I occasionally hear this question from small business owners, “Why do I need HubSpot? Can’t you just do your Inbound Marketing magic for us without it?”

I am usually tempted to answer with a snarky - “Really? - Would you also like us to build you a house without using any power tools?” But I don’t. I usually go into my boring power tool analogy and try to explain how much more expensive and how much longer it would take to build the house. They sort of get it - but not really.

These questions usually come from a lack of understanding. Some business owners look at the tool and see dollar signs. Others are intimidated by all of HubSpot’s features and believe it is too sophisticated for their business needs. In reality HubSpot starts at a very low price point ($200/month).

With regards to it being too sophisticated - it’s not. The smaller the business the more likely one could leverage the HubSpot tool to streamline and magnify their marketing and sales efforts. Even if you didn't use every feature available, you could still easily get more than your money's worth.

This is the first in a series of articles about shortening sales processes with inbound marketing.

Every business owner knows that there are two things you need from your internet marketing to increase your sales and profits - more leads and better qualified leads. Actually, you could combine these two and say you really only need one thing from your internet marketing and that is more leads that your salespeople can close. Let’s call these type of leads “sales qualified leads”. What makes them sales qualified leads is that your salesperson would define them as a lead that he or she should be able to close versus say a “tire kicker” type of lead.