Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of our RevOps Hero podcast. For today's episode, I brought on one of our ClearPivot teammates. I have our teammate, Andrew Chao Daongam on the call, and we're going to talk about HubSpot onboarded today. I'll kick us off by talking some context here by ClearPivot. We do two main types of client engagements. We do revenue operations retainers. Those are usually bigger, longer term projects. We're working alongside our clients to rethink or rebuild or uplevel their go-to market systems and processes. Much more hands-on. Those projects are usually going for six months or longer, so really meaty in-depth projects. And then another type of project we do are smaller CRM or marketing automation onboarding projects. Those are much shorter. They're about 60 to 90 days in total, and they're more of a guided onboarding project, a little less hands-on.
It's a little bit more of getting people self-sufficient and up and running. Our company are specialists in HubSpot specifically, and so these onboarding projects are typically for different types of HubSpot onboardings here. Our teammate, Andrew does a lot of these onboarding projects here. And so I wanted to talk to him to ask him about lessons learned from doing many different HubSpot onboardings. I counted, and we've done over 80 of them at this point already. So he's super experienced in this and has a lot of great things to share with us about it.
So Andrew, I'm excited to learn from you about things we can learn about HubSpot onboardings of different types and what people should know or think about as they consider going into them.
Yeah, happy to be here and looking forward to share as much as I can.
Awesome. First thing we can talk about is when you're kicking off with a new HubSpot onboarding project with a client, what are some of the most common situations that they're in at the start of the project?
Yeah, there's definitely different type of clients who are looking to purchase HubSpot, and I would say there's three main categories. So the first one is for companies who are starting fresh, they don't have a CRM, and this is really good because especially HubSpot, the way that they've structured and they changed over time, they make HubSpot more affordable for those companies who are starting fresh. So in the past, companies need to purchase Marketing Hub and it was $800 for example, I think. And it became quite pricey. So we have this, with HubSpot, a lot of companies now they can start fresh and I'm working a lot with companies who are starting with just service hubs, so it's a lot more feasible in terms of their budget. So a lot of companies that come, they're starting fresh, and when I say fresh, it's really fresh. They haven't really touched a CRM yet.
They're coming from a background where they're used to using Excel and using Excel sheets to manage their contacts. Now they want to, essentially, have a smarter system in order to get their sales activities going. And then the second one is, companies who are looking to migrate from one CRM to HubSpot. So this comes from, there's different types of reasons as to why they do that. Either their current CRM is not meeting their expectation or they've grown to a certain level where they need a bit more in terms of different tools and capabilities of their CRM that they're looking for. So they migrate to HubSpot.
So a lot of the times in this case is they have a deadline, they want to move away from the current CRM and then move essentially everything that they have from their current CRM to HubSpot. And then the third one are for companies who are looking to add HubSpot as part of their RevOp stack. So a common one that we typically see are companies that are using Salesforce and then they want to add on, for example, HubSpot to essentially run their marketing activities.
But at the same time, they want to make sure that there is synchronization between HubSpot and Salesforce. So we guide them in the directives in terms of how to make that work. So yeah, those are the three main things. So first one's, start fresh. Second is migration from one CRM to HubSpot. And then third is to add on to what they currently have.
So that's some of the most common situations or goals that they're in as we start our project together. And so then when they come into the project and we're kicking things off, what should companies know in terms of expectations and what the process is going to look like over the next 60 to 90 days of working together?
These onboardings that we provide as a service, we need to emphasize that it's a guided onboarding. So at the kickoff call or before even communicating with them, we want to make sure that as much as possible, we let them know that it's a guided onboarding, therefore knowing that it's more, we are essentially coaching them in terms of how to use HubSpot, not only usage, but also to help them think strategically in terms of how to use HubSpot. Having the mindset, because you do have to have a certain type of mindset when you start using HubSpot and because the tools, they complement the strategy and how you want to use it. So we want to make sure that they understand that. So if I take a step back in terms of the expectation of guided onboarding, so this means that we don't actually go into the system and do the work for them, that would be a completely different set of work that we do for them that we offer as a service.
