Clate Mask

INFOGRAPHIC: The 7 Stages of Small Business Success

By Clate Mask on June 7, 2012

I was honored when the ASU Venture Catalyst asked me to be a keynote speaker at their Techiepalooza event. The event brought together several hundred members of the Phoenix entrepreneurial and tech community for education and networking. Right away, I knew what topic I wanted to speak about.

You might recall, that earlier in the year I wrote a post on What’s a Small Business? It seems like an easy enough question to answer, right? But the truth is, there are many different definitions of what a small business is and if you ask 10 people, you’ll get 10 different answers. For this reason, I created a framework to explain the 7 Stages of Small Business Success. In it, I breakdown what the seven stages of small business are and at each stage, the critical success factor that it takes to move the business forward to the next stage of success.

The goal is to create a common language in the industry that will ultimately help small businesses get what they need in order to succeed (and avoid the stuff they don’t need).

During my presentation at Techiepalooza, I opened up about the challenges Infusionsoft faced during each stage of growth. I talk about how our focus on these success factors helped us take Infusionsoft from a scrappy startup to a multimillion dollar business with 240 employees and plans to grow to 1,000 in just three to four years.

Check out the infographic below for information on the 7 Stages of Small Business Success. And keep checking the blog for more posts from me on the topic.

Posted in Company Blog Posts, Uncategorized | Tagged Entrepreneur, Infusionsoft, Small Business

Refining our Vision

By Clate Mask on February 6, 2012

If you’ve followed Infusionsoft for any period of time, you know we’re huge proponents of culture. Our culture is an incredible competitive advantage for us, enabling us to hire the best people who make a great impact on our customers and the company. We have been named one of the best companies to work for in Arizona for six straight years. And last year, we were named #15 on the list of Best Companies to Work for in America.

I am frequently asked what we do to create such an incredible culture. In fact, I just got off the phone with a reporter doing a story on us. Her main question: “How have you created such a great place to work?”

The answer: it’s all about our Vision.

I capitalize the word Vision because it means something specific to us here at Infusionsoft. Our Vision is comprised of our Purpose, our Core Values and our Mission. We hire to the Vision and we fire to the Vision. Our Vision is the linchpin of our company, and once we created the Vision over five years ago, the company began to excel.

Today, we are refining our Vision. Are we changing the Vision? Absolutely not! We are simplifying the Vision and re-articulating it in words that are easier for everyone to understand, whether you’re inside or outside of Infusionsoft. I want to take a minute and explain the refinement and the reasoning for it.

Until now, we’ve had a Dream, Vision, Purpose and Mission. Each of those components was a long sentence that required some explaining. But the essence of the “DVPM,” as we call it, is our Purpose (why we exist) and our Mission (what we’re up to). All of our employees memorize our DVPM. And we had to do a lot of explaining to people outside the building (“why are there four different sentences?” and “can you boil it all down for me?”).

So, this refinement is about simplifying the Purpose and Mission and getting to the very heart of why we do what we do. Our newly stated Purpose is:

“To Help Small Businesses Succeed.”

Simple as that. It’s what we’re born to do. It’s why we exist. It’s what we’ll be doing at Infusionsoft for the next 100 years or so.

Our new Mission is:

“To create and dominate the market of all-in-one sales and marketing software for small businesses, with 100,000 customers worldwide.”

We’ve got close to 9,000 customers today. Over the next few years, we’ll be working hard to take our amazing software to 100,000 customers.

Our Core Values, as formerly articulated, are Entrepreneurship, Authenticity, Integrity, Passion, Compassion and No Ego, No Fear. These Core Values dictate the way we operate as we passionately pursue our Purpose and Mission. But we found that we were always saying the same phrases when we explained what we mean by these Core Values. So, we decided to re-articulate our Core Values, shifting them from one-word Values to short phrases. Our newly stated Core Values are:

We empower entrepreneurs.

We listen, we care, we serve.

We do what we say we’ll do.

We practice open, real communication.

We face challenges with optimism.

We check our egos at the door.

We innovate and constantly improve.

We do the right thing.

We believe in people and their dreams.

I am thrilled with our revised Vision. The Purpose is why we do what we do. The Mission is what we’re up to for the next few years. And the Core Values are how we do what we do. Combined, the Purpose, Mission and Core Values make up a powerful Vision that guides our company, attracts the best talent and creates a culture that is a distinct competitive advantage.

