Transforming HubSpot Services into Productized Offerings

Introduction

Transforming services into productized offerings involves packaging and delivering services in a standardized, scalable manner, akin to selling tangible products. Instead of customizing each engagement, you create predefined service packages with fixed deliverables, pricing, and processes. This simplifies offerings, increases accessibility, and improves operational efficiency.

By turning services into products, you deliver consistent, high-quality services while optimizing resources and generating predictable revenue streams.

Productized offerings enable clients to easily understand what they'll receive, cost, and engagement process. It also facilitates efficient scaling and a shift from selling based on time to selling outcomes and value. This approach improves client satisfaction, profitability, and business growth while leveraging marketing and sales strategies associated with products.

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Understanding the Need for Transformation

The challenges faced in offering traditional services.

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Lack of scalability and efficiency

1. When offering traditional services, scalability and efficiency can be major obstacles. Each client engagement requires significant time and effort to customize the service according to their specific needs. As the number of clients increases, it becomes increasingly challenging to scale operations while maintaining the same level of quality and timeliness. This can lead to bottlenecks, resource constraints, and difficulties in meeting client demands.
2. Additionally, the lack of standardized processes and workflows in traditional services can result in inefficiencies. Each engagement may involve reinventing the wheel, with little opportunity to leverage previous work or automate repetitive tasks. This not only hampers productivity but also limits the potential for growth and expansion.

Inconsistent service delivery

1. Traditional service offerings often suffer from inconsistent delivery. Since each engagement is tailored to individual client requirements, there may be variations in the quality and outcomes achieved. This inconsistency can be attributed to differences in the expertise of team members, lack of documented processes, and the subjective nature of customization.
2. Inconsistent service delivery can negatively impact client satisfaction and harm your reputation. Clients expect a certain level of consistency and reliability when they engage with service providers. If they perceive a lack of uniformity in the outcomes delivered, it can erode their trust and make it difficult to establish long-term relationships.

Difficulty in pricing and packaging services

1. Pricing and packaging services can be a complex task in traditional service models. Without predefined packages and standardized deliverables, determining the appropriate pricing structure becomes subjective and challenging. Each proposal may require extensive negotiations, which can consume valuable time and resources.
2. Moreover, custom pricing for each engagement can result in revenue inconsistencies. It becomes difficult to forecast and predict cash flow accurately, making financial planning and resource allocation more challenging. This lack of clarity in pricing can also make it difficult to effectively communicate the value of your services to potential clients, leading to missed opportunities.

Addressing these challenges is crucial for service providers seeking growth and sustainability. Transforming HubSpot services into productized offerings offers a viable solution to overcome these obstacles and unlock numerous benefits. By streamlining processes, ensuring consistent delivery, and establishing clear pricing and packaging options, service providers can create a more efficient, scalable, and client-centric business model.

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Recognizing the Benefits of Productized Offerings

Highlighting the advantages of transforming services into productized offerings.

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Scalability and streamlined processes

1. One of the key benefits of transforming services into productized offerings is the improved scalability it brings. By standardizing your services into predefined packages, you create a streamlined process that can be replicated for multiple clients simultaneously. This allows you to efficiently handle a larger volume of clients without sacrificing the quality of your deliverables.
2. With a productized approach, you can leverage automation, templates, and predefined workflows to streamline your operations. By eliminating the need for extensive customization, you reduce the time and effort required for each engagement, allowing your team to focus on high-value activities. This increased efficiency enables you to scale your business, take on more clients, and expand your reach in a sustainable manner.

Consistent service quality

1. Productized offerings promote consistent service quality across all client engagements. Since you have predefined packages with fixed deliverables, processes, and standards, you can ensure a consistent experience for every client. This consistency builds trust and credibility, as clients can rely on a predictable level of service regardless of the specific project or engagement.
2. By establishing standard processes and workflows, you minimize the risk of errors, omissions, or variations in service delivery. This consistency not only enhances client satisfaction but also allows you to build a strong reputation for reliability and professionalism. Clients will appreciate the dependability and peace of mind that comes with knowing they will consistently receive high-quality services.

Clear pricing and packaging options

1. Transforming services into productized offerings brings clarity and transparency to pricing and packaging. With predefined packages, you can establish clear pricing tiers that align with the value provided to clients. This simplifies the decision-making process for potential clients and makes it easier for them to understand the costs associated with your services.
2. Clear pricing also enhances your ability to communicate the value of your offerings. Clients can easily compare different packages and choose the one that best suits their needs and budget. This transparency helps build trust and fosters more informed decision-making. It also minimizes the need for lengthy negotiations, making the sales process more efficient and streamlined.
3. Additionally, well-defined packages enable you to offer optional add-ons or upsells, further increasing your revenue potential. Clients appreciate having the flexibility to choose additional services that complement their core package, enhancing the overall value they receive.

