Mike Stocker on AI, Agencies, and the 4 Lenses of Partner Impact

Mike Stocker - Inbound 2025
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[00:00:00] Mike Stocker: So we have all of these AI solutions that provide value today. And so we give those agencies an ability to take that and actually bring it out and offer it as a practice that they can grow their business and offer more to their end customers. So it's win-win for everyone involved. And that's why it's such a large part of our business.

[00:00:17] Mike Stocker: It's mutually beneficial to all of us that are involved.

[00:00:24] Chip Rodgers: All right, here we are. Hey everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Inside Partnering. And we are here. Guess where we are? Where are we, Mike?

[00:00:33] Mike Stocker: We are at Moscone Center in San Francisco for HubSpot Inbound.

[00:00:37] Chip Rodgers: That's amazing. It's, last year and forever. It's been in Boston. And here we are in San Francisco.

[00:00:43] Chip Rodgers: How about that?

[00:00:43] Mike Stocker: We're in my town this time. I didn't have to fly five hours out to Boston, but really vibrant. San Francisco is coming back. we're excited to have this conference here and have, HubSpot, orange all over the city. Yeah,

[00:00:56] Chip Rodgers: yeah. It's, it's fantastic. And, I think, [00:01:00] Moscone is just a great place for technology.

[00:01:02] Chip Rodgers: like Dreamforce has been here forever and so many, so many events are, are just really make it here. So it's, it's really cool to have HubSpot, here.

[00:01:11] Mike Stocker: Really cool. Yeah. HubSpot, all the orange, they have, billboards up in the city that say. I think I saw a really clever one.

[00:01:18] Mike Stocker: It said, sourdough has holes, your data shouldn't. I thought a really clever HubSpot. Good job, on that marketing.

[00:01:25] Chip Rodgers: That's a good one.

[00:01:26] Mike Stocker: Yeah.

[00:01:27] Chip Rodgers: so I'm so excited to be joined by Mike Stocker and, Mike is, gosh, an icon in the technology industry, partnerships. Sure. You are. You are, Mike. going all the way back to Marketo.

[00:01:41] Chip Rodgers: You like, like five years you were with Marketo. And then, Meta and, RollWorks. And, now with CallRail and VP of Partnerships at CallRail. Yeah. Mike, welcome.

[00:01:52] Mike Stocker: Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. I've been doing partnerships for a long time. some people call me the Kevin Bacon of Partnerships and [00:02:00] MarTech.

[00:02:01] Mike Stocker: I know most people in the industry, it's been a pleasure doing this kind of work. Really enjoy partnerships, I feel like. The function of partnerships is all about building bridges. And if that's what we keep in mind, we build a lot of value, we build those bridges and a lot of parties benefit, right?

[00:02:17] Mike Stocker: So your end customers benefit and both the company's partnering. So that's the part I love about partnerships, and that's why I've been in this space a long time. Yeah.

[00:02:24] Chip Rodgers: Yeah. It's, I think, you, it's really interesting both, role works and then also the, work that you're doing at CallRail.

[00:02:34] Chip Rodgers: You guys are a technology, obviously technology provider. And, you, work a lot with marketers and call center, folks for. Can, you tell me what you know, a little bit more about what CallRail, the value of that CallRail delivers, but I want to talk to you about that in your technology partnerships and things like that.

[00:02:54] Mike Stocker: yeah. Yeah. It's a, great question. CallRail is like the lead engagement platform that makes it really [00:03:00] easy for businesses. To optimize their marketing, attract their quality leads and convert more customers. So help them grow their business with confidence, right? We have something like 200,000 plus end businesses that leverage CallRail.

[00:03:13] Mike Stocker: And we work with something like 7,000, agency partners here at HubSpot. we're a major partner. we have, north of three to 4,000 installs of, HubSpot customers that are leveraging CallRail to see value for their business. we're rolling out all kinds of new products that are, really interesting in the AI space, which we can talk about.

[00:03:32] Mike Stocker: We have of those 7,000 agency partners we work with. Something like a thousand of 'em are actually HubSpot Solutions partners also. So we've got a great footprint here in the HubSpot ecosystem. That's why we're big sponsors of Inbound and trying to show up in this ecosystem.

[00:03:47] Chip Rodgers: Yeah, I think you, you guys announced something just, earlier this spring with, HubSpot that really pretty cool integration with, CallRail and the,

[00:03:58] Mike Stocker: agent.

[00:03:59] Mike Stocker: Yeah. So [00:04:00] CallRail has a new product called, Voice Assist. And think about this, it's a product that allows you to basically answer your calls even when you don't have a human available. So maybe off hours or maybe on weekends. We have now a voice agent. it's all AI powered and it takes all that history that CallRail has.

