How to handle renewals in your deal pipeline - Sneak peak into our process in 2021

[Dan1]

Hi, 

Back in 2017, we put together a video detailing how we managed our renewals process inside of HubSpot. In that time it has helped lots of HubSpot users (3.2K views), however the HubSpot CRM has moved on a long way since then and so has our renewal process. We felt it was time to take off the robes once more, in the hope that it might help more HubSpot users with the very latest capabilities in 2021. If you work for or run a SaaS business then maybe the video below will help you. 

P.S If you have an renewals tips for us please comment, always looking to improve 🙂 

Thanks,  

Dan Currin 

Co-Founder 

OrgChartHub 

GeoMapper 

OrgChartHub & GeoMapper named in the Top 30 HubSpot Apps 

[louischausse]

We've built a Recipe to handle Renewals. A Recipe is a small process that you can install in your HubSpot portal. This doesn't require any third-party tool.

Here's a video of how it works:

Watch the video!

Renewal deals are created automatically for each closed-won deals with a known contract end date. Then, a task is generated with a reminder date XX days before that contract end date to notify the deal owner (or another user of your choice) that the renewal is coming soon.

Other settings and configurations are also available to suit your use case.

If you are interested, we can have a chat to setup this recipe on your HubSpot portal.

Learn more here

[sarahdecarlo]

@Dan1 I'm just now getting started with this, and I've set up workflows to trigger the creation of deals in a renewals pipeline — your tutorial was so helpful, thank you for sharing!

I am running into one issue right now. I have one workflow set up to create a deal in the Renewals Pipeline after we "win" a deal from our New Business Pipeline (this is Year 1); then I have a second workflow to create a new deal in the Renewals Pipeline after we "win" a deal already in that pipeline (this is Year 2, and on). The second workflow is set to allow re-enrollment.

However, I'm finding that re-enrollment in the second workflow isn't happening, so the Year 3 deals never get set up. HubSpot seems to be blocking them, categorizing them as "at-risk" because "The enrolled deal was created by this workflow, so this action was skipped to prevent an infinite loop." Have you encountered this, and if so, do you have a way to bypass it? 

[sarahdecarlo]

Update: I've implemented a functioning workaround.

I created a new "Deals" property called "Renewal Year". For my first workflow that creates the Year 1 renewal deal after a "New Business" deal is closed-won, that property is set to "1" for the renewal deal. Then I have a workflow set up for every year — when "1" deals are closed-won, that triggers the creation of a deal with that property set to "2"; then "2" deals trigger the creation of a deal with that property set to "3", and so on. 

This solution is not ideal because it's not easily scalable — I created workflows through Year 5, which works for us for now, but I wish I could just have Years 2+ consolidated into a single workflow. Please do let me know if you have a better solution!

[Dan1]

Hi @sarahdecarlo , sorry for the slow reply, I am pleased to hear the video has helped you. Handling the renewal beyond the 2nd year is a bit tricky, we also haven't found a perfect way to handle it, as the deal description also needs adjusting manually. I noticed the other day that @MandyDROS  is currrently putting together a new video series on how to handle renewals in HubSpot: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mandy-thompson-digital-reach_hubcurious-hubspotpartner-renewals-activ...

@MandyDROS , do you have any advice for me and @sarahdecarlo ? 

Kind regards,  

Dan Currin 

Co-Founder 

OrgChartHub 

GeoMapper 

OrgChartHub & GeoMapper named in the Top 30 HubSpot Apps 

[Maggiephelan]

Hello thank you for your video I am just building this process now, I have been asked about the issue of double counting the deals in reporting as we will be leaving the new closed won deal in the sales pipeline. How did you overcome this? and also did you create a new deal for each renewal stage for reporting purposes quarter on quarter? 

[Dan1]

Hi @Maggiephelan , 

Thanks for the message. 

We run reports on the sales pipeline seperatly in HubSpot.

We don't run reports on the renewals pipeline as it is tricky, you end up with 1st, 2nd, 3rd year + deals in closed won distorting the reporting.

We use the renewals pipeline in HubSpot to help us manage the renewal process and get an effective visual, but we use external software to manage the reporting side of the renewals eg) Churn, upgrades etc. We use a combination of Stripe and Profitwell, both of these products have a tight integration with HubSpot. The links take you to their HubSpot App Marketplace listing. 

I hope this helped? 

Kind regards,

Dan Currin 

Co-Founder 

OrgChartHub 

GeoMapper 

OrgChartHub & GeoMapper named in the Top 30 HubSpot Apps 

[Maggiephelan]

Dan thank you for this, I have one last question, with your renewal pipeline do you just have 1 pipeline or have you created a seperate one for each year? If you just have 1 how are you tagging whether its year 1, year 1 and year 3? 

