Head of CRM & Marketing Automation at Mountainise
Certified CRM Consultant with 10+ years of experience in Salesforce, HubSpot, and Marketing Cloud implementations.
This blog is written from the perspective of insights shared by Jalil Nawaz.
There is a lot of excitement in the world of CRM due to Hubspot’s newest announcement regarding its strategic acquisition. But what exactly is this acquisition and its importance to businesses? This post will characterize the Hubspot-Cacheflow acquisition and describe its relevance to the world of CRMs, as well as how it might incite further evolution within revenue operations as a whole. This is something that every marketer, whether an experienced one wielding a complex CRM, or a rookie learning about digital marketing for the first time hears, has consequences for your business strategy.
The HubSpot-Cacheflow merger is a business expansion initiative by HubSpot, the world’s foremost inbound marketing and CRM tools developer, to acquire Cacheflow, a sophisticated Configure, Price, Quote solution. The purpose of this acquisition is to add the advanced capabilities of Cacheflow in quoting and pricing to the already existing tools for marketing, sales, and services of HubSpot, hence drawing closer in the realization of the all-encompassing revenue operations solutions.
This move is more than just adding an extra function to HubSpot’s offering. It shows the intent of HubSpot to take the fight in the enterprise CRM market, which is where companies like Salesforce thrive, head on. The inclusion of Cacheflow’s CPQ capability is a response to a glaring weakness in HubSpot’s product, especially for the companies that have complex or configurable pricing or products and services.
1. Improved Sales Functionality: CPQ software is important for organizations with complicated pricing models to be in control of. Such tools assist selling units to create precise and uniform quotes in an efficient manner. This helps in hastening the quotation process and possibly reducing the sales transactions’ timeframe.
2. Counter Sales-Last Marketing Syndrome: This technology is likely to bring the sales and marketing teams closer. With the CPQ capabilities turned on in the CRM, the marketing department is able to understand what prices and combinations of products work better.
3. Enhanced Global CRM Capabilities: With the addition of sophisticated CPQ features, HubSpot gets ready to face the competition from high-end CRMs, which could alter the current status.
4. Better Information Assimilation: The CPQ features of Cacheflow combined with the data enrichment activities currently provided by Hubspot could help build an intelligent system that aids effective decision management throughout the customer lifecycle.
5. Opportunities for New Developments: The acquisition suggests that new features and new integrations may be added to ensure effective revenue operations support for small, medium and large businesses.
Lastly, CPQ systems are built to considerable efficiencies that will pay back businesses very quickly if fully utilized. For instance, using data from Dienst, a recent research from Gartner indicates that when availed with their CRM system, an organization that utilizes CPQ systems experiences an up to 17% revenue growth and quotes of up to 35% reduced time in generating quotes. This illustrates the possible influence of this acquisition on the revenue of companies in the future.
To help envision the full extent of the benefits from this acquisition, let us consider three examples where there are gains from CPQ functionality within CRM systems.
1. Tech Startup XYZ: This rapidly expanding Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company has had a problem with uneven pricing strategies promoted by its various sales personnel. After deploying an integrated CPQ and CRM solution, companies report reduction in pricing errors by 25% and more accurate quoting led to an increase in average deal size by 15%.
2. Manufacturing Corp ABC: This medium-sized company which specializes in the production of tailor-made equipment for industry was losing its competitive edge because of extended quotations provision. By deploying an integrated CPQ and CRM system, quote generation cycles reduced significantly where previously it could take days and now takes hours, which increased the number of deals closed by 30%.
3. Global Services Firm QRS: This was a very large service providing firm that offered a number of services with very complicated proposals. After they applied the integrated CPQ-CRM strategy, they were able to develop proposals that are 40% more complete within a shorter period of time owing to integration of processes and better communication, which improved their clients’ satisfaction levels and enhanced their upselling by twenty percent.
Here’s something that actually surprised me, Salesforce is throwing $50 million at getting people up to speed on AI. They’re making all their AI courses and certifications free on Trailhead until 2025 ends. Their goal? Training 100,000 people. Look, we all know there’s a skills gap when it comes to AI. This is Salesforce’s way of saying, “Fine, we’ll fix it ourselves.”
Why does this matter? Because let’s be honest, AI is confusing and a bit scary. I’ve heard horror stories about people pasting confidential info into ChatGPT (definitely not me). By making training free, they’re trying to make sure we can all use this stuff safely and effectively.
1. Evaluate Your Current Process: Review your current quoting and pricing practices to recognize difficulties and areas that need improvement.
2. Data Integration is Key: Ensure that CRM and CPQ data works together for maximum use benefits.
3. User Training is Crucial: Train your sales and marketing teams thoroughly so they can make use of the new capabilities to the fullest.
4. Begin with a Test and Extend: Start small with a test program or one product line before company-wide implementation of the integrated solution.
5. Adjust Accordingly: Periodically assess estimates and sales cycle, and win percentages in order to optimize the implementation.
The acquisition of Cacheflow by HubSpot bears a significant connotation in the CRM space. There is more to the acquisition than enhancing HubSpot’s offerings, as it is also giving the CRM market a run for its money by embedding advanced CPQ features to its platform. For companies, the implication of this development is the emergence of the need to have more data-centric sales and marketing operations.
In what appears to be the dust settling on the acquisition, it would be interesting to see how HubSpot rolls out Cacheflow’s capabilities and the responses from other market players. One fact remains: there will be a change in the CRM industry in terms of coverage where users will shift towards a one-stop solution that cuts across all the ever-growing sales and marketing functions.
Therefore, if you are a HubSpot user or contemplating on using a CRM solution for your business, this news is timely. This has the potential to redefine how businesses carry out their customer relationship management and revenue operations.
Are you interested in discovering more about the advantages of integrated CRM-CPQ systems for your business? Such transformations can be tricky and our experts are well placed to assist you improve your revenue operations. Speak to us for an expert assessment.
This white paper examines the impact of advanced technology-powered operations on organizational growth and efficiency. Its purpose is to offer a comprehensive review of modern operational systems that enhance decision-making, streamline workflows, and lower costs.
In the insurance industry, one of the biggest challenges companies face is gaining a clear understanding of which prospects in the funnel are interacting with what, and how to effectively pass that information to the sales team.
Stuck between SmartLeads and GoHighLevel? One is a cold email specialist, the other is a marketing powerhouse. We reveal the critical flaws in choosing just one and the integrated system that finally solves it.
Moving from one CRM to another is rarely just a technical task. It’s a people problem, a process problem, and yes, sometimes a data problem. Do it carefully, and your team gains speed, clarity, and automation.
You have successfully applied to the Job.