[00:04:19] Mike Stocker: So we work with you to do the call tracking analytics, but it takes all that history. It looks at your website and it actually builds an agent that has context and knowledge about your business. And so it's able to answer calls. And so we've built an integration to HubSpot that actually sends that data into HubSpot, makes it a available there.

[00:04:37] Mike Stocker: so our mutual customers see even more value. so it's really powerful. we're talking a lot about it. We're giving a lot of demos. for agencies that are buying media out on the web, it didn't allow them to buy media at any time, right? And I think that's really valuable because you don't have to buy the most expensive media.

[00:04:57] Mike Stocker: You can actually buy media on off hours or on weekends, [00:05:00] and it actually drives, someone to qualify to book an appointment or to book a sale. so really powerful stuff and we're excited to announce that partnership with with HubSpot. But we've also announced, partnerships with CTV providers, which think about that.

[00:05:15] Chip Rodgers: interesting.

[00:05:15] Mike Stocker: Yeah, so we announced with Mountain MNTN last week, and there's a great synergy there with our call tracking. Driving from the CTV ad all the way through to, did a call happen. So that's our core call tracking business, but also with the, voice assist in the future. Like now you can buy CTV ads that actually run it all hours and you're gonna be able to drive it in and have an agent answer it for you.

[00:05:40] Mike Stocker: And we haven't had a chance to, talk about the agent yet, but, you can't stump our agent. It's really a great product. So

[00:05:47] Chip Rodgers: that's really cool.

[00:05:48] Mike Stocker: Check out CallRail Voice Assist if you haven't. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:05:51] Chip Rodgers: so how does something like that, come about, Mike? What's the, process and where, do the, I'm thinking of the, so integration with [00:06:00] HubSpot or with Mountain are those things that are driven from customer demand?

[00:06:04] Chip Rodgers: Are they, do they come from the, call CallRail product team? Do they come from customer? Like where, do they, what's the, sort of source of that in the process for saying, Hey, we're gonna go invest. In this integration?

[00:06:17] Mike Stocker: Yeah. Chip, that's a great question. It happens all of those ways.

[00:06:22] Mike Stocker: determining building an integration comes from feedback that you hear from your customers. It comes from your product team coming up with innovative ideas and saying, Hey, this would be a really interesting use case. It comes from sometimes your partner team, I've come up with ideas and said, Hey, there would be mutual value there that we pick up when we have conversations with partners or end customers or that type of thing, right?

[00:06:43] Mike Stocker: it comes from all of those different places. And I think the most important thing though is to like, have a, pulse on your customers. What are they looking for? What would make their lives easier? What would give them value? So I, I said this earlier, but the way a partnership works is you have to have both [00:07:00] partners.

[00:07:00] Mike Stocker: So it's like a three legged stool. Both partners have to have value creation for their business, but then the third leg of the stool that everyone forgets is the end customer. The end customer has to get value as well. And if you think about it that way, then you'll be successful, with some of these integrations.

[00:07:16] Chip Rodgers: what is that better together story? Why is it, one, one plus one equals three kind of

[00:07:22] Mike Stocker: thing? That's right. That's right. And I think a lot of times you have to take a hypothesis and say, I think this is why that one plus one will be three, or it'll be better together. But then you have to pressure test it.

[00:07:33] Mike Stocker: You have to put it out on the market, and you have to get early adopters. You have to get their feedback, and you have to iterate quickly. And I think that's a part of partnerships that a lot of, partner leaders don't realize. They'll put an integration out there and then they won't touch it for two years or three years.

[00:07:47] Mike Stocker: That's the wrong approach. I think you have to treat each integration as almost its own business. You have to get feedback loops going, and you have to constantly iterate. It's a product. It's a product, and you have to constantly iterate and improve. Yeah,

[00:07:58] Chip Rodgers: yeah. No, I love that. [00:08:00] The, the fast iteration and try and, trying, getting feedback, see how it works and then, making improvements.

[00:08:08] Mike Stocker: That's right. That's right. So I think that's a process that, a lot of partnership teams need to get better at is, thinking like entrepreneurs thinking about ways to iterate and improve. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:08:19] Chip Rodgers: Mike, you have, CallRail has like now seven, like 7,000 agency partners. So you have a big, that's a big part of your partner, partner story.

[00:08:30] Chip Rodgers: Tell me about the, about those kind, those partners and what's the value that they're, bringing to CallRail? How are you working together?