So there's essentially what we're trying to do with these clients is that we want to get them as independent as possible to operate HubSpot the way that they want based on their goals and how much we can do within 60 to 90 days of a timeframe. If they prefer that we do the work for them, then we need to re-talk about, essentially, the scope of the project, then talking about what is the other side of our services, which is either retainer or project-based. But specifically for onboarding, we let them know it's guided onboarding. So I like to use the analogy of going to the dentist. So, essentially, if you want to take care of your teeth, and I'm sharing this because my wife is a dentist and she reminds me all the time in terms of taking care of my dental hygiene, she says that you can always come and see me and I can check your teeth, making sure you have no cavities.
I can guide you in terms of how to brush your teeth and how to floss, but whenever you're not at the dental office, you need to make sure that you brush your teeth and you floss every day. It's the same thing with the guided onboarding, the expectation is that you need to do the work outside of the calls that we have. And the calls are typically maybe once or twice a week, and that's only for a very short duration of the time of the week. So outside of these calls, it's best that you actually put into action what you've learned and what we've discussed so that you can really move forward and get the most out of HubSpot.
Yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense. So you're kind of like the dentist, they can go in and visit you and you can help them out, but you're not there every single day as they go through their daily activities and what they need to be responsible for.
Yeah, exactly. And that could be applied to not just dentists, but if you go to see a physio, it's the same thing. They ask you to exercise every day, and if you don't exercise, then whenever you go back to see the physio, you're going to be at the same place and you're never going to move forward.
So those are some of the expectations they need to keep in mind on their end as we kick off our projects. And so now we can talk about some of the types of projects themselves. I know some of the three main categories of projects that we'll work on are Sales Hub onboarding projects, which are all the sales tools, the marketing hub onboarding projects, and then the Service Hub onboarding projects. And I know one of the ones we do the most often are Sales Hub onboardings, and so we can start with that one. So we can talk, I'd like to hear about some of their most common goals on their end for Sales Hub onboarding project. Some of your must do recommendations that you are always or almost always wanting to make sure they do, common mistakes to avoid on their end and any other things that are valuable for them to know for Sales Hub onboarding.
Yeah, like you mentioned, Sales Hub is essentially the one that I would say most of our onboardings are done with. And I think that's because a lot of sales organizations or companies that have a sales organization, they see value in terms of using Sales Hub without necessarily using Marketing Hub. So when it comes to most common goals, I would say there's usually three. One is Pipeline. They want to be able to manage a pipeline efficiently, so they can't really do that in an Excel sheet. They technically could, but it's not going to be very accurate and it's going to be messy and to try to keep the record of truth or the source of truth is a bit difficult. So they would like to set up a proper pipeline in HubSpot, but not only pipeline, but also the automation in the pipeline. So if it reaches a specific stage, they want it to, for example, send a notification to a specific user.
So things like that, just to make sure that they're efficient in all their sales activities. And then the second one, I would say, is going through outreach, so making sure that they can reach out to potential prospects. So when we talk about that, that's mainly sequences. I think that's why most people purchase Sales Hub specifically the Pro at least is to get the sequences tool. So they really look forward into using that, just want to make sure that they understand the capabilities, but also at the same time the limitations in terms of how you can use that. And then third, I would say it's reporting. So reporting is definitely a big one. They want to know in terms of if we go back to pipeline, what's in the pipeline, who we've closed, who are the different, if they have, for example, custom properties, they want to report on that.
A lot of the custom properties, for example, I think one of them is for example, oh, they want to do it by vertical, so they want to do reporting on vertical, they want to do a reporting on type of products that they sell. So making all those things available for them, able to see and also report on those so that they can show it to upper management to show that they're actually doing some good work.
So pipeline management, prospecting outreach and sales reporting, some of the most common goals you said?
Yeah, I would say those are definitely the top three. And based on that on recommendations. So Sales Hub, I would say that it's quite easy to say, oh, I want to get into it right away. I think that's one of the main things that people want to do, but I usually tend to let people know that they need to first work on making sure that their process is clear because we want to bring in the process into HubSpot. So one of the first things I recommended to do is actually to have a process map in place, whether it is something visual, a minimum to have something written so that we can look at it together and then see how we can implement that in HubSpot.
