You’ve heard marketers rave about HubSpot for years, and you’ve finally jumped on the bandwagon but don’t understand what all the fuss is about—it’s not working as you thought. If you can relate, you’re not alone.
HubSpot’s superpowers are versatility, customisability and compatibility—but these can also be its Achilles heel. Because of the plentiful tools and functionality baked into HubSpot and its corresponding Ecosystem, it’s common for new users to experience a steep learning curve. Furthermore, rolling out a new integrated system to multiple teams poses a challenge in and of itself, so if things are feeling a bit bumpy, don’t despair.
On the other side of these initial set-up challenges, you’ll be positioned to improve the quality of your leads, save heaps of time with automation, generate accurate on-demand reporting and essentially have a custom-built system to serve your business's marketing, sales and content needs. So let’s get you over the hump and breeze past your HubSpot roadblocks.
All of the most common HubSpot issues we see come back to one thing—onboarding. There are two options for going about this: work with HubSpot directly for an expedited process or with a HubSpot Agency Partner for a more tailored solution. Suppose your organisation has a dedicated and experienced HubSpot product manager. In that case, the onboarding that HubSpot offers will have you up and running with a checklist of setup tasks for your team to execute. On the other hand, Partner Onboarding is the best option for teams that don’t have an in-house HubSpot manager and may require hands-on assistance with the technical side of things or team training to ensure the new system is successfully adopted. If we could offer one piece of advice, don’t skimp on the onboarding. This initial investment is worth its weight in gold; you’ll see.
Before you throw in the towel on Hubspot, take a peek at these frequently identified pain points to see if the issue might actually lie elsewhere. And if any of these issues hit home for you, give us a shout for a complementary HubSpot Health Check to take a peek under the hood and see where things are going wrong.
This might sound like: “I thought HubSpot would fix this issue.”
HubSpot is a tool, not a strategy. The more you know about HubSpot, the more you can utilise the full spectrum of functionality available to achieve your business goals. This isn’t to say that you already have to know your way around HubSpot for it to be a valuable tool, but acknowledging this potential gap early on is crucial. HubSpot offers excellent free training programs through HubSpot Academy. Explore various strategy-based learning pathways, including applying these strategies utilising HubSpot.
Further, don’t be shy to call in extra support; honestly, it’s a pro move. Whether this is a HubSpot Agency Partner who can work with you to implement technical set-up and spitball pipeline optimisations or hiring in-house resources to spearhead all HubSpot happenings, you might be surprised at just how many things HubSpot can “fix” when you’ve got the right person in the driver’s seat.
This might sound like: “HubSpot doesn’t work properly; I just do it manually”, or “I didn’t want to break anything, so I just left it.”
Legacy HubSpot workflows can be haunting, and the fear of unravelling everything with one change is not uncommon. These two things combined are why we often see convoluted workflows (aka sequenced automations) that aren’t working anymore. Automation is your friend, and if you’ve done a manual task more than once, then there’s an argument to invest the time into automating it. Inheriting a HubSpot account, strategy pivots, app integrations and just time, in general, can all result in redundant workflows. Don’t suffer needlessly; whip those workflows into shape and take back time in your workday.
This might sound like: “HubSpot doesn’t have the data I need.”
The pressure to prove ROI is at an all-time high, so it’s frustrating when there appears to be a gap in data. There are a few common culprits when it comes to Hubspot data hide-and-seek, with the key suspect being disparate systems. Sometimes referred to as a “Frankensystem,” this data disconnect happens when a tech stack isn’t properly integrated with all systems talking to each other. This might look like a disconnect between the sales team (who are using Salesforce) and the marketing team (using HubSpot), where data isn’t being shared, causing holes in analytics and campaign performance insights. Enter a HubSpot expert who integrates these two previously separate systems for seamless data and team communication and works with you to set up your goals and reporting for the future.
This might sound like: “I can’t track sales performance with HubSpot.”
To this, we ask, is your sales team actively using HubSpot? It’s a tale as old as time: the marketing team is hyped on new technology that will automate and streamline the sales cycle, but the sales team has their tried-and-tested systems and doesn’t have the bandwidth to transfer existing data. It’s not a great look for HubSpot to only capture data showing dollars out. Aligning systems empowers everyone to make data-driven decisions and hit those targets, and for commission-based sales teams, literally cash in. Again, this all comes down to optimised HubSpot set-up and training support to prove value in this system from the get-go.
This might sound like: “My team doesn’t like using HubSpot.”
Is it that your team doesn’t care for HubSpot as a tool or that they’re uncomfortable using it? In our experience, it’s likely the latter and a fair conclusion if change order management hasn’t been considered during the HubSpot onboarding process. To build trust in a new system or pipeline, seeing results month-over-month is crucial, which means identifying goals, setting up reporting and establishing team member responsibilities before everyone dives in. As we said, onboarding for your specific business structure is a must. Allocating time and budget to this training component will set your team up for success and make your HubSpot investment profitable.
Whether you’re exploring the wonderful world of HubSpot for the first time or are looking to start the new year with a HubSpot refresh, we’re here to help. Get in touch for a free HubSpot Health Check; no strings attached.
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