By recognizing and capitalizing on these benefits, service providers can transform their HubSpot services into productized offerings that are more scalable, consistent, and financially rewarding. Embracing a productized approach allows you to position yourself as a trusted provider of standardized solutions, while also enabling you to meet the evolving needs of your clients more efficiently.

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My Journey: Transforming HubSpot Services

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Initial motivation and decision to transform our HubSpot services

Trujay had a vision of transitioning into a recurring revenue business, in some shape or form. The existing model for a portion of the business involved selling HubSpot consultative services in the form of "buckets of hours."

However, this approach presented various challenges, including time tracking, billing issues, unpredictability, lack of standardized delivery structure, and constant scoping requirements. Seeking a solution to scale the service business, I came across the concept of productized services.

The productized services business model seemed like the most straightforward path to generate recurring revenue compared to developing a separate SaaS product to address gaps in HubSpot's offerings. It offered the advantage of faster implementation as well. Excited by this prospect, I presented my idea, the HubSpot Admin Program, during our company retreat in Amsterdam in late 2021. The management team enthusiastically approved the initiative and appointed me as the Director of Productized Services to bring this vision to life.

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Steps I took in the transformation process

While researching, I came across this e-book by Service Provider Pro called, 'Our Epic Guide to Productizing'.

It is everything the company had learned about productization based on working with 1,000+ agencies on SPP, including:

• How to make the switch to productized services.
• Examples of different productized services.
• Scoping and testing your productized service offering.
• Market strategy for productized agencies.
• Using software to scale up your operation.
• And more...

This resource was instrumental to minimizing my learning curve to provide a structured outline on what to do.

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Identifying key service offerings

I meticulously compiled an extensive Google Sheet, capturing every conceivable HubSpot service task I could envision. Drawing upon our internal team's wealth of experience, knowledge of HubSpot's products, and thorough online research, I sought to create a comprehensive list.

With the consolidated data in hand, I engaged in insightful discussions with key team members to validate the tasks we could realistically undertake, identify those beyond our capabilities, and provide initial rough time estimates for each task. This collaborative effort formed the bedrock on which we built our service packages, determining their scope and pricing structures with precision and clarity.

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Creating pricing tiers and packages

Using my Google Sheet list, I iteratively created three packages that progressively increase in complexity, task volume, and pricing. The higher-tier packages require more time and effort to accommodate the additional demands.

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It's important to mention that reaching the packages outlined above involved approximately six iterations of refining both pricing and deliverables.

The journey to this point was exhaustive, but it heavily relied on valuable user feedback, market demands, and our internal capabilities. Nevertheless, the remarkable aspect of productized services lies in their agility, allowing for swift adjustments and iterations.

In just a moment, I will delve into the specific details of the deliverables themselves.

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Defining standardized processes and deliverables

Let's talk through deliverables first.

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What's included in a consultation session?

45 minute opportunities to…

🥷 Learn more about your business operations

🏔 Discuss challenges

🔐 Brainstorm solutions

🎯 Consult on HubSpot’s best practices

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What kind of tasks are in our scope of services?

With productized services, you need to set boundaries on the things you will do and the things you will not. Because if not, it's a slippery slope back towards customizing everything.

In addition, this makes the sales process much easier when talking to prospects and reduces internal back and forth.

For a complete overview of our scope of services, please view the following article.

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What is a task?

A task is a specific and fragmented request made through our client portal that we can complete within a reasonable timeframe.

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What are unlimited requests?

Trujay offers a fixed fee with unlimited task requests.

We don't limit the number of task requests you can send us. As long as it's within our scope of services, we can help you.

The only limitations are total max amount of tasks delivered in your current billing cycle (3) or number of tasks that can be worked on at time (1 or 3) which are determined by your subscription plan.

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What is monthly task roadmapping?

The goal is provide more proactive structured guidance to a client and the program.

7 days before subscription renewal, I send an email to program champion and client team with a question:

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‍"Looking ahead to the next month, what are the top 1 - 3 challenges in your business operations that you'd like our help in tackling through your use of HubSpot?"

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‍When answers are received:

• Trujay analyzes their submission
• Trujay brainstorms solutions
• Trujay creates and submits tasks in their portal for the client
• Trujay sends a list of created tasks for approval and further discussion
• We now have a structured action plan for the month

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What is bulk deduplication?

Bulk deduplication is the process of cleansing a client's HubSpot instance of Contact, Company, and Deal duplicates based on property parameters agreed upon with the client.

We use a 3rd party tool called Dedupely to accomplish this where we have a partner agreement with them that makes financial sense for us to be able to do this.

This is a perfect example of leveraging 3rd party software to add value to our service, without having to build anything.

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What is programmable automation (OpsHub)?

If a client has OpsHub, you can leverage JavaScript to streamline internal HubSpot operations. Your only limitation is creativity and truly understanding your internal operations.

