How Sales Prospecting Automation is Different From Marketing Automation

Marketing automation isn’t a new concept — the likes of HubSpot, Pardot, Marketo, etc. have been on the radar for years. In fact, most of the companies that we work with are using one of them, or some other marketing automation tool in their process.

However, sales prospecting automation — like RevBoss — is still fairly new to the scene, which makes the difference between the two about as clear as mud. And as a result, we’re frequently asked, “How is RevBoss different than HubSpot?”

For most organizations, the question really comes down to inbound marketing (SEO, landing pages, email automation) vs. outbound sales (prospect data, cold emails, sales flows).

The relationship between inbound and outbound isn’t adversarial — we’re big believers in both inbound and outbound at RevBoss — but the strategies and processes are very different, and as such, they require different tooling.

To clear up a bit of the confusion, here are a few key differences to keep in mind:

SEO is Slow, Outbound is Fast

This is pretty high level, but it’s a clear-cut place to start — inbound is (mostly) great once you get a process rolling, but that takes time, and you’re at the mercy of waiting for growth to happen vs. proactively making it happen.

HubSpot and other marketing automation tools are super useful for prospects that are already on your site, filling out forms, giving you their email address, etc.

But inbound leads only exist because you didn’t get to them through outbound first. If you want to build a growth channel with predictable results, outbound is the fastest and best way to get there.

Email Jail is Real…And You Don’t Want to Get Arrested

For most marketing automation tools, prospecting emails are a violation of the terms of use. For example, HubSpot will suspend your account if your bounce rate exceeds 5% — and if you’ve had any prospecting experience, you know that it’s very likely to see bounce rates >5%.

(Confession — before building our email engine at RevBoss, we spent more than our fair share of time in MailChimp jail and it. is. a. hassle.)

So why risk it? Run your aggressive prospecting programs through a tool like RevBoss and keep your marketing automation set-up completely clean.

Prospects Can’t Read Your Emails if They Get Stuck in Spam

When you email via HubSpot, Marketo, etc., your email sends through a shared set of email servers / IP addresses associated with the software provider. As such, when your emails come through to the inbox, they’ll include snippets like this:

The “via domain.432.blarg.net” is a flashing neon light that screams “I sent this email to you via a marketing automation tool…and not from me personally!” and completely undermines your personalized messaging.

Moreover, by sending your prospecting email via MailChimp, HubSpot, etc., you’re much more likely to get lumped into the “promotions” or “spam” bucket. Your email is sending from the same servers as every other HubSpot customer — so when another customer’s email gets marked as spam, your inbox delivery is affected, too.

RevBoss avoids the spam folder by sending directly from a rep’s individual email account — so, 1) your emails appear more personalized (because they’re coming from your actual Google Apps/Outlook 365 account), and 2) your sending isn’t affected by another RevBoss user’s activity, because the two aren’t connected in any way.

Separate Functions = Separate Needs

We’re strong believers that your sales and marketing teams work best when they work together — but this doesn’t mean that both teams need the same tools.

Platforms like HubSpot and Marketo are built for marketing initiatives. RevBoss is built for the sole purpose of increasing your sales pipeline so that you can close more deals.

Salespeople have no business poking around in your marketing automation tool, but you also don’t want to blindly feed them through something that they can’t access. Plus, marketing automation tools offer no workflow for common sales tasks like prospect review, research, custom messaging, etc. — which makes it more or less impossible to provide any level of personalization (beyond merge fields) in emails sent via marketing automation.  

All of which is why reps need a tool of their own.

And the “yet another tool” excuse doesn’t work here because RevBoss — and most of our distinguished competitors — integrates with your current CRM and marketing automation tools.

Hopefully this sets the record straight and helps clarify how sales and marketing automation tools are very different, but can still be used in unison.