Accelerated sales: Azured’s launchpad for growth
1200% more leads. A substantial deal pipeline.
Articulate Marketing provided this Microsoft cloud specialist with a growth-enabling launchpad for sales using HubSpot Sales Hub.
UPDATE: This case study has won a HubSpot Impact Award for Product Excellence! 🏆
About Azured
Azured offers Microsoft cloud security, identity and access consultation and solutions. More to the point, they are a personality-packed provider with bucket loads of good humour, expertise and ambition to empower IT teams.
They wanted an agency that ‘spoke their language’ and that could help them reach their sales goals.
‘We started Azured two years ago and had achieved some success from word-of-mouth referrals, but we needed to take the company to the next phase of growth.’
— Elsa Cheshire, Marketing Director
Azured
Gaps and blockers
Azured had become over-reliant on referrals. It was difficult to predict where the next deal would come from. Cash flow was unpredictable. The low-hanging fruit had been picked clean.
They were also struggling to sell their Network and Firewall-as-a-Service solutions. The team needed to differentiate and position their business in the market. They had plenty of technology expertise, but not the skills to achieve their sales goals in-house.
A sales process and tech stack that would allow them to generate more leads
To clearly understand the needs and pain-points of potential buyers
A full deal pipeline of high quality opportunities
‘Azured didn’t have a sales strategy for profitable, scalable growth. They needed automation and best practice guidance. That way, they could quickly implement a mature and aligned sales and marketing approach, and gain valuable insights.’
— Gemma Haggarty, Head of Business Development
Articulate Marketing
Advanced sales automation tooling offered by Sales Hub Pro
Sales acceleration workshops and a resulting game plan
Consultation and content to enable better selling with HubSpot and LinkedIn
HubSpot Sales Hub
We advised Azured to sign up for Sales Hub Pro.
This Hub was chosen to best support their outbound prospecting efforts and ambitious requirements for sales automation processes.
Using this Hub, they would be able to track and communicate with contacts using the contact records, integrated with their existing tools, such as email.
Strategic foundations for targeted selling
Azured needed to understand their audience. We took them through our Strategy Foundations service (free DIY version here) to give them that insight.
This included brand positioning, user journey modelling, ideal client profiles and sales personas. We then embedded that learning into the Sales Hub tool suite and provided recommendations for them to implement over time.
Sales enablement process and tools
We helped to transfer Azured’s existing sales process and build new processes in the Sales Hub. Alongside setup and configuration, we supported them with user adoption and training.
Our experts showed them how to prioritise leads, organise GDPR-compliant outbound prospecting, make dashboards, write email sequences and build out contact and deal categorisation.
‘We’ve been super busy taking on board all of [Articulate’s] findings and Gemma’s recommendations and putting them into action. We’re delighted with the direction of travel.’
— Elsa Cheshire, Marketing Director
Azured
Exceeding expectations
At the start of our engagement we set a few ambitious but realistic sales goals, such as three SQLs per month and one closed won deal a quarter. Needless to say, we did not account for the tenacity of Azured’s sales team!
The results showcase the combined power of hard-working, proactive people, HubSpot-enabled automation and clever sales strategies.
‘With Articulate’s combined expertise of sales enablement and content creation we started driving significant traffic to our web site, increased our LinkedIn network exponentially and generated inbound, qualified leads within a couple of weeks.’
— Elsa Cheshire, Marketing Director
Azured
A reliable deal pipeline
Azured can now diversify its lead generation away from word-of-mouth. Taking charge of its own sales pipeline, the team taps more sustainable lead sources, such as inbound and well-targeted prospecting.
This ensures a consistent flow of opportunities, regular cash flow and the ability to forecast future revenue.
Empowering the sales team
We gave them the coaching and expertise to align their sales and marketing, personalise their selling and use HubSpot’s account-based sales and prospecting tools.
With the sales sequences and recommendations we provided, Azured has accelerated their ability to contact prospects to an astonishing degree. They’re a small team, but they chose to empower that existing team with automation tools rather than hire more bodies.
Detailed sales reporting
With our help, Azured created multiple dashboards with templated and custom reports, showing the status of web analytics, prospecting and more.
Now, the CEO and management team have reliable data to work from. They can shore up gaps in their processes and attribute wins to the right people.
What's next?
Marketing-to-sales momentum
Off the back of this sales-focused engagement, we identified an opportunity to grow more traffic and convert leads with content campaigns and gated offers.
These resources will support their sales efforts and establish them as thought leaders in their industry, as well as align their marketing and sales. So, it’s full steam ahead!
‘I’m not impressed easily – but I am by Team Articulate. Not only that, but they are a jolly lovely bunch of people to work with! Can’t thank or recommend them enough.’
— Elsa Cheshire, Marketing Director
Azured