So I think it's very easy to just say, okay, let's just go into there and look at all the tools that you can use, and this is how you log contacts, this is how you create deals, pipelines, so on and so forth. But without looking at actually what is your current sales process, then all the things that we're doing could end up, we will probably end up redoing it because you change your mind or you're not too sure how to do it, but to have a written document or to actually have something in place that everyone agrees on internally, then that makes it a lot easier to work on the onboarding process.
Don't just jump in and start blasting out emails, but take some time and plan out the process and life cycle stages and what needs to happen in each of those first.
Yeah, exactly. And even in terms of contacts, what information is important for you to see when you go into a contact record or when you're creating a list? Because a lot of times they start putting contacts in. I think the main, what people are typically doing is that they see HubSpot, they're like, oh, you can log and track, and then they start logging and tracking all these contacts, and then once they open their HubSpot account, they're like, okay, we have all these contacts, but we're missing XYZ information about them. It's like, oh, well, that comes to the point that, I think, initially what we should have done is to make sure that we have the right properties in place. If we don't have them, we should create them, make it visible so that you can add those in as you go, and then that will make it a lot easier and it makes a lot more sense.
So I always like to emphasize on putting strategy first rather than tactic because we can be all tactical in showing them all the great things about HubSpot. They can technically learn all that by themselves by going to the HubSpot Academy and go through the videos. It does a great job in terms of explaining what the different tools are, but I think what brings value in terms of what we do is to help them to think strategically with HubSpot. So that's where the recommendations that we provide come in and bring a lot of value for our customers.
Yeah. You mentioned a good point there. You talked first about the planning out the steps of the life cycle for one thing, but then the other thing you mentioned was planning out the data itself, the properties and how it's structured and what types of data you're going to need and how you're going to keep it. Should it be one property or two properties, or should it be free form or a structured pick list to choose from or options like that?
Yeah, exactly. And this might be controversial to say, but you mentioned the common mistakes to avoid. I don't know if it's a mistake, but I think it would be good for companies to actually sort those things out before they purchase HubSpot because what happens is that they purchase HubSpot and then they're not exactly sure about their internal strategy or their processes yet. So when they purchase HubSpot, they're kind of guessing around and then they get frustrated at some point, some of them, and then they can mention like, oh, we've been using HubSpot for two months and we're not getting anywhere.
But instead of going with that approach, it would be better if you focus on the strategy and your processes so that when you do purchase HubSpot, it's clear in terms of what you want to do so that you can come in and then bring someone like us into the picture and then show it to us and say, this is what we're planning to do, how can we make this as efficiently as possible in HubSpot? And then that way we can really have some quick wins right from the get-go rather than waiting around and trying to figure things out as we go. So that's kind of common mistake I would say, but not at the same time, but definitely a highly recommended step before they purchase HubSpot if possible.
Yeah, I know it's certainly tempting to get pretty excited from the great looking demos and sales calls and things like that and then kind of forget about some of the human elements on your end you got to plan through first. But even if you do jump in pretty quick and then realize a month in you're in over your head, that's still not the end of the world, right?
Yeah, usually it's not. I think we can rectify this situation by giving them the reality in terms of what is happening. So I know that some clients may be frustrated at first, but then once we explain it to them in terms of how everything has rolled out so far, then they see it, they understand it, and then they start appreciating in terms of what we're doing for them.
Yeah, it's like that saying that's like the best time to do it was yesterday, but the second-best time to do it is today.
Yeah, definitely.
Well, let's see if we want to go on and talk about some of the Marketing Hub onboardings you do and talk through goals, recommendations, mistakes to avoid for Marketing Hub onboardings.
Yeah, I would say if I were to narrow down, because yeah, Marketing Hub, there's definitely a lot of things you can do. I would say there's two things. One is automation. So they like to use the workflow and they want to do some drip campaign, wanting to nurture clients or potential clients, I should say. That's the main one. And then number two is they're looking to use HubSpot as an all-in-one campaign tool. So they say, we have this event that's coming up. Let's say I have a client who says, oh, we have a book signing that's happening in October and we need to plan around that, making sure that we let people know about it. And then, essentially, they say, what can we do in HubSpot in order to help promote that? So I think most of the time people come in Marketing Hub is that they have an idea in terms of the event that they're looking to promote, and then they're looking for HubSpot as the way to have the different channels connected in order to display or to advertise or promote those events.
