HubSpot Inbound Sales Certification Exam Answers

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What is the buyer doing during the awareness stage of their buying journey?

• Identifying a challenge they’re experiencing or an opportunity they want to pursue.
• Becoming aware of the ways your solution can help them.
• Evaluating different approaches or methods available to help them with a challenge or opportunity they’ve decided to address.
• Trying to choose a specific solution within a specific solution category.

What is your role during the awareness stage of the buyer’s journey?

• Help the buyer define their goals and challenges.
• Help the buyer understand the different ways they might address a goal or challenge.
• Convince the buyer to buy your product or service.
• Help the buyer weigh the pros and cons of your solution relative to other options.

What is the buyer doing during the consideration stage of their buying journey?

• Identifying a challenge they’re experiencing or an opportunity they want to pursue.
• Considering the pros and cons of using your solution.
• Evaluating different approaches or methods available to help them with a challenge or opportunity they’ve decided to address.
• Trying to choose a specific solution within a chosen solution category.

What is your role during the consideration stage of the buyer’s journey?

• To help the buyer define their goals and challenges.
• To help the buyer understand the different ways they might address a goal or challenge.
• To convince the buyer to buy your product or service.
• To help the buyer weigh the pros and cons of your solution relative to other options.

What is your role during the decision stage of the buyer’s journey?

• To help the buyer define their goals and challenges.
• To help the buyer understand the different ways they might address a goal or challenge.
• To convince the buyer to buy your product or service.
• To help the buyer weigh the pros and cons of your solution relative to other options.

You should do all of the following activities during the identify phase of your inbound sales strategy EXCEPT:

• Identify active buyers
• Identify passive buyers
• Research potential buyers
• Help a lead identify their goals and challenges

You should do all of the following activities during the connect phase of your inbound sales strategy EXCEPT:

• Contact inbound leads
• Introduce yourself to common connections
• Leave voicemails for your leads
• Offer your leads a product demo

You should do all of the following activities during the explore phase of your inbound sales strategy EXCEPT:

• Explore your lead’s goals and challenges.
• Guide your lead toward the right conclusion, even if that’s not to buy from you.
• Explore the ways your product or service can help your lead achieve their goals or overcome their challenges.
• Position yourself as an expert who can help your lead sort through their goals and challenges.

You should do all of the following activities during the advise phase of your inbound sales strategy EXCEPT:

• Deliver a presentation explaining how you’re uniquely positioned to help the buyer achieve their goals.
• Help the buyer connect your company’s broad positioning to their specific goals and challenges.
• Provide the buyer with case studies and general information about your company.
• Ask the buyer to buy your product or service.

What is the difference between a sales process and an inbound sales strategy?

• A sales process is an outdated, seller-focused idea. An inbound sales strategy replaces the need for a sales process.
• Every sales team has its own sales process, but an inbound sales strategy can be implemented by every sales team.
• A sales process describes the steps a seller takes during a sales cycle, while an inbound sales strategy describes the steps a buyer takes.
• An inbound sales strategy is a type of sales process.

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What is an active buyer?

• Someone who has explicitly stated their desire to buy your product
• Someone who is ready to buy your product
• Someone who is actively researching a goal or challenge
• Someone who has bought from you in the past and is looking to buy again

When you identify an active buyer, what stage of the buyer’s journey will they most often be in?

• The awareness stage
• The consideration stage
• The decision stage
• The inbound stage

What is a passive buyer?

• A buyer who needs extra encouragement before they commit to buying
• A lead who has expressed interest in your product but hasn’t committed to a timeline for buying
• A person who buys a product without speaking with a sales representative
• Someone who is a good fit for your offering but isn’t looking to buy right now

True or false? You should only start identifying passive buyers after identifying all of the active buyers.

What is the difference between ideal customer profiles and buyer personas?

