It's said that marketing and sales are two sides of the same coin.

Well, I decided to flip mine.

Let me start by giving you a quick background on my work
experience: I was in the marketing field for 5 years before I
joined HubSpot in a Sales role.

That being said, now that it’s been some time since I switched to a sales role, this article is about my transition from marketing to sales. (I basically interviewed myself!)

What do you do in your current role as an Inbound Success Coach (ISC)?

We are basically inside sales. The ISC role is unique in that ISCs are a hybrid of the sales & support functions.

We are the ones who provide prospects with the most immediate and high-quality first interaction with HubSpot in order to drive great customers. We usually do that via live chats, calls, and emails.

Through our freemium strategy, free HubSpot CRM users or interested prospects get in touch with us. Their needs can vary from technical queries to pricing inquiries, and our job is to know about their business needs, goals, pain points and eventually qualify them by passing them to a sales rep if deemed a good fit.

You get to speak to a variety of people from different industries. It’s fun!

What do you like about the ISC role?

ISC is a very interesting role (and unique to HubSpot) since it is a sales and support hybrid. I like that I get to set the tone of giving a world-class customer experience from the very start of a prospect's journey with HubSpot. As aptly said by my teammate, “We’re the face of HubSpot,” and I think that's pretty cool.

I love the interactions with various prospects from such different backgrounds and needs. Solving for the customer is of utmost priority for us, and I love it when we achieve that.

I also love the on-the-job learning opportunities about HubSpot products, developing sales & consulting skills, team collaboration, problem-solving, etc.

So how has it been so far after switching to sales?

It's been a learning journey. I've always believed in on-the-job learning so that's always worked for me rather than reading books, courses, etc. So from the very first day until now, I've learned so much from my team and just chatting with prospects.

Switching to the selling mindset has been key, while putting myself in the prospect's shoes, getting to know their pain points and genuinely trying to solve them.

What misconceptions about sales did you have before starting?

The big one for me would be on how one needs to be an extrovert to be in a sales role.

I’m an introvert by nature and I wasn’t sure that I should even give sales a shot. But after speaking to people in sales and having been in sales for a short time, I have realized that it’s not about being an extrovert or introvert, but about active listening and understanding the prospects’ pain points to help solve for them.

A few more of the misconceptions were:

• Sales reps are pushy (Nope! Not at HubSpot, for sure.)
• You should come from a sales background (I didn’t!)
• Sales is only about cold calling (Have you heard about the inbound sales methodology?)

Do you face any challenges in this role?

Oh yeah, absolutely! Things, like adapting to the regular product updates and leading the conversations with prospects from various industries and needs are a couple of challenges that I face.

But the best part is that HubSpot makes sure HubSpotters have all the resources needed to be successful in their role. There are so many resources that we are equipped with that sometimes I get overwhelmed. It's a good problem to have!

What skills from your marketing experience have helped you in your current sales role?

Quite a few skills like problem-solving, adaptability, communication, organization, empathy and product knowledge (since I used to play around with HubSpot's free CRM in a previous role) helped me transition pretty easily to my current sales roles. With the needs and requirements of this role, I believe these are some of the important skills one should have to be successful.

Are you going to stay in sales or switch back to marketing?

Well, I'm still early in the role and don't want to make a decision right now. I like this role and want to explore it more, plus other areas I'm interested in. I love how HubSpot is so open to internal mobility and employees can openly speak to their manager to discuss career goals.