Looking back, what would you do differently when setting up your HubSpot account?

[JConder]

I'm Jeremy from Huge Brands!  We're excited to be onboarding Hubspot.

What's something that a year end everyone wishes they had done differntly when they were setting up?

[jolle · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the mention, @MiaSrebrnjak! And great question, @JConder!

I don't know too much about how you're setting up HubSpot/if you're coming over from another tool/how many users and roles you have, but I'll share some general advice!

Get the cleanest, most complete data you possibly can

There's a ton that goes into HubSpot onboarding, especially depending on your current state and tech stack, but it's probably the best time to give your contact, company, and deal data a serious review. Any problems that exist with your data currently will still exist if they're brought into HubSpot, so now is an awesome time to:

1. Identify your minimum viable data requirements (i.e., define the core properties and dropdown values, if applicable, that you need to complete for each record in order to market to them contextually and hold productive, personalized sales conversations)
2. Ensure that all records have values for to satisfy your minimum viable data requirements. For records that are missing key datapoints, you should get a plan together for addressing and completing them
   1. This could look like having internal team members fill in the blanks, giving the contacts conversion opportunities to provide that info themselves, or a bit of both!
3. Identify any unsubscribed contacts and import them as an opt-out list
4. Scrub your entire contact database using an email deliverability tool (NeverBounce is my go-to)
5. Ensure that all applicable records are associated together properly
6. Create lists and/or dashboards (or use Operations Hub) to stay on top of your CRM and ensure that records stay complete and accurate moving forward

Keep an eye out for automation opportunities

Just like you're in a great place to review your contact database, you're also in a great place to review your day-to-day activities (or even the underlying processes). HubSpot as a tool is not going to make you more productive or efficient — it's the processes that you build and translate into HubSpot that will make or break you! 

If you identify repeatable, identical actions that someone is constantly doing, consider how you could automate, or at least streamline, those actions. It may take you a couple months of manual work before you feel the need to automate, but always keep an eye out! Here are some common examples:

1. Sales manager wants to ensure that no deal is "stuck" in any one stage for 30 days, so you could create a workflow that would assing a task/send an internal email if a deal stays in the same stage for 30 days
2. Reps send more or less the same canned email response to new leads once they're back at the computer. Instead, you could build a workflow that will automatically send that email to get things moving faster
3. Reps need to collect info before they're able to schedule a demo/start the quoting process and find themselves asking the same questions during their initial outreach. Instead, you could augment your forms, roll out a two-part form, or automate an email containing a link to the "more info" form letting the user know that they'll get a faster response if they provide that other essential info upfront

These are just some generic examples, but there's undoubtedly something you'll be able to speed up once you and the team are settled in HubSpot!

Use suppression/exclusion lists

You'll hear a ton about targeting the right people and getting in front of the right audience with contextual messaging, but never forget the other side of the coin — suppression/exclusion lists. You should have lists of your bounced, unsubscribed, unengaged, and unqualified contacts to help you with regular cleanouts. You can also use these lists to ensure that no one on them receives a certain email or is enrolled in a certain workflow. 

Hope that helps as you're getting started!!

[MiaSrebrnjak]

Hi @JConder,

This is a great question! 👍

I wanted to invite a couple of other Community members to this thread to see if they'd like to share their experience:

hi @AdamLPW, @Ben_M, @jolle, @Alex_Elborn, do you have any tips for @JConder? What is something you wish you'd knew when you were setting up your first HubSpot account? 🙂 

Thanks,

Mia, Community team