• Ideal customer profiles are for business-to-business sales teams, while buyer personas are for sales teams that sell directly to consumers.
• Ideal customer profiles broadly describe a target market, while buyer personas define specific sorts of people in that market.
• Ideal customer profiles describe your existing customers, while buyer personas are based on your leads and prospects.
• Ideal customer profiles are used by marketing teams, while buyer personas are used by salespeople.

• Preferably within minutes of receiving the lead.
• Preferably within a day or two of receiving the lead.
• Not too quickly, so you don’t seem overeager.
• On a weekly cadence, since these leads are unlikely to lose interest in your offering.

All of the following are examples of inbound leads EXCEPT:

• A live chat from a website visitor
• A phone call into your company
• Someone who reaches out to you on LinkedIn or Twitter
• Someone who mentions your company on LinkedIn or Twitter

All of the following might be included in an ideal customer profile EXCEPT:

• Economic factors that make a customer ideal or not ideal
• Market segments that are ideal or not ideal to sell into
• Geographic locations that are ideal or not ideal to sell into
• Goals and challenges an ideal customer needs help with

An inbound sales strategy focuses on identifying people who -.

• might already be interested
• work at major corporations
• have a budget, the right authority, a need, and a timeline
• are already familiar with your product or service

Fill in the blanks: For business-to-business sales teams, an ideal customer profile usually identifies -. For sales teams who sell directly to consumers, an ideal customer profile identifies -.

• an industry, a geographic territory
• an individual company, a specific potential customer
• a type of company, a portion of the general population
• a small group of target accounts, a larger group of prospects

Congratulations — you just landed a job selling IT equipment to large corporations! You receive your first inbound lead, and you call the person who submitted it. You quickly realize that this person is a junior employee with no buying authority. What should you do?

• Respectfully answer their questions, then mark them as “unqualified” in your CRM and don’t spend any more time on them.
• Treat them the same way you would treat your target persona because there’s a good chance they’re doing research for that person.
• End the call as quickly as possible because there’s no reason to spend time talking to junior employees.
• Ask to talk to their supervisor and see if you can qualify that person as a lead.

What is an inbound lead?

• An anonymous website visitor
• A person who buys a product without speaking with a sales rep
• A lead who requests a product demonstration
• A person who has visited your website and identified themselves in some way

Which of the following is an example of a common connection?

• Your brother-in-law has a friend who could benefit from your offering.
• A potential buyer lives in the town where you grew up.
• You meet a good-fit prospect at an industry event.
• You and a potential buyer went to the same university.

What is a trigger event?

• An action that triggers an automated email from your marketing automation platform.
• Anything that indicates that you could provide immediate value to someone.
• An action that indicates a prospect is ready to move from the identify phase to the connect phase.
• An event that indicates a sales opportunity is about to expire.

How long should each message in your sequence be?

• Short. Voicemails should be less than 15 seconds and emails should be less than 200 words.
• It varies. If you have a lot of relevant information you have to share, your messages will be longer.
• As long as they need to be to communicate your value proposition.
• As long as possible. Increasing the amount of information you share increases the likelihood that a lead will engage with you.

How often should you reference yourself in your outreach messages?

• Never. Your messages should be solely about the buyer and their context.
• As often as necessary to communicate your value proposition.
• As often as possible. You need to convey your value and expertise to the buyer.
• No more than half as much as you reference your buyer and their situation.

Fill in the Blank: End each email with a -.

• Question
• Offer
• Joke
• Deadline

What should your outreach messages try to do?

• Persuade the buyer to shorten their buying timeline.
• Generate a response of any kind from the buyer.
• Help the buyer make progress in defining or solving their problem.
• Move the buyer into the next stage of the buyer’s journey.

If your company doesn’t produce very much content, all of the following are good alternatives EXCEPT:

• Sharing content from other sources
• Offering free consultations
• Creating your own content
• Proceeding with your inbound strategy without using content

• Verify their buying authority
• Provide some kind of help or value to them
• Determine how good of a fit they are for your offering
• Monitor their content for four to six weeks

When should you transition to the explore phase?

