When you want to grow as a business, a good and scalable CRM system is indispensable in my opinion. At the time, I chose Salesforce because, at that time, this platform seemed to best meet my company's goals and ambitions. Until we switched to the then brand new HubSpot CRM years ago, I have always enjoyed using Salesforce.
Nevertheless, all these years I did feel that we actually used only a small part of the capabilities offered by Salesforce (despite the link with Hubspot's marketing module, Marketing Hub). This was mainly because I myself did not have enough knowledge to create simple reports around, for example, expected sales with new and existing customers. This also made it difficult for me to make the link between our investments in marketing and the additional revenue that came from it.
We now run entirely on HubSpot (CMS and Enterprise Growth Suite) and I feel I have significantly more control over how our marketing and sales efforts impact the continued growth of our business. So the switch from Salesforce to HubSpot has been beneficial for us! Because switching from Salesforce to HubSpot can be a pretty tough job, I've described below when it can be a wise move and how to go about it once you've made this choice.
When to switch from Salesforce to HubSpot?
The purpose of this article is not to try to convince every company to switch from Salesforce to HubSpot. In fact, in the following two scenarios, I would recommend anyway to consider very carefully at all whether this is a useful move:
Scenario 1: when Salesforce is fully integrated with other systems within your company. If Salesforce is linked to your ERP system or invoicing system, it can be quite a chore to migrate all the data and re-establish the relevant integrations, but in HubSpot.
Scenario 2: When Salesforce has been fully and satisfactorily adopted by all salespeople within your company and they use the system, including the mobile apps extensively on a daily basis. In this case, a transition to HubSpot will have quite an impact on their daily operations. As a result, HubSpot adoption is going to be a difficult change process with nostalgia for "the old familiar" Salesforce.
In all other cases, it is definitely worth considering migrating to HubSpot. One of the most important additional arguments is the "total cost of ownership" (TCO). According to this calculation, the TCO for HubSpot based on 10 active users is around 17,500 USD per year compared to Salesforce with the same number of users around 43,000 USD per year. Quite a difference!
But how best to approach this migration? Below I describe five steps you can take to ensure the smoothest possible migration from Salesforce to HubSpot.
How to switch from Salesforce to HubSpot?
Switching from one software platform to another is a process with pitfalls, especially when it comes to moving from one CRM system (Salesforce) to another CRM (HubSpot, in this case.) To still achieve as smooth a transition as possible, I recommend observing the following 4 steps.
Step 1: Describe your current marketing and sales process as completely as possible
Every company has one (or more) marketing and sales processes. But few companies have also unified and documented these, which is a prerequisite for a successful migration. A marketing and sales process consists of several components, the six most important of which I list below:
Prospecting - In this step, marketing and sales are looking for potential customers (leads). These can be generated in many ways, through the online channels (website, online advertising, social media, inbound marketing, account based marketing) or through the offline channels (events, trade show visits, cold calling).
Connecting - In this step, sales tries to get in touch with interesting leads and investigate whether these leads are sufficiently qualified for further continuation of the sales process.
Researching - In this step, if there are sufficient leads, sales goes to work on a more customized solution for its potential customer.
Presenting - In this phase, serious prospects are presented with a customized proposal based on his or her unique situation.
Closing - In this phase, negotiations are conducted and concluded with a signed contract or (not to be hoped for) postponement or cancellation....
Customer success - In this phase (often overlooked in the context of CRM), the customer is on board and it is important to do everything possible to make them feel at home and remain with your company.
Once these steps are mapped out and laid out in a flowchart, the foundation is laid for the next step.
Step 2: Start with the technical migration
In this step, you ensure that the "technical components," such as landing pages, email templates, lead scoring, campaign structure, workflows and data are transferred from Salesforce to HubSpot.
By taking advantage of the native integration that exists between the two systems, you can migrate many of the above components within a short period of time with the push of a button. It's the more complex components that take more time. For example, if you have complex dashboards in Salesforce, it is recommended that you temporarily continue to use both systems side by side: Salesforce for the usual work and HubSpot for the missing parts (Sales Pro), until you have everything mapped and migrated.
Step 3: Start with a pilot campaign
To prevent your HubSpot account from being used by the entire company immediately after the transition, without testing whether the migration was done properly, my advice is: start with a pilot campaign.
The most convenient way is to select a specific product/market combination and set up a pilot campaign for it. Using this pilot campaign, you can then test whether all steps of the marketing and sales process are properly supported by your new setup in HubSpot. It is important here to get an ambitious sales employee involved who is willing to contribute critical thinking to the setup. In addition, during this pilot phase it is also important to involve the sales director and to regularly check with him or her to see whether the reporting needs have been adequately met.
Once the pilot phase has shown that the HubSpot environment meets the needs of the organization, the next step can be taken.
Step 4: Extending the setup to full usage
Based on the configuration resulting from the pilot phase, the entire HubSpot platform can then be further set up. Of course, variations may be desired from the pilot process, but because the basics are in place, it is less complex to make adjustments.
The big advantage of HubSpot over Salesforce at this stage is that you don't have to hire a full-time administrator to maintain and expand the system. You can do most of the modifications yourself, and if you can't figure it out, HubSpot has set up a free library of tutorials and a free support desk for you. For more complex customizations, you can also always call on a HubSpot Solutions Partner, though it's recommended that you choose one that is certified to do so.
Start your HubSpot migration!
Are you convinced about HubSpot and want to switch? Contact us and together we'll look at the steps you need to take for a successful migration.