Read more about Infusionsoft’s new look from our Chief Marketing Officer, Greg Head.

Posted in Company Blog Posts | Tagged CEO, Infusionsoft, Small Business

What’s a Small Business?

By Clate Mask on January 31, 2012

When I tell people Infusionsoft’s purpose is to help small businesses succeed, I generally get approving nods from the audience. Whether I’m talking to an individual or a group, there is a sense of agreement, a feeling that as we talk about “small businesses,” we are speaking the same language.

Our conversation feels so warm and fuzzy: baseball, small business, apple pie and America. But as the conversation progresses, red flags of miscommunication start to go up.

“So, who else is serving SMBs in your market?”

“Would I recognize the names of any of your customers?”

“I have a friend who works for IBM selling into small businesses.”

My responses are:

“I never said anything about mid-sized businesses or SMBs; almost certainly not; and IBM doesn’t know squat about small businesses.”

Okay, maybe I’m not so blunt about it, but it’s clear to me that my counterpart(s) and I are not thinking alike when we talk about small businesses.

And yet, the fact remains that Infusionsoft is in existence to help small businesses succeed.

So, what’s a small business?

Is it IBM’s definition of “companies with under 1000 employees and/or less than $500 million in annual revenue?”

Is a “small business” a company with under 500 employees, as the Small Business Administration defines it?

Or is it a company with under 15 employees, as Australia defines it?

Ask 10 people to define “small business” and you’ll get 10 answers. To some people, this may not be a big deal. But to us at Infusionsoft, it’s a huge deal. Why? Because our purpose is to help small businesses succeed. If you’re a one-man shop, you have different needs and challenges than a business with 10 employees. And you have widely different needs and challenges than a 100-person company. If a vendor says they serve small businesses (or worse, “SMBs”) and what they mean by that is “companies with under 500 employees,” then the family business with five employees is going to feel totally under-served by that vendor.

Surprisingly, nobody has taken the time to really define for the world what small business means. Until now.

For the past 10 years, we’ve been serving small businesses. We have studied hundreds of thousands of small businesses. We’ve written books on small business, studied the success of small business and pointed out the inconsistencies of vendors claiming to serve small business. In particular, I’ve spent hundreds of hours studying the US Census Bureau’s data regarding small businesses. I became fascinated with the Census Bureau data a few years ago when Scott and I wrote Conquer the Chaos. I’m actually slightly embarrassed by the spreadsheets I’ve developed and the time I’ve spent studying this data.

All of our research has led to the frustrating conclusion that there are so many classifications of small business, it’s almost impossible to make sense of it all.

Well, it’s time to make sense of it all. It’s time to create a language around small business that serves small businesses so they can get the products and services they need, instead of the products and services vendors want to sell.

That last part of the prior sentence is important… and controversial. See, the unfortunate truth is, if a vendor sells a product that is built and priced for companies with 100 employees, when they call it a “small business solution” they know they’ll bring in a bunch of businesses with under 20 employees. After all, that’s where the numbers are: over 98% of US businesses have under 20 employees.

In other words, vendors who want to sell stuff to small businesses are all too happy to stay vague about who they serve, hoping they’ll pick up a bunch of customers their product wasn’t meant to serve.

Am I being too harsh toward vendors? Maybe. But the sad truth is that most small businesses are totally under-served with over-built solutions that are designed for “SMBs.” As we like to say at Infusionsoft, “SMB” really means “smaller mid-sized businesses.”

At Infusionsoft, we aren’t interested in smaller mid-sized businesses. We are interested in small businesses–SBs. We’re not just interested in them, we’re passionately fanatical about helping them succeed. That’s our purpose. It’s why we exist. It’s what we love doing.

It’s time to talk about what small business really is. Throughout the year, I’ll be writing about the definition of small business in a series of blog posts and articles, all based on our research at Infusionsoft. Everything I’ll be writing about will revolve around The Definition of Small Business: Eight Stages of Success.

My intent with The Eight Stages of Small Business Success is to create a common language in the industry that will ultimately help small businesses get what they need in order to succeed (and avoid the stuff they don’t need). I realize it’s an ambitious goal. And maybe I have no business trying to set the standards. On the other hand, nobody else is doing it. This is going to be fun.

