The Risk of Adopting Point Solutions in Your Inbound Flow

Point solutions—or single-function software—are popular for companies building their first inbound flows. They run the gambit in terms of specific functionality: 

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• Landing pages 
• Lead capture forms
• Email automation
• Scheduling links
• Lead routing software
• Lead qualification filters
• CRMs

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Many companies will jump on point solutions because of their low price point, ease of set up, and “flexible” integrations. But, as we’ll discover below, these point solutions come with significant risks—and can often be a costly mistake. 

Myths about point solutions for your inbound flows

Point solutions are popular because marketing leaders generally fall for one of the following myths. Unfortunately, as you’ll see, this can prove costly and time-consuming. 

Myth #1: You save money

Many GTM leaders adopt point solutions because of the low price tag. And yes, while there is often a lower upfront cost for the point solution you’re considering, you’re not seeing the whole picture:

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• Usage-based pricing increases as you scale up and add more contacts
• Individual point solutions may be inexpensive, but as you build your stack those fees pile up
• You’ll have to invest time and energy to integrate them into a functional inbound flow—inflating your employee costs
• Errors and bottlenecks lead to lost revenue opportunities and can increase prospect & customer churn

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Myth #2: They’re easier to manage

Point solutions often tout ease of use and fast execution. While true to an extent—by virtue of having fewer features—this can actually make things more complicated, not less: 

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• Managing one point solution is easier, sure—managing fifteen of them, including all the integrations that come with them, is a nightmare
• Often limited functionality means you have to build workarounds—which are complex and time-consuming than simply buying a better alternative

Myth #3: It’s easy to replace as you scale

So what if a point solution has all of these problems? Can’t you just adopt one in the early days, then upgrade as you go along? While you technically could, you’re opening the door to numerous problems and headaches down the road:

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• Data transfer & compatibility from the new system to the old is rarely straightforward
• Managing migrations from 15+ point solutions to a single, central system can be a nightmare
• Prospects & customers in existing workflows can get dropped or re-engaged, resulting in a poor user experience
• Changing software is a hassle in the best of times and inevitably leads to slowdowns—which have a direct impact on your ability to drive revenue

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Note: If your inbound flow is already a patchwork of point solutions, Default makes the migration to a centralized platform simple and easy. Contact us to find the best and most pain-free transition plan.

Myth #4: They’ll give you more flexibility

Point solutions seem like they’ll give you more flexibility. After all, you can get the best-in-category for each, leveraging their unique strengths and avoiding drawbacks, right?

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Well, not exactly. You’ll have to adopt such a brittle patchwork to align all your point solutions that you end up with something that’s not flexible at all. 

What is the fatal flaw of adopting point solutions in your inbound flow?

So what’s the fatal flaw that underlies all of these myths? Reducing your inbound flow to a series of functions, rather than a holistic experience. 

If you see your inbound flow is just a series of functions to capture leads and drive engagement, then of course a patchwork makes sense. After all, what’s the value of a centralized platform when those “functions” are fulfilled just as “easily” by various point solutions? 

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But there’s a problem here. Your prospects and customers don’t see “features.” They just see a buying experience. And 80% of B2B buyers expect an experience as personalized, contextual, and seamless as B2C customers. 

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In other words, point solutions not only cause frustration on the back-end, but the front-end as well. 

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Your inbound flow is an experience that should carry your buyers from first engagement to closed-won. If it doesn’t, you’re going to create friction and frustration at multiple junctures, each incident reducing the likelihood of a sale. 

5 major risks of adopting point solutions for your inbound flow

Now let’s dial into five specific business risks you’re opening yourself up to by adopting point solutions for your inbound flow. 

1. Prospect & customer dropoff

Point solutions inevitably lead to broken lead flows. Broken lead flows, then, lead to prospect & customer dropoff—58% of buyers will abandon a business due to a bad experience.

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What’s more, point solutions generally involve manual intervention to keep prospects moving through the funnel. Oversight or overburdened employees can result in missed steps, leading to lost opportunities. 

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Default avoids this problem by integrating lead capture, qualification, scheduling, and routing in one central platform. By automating each step, we make sure leads progress in a single, uninterrupted journey. 

2. Inefficiencies in handling large numbers of prospects

Although there are exceptions, point solutions really only work up to a certain number of contacts. Beyond that, you’re going to have trouble scaling, namely due to the same inefficiencies mentioned above—slowdown, bottlenecks, and lost connections.

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What’s more, relying on a patchwork of integrations means that it’s difficult (if not impossible) to centralize your data. So you’ll inevitably miss key insights into prospect behavior, fail to capture important qualification criteria, or outliers that may be a good fit even if they aren’t your ICP.

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And if you end up losing that data, then you lose all the opportunities to learn from past successes and failures. 

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Because Default handles the entire inbound flow within a single platform, it can handle large quantities of leads without sacrificing flexibility and customization. 

3. Costly rebuilding & redesign

Because point solutions eventually need to be replaced, it’s almost guaranteed that you’re going to need to replace it. This means that all your forms, workflows, automations, qualification & lead scoring systems, calendar links, integrations, etc. will need to be rebuilt. 

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Starting with Default means you’ll avoid these costs and keep the same inbound flows as you scale.

4. Inability to adapt to market and customer changes

As mentioned above, point solutions are far less flexible than integrated, all-in-one inbound platforms. This means that as both the market and your knowledge of it shift and customer demands evolve, you won’t be able to quickly pivot to accommodate those changes.

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With Default, changing a workflow or automation can happen in just a few clicks. You have complete flexibility and control, because we believe in adapting your inbound flows to the market—not the other way around. 

5. Poor integration with new systems

Integrations are inevitable no matter what your tech stack. But the difference between good and bad integrations has a bottom-line impact—some data indicates that 57% of companies lose $500K or more per year due to poor integrations. 

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When you’ve duct-taped together a bunch of point solutions, it’s fragile and brittle. Just adding one more integration is far from simple—and it could threaten the whole system.

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Default, on the other hand, is built to handle integrations quickly and easily. And we’ll keep adding new capabilities as time goes on. 

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Final thoughts on point solutions in your inbound flow

Point solutions may seem to save you time and money, but they cause headaches down the line. Instead, adopt an all-in-one, centralized inbound platform to capture, qualify, schedule, route, and nurture leads automatically. 

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See Default in action today.

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