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/