And then that's where we need to talk about the different tools, but at the same time, we need to make sure that it's not, I think, one of the common mistakes that we hear about that is sometimes the list of contacts are a bit questionable. So they say, oh yeah, we want to blast all these people marketing email to let everyone know about this event, or we want to promote our product, but fundamentally we need to ask them and trying to be as nice as possible is, where did you get these contacts? What are the sources? Some of them, they say, oh yeah, we already got consent. These are people we've been in contact with. They're from a previous CRM, and we used to send them, or we are currently sending them marketing emails, and that's not a problem for us to import them and then do the same thing here.
But some of them, they're starting fresh and they say, oh, we bought a list and then we're looking to send to all these contacts. Then that's a common mistake that people tend to get into is, they think that they can just purchase a list and then send a marketing email or blast these contacts without having real consent from the contacts. So unfortunately I would say that conversation doesn't always end well in terms of getting them to understand it, because I think in their mind they think that the tool exists, yes, to do so, but they don't know that you're not supposed to just purchase a list and then send an email to these guys because one, a lot of your emails will be marked as spam because people don't know who you are.
And then two, that will affect your deliverability, which ultimately will lead to bigger consequences. Like HubSpot completely halting your marketing activities, or even your email provider can do something about that too. They can flag your account and then you'll have a hard time to unlock your account from that point on.
Yeah, I've seen that too. I've seen HubSpot suspend people's email marketing access and their tool because there were too many people reporting their emails as spam, and on HubSpot's end, they got to say, we can't let our platform's email sending reputation be put at risk by this person going rogue on it. So I have seen them suspend people's email marketing tool, and then you basically have to write them a letter appealing it, explaining it, and telling them you won't do it again before they'll reinstate it.
Yeah. And that's actually the same thing with, I think I didn't talk about it, but in Sales Hub as well, if you do some sequences, you have to be careful not to over-send. Although HubSpot, they'll let you send, I think the limit is 500 per user, especially if you're a new company or if you're fresh, then definitely sending 500 from all accounts, that's going to trigger something. It happened to one of my clients when I was doing onboarding and Gmail flagged them and they got locked out.
Oh, wow.
Yeah. So that conversation didn't go too well, but these are things that you need to be careful about. So when I move forward now with the marketing emails or even sales emails, I let them know that you have to make sure that, on the marketing side, that you have consent and people that you're sending it to are people who know about you. And on the sell side, if you're starting to send a lot of emails, just make sure that you pace yourself because you need to make sure that your... we talk about in terms of in sales emails, or even marketing, is to warm up your inbox, so it needs time to do that. You can definitely get a headache from trying to unlock your account.
Yeah, I know if the marketing email, HubSpot is sending those emails through their own servers, and so that's why they're really protective of their server reputation. And then for the sales emails, you're actually connecting HubSpot directly to your own email account. And so then if you get a bad reputation in that case, that's not HubSpot's problem, but it's your email provider's problem then like Google Workspace or Microsoft 365.
Yeah.
So that's why they're the ones rapping you on the wrist for any bad behavior.
Yeah, exactly. And I think that helps a lot in terms of explaining them the situation because we let clients know that, oh, HubSpot is really good in terms of their reputation and their sending in terms of the success rate of their email tool. It's because people respect these rules, and if everyone respects the rules, then HubSpot is going to be a really good platform for everyone. But if there's one or two companies that start bending the rules and they send mass emails to who knows who, then that's going to affect everyone because, like you mentioned, it's using its own server and they're bearing the consequences for you and making sure that everyone's collaborative. That way HubSpot is putting all these measures, and it's not only HubSpot because if you look at any other marketing platforms like email marketing platforms, they do the same thing, just really across all CRMs or any email marketing tools that does marketing email.
