BE MORE With Anu: HubSpot Case Study

BE MORE with Anu is an education technology company that trains people to break bias to advance diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and justice in workplaces and communities. The solutions help organizations build more diverse, inclusive, and equitable workplaces, saving wasted costs and strengthening well-being.

The Challenge For BE MORE With Anu

BE MORE With Anu is a young start-up in the third year of its current incarnation. The company pivoted into its new identity during the COVID pandemic. The company had been tracking all its contacts with different Google sheets. The data they collated was everything from sales leads to student information.

As an e-learning company, BE MORE With Anu needed to track students in their courses via email. Also, the company needed to track lead prospects and follow-ups. Both of these audiences were very distinct and needed different sales communication.

They were using different spreadsheets to manage the separate audiences. For example, there was a spreadsheet entitled “Students - But do not email sales promos.” The company held data together with “pieces of string, tape, and hopes and dreams.” The company wanted a more structured approach to using data.

When the company decided to pivot into an e-learning company, BE MORE with Anu wanted to be a turnkey company people could find organically online. However, the company was concerned about people registering during the night. These people would not go through an automated sales process.

Caroline Horste, the Operations Director, realized the way forward was impossible using the current manual systems. The company was also overwhelmed choosing the right system, and an advisor suggested using HubSpot. The next challenge was finding an onboarding partner that understood their business.

The Solution For BE MORE With Anu

BE MORE With Anu had a strategy to move their business forward and wanted to implement it. However, the company had a unique use case. The company had three different audiences: students, fans, and buyers. The company wanted to keep these separate from each other.

Many of the consultation companies wanted to use standard models for the integration. Also, implying that if areas did not fit, BE MORE With Anu would have to adjust its service model. This inflexible solution did not match what the company was looking for in a partner.

Also, the companies pitched six-month discovery phases. A lengthy discovery phase did not make sense, as the company urgently needed automation to continue growing. It required a solution that would work as soon as the company “flipped the switch” to use HubSpot.

During the proposal process, Martin and Elisa from Plus Your Business! (PYB) grasped the situation and explained how HubSpot could help to grow the company. Caroline said, “PYB! was the only business that seemed to understand what we wanted and had a plan on how to do it.”

PYB! impressed BE MORE With Anu with their action-oriented approach. In the initial stages, Elisa from PYB! supported Caroline through the learning process of HubSpot. Elisa showed the “lay of the land” to Caroline. This initial training helped Caroline to deepen her understanding of HubSpot.

Elisa managed to explain the HubSpot landscape to Caroline without overwhelming her. Elisa understood what the deployment would look like. She also pointed out the main areas the company could use. This direction was what the company needed to use HubSpot. It was like having a “How To Guide,” and then you could explore it.

Elisa also shared a resource guide in case the company decided to grow in certain areas. This guide detailed how to access other functionalities in HubSpot. BE MORE With Anu also appreciated the patience of PYB! as the company worked its way through its mid-growing pains.

A significant milestone for BE MORE With Anu was hiring a full-time salesperson. The company wanted to have HubSpot all set up before they employed this person. It would mean that the salesperson would have a better chance of success. Elisa at PYB! helped BE MORE With Anu by

• Adapting to the shifting timelines of the business
• Advising what action to take on HubSpot before the salesperson started
• Explaining what areas could wait till the new salesperson was there
• Showing how a person overseeing the salesperson could use HubSpot

Additionally, from a business perspective, being able to “zoom out” from Sales Op and see the bigger picture. The support from PYB! was hugely beneficial as BE MORE With Anu was taking their growth step. It had access to hands-on advice from a company that had taken similar steps to grow its business.

PYB! were able to provide a consultative and strategic approach to the HubSpot implementation:

• The setup of the new salesperson 
• Explain what the role of the salesperson would look like on HubSpot
• Detail how this role would interface with the system

PYB! understood where BE MORE With Anu was, where they wanted to go and how to get there in the future. Caroline said, “Working with PYB! gave me a hopeful and optimistic feeling. HubSpot was fulfilling my needs, but I knew I could do a thousand more things with it.”

BE MORE With Anu has already used HubSpot to run four large sales campaigns. These campaigns would not have been possible at all before using HubSpot. For example, the company would not have touched any cold lead acquisitions. Now they can run targeted campaigns with sequences that have three different touchpoints.

HubSpot has given the company the confidence to reach out to new audiences. BE MORE With Anu is already contacting new specialist audiences, such as law school deans and hospital systems. These additional contacts are helping to grow the business strategically.

The company’s moved its evaluation forms from Google Forms to HubSpot. The workflow system in HubSpot helps to put people into a cultivation campaign. Once a person has been to an event, they might ask to learn more or express that they had a good time. The company can now actively follow up with these people.

The Results

For Caroline, as an operations person, her stress point was feeling limited. The company could not grow anymore because of their systems. For example, before HubSpot, the company had reached its maximum capacity on Mailchimp. There was a need to resolve this issue as soon as possible.

From feeling unable to move forward or manage their existing data properly. PYB! gave BE MORE With Anu the support it needed to integrate HubSpot. PYB! was also able to implement it without affecting the core business activities.

Caroline said Elisa from PYB! excelled as a consultant. She listened to their needs, could think on her feet, and then gave the best strategy. On a few occasions, if Elisa did not have the answer, she would take a short time to process it. She would also test a workflow on HubSpot and then meet up to see if it worked.

This pure consultative approach impressed the company. It showed that PYB!, as a vendor, was listening to them. This process meant their unique use case would always have the proper consideration. Elisa could figure out the best solution based on what she had heard from the company.

HubSpot has given Caroline a new, optimistic, "free” feeling about operations. She now knows that if the company doubled its revenue next year, HubSpot would be able to handle it. It means the company can now “lean into it harder” instead of worrying about using a system that might potentially break.