Best way to set up CRM for subscription based business

trainingmentor · ‎Nov 9, 2017

Hi,

I am looking to use Hubspot for as a CRM for a directory website, to manage businesses and their listing plans. Businesses create a free account on the website, and can then claim and manage listings for their company. I am struggling to work out the best way to use Hubspot for this.

The closest I could get to a solution was the following:

Add the website user account as a Contact Record
Create a Company Record for EACH business listing (if they have two listings, there would be two separate Company Records.
Assign the Contact to all Company records that they manage on my site

This threw up a problem - a Contact can be assigned to only one Company!

One of my clients has an account on the site to manage ten business listings across the UK. It would be ideal if I could associate their Contact record with ten individual Company Records - then within each Company record, I would be able to store information about the listing and any active subscription, expiry date etc.

With this frustrating roadblock, I need to figure out a workaround. My next idea was to create a single Company Record and use Deals to record multiple listings and subscriptions. But the Deals feature doesn't really lend itself to managing subscriptions at all. It's all focused on stages, and subscriptions are just, well, active! They also have an expiration date, and a 'paid monthly' or 'paid annually' status which I can't display in Deals.

Does anyone use Hubspot for this type of business model? Or can anyone suggest an effective way to manage the data in a way that's not massively contrived?

I really don't want to look at other options as I have used Hubspot for a while and I love it as a CRM!

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Paul

roisinkirby · ‎Nov 23, 2017

Sure!

HubDB is a website add-on tool in your HubSpot Marketing Basic, Professional, or Enterprise account. With HubDB, you can build tables for easy addition and removal of data into your website or landing pages. This is especially useful for event calendars, product catalogues, employee listings, and resource libraries.

Here's an example: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Knowledge_Base_Images/Content/HubDB/hub-db-page-example.gi...

@Jsum, @TRooInbound, @Ty might be able to share some live examples (or know of other members who can )

Please note: HubDB will need to be implemented by a designer or developer who is comfortable with the use of HubL or JSON APIs. To build HubDB tables, it's strongly encouraged that you start with the designers documentation on how to set up tables and connect the data from those tables to website or landing pages using HubL:

HubDB tutorial for Designers
HubDB Concepts and Functions

HubDB is only available to HubSpot Marketing customers with the $300 website add-on. Marketing accounts with a Starter or trial version of the add-on do not have access to HubDB. For pricing information, click here.

In regards to how you want to use the CRM, yes at this time the HubSpot CRM is designed to associate contacts with one Company. However it is possible to create parent/child companies.

View solution in original post

roisinkirby · ‎Nov 20, 2017

Hey @trainingmentor this is possible using the HubSpot CRM and the HubSpot Marketing Hub. HubSpot's website platform supports data-driven content using a built-in native database called HubDB.

Without using HubSpot's platform I'm not sure how this would otherwise be possible.

trainingmentor · ‎Nov 21, 2017

Hi,

Thanks for your reply - can you elaborate a little more? You mention that Hubspot Marketing would work for me, but I'm not sure how exactly.

Paul

roisinkirby · ‎Nov 23, 2017

Sure!

HubDB is a website add-on tool in your HubSpot Marketing Basic, Professional, or Enterprise account. With HubDB, you can build tables for easy addition and removal of data into your website or landing pages. This is especially useful for event calendars, product catalogues, employee listings, and resource libraries.

Here's an example: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Knowledge_Base_Images/Content/HubDB/hub-db-page-example.gi...

@Jsum, @TRooInbound, @Ty might be able to share some live examples (or know of other members who can )

Please note: HubDB will need to be implemented by a designer or developer who is comfortable with the use of HubL or JSON APIs. To build HubDB tables, it's strongly encouraged that you start with the designers documentation on how to set up tables and connect the data from those tables to website or landing pages using HubL:

HubDB tutorial for Designers
HubDB Concepts and Functions

HubDB is only available to HubSpot Marketing customers with the $300 website add-on. Marketing accounts with a Starter or trial version of the add-on do not have access to HubDB. For pricing information, click here.

In regards to how you want to use the CRM, yes at this time the HubSpot CRM is designed to associate contacts with one Company. However it is possible to create parent/child companies.

trainingmentor · ‎Nov 23, 2017

Hi,

Thanks for the response. You have solved my issue, with the words "Parent and child company!"

That was all I needed! I can set up businesses as parent companies, and subscriptions as child companies.

Thank you!

Paul

roisinkirby · ‎Nov 23, 2017

Great! Here's some further documentation on this feature: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/articles/kcs_article/companies/how-can-i-add-a-parent-or-child-company...

TRooInbound · ‎Nov 23, 2017

Hi @roisinkirby Thank you for recommending us!

Indeed possible with HubSpot CRM and the HubSpot Marketing Hub.

Hey @trainingmentor We have very good experience of HubDB and Hub API. Do you want us to take this concept forward?

Please email more details at hello@trooinbound.com

Thank you,
Team TRooInbound

CRM