How many deal pipelines do I need?

[MDavison3]

My B2B SaaS company needs to configure HubSpot to support free trials, paid subscriptions and ongoing renewals of subscriptions.  Not all deals will go through a free trial, some may go directly to a subscription.

Would it be best to create 3 pipelines; free trial, subscription and renewal?  Or, would we be better off with 2 pipelines - including free trial as a stage in our subscription pipeline?  Or, should we simply have a single pipeline and include renewal as a stage after a deal is closed-won?

Trying to set this up so that sales can clearly understand where we are with each customer/propsect, but also so that other groups (i.e. customer onboarding) can plan for their activities.  I'd appreciate any suggestions for others who have a similar offering.

- Mike

[franksteiner79 · Accepted solution]

Hi @MDavison3 

I would definitely have two pipelines - one for net new subscriptions and one for renewals.

If you have a Pro or Ent subscription you can automatically create the renewal deals, either directly when the new deal has closed or when the renewal date is approaching, i.e. 30/60/90 days before the renewal is due.

Having an extra pipeline for trials, depends a bit on what is happening in a free trial.

Pipelines are usually reserved for the sales process to close a deal. More often than not, free trials are classified as product led growth and fall under marketing. So there wouldn't be a deal created and attached but we would work with contact properties to mark contacts as having a free trial, maybe monitor for usage/actions, which then prompt a sales rep to get in touch.

I hope that helps.

Frank

[roccofreed]

Frank,

Would you recommend having a different Pipeline for Upsell / Expansion?  If so, how would you suggest structuring that?

Thanks in advance. 

[MDavison3]

Thanks, Frank.  We can auto generate the renewal deal and I think that makes the most sense.  We'll leave the free trial as part of the sales pipeline for now.

Mike