• After you’ve confirmed the buyer’s budget and authority
• When the buyer answers one of your calls or emails
• When the buyer confirms they’re interested in discussing a goal or challenge with you
• As soon as you begin researching the buyer’s context and needs

What does it mean to make your outreach “human”?

• Avoiding automated processes and technology.
• Making sure your approach is empathetic and personable.
• Making sure your first meeting with a new prospect happens in-person.
• Involving as many different people from your company as possible in your relationship with every prospect.

What does it mean to make your outreach “helpful”?

• Telling people how to solve their problems.
• Telling people what problems they should focus on.
• Providing people the insight and guidance they need at each step of the buyer’s journey.
• Explaining things to your prospects as simply as possible.

What does it mean to make your outreach “holistic”?

• Working with as many different kinds of people as possible.
• Trying to solve as many problems as you can for each prospect.
• Sharing all of the relevant information at the same time instead of sharing a little at a time.
• Providing the same level of human, helpful service to people at every stage of the life cycle.

How can you make sure the content you share is relevant to your prospects?

• Make a list of the problems you help your customers solve and map your content to those problems –– then share relevant content.
• Have physical copies of your company’s content on your desk so you can flip through them during phone calls and find what you’re looking for.
• Share as much content as possible with each prospect to increase the likelihood of giving them the content they need.
• Reduce the amount of content you use and focus on sharing only the content that is relevant in the decision stage of the buyer’s journey.

If a lead calls you in response to a voicemail you left, what should you do?

• Ask questions about their budget and authority to make sure they’re a qualified lead.
• Skip the connect call and transition immediately into an explore call.
• Run the connect call as you would have if they had answered the phone when you initially called.
• Move the conversation to email to make it more convenient for them.

Your teammate creates an outreach sequence with 10 steps in it and asks you if you think that’s a good length. How do you respond?

• “That’s a good start, but you should probably plan on creating a few additional steps.”
• “That’s probably good. 10 is usually the right number of steps to have.”
• “That’s probably too many steps. It’s generally best to end a sequence at five steps because you won’t get many additional responses after the fifth attempt.”
• “Hard to say. There isn’t a single best practice around the right number of steps in an outreach sequence.”

All of the following are advantages of using the CGP, TCI, BA framework EXCEPT:

• Understanding: You can make sure you don’t miss details that are important in understanding your buyer’s context.
• Effective communication: You can have a structure for communicating your prospect’s story back to them, helping them know that you heard them.
• Advising: You can position your products and services as a solution to your buyer’s challenges.
• Identifying: You can have a clear way to measure whether a potential lead is a good fit for your offering.

How can you start building rapport before getting on a call?

• By researching your prospect
• By practicing your sales pitch
• By sending multiple emails to prepare the buyer for the call
• By preparing a discount ahead of time

How long should the rapport-building part of an exploratory call be?

• Short. Don’t spend more than a few seconds on rapport building.
• Long enough to get the prospect comfortable discussing goals and challenges with you, but not so long that it requires the rest of the call to be rushed.
• As long as possible. Increasing the amount of time spent building rapport will increase the prospect’s likelihood of moving to the advise phase of your inbound sales strategy.
• It will vary based on your personal sales style.

Fill in the blank: If a prospect says, “I’m thinking about moving into a larger facility,” that’s an example of a -.

• goal
• challenge
• plan
• timeline

Fill in the blank: If a prospect says, “I’m hoping to get this figured out before the end of the quarter,” that’s an example of a -.

• goal
• consequence
• implication
• timeline

Fill in the blank: If a prospect says, “If I don’t find a way to solve this problem, I’m going to have to start laying off employees,” that’s an example of a -.

• goal
• consequence
• implication
• timeline

Fill in the blank: If a prospect says, “If I can find a way to fix this, I think we’ll be able to open a second location next year,” that’s an example of a -.