Posted in Company Blog Posts | Tagged CEO, Infusionsoft, Small Business

Top 10 Predictions for Infusionsoft in 2012

By Clate Mask on January 18, 2012

I love this time of year. Resolutions, goals and plans abound. There’s a ton of energy in the air and lots of optimism about what 2012 will bring. As I look at our plans for 2012, I can’t help but get totally excited about what we’re up to here at Infusionsoft.

We have a pretty involved planning process that ensures we’re executing to the vision of our company. That process (and my stellar team) has produced a plan for 2012 that I’m more excited about than any annual plan in the past.

So, as we execute our plan in 2012, here are 10 things I predict will occur by the end of the year:

10. Over 300 employees will be working at Infusionsoft.

9. Our development team will double its capacity.

8. Infusionsoft will be increasingly recognized as the company that “gets” sales and marketing for small businesses.

7. We’ll move into a beautiful new office space that will be the envy of Phoenix tech companies and will accommodate 1000 employees in the next few years.

6. Top tech talent will come from outside Arizona for the opportunity to work at Infusionsoft.

5. The market will recognize that Infusionsoft is as much sales software as it is marketing software.

4. Our 2012 Spring Release will blow away our customers and put a scare in the competition.

3. Our customers will say that, indeed, “Easy is the new normal at Infusionsoft,” a commitment I made last March at InfusionCon in front of 1200 customers.

2. Investment bankers will be lining up to “get to know the company better.”

1. Our Net Promoter Score will continue to rise, making us the clear leader in sales and marketing software for successful small businesses.

Our company was recently featured by DemandGen Report for our massive growth during 2011. Read about what we did last year in their story, Infusionsoft Expands Solution Portfolio; Closes 3,000 New Customers in 2011.

We’ve got an exciting year ahead of us. Our vision is clearer than ever, which is enabling us to attract and retain talented people who are passionate about small business success. I’m looking forward to working with a bunch of awesome people to make these predictions a reality.

Posted in Company Blog Posts, Uncategorized | Tagged Infusionsoft, Small Business

2011: An Amazing Year for Infusionsoft!

By Clate Mask on January 6, 2012

What an amazing year 2011 was at Infusionsoft! We made a ton of progress toward our dream to revolutionize the way small businesses grow. We added thousands of customers to the Infusionsoft family, we hired almost 90 employees, and we made huge strides in our product and we made our first acquisition when we bought CustomerHub in October. All tolled, it was a monumental year for us.

Each year, we establish annual priorities that will help us better serve our customers and propel us forward in our mission. I want to share with you our 2011 Annual Priorities and tell you how we fared.

1. Shape our Entire Company Around Target Users. The target user discipline was something Richard Tripp, our VP of Product & Strategy brought to the table when he came on board in late 2010. We clarified our target users based on the research of Richard and his team and got every department in the company focused on serving our target users and delivering the benefits they seek. As a result, we brought in more of the right customers and dramatically improved customer satisfaction.

2. Aggressive Growth and Positive Cash Flow. At a time when many software companies in our space are burning massive amounts of cash, we were cash-flow positive every quarter of the year. All while growing by 50% for the year. We’re pretty proud of that.

3. Create Successful Customers with Profitable Services. Toward the end of 2010 (after an 18-month experiment of not including services with our software), we concluded that in order to achieve success for our customers—and Infusionsoft—we needed to provide services to help them implement the software. However, we also knew we needed to provide those services profitably. Today, over 80% of our customers launch four campaigns within their first 60 days with us. Customer success has skyrocketed and our customer churn has plummeted. True, a huge part of this success is due to the product enhancements we made this year, but our implementation services were also a huge part. And we delivered those services profitably. Everyone wins!

4. Own Marketing Automation Software for Small Businesses. Simply put, we set out to become the clear leader in marketing automation software for small businesses with fewer than 25 employees. All year long we made progress in this area. In the fourth quarter, we got a bunch of press, including one independent publication that pointed out Infusionsoft has more customers than any other small business vendor. I’d call that “owning” the market.

5. Prepare for Life as a $50 million Company. This priority was all about building the team and infrastructure to allow us to grow into a $50 million company in the future. I added a top-notch Chief Marketing Officer, Greg Head, to the team and a great SVP of Corporate Development, Hal Halladay. I am on the verge of hiring a CFO. Additionally, we added about 85 “Infusionites” to the team. And our systems and processes have significantly matured this year to enable future growth so that we can serve more customers confidently and effectively.

