When Mike Zei, COO and co-founder of TenantBase, saw how traditional commercial real estate brokerages were underserving small businesses in their hunt for large commissions, he co-founded TenantBase—a free service that allows startups and small businesses to quickly search, find and lease office and industrial spaces through online tools.
Mike’s innovative idea filled a large gap in the office and industrial real estate markets—and TenantBase grew rapidly from its first home in Nashville, Tennessee.
It grew so rapidly that in less than two years it outgrew its Infusionsoft platform.
“We used Infusionsoft for about a year and a half to start our business,” says Mike. “But we needed to make changes to empower the growth of our sales team.”
TenantBase also tried using Infusionsoft’s CRM but wasn’t completely satisfied.
“Our sales team was struggling to use Infusionsoft to organize contacts and keep them moving through the funnel, in addition to all the marketing automation we were doing,” says Mike. “It felt disjointed.”
These system challenges were also getting in the way of onboarding new salespeople. In its early days, TenantBase had a five-person sales team. But as the company rapidly grew, Mike knew he needed to bring consistency to the onboarding process and empower his sales team with an easy-to-use sales solution.
Because TenantBase was expanding into new markets, Mike also needed the sales team to stay connected regardless of location.
Finally, Mike needed more visibility into customer demand and team performance than Infusionsoft could deliver. He struggled to identify the bandwidth of sales team members and determine when customer demand justified hiring more. He didn’t have the right data or visibility to guide his decisions.
The need for a new solution was clear, and Mike started considering his options. He found that some software solutions weren’t powerful enough. Others were powerful, but were difficult to use and expensive to manage.
“I felt caught in the middle,” says Mike. “Infusionsoft and others like it are good products, but they weren’t right for us anymore. Salesforce was an obvious alternative, but it would place a bigger burden on us operationally.”
Mike knew he’d found the perfect blend of power and ease in a sales software when he and his team tried a demo of HubSpot Sales Hub Enterprise.
“We knew HubSpot was the right decision early on because of the level of service we received,” says Mike. “We loved the product and felt well taken care of from day one.”
Mike and his team implemented and customized Sales Hub Enterprise themselves with HubSpot’s 24/7 support.
The experience reconfirmed that they’d made the right decision in choosing HubSpot.
“With HubSpot, it’s not just a client-vendor relationship,” says Mike. “It’s a collaboration and a community.”
The sales team was eager to transition to the new tool, having seen what it could do and how easy it was to use. As chief operating officer, Mike was thrilled to have the power he wants in a sales solution without the financial burden of outsourcing CRM administration.
With sales and marketing now combined in an all-on-one platform, Sales Hub Enterprise solved the disconnect between TenantBase’s sales and marketing processes.
“Sales Hub Enterprise gives us a ton of firepower without compromising on ease of use,” says Mike. “It’s easy to add new people to the team and ensure everyone’s following the same processes.”
Sales Hub Enterprise also plays a vital role in keeping sales teams connected, even when spread out geographically or working from home.
“Sales Hub Enterprise helped our dispersed sales team stay connected, long before COVID-19 forced everyone to work remotely,” says Mike. “It’s as if we’re all still working out of our corporate office, which has made us really powerful as we’ve grown.”
What is it about Sales Hub Enterprise that allows TenantBase to scale so efficiently?
Here are some of the Sales Hub Enterprise features that TenantBase finds essential:
Sequences
TenantBase uses sequences to tee up a series of personalized emails and follow-up tasks to nurture contacts over time.
“Sequences empower our sales team with the perfect mix of process and customization,” says Mike. “The system has the flexibility to allow our salespeople to put their own spin on our templates, which means better, more tailored messaging.”
The sales team can also gauge the performance of different templates and sequences and share the best-performing ones among the group.
Playbooks
Playbooks allow the sales team to share critical information like call scripts and battle cards right within HubSpot to better guide prospective customers.
Mobile App
Having a mobile app is essential for the TenantBase sales team, allowing them to remain productive and efficient when out of the office.
Mike explains:
“We don’t spend much time sitting at our desks. With the HubSpot mobile app, our sales team can take all the power of Sales Hub Enterprise with them out in the field. They can click to call, take notes, pull up details on contacts, get background on deals—and do it all on their mobile.”
Reporting
Sales Hub Enterprise also gives Mike a complete view into the health of his business, from the big picture down to small details.
“We can measure demand, identify leaks in our sales funnel, and address pain points,” says Mike. “We can assign leads and make new hires to provide the best service to those leads. This visibility into our pipeline has helped us grow very quickly.”
Integrations
TenantBase integrated HubSpot with 37 of its most important tools, including its own custom application, for even greater efficiency.
Thanks to all of these features, TenantBase has a repeatable yet flexible sales process that its salespeople have readily adapted, and the visibility that its sales leaders need.
Looking to the future, Mike is confident in his ability to grow and scale his business with HubSpot at the core of its marketing, sales and CRM with no disparate tools to implement and manage.
“We looked at HubSpot as a way to scale our business,” says Mike. “It was a big moment for us to reach the next level of growth and sophistication.”
With Sales Hub Enterprise implemented and working smoothly along with HubSpot’s CRM, TenantBase is achieving 3x revenue growth year-over-year.
To support this growth in revenue, TenantBase scaled its sales team 3x year-over-year, during the same period of time, growing from five to 150 members.
At the same time, TenantBase expanded across 10 markets, while maintaining consistency in its sales process.
Despite TenantBase’s outstanding growth, Mike doesn’t foresee outgrowing HubSpot.
“It’s been a wild ride, growing from a small operation with five people to one that spans 10 markets with 150 people,” says Mike. “Through it all, HubSpot has continued to innovate and evolve their product, and I look forward to growing with them into the future.”