Yeah, that's a good point. Outside of email sending, what are some other of the most common must-do recommendations on your end or mistakes to avoid for Marketing Hub onboarding,
A lot of people are looking to create forms as well, so forms with landing pages, that's a main thing as well. I think one of the challenges with the forms and landing pages is that some of them, they find that the landing page tool is not as... I think, it's because they have some kind of expectation that the landing page needs to look like their website, but essentially they need to work on a template or hire someone to build a template. But at least what we do with them is that we try to have at least a clean landing page with some elements of their website so that it's usable and that's fine. And then from that, essentially, what they want to do is that, oh, we want to bring people to our landing page. Once they fill out the form, then we want to do follow up.
That's where the marketing automation comes in to nurture those people or to, essentially, if they sign up for an event, then we need to send reminders and then post event, so on and so forth. I think one of the things... and I'm not sure how this happens or how in terms of the approach of using HubSpot, a lot of clients, it's a bit similar to how Sales Hub works. I recommend them to work on a sales process before we engage in try to get them in HubSpot, it's the same thing a bit with Marketing Hub. Some clients, they know what they want to do, but they don't know exactly the details as to how they want to do, for example, the nurturing. So they have an idea or they have an event, but they don't have anything concrete in terms of what are the different emails they want to send as drip campaigns or what is the message in each of these landing pages?
What does the landing form, landing page with the form, what are the information that we want to collect? A lot of them don't have that in place. Maybe it's because they haven't thought about it yet or they need to be aware of it, which is what we're doing. But same thing, it would be good if they can have their marketing process in place as well for different events. I usually try to help them in terms of getting them to narrow down in terms of focusing on one event that is going to happen or one thing that they want to promote. Because a lot of the times the marketing people, they come in and I come from a marketing background, so I totally understand them.
They have all sorts of ideas and they know that they have a lot of different events, different products, different things they want to promote, and then it becomes a bit overwhelming in your brain in terms of how much you need to do. But in order to help them understand how to use HubSpot, I ask them to just focus on one or two events or promotional product or event that they want to do so that we can really focus on how we can develop the whole campaign from A to Z.
And although they have all these different ideas, these are all very high level, but when you look at the granular of things, they don't have that yet. And my recommendation is anyone who's signing up for Marketing Hub, you should have, and this is what I think is best, you should have one or two events that you want to promote. It doesn't have to be a event, it can be a product that you want to promote and really have the details in terms of how you think or how you want all of these events and activities, outreaches, drip campaigns, all that to roll out.
And you need to be specific. For example, when we look at the workflow tools, we have very specific delays when things are going out, what is the email that you want to send? What is the content in the email. All that. If you can have all that in place before you jump into HubSpot, that would be ideal. And anyone who could do that before purchasing HubSpot, yeah, they're going to really experience HubSpot and a whole different level.
The more you kind of plan out each of the components ahead of time, the more quickly you can standing everything up and get it all running.
Yeah. Because there's some clients who I ask them like, oh, what are you trying to do with HubSpot? They give me the answer, oh, well, we'll see what HubSpot can do so that we can come up with something. So I think it's like, yeah, but I think HubSpot should be there to complement what you're trying to do. So I think what their approach is when they tell me that, it sounds like they want to hear what are the limitations of HubSpot? We want to see how much we can do with HubSpot, then we'll decide what we'll do. But I prefer if they come with something that they really want to do and the capabilities, and then I will tell them if they can do it or not. Because I think if they come in with something more, what's that word? If they're a bit more...
If they don't know where they're going?
Yeah. I think they know where they're going, but not in detail, but they're limiting themselves essentially when they ask that question or when they give me that answer like, oh, well, we'll see what HubSpot can do, then we'll decide what we want to do. Whereas I'd rather they come with something more spectacular. What's the word? Not spectacular, but a bit more-
Defined or specific?
Yeah, not exactly, but more they come with a bigger list so that we can narrow it down. I'd prefer that.
That kind of makes me think, maybe an analogy would be if someone wants to learn how to paint and they say, well, first I want to see what colors there are, and then I'll decide what to paint. It's kind of like, well, here's all the colors, but that still isn't going to help you choose what actually you're going to make a picture of for your first painting.
Yeah, yeah. No, that's a great one. Yeah, that definitely applies.
So think through or you want to go first and then use the tools to plan your map from there.
Yeah, yeah, definitely.
