Roadmap #2 — System Change
Moving to a more sophisticated CRM allows Salem Media to transform its sales and service organizations into a cohesive, forward-thinking revenue engine — while still delivering the account creation and billing-to-GL integrations from Roadmap #1.
Current State Integrations
Where Salem stands today
| Marketing | CRM | OMS / Account Creation | Traffic / Fulfillment | Billing | G/L | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Local Broadcast | Manual | RAB | Wide Orbit | Wide Orbit / GAM | Wide Orbit | Great Plains |
| Local Digital | Manual | RAB | Wide Orbit | Monday.com / GAM / Digital Vendors | Wide Orbit | Great Plains |
| Local selling SWN/TH | Manual | RAB | Wide Orbit | SF.com / Counterpoint | Wide Orbit | Great Plains |
| SMR (SWN/TH) | Manual | RAB | SF.com / Counterpoint | Counterpoint / GAM / Asana | Counterpoint | Great Plains |
| SMR selling DMS | Manual | RAB | SF.com / Counterpoint | Monday.com / GAM / Digital Vendors | Counterpoint | Great Plains |
| SMR selling local | Manual | RAB | SF.com / Counterpoint | Wide Orbit / GAM | Counterpoint | Great Plains |
The Change Program
Replace the current CRM with HubSpot
Timeline TBD. Costs need formal financial modeling; current spend across the four systems could make the move cost neutral.
Marketing capabilities — HubSpot was built marketing-first, with a full suite of email, ads, social, SEO and content to automate and expand Salem's marketing.
Service / support desk — native Service Hub (ticketing, task management, help desk) can replace Monday.com and Asana.
- Asana may stay for a subset of users with heavy outside-provider workflow (e.g. social influence product), but most Asana use cases are solved by Service Hub.
AI capabilities — Customer, Data and Prospecting agents, plus AI-powered insights.
App ecosystem — 1,000+ integrations including Gmail, Outlook, Slack, LinkedIn, Zoom, Amplitude, Jira, Adobe Express, Aircall and MS Teams.
Built to handle all product offerings, enabling cross-product selling — traditional, digital and new.
Customer reporting — see customer information from lead to cash in one platform.
Carry forward the Roadmap #1 integrations
Account creation and maintenance process.
Integration between the billing systems and the GL.
What HubSpot additionally unlocks
Eliminate multiple fulfillment systems and their costs — Monday.com, SF.com (for contracting) and Asana.
Establish standard business operations processes.
- Account ownership and rules of engagement — clean up duplicates by not migrating them, inactivating or consolidating.
- A standard contracting process across all teams.
- Fulfillment workflows by product, where needed.
- Ordering process — explore automation, integration and AI with products/pricing in the CRM to pre-populate media plans and order detail that feeds the OMS seamlessly.
Full transparency for all teams, from prospecting through fulfillment status, in one place.
Playbooks by team, initiative or future sales strategy.
New End State
With HubSpot in place
| Marketing | CRM | OMS / Account Creation | Traffic / Fulfillment | Billing | G/L | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Local Broadcast | HubSpot | HubSpot | Wide Orbit | HubSpot / Wide Orbit | Wide Orbit | Great Plains |
| Local Digital | HubSpot | HubSpot | Wide Orbit | HubSpot / GAM / Digital Vendors | Wide Orbit | Great Plains |
| Local selling SWN/TH | HubSpot | HubSpot | Wide Orbit | HubSpot / Counterpoint | Wide Orbit | Great Plains |
| SMR (SWN/TH) | HubSpot | HubSpot | Counterpoint | HubSpot / Counterpoint | Counterpoint | Great Plains |
| SMR selling DMS | HubSpot | HubSpot | Counterpoint | HubSpot / GAM / Digital Vendors | Counterpoint | Great Plains |
| SMR selling local | HubSpot | HubSpot | Counterpoint | HubSpot / Wide Orbit | Counterpoint | Great Plains |
Overall benefits
Time savings (sales) on account creation/duplication and potential sales channel conflict.
Time savings (sales) on eliminating separate data entry for fulfillment.
Time savings (sales and service teams) through transparency — no more chasing status requests and updates.
Time savings (finance) on manually moving revenue between systems.
Revenue speed to market — marketing automation, playbooks and sales initiatives, and AI workflows that give sales more time for prospecting, pitches and renewals.
Still needs process work
Integration from CRM to OMS for orders.
Integration from HubSpot Service to digital providers.
One Salem orders will need one workflow that can invoice out of either billing system.
Outstanding Items to Address
Inventory avails are not in one place
- Explore moving this detail into one central database everyone can access.
- This does not solve the lag between when inventory is checked and when a sale is made and ordered.
- Enable the pre-sales support team to help with inventory pulls.
Sales operations leader
- Salem should explore hiring a sales operations leader as the dedicated owner of the CRM and sales processes across all teams — driving alignment, go-to-market best practices and adoption.
- This leader should be an equal partner with sales and fulfillment leadership, bridging gaps and identifying solutions quickly.
- The goal: someone always looking to enable faster revenue generation through automation and AI tools.
Replacement of Great Plains
- If Salem chooses to replace Great Plains with NetSuite, Indigo Trigger has interest in assisting. We have deep experience in NetSuite implementations and integrations, including Wide Orbit and NetSuite.
Google vs. Microsoft suite
- For sales tools, automated workflows and the move to One Salem, leadership should pursue putting all employees on a single email and productivity suite.
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Dimension | Roadmap #1 — No Change | Roadmap #2 — System Change |
|---|---|---|
| Systems touched | No replacements — integrate what exists | Replace CRM with HubSpot; retire Monday.com, Asana, SF.com contracting |
| CRM | RAB (unchanged) | HubSpot across all business units |
| Marketing | Manual | Automated — email, ads, social, SEO, content |
| Fulfillment | Monday.com + Asana, partially fed by RAB | HubSpot Service Hub (Asana optional for vendor-heavy work) |
| Customer 360 | Not achieved | Lead-to-cash view in one platform |
| Ordering | Still manual and non-standard | Standardized; automation and AI explored |
| Timeline | 60–90 days for account creation and billing/GL; fulfillment TBD | TBD — larger implementation program |
| Cost | Integration effort only | Potentially cost neutral vs. current four-system spend |
| Primary beneficiary | Finance, some sales time back | Sales, service, finance and marketing |