Your Loudest Critic Might Become Your Best Supporter (& Distribution Channel)

Why It Works Series: Kyle Jepson turned the critics of his HubSpot course into contributors, and one course became three.

When people go out of their way to express anger, they clearly care. If they didn’t, they would have ignored it and moved on.

So when most people would fold because they got bad press on a new launch, Kyle Jepson did the smart thing (and the really hard thing) and leaned in.

The launch that got called garbage

Let’s back up… Kyle built a documentary-style sales enablement course for HubSpot Academy out of 40+ expert interviews. He did this because he saw a huge gap in communication between marketing and sales (a tale as old as time).

Then someone at HubSpot flagged a forum thread from the Sales Enablement Association, a group Kyle didn’t know existed. People there were calling his course garbage. Yikes, cue the cold sweat.

But he didn’t quietly pull it down. He turned those critics into contributors, and one course became a three-course series with 55k certifications.

Here’s my (marketer) take on why Kyle’s play works so well.

Start with an apology and an open call

Kyle posted in the forum of his haters, apologized, and invited anyone who wanted to be interviewed to reach out. Opening your arms first is the right way to handle it. It makes that group feel heard and respected, which is ultimately what they wanted.

Kyle credits Jay Baer’s “hug your haters” idea for this approach, and the data backs it up. Baer’s research with Edison Research found that answering a complaint increases customer advocacy in every channel, while ignoring one decreases it. Roughly a third of complaints never get a response at all.¹ Most brands would rather go quiet. Kyle replied in the exact place where people were roasting him.

Then do your homework

Kyle wasn’t going to get caught looking silly twice, so he looked up the loudest dissenter, bought his book and read it. In Kyle’s words: “shoot, this is actually really good.”

He went to his boss with “I don’t think this is just, like, internet trolls,” and HubSpot flew him to San Francisco to interview the critic and his co-author.

Doing the interview in person isn’t always in the budget, but HubSpot made it happen. Flying out to see someone shows how much you care about getting it right.

Let your critics make the work better

The course got better as a result. The new edition had the backing of people who had spent their careers on sales enablement, and the association put its support behind it.

That backing matters more than any copy HubSpot could have written about itself. In a 2026 study from SurveyMonkey and Reddit, 73% of B2B decision-makers said they trust peer insights, compared with 55% who trust vendor websites.² In TrustRadius’s 2026 buyer report, vendor marketing collateral ranked dead last among the sources buyers consult.³ When the experts are the ones teaching the course, the credibility is theirs and HubSpot gets to share in it.

Contributors become superfans

Because they contributed, they shared. They were featured, and the topic was their career, so promoting the course made them look good too. The former critics became some of its biggest advocates.

That reach compounded. So many people answered his open call that the correction grew into a sales management course, then a revenue operations course. One apology turned into three courses.

The lesson

One big thing to keep in mind is that not every angry comment deserves a flight to San Francisco. Some people are just loud, and the internet has plenty of them. Kyle didn’t take the critics’ word that they were experts immediately. He checked by taking the time to read their book.

Putting your work out into the world feels vulnerable, and tough feedback can make you want to crawl into a hole and disappear. But learn from Kyle. The next time someone tells you very publicly that your work isn’t right, figure out if they’re a troll or legit. If they’re legit, reach out and make a friend.

You may find your biggest supporter.

Kyle’s full story, including his advice on starting small when your company is nervous about experiments, is on Trove: https://thetrove.io/artifacts/1066. Worth the read!

Sources

1. 1. Jay Baer, Hug Your Haters (Portfolio, 2016), research conducted with Edison Research. Via Heidi Cohen’s interview with Baer.
2. 2. SurveyMonkey and Reddit, The Hidden B2B Journey, March 2026. Survey of 1,202 U.S. business decision-makers. SurveyMonkey announcement.
3. 3. TrustRadius, 2026 B2B Buying Disconnect Report, July 2026. Via HG Insights.