It was a fantastic year in 2011! While I can look at each of our five Annual Priorities and feel great about nailing them, two things make me most proud:

First, our customer satisfaction ratings soared throughout 2011. Our customers have seen our product improve by leaps and bounds. And they have benefited from our improved email deliverability, of which shot through the roof. In addition, our customer support hit a groove when we began executing to “The Perfect Customer Lifecycle.” As a result of all these big accomplishments (and a hundred more smaller ones), our customers showered us with praise and appreciation — and referrals! It’s funny how when you focus on truly serving your customers, everything falls into place.

Second, I’m super proud of the honor we were given when we were named #15 on the Small Workplaces to Work for in America. We strongly believe that happy employees make happy customers make happy shareholders. We invest heavily in our culture to create an environment where we all love to work. It was really fun to be recognized as one of the best companies to work for in America. My only question is, “Are there really 14 companies that are better to work for than Infusionsoft?” Really? I can’t imagine that!

I’m ecstatic about what 2012 holds for Infusionsoft and our customers. Here’s hoping your 2011 was fantastic and your 2012 is looking great!

Posted in Company Blog Posts | Tagged CEO, Infusionsoft

Elite Entrepreneur-to-CEO Forum in December

By Clate Mask on November 10, 2011

I’m eager to tell you about an exclusive special event I’m hosting for successful entrepreneurs in December called The Elite Forum: From Entrepreneur to CEO.

Our company has grown aggressively over the last five years… and in that time I’ve learned what it takes to scale a business. Add to that the work that we’ve done with thousands of business owners in helping them grow their businesses, and it became clear that it’s time to share the knowledge and help more business owners gain from our lessons learned. We can help you if you’re craving that next level.

The Elite Forum is being held Dec. 1-3 at our headquarters in Arizona. And when I say exclusive and elite, that’s exactly what I mean. There are specific strategic steps entrepreneurs can take in order to reach that next level in their business quickly and intelligently. It all starts with education. In the last 10 years, we have exponentially added to our toolbox of entrepreneurial smarts and have packaged it up for you over a two-day (and optional third-day) session. There are specific strategic steps entrepreneurs need to take and I’d love to share them with you and I’ve been wanting to share the steps and strategies for a long time. I can’t think of a better time to be hosting this than now.

The intimate two-day seminar next month is limited to just 25 attendees. Of that 25, only 5 will be accepted to the Day 3 intensive workshop where we apply everything you’ve learned to your specific business.

So, why an elite forum, and more importantly, why potentially you?

Because the question that Infusionsoft co-founder Scott Martineau and I get asked more than any other is: “How did you guys do it?” Specifically, how did we grow Infusionsoft from a $1 million company to a $25+ million company in just 5 years—and one that has been on the Inc 500 list five years in a row?

As you well know, it’s one thing to turn your dream into a business. Growing that business from $1 million to $10 million is another. Over the two days Scott and I will work with you in your strategic planning for your business including navigating the challenging task of raising venture capital. We’ll discuss the essential components of building a company culture that lasts. And we’ll share with you firsthand through live examples and practical applications based on how we grew Infusionsoft from a $1MM to $10MM to over $20MM. You’ll come away with templates and tools for planning and process to implement meaningful change in your business.

We’ve done it. You can too. We can show you how.

In other words, if you are ready to take your small business and move it into the realm of small company and beyond, this event is for you.

So, who should apply? The biggest clue will be if you’ve started to asked yourself, “What’s the secret to scaling?” If you are doing $1MM or more in revenue and are setting your sights on growing to $10MM and beyond, then The Elite Forum is a pivotal investment.

I look forward to spending two exciting days with a select group of you. I hope you’ll consider attending by applying here.

Posted in Company Blog Posts | Tagged CEO, Entrepreneur, Infusionsoft, Small Business

Infusionsoft Acquires CustomerHub

By Clate Mask on November 1, 2011

Today is an exciting day for Infusionsoft. I am happy to announce the acquisition of CustomerHub, a popular membership site and customer portal platform. CustomerHub allows small businesses to easily deliver protected web content to paying customers and automate the subscription and collections process, helping them generate recurring revenue, save time and eliminate administrative overhead.

This is the first acquisition we’ve done at Infusionsoft and I couldn’t be more excited about the fit. Not only are we adding some great technology to our industry-leading all-in-one sales and marketing software for small businesses, but we are also adding some great people to the Infusionsoft family.

