Your first 90 days as a HubSpot customer

Obviously, no two businesses are exactly alike. When it comes to onboarding with HubSpot, it logically follows that no two businesses will use the platform in the exact same way, either.

That's why it's so important to have clearly in mind your specific business challenges, successes and goals — and to be upfront about them. Only then can your onboarding journey lead you to the right destination.

Here are some key points to keep in mind:

• Make good use of SMART goals.
  You may have heard this before, but it's worth repeating: setting SMART goals for yourself (and then striving to attain them) is the best way to grow your business. We'll talk more about these goals later, but don't forget that they should be measurable and realistic, among other things.
• Get your key stakeholders involved from the beginning.
  Have you ever tried to drive a car without any oil in the engine? If you haven't, don't go out there and try it now — it's a no-win proposition. In the same way, don't try to embark on a new project before communicating with your company's key stakeholders.
  Communication is the oil that lubricates your company's engine; and you want your organisation to be "firing on all cylinders" during this period of transition to the HubSpot platform. When all of your key players know why the company is making the change, and how the process will unfold, then everyone can be aligned toward the same goals.

• Be clear about any approaching deadlines.
  Is your company currently using a different CRM? Make sure that your marketing, sales and service teams know when the switch to HubSpot will be fully implemented, so that they can make that transition with minimal friction.
• Make good use of HubSpot's Forum and Blog.
  Your 90-day onboarding will start you on the right track, but you can glean a lot of helpful insights from other HubSpot customers via the forums. And don't forget to subscribe to the HubSpot blog for all the latest tutorials, guides and updates.

In addition to the above points, make sure to use the ESM Inbound Knowledge Base as another key resource. It can provide you with guidance on a number of important topics — from deciding whether HubSpot is right for your business to using step-by-step guides to update, amend, and supercharge your portal.

As Jemma Legg, Chief Operating Officer at SpotDev, says:

What to expect

It's important that you already have a detailed overview of your existing sales process to share with your onboard contact at HubSpot. This information will allow your onboard specialist to determine which kind of Sales Hub is right for your company — and what further training may be required.

You should expect to set aside some time to work through the transition process with your sales team. You will also need to participate in calls with multiple stakeholders. The amount of time you could spend will vary, depending on how much training your team needs, along with several other factors.

What to consider

It's overly simplistic to view Sales Hub as a tool that turns leads into customers. The reality is, Sales Hub can become a holistic portal element — one that helps you to qualify leads, report on all of your sales activities, and promote effective communication across the board (sales reps with prospects, sales reps with other sales reps, and even the sales team with other departments).

In the final analysis, Sales Hub tools can free up your reps to do what they do best: sell! That being said, here are some vital elements that need to align in order to make that happen:

• Smarketing.
  That's what we call the process of integrating your sales and marketing teams. At its core, this is all about good communication. When your marketers know when and how to hand over qualified leads to sales, and your sales reps know when and how to provide helpful feedback to marketing, then both departments will benefit.
• Business goals.
  Your sales team will probably have the firmest grasp of which goals and metrics correlate with ROI — and those goals and KPIs can provide an invaluable window into the true value that HubSpot is bringing to your business.
• Deal stages.
  In your industry, do customers typically go straight from qualified to won? Or are there usually more steps involved in the buyer's journey? You'll have to examine your average lead times and close rates, and work with your sales team to identify the key stages of a typical deal (and which activities will progressively move your prospects toward a purchase).
• Other sales processes.
  Even though HubSpot can give your sales process a major boost by means of its advanced tools, that doesn't mean you should discard other sales processes that you've already implemented. In many cases, it's the combination of those unique attributes with HubSpot's platform that leads to major sales uplift. Our sales experts at ESM Inbound can help you integrate your current sales processes with HubSpot in a way that makes sense for your company.