• goal
• consequence
• implication
• timeline

Which of the following is the BEST way to discuss a prospect’s budget?

• Ask the prospect how much they’re planning to invest to achieve their goals.
• Suggest a price that’s high enough that you can let them negotiate the price down.
• Offer a discount based on their goals and timeline.
• Give them a time-bound quote.

All of the following are questions to ask while discussing authority EXCEPT:

• “How have decisions like this been made in the past?”
• “Who else needs to be involved in this decision?”
• “Do you typically discuss things like this with anyone in your family or with another trusted advisor?”
• “Are you the right person for me to be talking with?”

Here’s an agenda that follows the CGP, TCI, BA framework: 1. Build rapport, recap previous conversations, set agenda. 2. Explore the challenges the prospect has and their plans for overcoming them. 3. Explore their timeline and discuss the consequences of inaction and the implications of success. 4. Explore budget and authority. In this agenda, which part of the CGP, TCI, BA framework needs improvement?

• CGP
• TCI
• BA
• It’s fine as is

Here’s an agenda that follows the CGP, TCI, BA framework: 1. Rapport building, recap, and agenda. 2. The prospect’s goals, the challenges they face in achieving those goals, and their plan for overcoming those challenges. 3. What happens if they fail? What happens if they succeed? 4. Their available budget and their usual decision-making process. In this agenda, which part of the CGP, TCI, BA framework needs improvement?

• CGP
• TCI
• BA
• It’s fine as is

Here’s an agenda that follows the CGP, TCI, BA framework: 1. Ask how business is going, review what you’ve already talked about, lay out the plan for this conversation. 2. Ask about their challenges and goals. Discuss their plans. 3. Ask about their timeline. Uncover what they stand to lose and gain. 4. Find out who else needs to be involved in the decision to buy or not buy. In this agenda, which part of the CGP, TCI, BA framework needs improvement?

• CGP
• TCI
• BA
• It’s fine as is

Here’s a paragraph from a recap email. “You mentioned that you need to get into a larger space, but you have a lot of specialized equipment that can’t be moved easily. Your best plan is to hire a moving company, but you’re worried that the equipment will get damaged or miscalibrated in the move.” Which part of the explore phase does it accomplish?

• Rapport building
• CGP
• TCI
• BA

Here’s a paragraph from a recap email: “You need to get into your new office space before the end of this quarter. You have aggressive hiring goals for next quarter and if you haven’t relocated into a larger space by then, you won’t be able to hit those goals. On the other hand, if you get into the space you’re currently looking at, the amenities included in that space will help you attract new talent.” Which part of the explore phase does it accomplish?

• Rapport building
• CGP
• TCI
• BA

Here’s a paragraph from a recap email. “You currently have a quote from a moving company for about $5,000, but you would be willing to pay twice that much if it meant ensuring your equipment was moved safely and on time. However, the decision isn’t yours alone. Sebastian is in charge of the equipment and Sal will have to approve the higher budget. We’ll include them in our next meeting to discuss the details of where we go from here.” Which part of the explore phase does it accomplish?

• Rapport building
• CGP
• TCI
• BA

What is the main goal of a presentation?

• To provide value to the prospect
• To recap the exploratory call
• To work with the buyer on pricing
• To review what the potential buyer should know

How should you begin your sales presentation?

• With a description of your product’s features and value propositions.
• With a recap of your previous conversations, to make sure that you and your prospect have a shared understanding of what has previously been discussed.
• By discussing how your offering will help them achieve the goals they’ve shared with you in previous conversations.
• By confirming the prospect’s budget and authority.

How do you determine the timeline for closing a deal?

• Ask the prospect when they need to achieve their goal and work backwards from that date to determine when they need to sign the contract.
• Ask the prospect when they need to achieve their goal and have them sign the contract on that date.
• Recommend a deadline based on the length and complexity of your sales cycle.
• Allow the prospect to choose the date they think will be best for closing the deal.