[00:08:37] Mike Stocker: Yeah, it's a great question. we're really proud of our agency, partner ecosystem. We work with 7,000 agencies as, customers. as partners. And with that that drives north of 50% of our business.

[00:08:49] Mike Stocker: Wow. very successful program. And the way that we work with them is, it started with our original product, which is call tracking. A lot of agencies actually want to work with us because they [00:09:00] wanna show that they're driving the things that the businesses they represent are driving calls.

[00:09:05] Mike Stocker: And so through using CallRail, many of our agencies work with us where they actually buy CallRail and they cover the cost. Because they want to show that value that they are driving calls to the inbound business. But then also some of them work with us on a referral basis where they send us leads and say, we think you should be using CallRail because it helps us show the value and helps us optimize the campaign.

[00:09:27] Mike Stocker: So that's on our like traditional call tracking business. But also now that we're coming out with all of our AI solutions, all of our agency partners are being asked this question. They're all, I go out and I meet with a lot of them. They're all being asked. What are you doing with ai? AI is the buzz and everyone's talking about it.

[00:09:44] Mike Stocker: We actually have real solutions that provide value immediately. So we talked about our voice assist, voice agent, but we also have a lot of AI around looking at the transcripts, looking at keywords that come outta the transcripts, looking at things like sentiment and providing AI [00:10:00] recommended like follow ups AI recommended like coaching.

[00:10:03] Mike Stocker: So we have all of these AI solutions that provide value today. And so we give those agencies an ability to take that and actually bring it out and offer it as a practice that they can grow their business and offer more to their end customers. So it's win-win for everyone involved. And that's why it's such a large part of our business.

[00:10:21] Mike Stocker: It's mutually beneficial to all of us that are involved.

[00:10:24] Chip Rodgers: that goes right back to the Better Together, right? it's, there's a value for, You

[00:10:28] Mike Stocker: it's on the agency or solutions partner side.

[00:10:29] Chip Rodgers: So Mike, tell me about with the agency partners, you just launched a new program earlier this spring for MDF. Yep. Funding for agencies. Tell me about that and what's, how's that working?

[00:10:40] Mike Stocker: Yeah, we just talked about how agencies are such an important part of our business, right?

[00:10:44] Mike Stocker: So we want to invest in those, agency here at HubSpot, they call them solutions partners, but agency partners very similar. So we wanna help enable them and empower their business. And so we've launched an MDF program. we've also launched a CallRail community where they can actually submit their good work and we can [00:11:00] do case study development and all that.

[00:11:02] Mike Stocker: We have, a CallRail classroom where we actually can provide them education. And so we're trying to do a whole lot of, items that, or programs that can help our agency partners so that they're more successful when they're out, marketing and promoting CallRail to their customers. and so the MBF program is, where we can do joint events together.

[00:11:22] Mike Stocker: They say, an agency might come to us. I met with one last night, in fact that said, Hey, there's a healthcare event. it's a PE thing. A lot of PE based. owned companies are gonna be there in the healthcare vertical. it'd be perfect fit for CallRail. especially, specifically for the voice assist, product that we have.

[00:11:41] Mike Stocker: You guys should be there. it would be a great fit. Can we go together? And that stemmed into a conversation of. Yeah, do we have a case study that we can jointly talk about there and really highlight the value? And so all of these programs are designed to show that impact, show that value and once you do that, [00:12:00] it starts the flywheel going.

[00:12:02] Mike Stocker: and then other agencies can say, wow, I can do that with that product and I can make this customer, it might spark interest or it might spark some business. And so that's what we're trying to do, is we're trying to give them tools. We're trying to spark interest, we're trying to drive new business by inspiring people and saying, I, hey, I could do that.

[00:12:20] Mike Stocker: Or let's check it out.

[00:12:22] Chip Rodgers: How's the, what's the uptake been?

[00:12:24] Mike Stocker: It's been phenomenal. we, launched our voice assist, product and immediately we saw hundreds and thousands of customers raising their hand and saying, Hey, we're interested. We wanna learn more. And so if that's anything, in the early days, it's super exciting.

[00:12:40] Mike Stocker: And I think, likewise with our programs that we're doing, so the MD MDF program and some of the others we're having a lot of agencies come to us and say, Hey, we have this great, customer value statement or this great case study, can you help us highlight it? 'cause it helps them grow their business, helps us grow our business.

[00:12:59] Mike Stocker: And like I [00:13:00] said, it helps end customers or other agencies get more ideas. Yeah,

[00:13:04] Chip Rodgers: yeah. It's terrific. So one of the things that, everyone, all partner leaders are. Wondering about, nervous about. But, yeah, how do you show, what, how would you measure your success? How do you measure the success of, partners and the partner program for CallRail?