Matt Nortje, Head of Digital and Training at ESM Inbound, explains:

What to expect

HubSpot's CMS Hub will enable you to create exceptional web content quickly and effectively, even without experience in web development, (CMS stands for "content management system," by the way.) Onboarding for this hub will include training on how to use features like:

• Page editor
• Page templates
• Modules and global modules
• CTAs
• Smart content

You can expect regular calls with your onboarding specialist during your first 90 days, as well as spending some time on additional training and certificates as you move forward.

What to consider

The CMS Hub has a lot of moving parts to take into account during your onboarding journey. For instance, think about these factors:

• Your stakeholders.
  Who is currently involved in your content creation/distribution process? Who do you need to involve in your transition to HubSpot's CMS? Think about your developers, copywriters and other stakeholders, and what permissions they'll need in order to take part in the project.
• Migration service.
  Do you want to simply "drag and drop" your website into the HubSpot platform? If so, think again. You'll need to make some adjustments to your site before moving it over to HubSpot, and then perform some tests to make sure everything is working correctly.
  On the other hand, you may view this migration as a chance to completely redesign your existing site. If that's the case, consider working with our team of design and development specialists here at ESM Inbound. Check out our portfolio to get an idea of what we can do for your website.
• Organisation and management.
  Everyone who's involved in your content strategy (developers, copywriters, marketers, etc.) is going to want a piece of your "CMS pie." Make sure you have an effective method for filing, naming and using assets. And don't forget user roles and their associated permissions, either — you don't want a copywriter with an outsized sense of humour posting limericks to your site!
• Web and traffic analytics.
  Whether you're building, re-designing or migrating your website, completing the project is going to cost money. And when something costs money, someone (in senior management) is going to want to see the ROI. HubSpot has good out-of-the-box web and traffic analytics tools — including executive-friendly dashboards and reports — that can help you to demonstrate performance, growth and areas of opportunity.

What to expect

As we've mentioned before, a CRM is only as good as its data. That's why it's vital to audit and streamline your data so that it's clean, accurate and ready for replication across all of your key applications. Expect a deep dive into your current data processes during your 90-day onboarding, with the goal of creating a "single source of truth" throughout your enterprise.

What to consider

When it comes to your CRM data, there are two elements that will play a key role in your Operations Hub onboarding process:

• Your data syncing strategy.
  HubSpot's Data Sync feature will benefit your applications across the board — but it won't function like your standard trigger-based integration. Instead, Data Sync will keep your database synchronised in real-time. Since it will include historical data as well as any future data that your teams input, you may need to run a data cleanse project before fully switching over.
• Data quality.
  You'll likely want to check your data for common processing errors while it's "under the microscope." True, CMS Hub includes workflows to automatically sift out these errors, but you'll need to invest some time in identifying them before such workflows can be used. If you need help, the ESM Inbound team can run a customised diagnostic session for your company — and that session can help you determine the best way to ensure high-quality data for your CRM.

As you embark on your 90-day onboarding journey, it's important to "not miss the forest for the trees." In other words, you must remember that partnering with HubSpot is not a business goal in itself; rather, it is a means to an end.

Of course, that raises an important question: what are your goals? If you want your company to grow, it's vital that you have a clear objective in mind, and several smaller goals that will get you there. As a philosopher once remarked: "When a man does not know what harbour he is making for, no wind is the right wind."

If you want to have the "wind at your back," so to speak, then you need to use SMART goals. These goals are:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Relevant
• Time-bound

For example, let's say you want to attract more traffic to your website. How can you transform that (somewhat vague) desire into a SMART goal? Perhaps you could reframe it in this way:

Within 3 months, I want to increase traffic to our company website by 20%.

When you state it that way, your goal:

• Is specific
• Can be measured
• Is (hopefully) attainable with enough effort
• Is highly relevant to your business (more traffic = more leads and sales)
• Has a deadline

Once you have your SMART goals in place, you need to make a plan of action. Your plan should answer questions like: How are we going to achieve our goals? Who exactly is involved, and what part should they play? How many resources do we need to allocate to this project?

Finally, review your progress on a regular basis, and be willing to make adjustments as needed. If you follow this process, it may not always be "smooth sailing" — but you'll get where you want to go (with an assist from HubSpot).