbound Strategies Are Persona Based 99
Buying Insight 101
How Target Markets Are Different than Demographics 105
Chapter 14 Politics, Personas, and Inbound 110
Chapter 15 Inbound Strategies Match the Buyer’s Journey 115
Awareness 118
Consideration 120
Decision 122
Success 123
Chapter 16 Centralized View of the Customer 126
Warning 128
How to Build a Centralized View of the Customer 128
Chapter 17 My Car Dealer, No Help at All 131
Chapter 18 Inbound Marketing Is a Strategic Imperative 136
Why Inbound Organizations Must Be Great at Producing and Publishing Content 137
What Is the Source of Great Content? 137
What Are the Most Important Types of Content to Produce? 139
The Secret of a Successful Inbound Marketing and Content Strategy 141
What You Get from Inbound Marketing and Content 144
Chapter 19 Bell Performance—Content Attracting, Engaging, and Helping an Audience 146
Chapter 20 Inbound Selling 152
Developing an Inbound Sales Process 156
Personalize the Entire Sales Experience 160
Chapter 21 Yokel Local’s Strange Trip to Becoming a HubSpot Agency Partner 162
Chapter 22 SMarketing 167
Implementing SMarketing 170
Set Common Goals with a Service Level Agreement 171
Chapter 23 Tube Form Solutions—Aligning the Sales Team with Buyers 175
Chapter 24 Inbound Service 184
Defining the Customer Journey 186
How Do You Build the Ideal Customer Journey? 189
What Buyers Expect from Inbound Service 190
Chapter 25 Measuring the Health of Your Relationships 192
Health Check as a Best Practice 193
Service Alignment with Marketing and Sales 195
Chapter 26 Inbound Back Office 197
Do Finance and Accounting Help Your Customer’s Experience? 198
Finance’s Role Moving Forward 201
Inbound Value on the Balance Sheet 201
Inbound Legal 203
Inbound IT 205
Chapter 27 Inbound Ecosystems 208
The Ideas behind an Inbound Ecosystem 210
Chapter 28 The Inbound Organization in 10 Years 214
Technology Will Drive Marketing and Sales Personalization 216
The Inbound Organization in 10 Years 218
Adopt Inbound 220
Notes 223
Index 237