[00:13:26] Mike Stocker: Wow. It's a good question. it's multifaceted. I think, I did a, one of these with you a while back, and we talked about the four lenses, the partner impact. I talk about this quite a bit, but. Partners impact your business in many ways. They help you with, co-marketing. So top of funnel marketing, new leads coming in.

[00:13:43] Mike Stocker: That's one lens. They help you through integrations with things like, product capabilities. So through integrations, you can do more, right? product capabilities, expanded, use cases, all of that. That's the second lens. The third lens [00:14:00] is, something like resale, where, or new sales, where an agency refers you business or a partner's reselling your software or just pure standard referrals where they're sending you new business.

[00:14:12] Mike Stocker: So net new business which helps on your sales side. And then the last way that, partners help is around improved retention. So we see, and HubSpot has just shared some of this, but lots of companies see that if a partner is involved, if there are integrations in place, retention improves.

[00:14:30] Mike Stocker: You're able to keep that customer longer, keep that customer happier, and ultimately grow that customer.

[00:14:36] Chip Rodgers: Cause the partners engaged and they're

[00:14:38] Mike Stocker: engaged, they're more sticky because they're using different connections. That's on the integration side when an agency or solutions partner is involved.

[00:14:46] Mike Stocker: Retention is also higher because they have great expertise. They know your product. And so that end customer is better set up for success. So there's wins on all those four lenses I just talked about. Additional co-marketing, additional sales, better [00:15:00] retention you name it, right? partners help across the different lenses.

[00:15:03] Mike Stocker: We are measured, by. partner influence, partner source deals. we look at all of that. We look at number of integration installs that happen. So we have something like 10 or 15 metrics that we look at as a partner team to say, are we driving the impact that we want? One interesting, stat that we look at is number of customers with one or more integration, because that helps us as a proxy of is that gonna help with retention?

[00:15:28] Mike Stocker: Is that gonna help with other areas? And we have seen that it, it does. so those customers that have at least one integration, a churn at something like 40% less now as a SaaS business, wouldn't you like to say, Hey, here's this. Now, it's not a silver bullet, but it's one piece of the puzzle. And this is why companies should invest in tech integrations, but also invest in agency partnerships, solutions, partnerships.

[00:15:54] Mike Stocker: 'cause that helps also.

[00:15:56] Chip Rodgers: That's fantastic. Gosh, Mike, I love those, the four [00:16:00] pillars of, of value. And, and, and that, we did talk, we did, I think it was 2023, maybe a couple years ago. super note, I think it was in San Diego. And, and that you're still, it still applies.

[00:16:16] Mike Stocker: It hasn't changed.

[00:16:18] Mike Stocker: I encourage all of you, go and look at those four lenses, four pillars. It'll apply to your business also. So no matter what business you're in, all of those lenses should apply. And when you evaluate a new partner. You should see that they deliver more than just one lens. If they're doing just one lens, it may not be enough to invest in that partnership.

[00:16:36] Mike Stocker: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:16:37] Chip Rodgers: Fantastic. Mike, this has been terrific. a little, crazy with a lot of,

[00:16:42] Mike Stocker: energy and, all of that, a lot of people coming by, but, it's great connecting with you. I think the, cool thing is, being here at HubSpot inbound, HubSpot believes in partners.

[00:16:52] Mike Stocker: Yesterday, they had a partner day. It's great to see a major platform. Investing in partnerships, they understand the value of [00:17:00] ecosystem. angio Odo is now taking over to have a combined app partner program plus solutions partners. And I think that's gonna be real future, because just like I talked about, CallRail has solutions partners as well as integration partners.

[00:17:15] Mike Stocker: HubSpot sees that same dynamic in their ecosystem and it provides a ton of value. And real excited, to be here. And sponsor this, and provide value for all of our end customers. So thanks for, chatting partnerships. yeah. We love that you're doing your new Inside Partnering podcast.

[00:17:32] Mike Stocker: It's awesome.

[00:17:33] Chip Rodgers: Terrific. Thanks, Mike. All I think, with that we'll sign off and, just, have a great event here at, at Inbound, and, great chatting with you.

[00:17:42] Mike Stocker: Awesome. Nice chatting with you always. Thanks,

[00:17:45] Chip Rodgers: and thank you all for joining and, For, inside partnering.

[00:17:50] Chip Rodgers: Say thanks for joining, and we'll see you next time. Thanks everybody.

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