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My 5 Not-So Obvious Sales & Marketing Reasons to go to Inbound 2012

Posted by Carole Mahoney on 8/27/12 3:00 PM

Why I'm Going to Inbound 2012

As you are reading (or listening) to this blog post, I am driving to Boston for my start of Inbound 2012. Monday night is VAR night, and despite my rabble rousing, bear-poking ways in the Hubspot Partner forum, I am looking forward to heading back to visit my Beantown roots.

There are the obvious reasons for me to go to Inbound; like being a HubSpot VAR for about 3 years now and it being local...but there are more underlining reasons why I've blocked off 3 1/2 days to focus on Inbound 2012 this week.

Those reasons are also the same answers that I gave to a client last week and 3 marketing agency owners and professionals (who were either new HubSpot VARs or considering becoming one). I advised one marketing agency owner, "There is no better time to do it other than now." She did the smartest thing and signed up for a sales assessment to help her discover what I call her 'true north'.   The best advice I could give anyone considering any VAR relationship, make sure you know what your true north is and make your decisions accordingly.

My 5 Reasons for Being a Hubspot Partner and Going to Inbound this year:

  1. Based on my experience and observations, HubSpot's model is similar to my own mindset and business approach (and therefore ideal B2B clients). They strive to be a lean learning organization. They have a model of continuous optimization of process based on data- proven results. Their ability to adapt quickly is what is what helps me stay 2 steps ahead of my client. Always be learning.
  2. They are trying to change the status quo. There is a certain amount of infectious passion needed to do that. If you don't think what you are doing is sexy, you are not changing the status quo or creating something bigger than you.
  3. They are focused on creating tools that are enable customer-centric inbound sales and marketing. Collaborative, real time, customer experience tools that are integratabtle, easy to use and scalable.
  4. They read my mind when they came up with the word Smarketing. Again, think collaborative, social, real-time...
  5. When what I do with them stops working, I will stop doing it and recommending it to clients who will benefit from it. 

In short, HubSpot's true north aligns with my true north. Going to Inbound is like the week long boot camp you go to take your training to the next level. HubSpotting (that is yours truly on the video) is your daily training routine.

My Inbound 2012 Plan: What sessions I am going to and why.

Inbound Monday: VAR night. Why? Because pioneers should band together. I am hoping to meet some new specialists and catch up with some old, who think the same way I do.

If you will be there, I will be wearing this shirt, say hi. I don't bite, just poke...

Inbound Tuesday: David Meerman Scott is the keynote, and co-author of the 'Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead'. I am curious to check out what his thoughts are on what Inbound is now.

  1. Everything You Need to Know About Paid Search & Social with Mark Roberge. Why? Other than it is Mark and I know how smart he is? Also because I often recommend some type of paid advertising to clients as some part of their Inbound sales and marketing strategy.
  2. Smarketing: Mastering Sales & Marketing Alignment with Dan Tyre. Why? I feel I should meet the man who coined the Smarketing phrase and see what I might learn from his experiences.
  3. Social 3.0 with Tim Reis. I don't know Tim, but who doesn't know who he works for? (Google). And with a title that includes social and mobile, I'm sure this is some of that  "what's the next big thing" stuff that my clients might need to be prepared for.
  4. Creating The Best Customer Experience Ever with David Cancel. Why? Because David is probably as obsessed with customer experience as I am.
  5. Meeting Cyndi Lauper! I will be lucky to have 30 seconds with her, maybe enough time for a photo. How will I ever get someone as sassy as Cyndi to remember me? If you are wondering why I am excited, it's not just because she will be the first celebrity I've met. 

Inbound Wednesday:  This is going to be one of those busy days, and from what I have heard through the grapevine it is the HubSpot big announcement day. All I can say is stay tuned around 10:30 EST on Twitter, follow #inbound12...

  1. HUG Power Leader Session. I host HUGME in Maine and so hearing what others around the country (and world?) are doing for their events to make them useful and fun is always a good thing. HubSpotting  is like training remember? Check out HUGME or our neighbors at HUGNH for the next in real life mini- boot camps.
  2. Closed Loop Social with HootSuite and HubSpot with Craig Ryomoto from Hootsuite. Social business means individual personal marketing and sales. How to measure that for improvement is key. If I can't figure out how to turn back time or be in 2 places at once, I may miss out on pieces of it. If you are there, let me know, and I will follow your tweets?
  3. Social Business by Design with Peter Kim. Maybe by this time I will have figured out how to clone myself. If you don't think that business is personal, you probably won't go and probably don't read this blog anyway. But, if you will be there ...will you tweet what happens behind closed doors?
  4. The Secrets to Enterprise Inbound Marketing or Making the Most of Social Media with HubSpot. It's a tough choice and will likely not be decided until the last minute. The first one is Mark Roberge and he always has the good secrets. But the other is Dharmesh... and I have seen a preview of the new social media tools within HubSpot and I am anxious to learn more about how it works and what the roadmap is. TBD...
  5. Unleashing the Power of Partnerships with Andrew Davis. Why? I actually accidentally "met" Andrew through a twitter exchange of a common connection. When I learned he was presenting at Inbound, I said I would check it out. When I checked it out, the title appealed to something within my true north direction that many call Inbound Networking...

Inbound Thursday: Gary Vaynerchuck is keynote that morning, and I will be sad to miss his "Care Immensely or Die: This is a Bigger Culture Shift than you Realize". This rabble rouser likes that kind of polarizing statement! I am sure I will catch the video later....

  1. Engage! Use Lead Nurturing to Accelerate and Grow Revenue with Lori Wizdo. I don't know Lori, but I do know that some of the best thinkers are at Forrester. Why? Growth happens when companies can move beyond thinking about just lead generation and into lead- revenue cycles.
  2. A Marketer's Guide to Grading and Managing Leads with Meghan and Annie at Hubspot. Why? If anyone knows how to handle volumes of lead grading, it is the the marketing stars at HubSpot.
  3. Inbound Networkers Weekly Roundtable. We are meeting live and in-person from the Inbound as we take online and offline and combine them together.
  4. Sales and Marketing Alignment Group Meetup. This is actually a live in person meetup for any sales and marketing professionals and executives who are in the Boston area and want to network in person. Since this is the first meetup, it will be informal networking and collaboration of what the group wants and expects. I'll try to bring some Inbound conference folks, you bring your sales or marketing counterpart!

Are you going to Inbound? What are you most looking forward to? What are you hoping to come home with? Do you go to conferences because you believe in furthering and expanding the boundaries of your learning, or to connect socially? Or both?

Topics: inbound marketing, smarketing, inbound sales