5 things we learned from HubSpot's Partner Peer Sessions

Last week I headed off to the beautiful city of Dublin to attend HubSpot's in-person event for Diamond and Elite partners. It was a jam-packed event full of interesting takeaways for partners - here are my top takeaways!

The event, held at HubSpot House in Dublin's docklands, was a chance for partners from the top partners from across the EMEA region to share ideas and best practices, meet with key HubSpot stakeholders and hear from HubSpot's CEO about the year ahead.

So what did I take away from the event?

1) HubSpot will continue to delight audiences with new features

I continue to be impressed by HubSpot's approach to the ongoing development of new features, with new functions added every month. It was great to hear multiple HubSpotters speak about the exciting things being developed and the clear focus on quality and 'building for the customer'. There's some exciting features planned for Marketing, Sales and Service Hub - keep an eye on the HubSpot product roadmap here. 

2) Accreditations for partners are designed to help customers identify the highest-quality partners

Partners are being encouraged to focus on quality and specialism, as the HubSpot ecosystem grows, it is more important than ever that customers can identify the best-fit partners for their needs. Partners are able to apply for Accreditations that help them to stand out from the crowd, becoming accredited involves a rigorous process where they have to demonstrate knowledge, quality and their ability to solve for the customer. 

With new Accreditations announced, the HubGem team are working hard to ensure we are prepared for the next intake of applications.

3) It helps to have a niche

Since I founded HubGem back in 2019 my focus was always on specialising in the education and non-profit sectors, I firmly believe that providing sector-specific HubSpot implementation and support services helps us to maintain our brilliant relationships with our clients and helps our clients see long term success. 

I met with lots of other partners at the Peer Sessions and it was interesting seeing the different approaches - some specialising on particular sectors, others on specific Hubs or services and some were full-service marketing agencies that did not have a niche but were good 'all rounders'. Personally, it reaffirmed to me that we are on the right path and reminded me that having a niche enables us to solve complex admissions processes, identify best practice from the sector and to build a community of education and non-profit organisations. 

4) Hiring and retaining an effective team  is top priority for all partners

Having skilled, dedicated employees who love what they do is ultimately key to client success, we want our customers to enjoy working with us and our team to thrive doing a job that they love. It's a competitive world out there for partners and it can be a challenge to hire and retain skilled team members.

I met with a range of partners of all shapes, sizes and sectors, who all said that this is one of their top challenges and top priorities. We shared lots of ideas on how to hire, reward and retain team members and my notebook is bursting with ideas!

5) HubSpot remains committed to partners

It was great to hear about the plans for upcoming partner events, new initiatives, increased opportunities partners have for servicing HubSpot customers, and overall it was clear that HubSpot are dedicated to ensuring that partners who are offering effective services and delighting customers will continue to get opportunities to grow their businesses as part of the HubSpot ecosystem.

HubSpot's CEO Yamini Rangan met with partners and delivered a talk at the event and to hear the commitment to partners at all levels of the organisation was of course reassuring but also inspiring - it is our own experience, as well as that of many of the partners we spoke to, that when customers work with a partner they see a faster return on their HubSpot investment, greater success with the tools and use HubSpot for longer.

The Partner Peer Sessions and the various conversations I had with HubSpotters during my stay in Dublin were definitely a highlight of my year so far. We are excited to be sending our Senior Marketing & CRM Consultant James, and Senior Marketing Executive Maddi to the USA in September to attend HubSpot's biggest event of the year - INBOUND, a huge conference for anyone interested in marketing, sales, customer service, operations, and of course HubSpot CRM. 

I am proud that HubGem is a Diamond HubSpot Solutions Partner and I can't wait to see what the future holds as HubSpot continues to expand and evolve.

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