Cenareo didn't have a CRM solution in the early days, but it knew if it wanted to achieve the kind of growth it was targeting, it would need the right tools in place.
Cenareo's inspiration to explore a CRM option "was linked to our ambition to be a leader in Europe in 2022," says Stéphaine Bernat, Cenareo's VP of Marketing and Communication. To establish themselves as leaders in the digital signage industry, "we needed to have agile tools that can fit our business," continues Stéphaine. "We are targeting big companies. We are an enterprise solution, so it was key to be well equipped in terms of CRM."
Stéphaine and the rest of Cenareo's leadership team were also looking for a way to bridge the gap between sales and marketing operations. "We needed to strengthen our sales and marketing teams and...have a perfect alignment between these two teams," says Stéphaine. "That's what the challenge in finding a CRM —to have a tool that allows us to align the two teams perfectly."
The team at Cenareo considered a few different options, but after going through the sales process with another well-known CRM solution, they were immediately impressed with HubSpot. "The way the sales team conducted our demo of the HubSpot tool was excellent. It was a very personalized, custom demo," says Stéphaine. "That was not the case for the other solution." With that, Cenareo purchased Marketing Hub Professional, Sales Hub Enterprise, and Service Hub Professional in June 2018.
Once Cenareo decided to move forward with HubSpot, Stéphaine was also impressed with the implementation process—and, more specifically, how easy HubSpot was to roll out across the Cenareo organization. "It was effortless and swift to use for everybody on the team," says Stéphaine. "All the workflows are so easy to use and to put in place. It's very, very simple."
As mentioned, Cenareo had big plans to establish itself as a leader in the market. But To drive the kind of market expansion Cenareo was targeting, Stéphaine knew the sales and marketing teams "need to be aligned on what the objective is and how we are going to do it," says Stéphaine.
And that need for alignment only became more critical as Cenareo's sales and marketing teams grew. "We were three [people] in the marketing and sales [teams]...one year and a half [ago]—and now we are 15," says Stéphaine. "So the switch is huge, and it's more and more important that we have perfect alignment between the teams."
Stéphaine and her team found the key to that alignment was with Marketing Hub Professional and Sales Hub Enterprise. HubSpot gives both teams complete visibility into the inbound marketing strategy and the sales cycle, making it easier for both teams to work together, adjust approaches, and maximize conversions.
The improved alignment is particularly apparent with the use of the HubSpot ABM tools, as Stephanie describes, “We use the ABM tools to classify our target account and see revenues associated. The setup was effortless. Everything is automated and saves us valuable time. The ABM tools show precise data on accounts in which sales and marketing work, including open deals, associated buying persona and missing decision-makers. For example, it helps us identify pain points on an account and prioritize our efforts to accelerate the deal. Thanks to HubSpot, clearly we have a much better alignment between sales and marketing."
And thanks to the depth of Sales Hub's analytics and forecasting features, Cenareo's leadership can get a clear picture of each lead's status, how the sales team is performing, and how the managers can support reps hit quotas. "We are keen now to follow the inbound lead from marketing, but also all through the sales pipe—and that's very powerful for our business," says Stéphaine.
HubSpot has been an integral part of driving growth for both marketing and sales for Cenareo. In the past year alone, HubSpot has helped Cenareo increase new contacts per month by 68 percent and sales revenue by a whopping 71 percent—and that trend will continue as the company continues to grow.
One area Stéphaine plans to further leverage HubSpot's features is with the company's corporate newsletter. Currently, Cenareo sends one newsletter to all three customer demographics—prospects, clients, and partners. "We put generic information about Cenareo in our newsletters, such as new clients, new blog articles, or PR features," says Stéphaine.
Moving forward, Stéphaine plans to use HubSpot to segment audiences and create more targeted, relevant content to drive better results (and more leads) from the newsletter. "What I want to do is have a newsletter dedicated to prospects, clients, and partners—with content specifically for that target market. HubSpot will help with that," says Stéphaine.
Stéphaine and the rest of the Cenareo leadership team plan to continue to use HubSpot as a way to drive further cross-departmental alignment as they grow. "HubSpot is great when you want to manage your sales team, your sales pipe, your support team, or your marketing team and align all of them to business goals," says Stéphaine.
Cenareo also has plans to continue to grow the sales and marketing team—and the fact that the transition from three to 15 was so seamless is "a good sign that HubSpot can be our partner even if we are a big, big team," says Stéphaine. "It's the perfect platform."