[MCrespel]

Hi @Dan1,

Thank you for this video ! 

How do you handle renewals when the deadline on the properties of the line item associated with the Deal ? 

In your video 12 months, it's time for the Renewal Month, what if the line item associated with deal 1 has a term at 5 months whereas deal 2 has a term at 8 months ? 

Curious of your advices ! 

Thanks in advance with your help !!

[Dan1]

Hi @MCrespel ,

Thanks for the message. 

This isn't something I have looked into as we don't  have deals that are structured that way. However I know a man who might have an answer. @louischausse you see more renewal pipelines than me, do you have any suggestions perhaps? 

Kind regards, 

Dan Currin 

Co-Founder 

OrgChartHub 

GeoMapper 

OrgChartHub & GeoMapper named in the Top 30 HubSpot Apps 

[JanDolezal]

Thanks Dan, this is very useful.

I did something similar, but can't find a way to set "Close date is less than 274 days ago"

I only get to choose a specific date in the date picker, not a relative number of days.

How did you make it happen? Did you change somehow the default Close Date property?

Can you please advise?

[Dan1]

Hi @JanDolezal , 

If you scroll a bit further down you will see the option "Is less than" , the video below shows you where it is.

Watch here

All the best, 

Dan Currin 

Co-Founder 

OrgChartHub 

GeoMapper 

OrgChartHub & GeoMapper named in the Top 30 HubSpot Apps 

 

[JanDolezal]

Thank you Dan.

I found the problem. I was trying to use Deal property in Contact workflow and that can only have absolute date. When I switched to Deal workflow, the same Deal property also included the relative date that you show on the video. Just in case someone else faces the same problem.

Jan

[Dan1]

Hi @SKluge , 

In the video we show the workflow which creates the new deal and how we copy certain properties across, this link takes you straight to that part of the video. 

We create a new deal, rather than taking the same deal and placing it into the renewal pipeline so that we still have reportable data in the sales pipeline. If you were to take the same deal and push it into a new pipeline then you would cause reporting challenges. 

Kind regards, 

Dan Currin 

Co-Founder 

OrgChartHub 

GeoMapper 

OrgChartHub & GeoMapper named in the Top 30 HubSpot Apps 

[SKluge]

Can I link this automated movement through stages by triggering the countdown from a custom date property added manually by the onboarding team?  Any advice?

[Dan1]

Hi @SKluge , 

You could certainly use another custom date property in your workflow to achieve the same automation. 

Kind regards, 

Dan Currin 

Co-Founder 

OrgChartHub 

GeoMapper 

OrgChartHub & GeoMapper named in the Top 30 HubSpot Apps 

[SKluge]

Thanks Dan,

I am curious on how you do your deal creation as well.  I currently have an automation set that once a deal hits closed won, it changes to our CS team, and CS onboarding pipeline.  I see that you have the automation pull specific properties into a new deal in a new pipeline.

If I send the existing "closed won" deal to a new pipeline with an automated workflow, will I still have reportable data for that closed won pipeline?

Thanks

[jphilbrook]

@Dan1 Terrific video and solution. Thank you! What do you do for renewals after 2 years? Is your plan just to create another workflow for year 3? 

[Dan1]

Hi @jphilbrook ,

Thanks for the message really pleased you like it.

I haven't quite figured out yet the best way to change the titles in the deals for year 3 and 4 etc, as it just adds to the previous title which starts to get a bit messy. At the moment a new deal is created automatically, but we manually change the deal title for year 3 and beyond in order to keep the deal board clean. 

If we figure out this piece I will be sure to let you know and likewise if you come up with any interesting solutions then please share. 

Kind regards, 

Dan Currin 

Co-Founder 

OrgChartHub 

GeoMapper 

OrgChartHub & GeoMapper named in the Top 30 HubSpot Apps 

[IProhaska]

@Dan1  Just curious why the first deal to be created in the renewal pipeline after a deal in the sales pipeline was closed won would be titled [Deal name] Year 1 and not [Deal name] Year 2. If you closed won a deal in the sales pipeline that is already Year 1, right? So wouldn't the first deal in the renewal pipeline be the deal for Year 2?

[Dan1]

Hi @IProhaska , we call it Year 1 as its the first year of the customer being on the subscription.  When we scan across the renewal pipeline we can quickly see if a customer is in their 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th year of being a customer. I hope this helps.