I have a dream.

I want to transform a technology company, particularly a software company, into a superb marketing-savvy company like HubSpot.

Actually, I wanted to do this at a Boca Raton, FL software firm where I led marketing, but they lacked the vision.  You cannot teach an old dog new tricks.

Don’t know HubSpot?  Founded three years ago by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah, they build a software company around inbound marketing.   3 year results include:

• Over 2,300 customers
• $33 million in capital raised
• Solidly profitable with strong cash flow

Not bad for a start-up with no base.

I can hear it already.  “We’d love to be like HubSpot and put up numbers like that.”  Sorry, but it’s not that simple. You cannot get there without paying the price.

In order to become like HubSpot, you’ve got to embrace a new and radically different approach to marketing. Dump the telemarketing and product specs. Product marketing is dead. Tradition PR is over. Instead, we need to be fun, irreverent, innovative.

Here are three examples of the HubSpot approach:

1. Chairman David Meerman Scott, comments on a blog article by Mike Volpe, VP Marketing, about the TV show, Mad Men. David suggests HubSpot reverse-engineer the show in a humorous video spoof. Read their blog post: 3 Lessons in Content Creation from Mad Men. (Does your Chairman suggest TV spoof ideas?)
2. Their remake of the song “You Outta Know,” featuring Rebecca Corlis.  (HubSpot hired a music major.  Got any music majors on your staff, Mister Software CEO?) You can watch You Outta Know (Inbound Marketing) here. 
3. Or their weekly online TV show — a bit campy, but very entertaining and lots of big name guests.

If you want to become the next HubSpot, you’ve got to dramatically change traditional thinking in the software business. You’ve got to embrace an entirely new approach — a highly viral and innovative approach — and neatly summarized in the new book, Inbound Marketing.  To make this kind of radical change, you’ll need the support of the Board of Directors.

Do you hear me Don McKinney?

It CAN be done.  But it’s the rare leader indeed who can embrace RADICAL change like this.  Are you the one with the guts to do it?