Episode 941:
Michael Redbord is the General Manager of the Service Hub at HubSpot. Prior to that, Michael scaled the HubSpot Customer Support team from 20 people in a single office with single-language phone support to more than 200 people powering a global, multi-lingual, multi-channel support experience. In doing so, Michael turned HubSpot’s customer support team from a cost center to a profit center and one of HubSpots greatest engines of growth, with an unimaginable revenue retention rate of over 100%. Essentially, the revenue the sales and marketing teams generate is worth more because of the customer success team. Michael is a noted writer, speaker, and former competitive classical pianist.
What you will learn from this episode:
- How Michael got started at HubSpot while it was still relatively small in 2010, and how the company rapidly scaled to the powerhouse it is today
- How many of the business leaders at HubSpot got started in the sales, support or customer service areas before advancing to leadership positions
- Why working directly with customers helps anchor the team at HubSpot, regardless of their role, and helps maintain focus on the customer experience
- How Michael navigated a difficult period in HubSpot’s life and managed the complexity of a situation that he refers to as an “acute crisis”
- How the need to rapidly hire new frontline employees helped HubSpot clarify and streamline their interview and hiring processes
- How the HubSpot team learned to scale their business and particularly to hire at scale, building out their team by hiring as many as 20 employees per month
- How doing hundreds of job interviews each week became a primary focus for HubSpot, and how Michael viewed interviewing as his primary job responsibility during that time
- How HubSpot transitioned from single-language phone support to offering global multilingual support, and what challenges they faced during the process
- What tips and recommendations Michael would offer to help you fill your open positions with people who have the right skills and passion for the role
- Why simplification and clarity are the keys to scaling, solving problems, and dealing with crisis situations
Resources:
- Website: www.hubspot.com/service
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mredbord/
- Twitter: @redbord
Additional Resources:
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Stephen Woessner
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.