So, why did we decide to buy CustomerHub? A few reasons.

First, membership sites are in higher demand than any other add-on in the Infusionsoft ecosystem. They are growing in popularity as marketers shift their content delivery channels from physical media, like DVDs and binders, to online membership sites which are easier to manage and more profitable to operate. We believe these customers who are clamoring for a membership website system like CustomerHub represent the early adopters of general small business.

In other words, we believe more and more small businesses will be looking to deliver their valuable training, coaching and other content using membership sites that are completely integrated and automated with their CRM, marketing and ecommerce systems. Membership site tools are the way of the future as small businesses look to generate high quality leads, as well as monetize content and establish recurring revenue streams.

Second, of all the membership site solutions on the market, CustomerHub was specifically built to integrate with Infusionsoft. Our customers want a full-integrated system. CustomerHub fits the bill.

Third, this was an opportunity for us to add some great technology without having to build it ourselves. We considered building our own functionality to address customer demand, but in the end, this acquisition made much more sense than an investment to build the product.

Finally, we get to add great people to the Infusionsoft family. We look forward to adding the technical, management and support talent that comes with the acquisition of CustomerHub and we look forward to joining forces with them to help more small businesses efficiently deliver content online and get into the subscription business using CustomerHub.

So, we’ll be working with Kyle, Nate and the CustomerHub team to fully integrate our companies over the next few months. We will offer the CustomerHub product as an additional product to those Infusionsoft customers who want it. And we’ll continue to enhance the CustomerHub product over time. Existing CustomerHub users can expect the same level of service that they’ve come to know and love. We’ll also work with the CustomerHub development team to expand on their technology and deliver even more valuable software to small businesses that want an all-in-one sales and marketing system.

To learn more about CustomerHub, visit CustomerHub.net.

Webinar: We will be hosting a webinar on November 4 at 10 AM PST to explain how Infusionsoft customers can benefit from CustomerHub in their sales and marketing. You can register here.

Posted in Company Blog Posts | Tagged Infusionsoft

The Infusionsoft Executive Team Grows Even Stronger

By Clate Mask on October 20, 2011

I am really excited. Hal Halladay is joining my executive team at Infusionsoft. Hal is joining us as our Senior Vice President of Corporate Development, which means he oversees strategic partnerships, business development and acquisitions. We have long needed a senior leader to help us take advantage of the many strategic opportunities that come our way. We couldn’t have found a better fit than Hal Halladay.

Hal’s got a unique background. He was an investment banker on Wall Street, in Los Angeles and in San Francisco. After climbing the ranks in that world, helping companies go public and working on a variety of deals, he got to the point where he was about to be made managing director. He had a choice to make: did he want a long-term career in investment banking, or did he want to get into entrepreneurship?

Hal chose entrepreneurship. He jumped into the high tech world and never looked back. Hal has been at several tech start-ups, always leading people to achieve great results and be their best. He has a nose for doing meaningful, strategic deals that are good for all parties. And he has a fire for entrepreneurship and small business growth that makes him a perfect fit for Infusionsoft.

About 45 days ago, while contemplating the possibility of bringing Hal onto the team, I was prepping for our annual off-site planning and I decided to invite Hal. I figured I’d throw him into the mix and see how it went. That chemistry experience could have blown up in my face by derailing our important offsite planning sessions, but I was pretty sure Hal would fit in nicely. He didn’t. He fit in beautifully. In fact, after leaving my team to work through a session and a meal on their own without me, I rejoined them only to have Aaron, my VP of Sales, tell me that the team had taken a vote and they were insisting that I hire Hal.

Hal is a great leader. He’s a great team member. He’s a great strategist and relationship builder. And he’s a heck of an entrepreneur. I’m thrilled to have him on the team and I’ve already seen him make a big impact. Keep your eyes open for some cool corporate development activities coming out of Infusionsoft. And you’ll know that Hal Halladay is the guy making it all happen.

For more details, read the press release:
Infusionsoft Appoints Hal Halladay Senior Vice President of Corporate Development

Posted in Company Blog Posts, Uncategorized | Tagged Infusionsoft, Small Business

Preserving Your Culture During A High-Growth Phase: 5 Keys to a Successful Culture

By Clate Mask on October 18, 2011

For the last several years, not a month has gone by without at least one well-meaning, concerned employee pulling me aside and asking me, something like, “Clate, how are we going to preserve our amazing culture as we continue to grow at such a fast pace?” I always tell them that we’ll be true to our Core Philosophy and we’ll be just fine.