What is the purpose of the 1-10 closing technique?

• To help the buyer define a timeline for purchasing your solution
• To convince the buyer to purchase your solution
• To help the buyer weigh the pros and cons of moving forward with your solution
• To qualify leads during the exploratory call

When using the 1-10 closing technique, what should you do if your prospect gives you number lower than six?

• Back up to the explore phase of your inbound sales strategy and figure out what you missed.
• End the meeting as quickly as possible and stop pursuing that lead.
• Offer them a discount.
• Split the difference and recalculate the lead value.

Your teammate is prepping for a sales presentation and they’ve outlined the points they want to cover: 1. Recap of previous discussions 2. Explanation of how other people in similar situations have proceeded 3. Pros and cons of various approaches They want your feedback on this outline. What would you say?

• “This is a good start, but you need to advise them on the best path to achieving their goals and explain how we can help them get there.”
• “This is a good way to finish the presentation, but you should start by explaining our offering and how it can solve their problems.”
• “This is okay, but a better approach would be to give them a demonstration of our product.”
• “This is great! Leave it like it is.”

You should do all of the following in your sales presentation EXCEPT:

• Confirm the prospect’s timeline.
• Ask the prospect to commit to your fee.
• Discuss how the prospect typically makes a purchase.
• Show the prospect as many features of your offering as possible.

All of the following questions are part of the 1-10 closing technique EXCEPT:

• On a scale of one to ten, where one is “I’m not at all interested in working with you,” and ten is, “I want to buy right now,” what number would you say you are?
• Wow, that’s a high number! Why did you pick that number?
• That makes sense. Sounds like you have a lot of good reasons to buy our product. So why didn’t you pick ten as your number?
• I understand. Now I’m going to pick a number that I think is the right number for you. What number do you think I’m going to pick?

What is the buyer doing during the decision stage of their buying journey?

• Identifying a challenge they’re experiencing or an opportunity they want to pursue.
• Deciding on a budget for the next 12 months.
• Evaluating different approaches or methods available to help them with a challenge or opportunity they’ve decided to address.
• Trying to choose a specific solution within a chosen solution category.

All of the following could be a trigger event EXCEPT:

• A press release or job posting from a good-fit company
• A good-fit person mentioning a relevant keyword or hashtag on social media
• A good-fit person mentioning one of your competitors on social media
• A good-fit person submitting a form on your website.

All of the following are examples of social selling EXCEPT:

• Reading, sharing, and commenting on blog posts
• Following and engaging with thought leaders on social media platforms
• Sharing content from your company and other sources on social media
• Sending a series of personalized emails to good-fit prospects

What should a business-to-business salesperson do if their website gets multiple anonymous visits from a single company?

• Improve their website’s lead-capture tools
• Monitor the situation but wait for the company to initiate contact
• Call the company and offer to help
• Send a LinkedIn invite to the most likely buyer at the company

Where in your presentation should you present case studies on other companies you’ve worked with?

• At the beginning of the presentation, to build credibility.
• At the end of the presentation, to encourage commitment.
• Throughout the presentation, to add continuity.
• Not at all, unless the prospect has specifically asked for them or if they are especially relevant to the prospect’s situation.

Fill in the blanks: The plan you present during the advise phase of your inbound sales strategy closes the gap between – and -.

• your prospect’s budget, your company’s needs
• your goals, your prospect’s goals
• where the prospect is now, where they want to be
• the awareness stage of the buyer’s journey, the consideration stage of the buyer’s journey

What is the goal of the identify phase of an inbound sales strategy?

• To identify good-fit leads from within the large pool of available prospects.
• To identify the goals and challenges of specific prospects.
• To identify the ways your product or service can benefit people who match your buyer personas.
• To identify ways to differentiate your offering from your chief competitors’ offerings.