We were positioned to do this because we have programmers that develop our migration product.

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Standardizing processes

I eventually made the decision to use Service Provider Pro as white-label client portal software specifically built for productized services. They handle order forms, intake forms, task submissions, in-app communication, reporting, subscription management, invoicing, custom code to create pages and more. It's amazing and well worth the investment in my opinion.

This onboarding video I created does a great job explaining our standardized processes.

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Developing a clear value proposition

I used an outline from Hema Padhu, whom I discovered via Substack to complete this exercise.

• https://maze.co/blog/product-positioning/
• https://firstimpression.substack.com/p/differentiation-the-beating-heart

It covered the following milestones:

Speaking to power users

• Segmentation exercise
• User interviews
• What do our users value the most?
• What do our users value the least?
• How do they use the service?
• What problem does the HubSpot Admin Program solve for them?

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Establishing our unique differentiators

• What are the HubSpot Admin Program's key value elements?
• How does our service enable this the most?
• Are these the key reasons why users chose the HubSpot Admin Program over other solutions?
• Are there others?

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Analyzing the competitive landscape

• Get a better understanding of how others are addressing this particular problem in the market by analyzing key players’ product offering, positioning, messaging, target audience and pricing.
• We need to bet on the 1 thing that you believe the Admin Program does 10x better than any other solution out there and divide the value elements into 3 categories: must-haves, nice-to-haves, unique hooks.

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Creating the positioning statement

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"For SMB HubSpot customers, who need guidance on the best way to use HubSpot, our HubSpot Admin Program is a productized service that helps companies to get the most out of HubSpot at a reasonable price."

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Overcoming Challenges and Lessons Learned

Let's talk through some of the obstacles I faced during the transformation process.

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Resistance to change from clients or internal team members

Resistance is inevitable, and I encountered it in various forms.

For our internal team, the challenges included:

• Shifting from offering discounts to effectively selling the service at its full value.
• Remaining steadfast with prospects and avoiding the temptation to resort to the familiar "buckets of hours" approach.
• Mastering objection handling and effectively addressing concerns.
• Resisting the urge to make significant changes to the offering based on isolated cases.
• Managing impatience and maintaining a long-term perspective.

Clients, too, faced their own hurdles in embracing the transformation:

• Embracing the new process and subscription-based model.
• Adjusting their mindset regarding service delivery and embracing the concept of recurring engagement.

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Balancing customization with productization

Maintaining a firm stance on the tasks you won't undertake is crucial, while also remaining open to accommodating unforeseen requests that can add value and introduce new task categories. In my case, I introduced a designated task category labeled 'Special Request' within the task submission form.

When a task was submitted under this category, my team and I meticulously assessed its merits and carefully deliberated on whether to deliver it for the client. This approach allowed us to strike a delicate balance between upholding our service boundaries and exploring opportunities to fulfill unique client needs.

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Adjusting pricing and packaging based on market demand.

Harnessing the power of both qualitative and quantitative data is vital when making informed decisions. Continuously monitoring emerging technologies, services, and additions in the market enables you to adapt your packages to stay ahead.

As previously mentioned, I underwent more than six iterations of adjustments to pricing and deliverables since the inception of this endeavor. Embracing a mindset of decision-making, learning, and iterative improvement proved invaluable.

It is crucial not to let fear hinder your ability to make decisions. Instead, take bold action, trusting in your insights and instincts. By doing so, you create opportunities for growth and success while continuously refining your approach.

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Results and Impact

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The initial outcomes we have achieved are promising, showcasing the positive impact of our endeavors. Here are the key achievements we have experienced:

• Successfully transformed one-time HubSpot services into a sustainable recurring revenue stream, ensuring a steady and predictable income.
• Resolved previous challenges related to invoicing and cash flow by implementing automated recurring payments and invoice generation.
• Established standardized processes that streamline operations for our internal team, enhancing efficiency and consistency.
• Thoroughly documented all processes, facilitating seamless onboarding and rapid scaling of new team members.
• Significantly improved the overall quality and structure of our services, enhancing client satisfaction and delivering exceptional value.
• Gained enhanced oversight into client delivery operations and internal team performance, enabling us to optimize processes and identify areas for improvement.

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"The program is providing the exact amount of expertise and help we were looking for at a reasonable price." ~ Matt Ward at Growing Leaders

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"Knowledgable and efficient" ~ Catherine Baldi at Arana Craftsman Painters

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Conclusion

In conclusion, this journey of productizing our HubSpot services has been immensely gratifying and enlightening. We eagerly anticipate the continued evolution of our program, recognizing that like any successful product, it needs to adapt and grow.

I strongly encourage you to delve into the advantages of productization for your own service business, carefully considering if it aligns with your goals and aspirations.

Should you have any inquiries or require assistance with a productization exercise tailored to your specific business, please do not hesitate to reach out. I am here to provide guidance and support every step of the way.