But the truth is, a few years ago, we had just raised venture capital, we were about to begin hiring at a very brisk pace, and I wondered the same thing: “How would we preserve our great culture while hiring very quickly.”

Since that time, we’ve grown the company from 50 to 175 employees, our revenue has quadrupled, and our culture has never been better.

As I’ve considered what we’ve done to make this happen, I came up with 5 Keys to our success. I share them as suggestions for anyone serious about keeping a great culture while going through a rapid growth phase.

1. Establish your Core Philosophy, Built-to-Last style.

If you haven’t read Jim Collins’ book Built To Last, you must read it. In it, Collins explains that to create a great, lasting company, the foundation of the business must be firmly set. The way to do that is to establish what the company stands for—the core philosophy—which is the company’s core values and its core purpose. We did this a few years ago at Infusionsoft and it has made all the difference.

2. Hire and fire to your Core Philosophy.

Don’t hire the best or smartest people. What?! Did I really say that? Yes. Don’t hire the best or smartest people. Instead, hire the best or smartest people who fit your core philosophy. Bill Gates is brilliant. But Apple should never hire him. Hire for fit. And fire people as soon as you realize they’re a misfit. At my company, we try to make this easy on ourselves: after our new hires complete their initial two weeks of orientation, we offer them $5,000 to quit. It’s a great way to get rid of the misfits and it increases the commitment level of new hires who are a fit and don’t take us up on our offer.

3. Constantly teach your people, especially the leaders, your Core Philosophy.

Every employee must understand the values and purpose of the company. If the leaders don’t firmly buy into the core philosophy, the people will never buy in. Ultimately, it’s the CEO’s responsibility to entrench the core philosophy. When we were in the process of ingraining our core philosophy, I was just about to let up, feeling that my team wasn’t fully bought in and perhaps I was being too dogmatic in my approach. About that time, I read something in Verne Harnish’s book “Mastering the Rockefeller Habits” that nudged me to keep preaching our core philosophy. Verne said that if my people weren’t mocking me about the core philosophy, I wasn’t pushing hard enough. And if they were mocking me, I was on the right track. I pushed a little harder and within a few weeks, the tide turned, I got full buy-in, and our culture has been rockin’ ever since.

4. Hire a senior leader to oversee the culture.

There are so many little details to developing a successful culture that the CEO or executive management can’t effectively manage the culture. I hired an Organizational Development professional to be our “Built-to-Last Director” and it has been one of the best hires I’ve made. His over-arching objective is to ensure our organization is preserving the core and stimulating progress. He does a fantastic job and he keeps the leaders and employees constantly focused on our Core Philosophy.

5. Dedicate time each month to evaluate the culture.

Once you’ve got the core set, the mechanisms in place for hiring and firing the right people, and the leadership in place to ensure a strong culture, the last piece is to allocate time to review the culture. Each month, my Built-to-Last Director and I spend a morning reviewing our culture, discussing leaders and assessing any emerging “wedges” between employees and management. Without these meetings, I’ve found that “cultural weeds” spring up in the organization; but when we hold these meetings, we identify course corrections and improvements that make our culture stronger.

I wholeheartedly reject the notion that a great culture must die as a company grows. We have studied Disney, Netflix and Zappos as examples of companies that have grown and maintained a great culture. (I guess that’s one other thing I suggest: study companies with great cultures!) We are determined to do the same at Infusionsoft. I believe that if you’ll follow these five suggestions, you can grow your company and preserve a great culture.

Let me know what’s working for you. And if you’re ever in the Phoenix area, feel free to stop in for a culture tour at Infusionsoft.

Posted in Company Blog Posts, Uncategorized | Tagged CEO, Infusionsoft, Small Business

Marketing Automation for Small Businesses Isn’t Just Software

By Clate Mask on July 26, 2011

Business owners are busy. I mean really busy. They’re time strapped. Competing fires that require immediate attention pop up. Daily. We know this intimately having worked with thousands of them. We were once a small business ourselves.

And it’s no secret that at first, marketing automation can feel daunting for so many small businesses. But it doesn’t have to be. Infusionsoft customer, Latrisha Jacobs reminds us of that here in the video below!