So we talked a little bit about Marketing Hub and Sales Hub, and typically those are the ones that we focus on the most. We focus on the go-to-market process, the marketing and sales side of it, but we do do some work in the post-sales side of it as well. HubSpot has a whole hub there, the Service Hub, and so we do some projects there. I know. So want to talk a little bit about those projects, goals, recommendations, mistakes to avoid and things like that for Service Hub onboarding.
So Service Hub is definitely one that we don't get as often compared to of course, sales Hub and Marketing Hub. And I think if you look at HubSpot Statistics as well, service Hub is not the main one, but definitely powerful and useful if you want to use all the different tools and bringing out the capabilities of it. I would say the people who purchase Service Hub, they're very specific in terms of what they want to do, despite knowing that Service Hub has all these different tools available. So for example, even just looking at the service tab, there's a help desk, customer service, chat flows, knowledge base, customer portal. I would say, based on all the Service Hub onboardings we've done, they pick maybe one or two tools that are relevant to their business. They're not at a stage where they actually need to use all of that.
So most of the people who come in using Service Hub, actually a lot of them, they are adding it on to mainly the sales hub. This is because they start using Sales Hub and then they see that there's a need for an additional pipeline or a separate kind of, although HubSpot is together, but they need kind of a separate pipeline to manage after sales. So once its closed one, then they want to do a whole subset of activities after that, and they have a team that can manage the customer service, for example.
So they come in and they say, oh, we've been using Sales Hub. Now that we understand how Sales Hub work and we got it going, but now we need to make sure that the clients are well taken care of, and then we are able to service them once the deals are closed. One. So they start looking into either tickets or they simply go into what we currently use now and HubSpot is promoting is the help desk. So I think that's where they build the pipelines to make sure that customers are using one of those. And yeah, I would say it's very similar in terms of helping clients with Sales Hub with their deals pipeline. A lot of them are looking to do the same with their Service Hub.
It's interesting to hear that, sometimes they have very specific goals. More often in Service Hub, a very defined use case from the outset compared to maybe marketing. I mean, I guess just in marketing in general, there's so many things you can do in marketing in general, it can be much more of a larger amorphous goal compared to, I need a help desk for setting up a service system.
Yeah, it's very specific. Even people who, let's say they never purchase HubSpot and they only purchase Service Hub, a lot of times those clients, they're looking to essentially use a ticketing system. So they basically put a form on their website and people fill it up and they want to have a specific way or have some kind of system in place to manage all those inquiries that are coming in. So yeah, we see some of those too. Those are the main ones. And then once we start showing them the different tools out there, because we want to essentially let them know that there's a lot more to Service Hub than what you're asking for. There's knowledge base, you can put chatbots on your website, so on and so forth.
But a lot of them, they say, oh, these are all great, but we're not there yet. At least this is on our end, in terms of the type of clients that we're getting. So they're really focusing on either getting a service pipeline up and running, or they're looking to essentially have a ticketing system, put a form on their website, and then get someone to manage that. And then that is being managed in HubSpot.
That's their immediate goal. And then maybe after they get that up and running, then maybe they or us can circle back later on to get into a more advanced customer success project with surveying customer satisfaction, tracking things like that, later on.
Yeah, survey does come into play. I would say that that would be essentially the second thing that people look into. Not all the time, but I would say it's the second one that people are definitely looking into in terms of getting up and running in their system.
Second most common after ticketing pipeline and help desk.
Yeah, that's right.
Well, this has been a great conversation here, talking through what you've learned from all of these HubSpot onboardings over the years and what companies can think about and consider as they're looking to get started on their first CRM, their first marketing automation platform, or a migration or adding in new initiatives to their existing platforms.
Yeah, I do enjoy these onboarding. They are lots of fun. You learn a lot and a lot of people bring unique cases, so you get to learn as you go as well. So in terms of my role, that definitely helps me to be a better solutions architect.
Yeah, I agree. Well, thanks for taking the time to talk through all this with me here, Andrew. I've learned a lot on my end, and I think a lot of people who watch or listen to this will get a lot out of it as well.
Yeah, glad I can share, and hopefully we can share more as we continue to do these onboardings.