We’ve been hard at work over the last 18 months perfecting the process for business owners and their staff so that when they take the first step in choosing our marketing automation suite, they get to experience the benefits of automation faster.

Watch on YouTube: Customer Feedback on Infusionsoft’s Quick-Start Services

Quick-Start for New Customers
We made a change earlier this year in our on-boarding process for new users. And based on some of the questions I’ve seen come up, it makes sense to clearly explain what our services in on-boarding new customers looks like today and what people can expect.

So what did we do exactly that’s different? After months of analysis, debate and testing, we introduced our Quick-Start Services package that is required for all new customers. The package is affordable for many business owners at $2,000. It delivers a combination of transition, training and strategic services designed to help our customers conceptualize their Perfect Customer Lifecycle and get a Marketing Automation Plan (M.A.P.) for their business. Our Success Coaches deliver the Quick-Start Services package and help each customer launch the first two campaigns of their M.A.P. This is what other businesses have paid well into the five-figures to implement — we provide helpful strategy, relevant content and powerful software at a fraction of the cost.

A couple weeks ago, I read a post from one of my best friends, Dave Lee, who was a long-time executive at Infusionsoft. He gave a fair review of Infusionsoft; a perspective he is able to provide after implementing many Infusionsoft customers since he left the company last year. But there was one thing in Dave’s post that struck me. He said that Infusionsoft implemented a policy that “all new customers must pay a $2K fee to get started.” He opines that it was to generate additional revenue for the company. In fact, that’s not why we launched the Quick-Start Services.

A little background is in order.

Until mid-2009, we charged a $5,000 fee to get set up with the software. The fee enabled us to deliver implementation services to help our customers be successful, and it worked. But the fee also prevented many businesses from joining Infusionsoft. Later, after raising venture capital, working hard on the product and preparing to bring on many more customers (because we wanted the masses to be able to afford our powerful marketing automation software), we removed the required setup fee. We immediately doubled the number of customers who were signing up for Infusionsoft to about 400 customers per month.

But within a few months, many of those customers cancelled. For 18 months, we worked hard to improve our product, service and overall solution so that we could help customers succeed and retain them. Throughout this period of time, my team of 125 employees worked tirelessly to help our customers succeed. But all too often, customers wouldn’t show up for their scheduled appointments, their campaign launches didn’t happen and employee morale suffered at Infusionsoft.

Customers weren’t committed because they hadn’t invested in our software. And our employees could only provide so much service without breaking the bank at Infusionsoft. Despite the struggles, we continued to grow the business and we reached cash-flow positive. Financially, our business was doing just fine. But my long-term vision for the company and the driving force behind why we are in business (to revolutionize the way small businesses grow, through marketing automation), was not being satisfied.

The bottom line is that my team and I were tired of having too many customers not succeed. And it really stung when those customers blamed Infusionsoft, which was understandable. After all, it is our responsibility to deliver a solution that works for our customers.

The costly lesson we learned during those tough months between mid-2009 through the end of 2010 is that marketing automation for small businesses isn’t just software.

It’s a formula that blends just the right amounts of software, strategy and content to ensure customers will be successful. We’ve implemented marketing automation in more businesses than any company on the planet. We know what works. We know the customer needs software, strategy and content help from us. And we know the customer needs to be committed to the marketing automation system they are implementing. This is not a basic little tool. It is a business system that will revolutionize their business growth. And like any system, it takes time and dedication to make it successful.

So, what has happened in the last six months since we began requiring all customers to invest in a Quick-Start Services package?

Usage is up dramatically! 82% of our customers launch two campaigns within their first 60 days.
Customer satisfaction has surged to all-time highs.
Our employees are happier than ever.
Our Dream, Vision, Purpose and Mission are alive and well.

This change was motivated by our vision for this company, a love for our employees and our culture, and a commitment to revolutionize the way small businesses grow, through marketing automation. We’re doing that now and it feels great! Just ask one of our employees. Better yet, check out this video I happened to get from a customer who tells the story from her perspective.

We’re not alone either in this methodology – CRM and Marketing Automation analyst David Raab agrees and sums up our recent efforts on his blog with, “The Perfect Customer Lifecycle illustrates how much effort Infusionsoft puts into helping its customers succeed.”

Software does only so much; it’s the strategy that grows a business.