Setting Up an Automated Renewal Funnel for Support Contracts

[NJ_001]

Hello everyone,

I'm reaching out to this knowledgeable community for advice on setting up a renewal funnel within HubSpot, tailored to our specific needs involving support contracts. Our business model includes deals that come with support contracts, typically renewed every three years.

I'm contemplating an automation strategy and would greatly appreciate your insights and experiences.

Situation: We manage numerous deals with support contracts, all of which have a standard renewal period of three years. The challenge is to streamline the renewal process to enhance efficiency and maintain consistency.

Idea: I'm considering setting up an automated system within HubSpot that activates after a specific time frame (close to the end of the three-year period). This automation would ideally trigger the creation of a new deal in our renewal funnel, thereby initiating the renewal process automatically.

Questions for the Community:

1. Feasibility: Does this approach make sense within the HubSpot ecosystem? Are there any inherent limitations or considerations I should be aware of?

2. Best Practices: For those who have implemented similar systems, what are some best practices or pitfalls to avoid? How did you structure your automation to ensure smooth operation?

3. Tools and Integration: Are there specific HubSpot tools or integrations that you found particularly useful for managing and automating this type of renewal funnel?

4. Customization and Flexibility: How can I ensure the system is adaptable to various scenarios, such as early renewals or contract modifications?

5. Monitoring and Reporting: What are effective ways to monitor these automated renewals and report on their success or areas for improvement?

I am eager to learn from your experiences and insights. Any advice, tips, or examples of how you've managed similar scenarios would be immensely helpful.

Thank you in advance for your time and assistance!

[BérangèreL · Accepted solution]

Hi @NJ_001,

Great questions, I love to read your post, thanks for asking the Community!

First, I'd like to share these similar threads that might give you ideas for workflows:

- Post-sale deal stages and churn
- Combining expansion booking with a renewal

I also wanted to invite a couple of subject matter experts and some of our Community Members to this conversation: Hi @JohnnyTargaryen, @Josh, @Seyed, @David_HubSnacks, @JonDFreeman, @sales @MaticUzmah, @emphills, @Jnix284 and @Jonno_Price do you have suggestions to help @NJ_001, please?

Also, if anybody else has anything to add and/or share, please feel free to join in the conversation 🙂

Thank you very much and have a fantastic day!

Best,
Bérangère

[trevordjones · Accepted solution]

Hi @NJ_001 ,

So sorry!  I started a reply to this yesterday and got sidetracked!

1.) I have this working today for a couple of clients, and you can definitely get it done with the right tools.

2.) Ultimately, scheduled workflows are the most reliable tool for this.  You can schedule them to run once each month based upon the expiration date of the existing agreement.  

3.) Scheduled workflows require an OperationsHub Professional subscription from HubSpot.

4.) I would definitely use a workflow to set a current contract expiration date property on the Company record whenever a new agreement is made, which will be updated if you renew early or modify your agreement with the customer.  Using this property, rather than the close date of the agreement, avoids creating deals at the wrong time because another deal has been executed, such as an early extension or upgrade.

5.) I would have a dedicated pipeline for renewal business, which will make it easy for you to filter reports and monitor activity in this pipeline with single object deal reports, or just using a kanban board.

[louischausse · Accepted solution]

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

[RSchweighart · Accepted solution]

These are some great solutions from the community!

@NJ_001, this is a slight stretch on your use case, but HubSpot has an ability to create and manage subscriptions. Right now, the max subscription term is annual. That said, it builds out a lot of the customization natively such as renewal reminders, customizable views, etc.

To create a subscription link, navigate to Sales > Payments > Subscriptions then Create subscription and complete the form.

If you're in the new navigation, navigate to CRM > Subscriptions. 

Best,

Ryan Schweighart

Whole Hart Impact, LLC

whimpact.co

I help businesses with HubSpot and Zapier.

[NJ_001]

Hi @RSchweighart, thanks for the reply! I did consider this, but the issue is that our support contracts typically last for 3 years. Therefore, I believe I need to create a custom funnel. Nevertheless, I appreciate your suggestion.

[NJ_001]

Hi,

Thanks @louischausse , @trevordjones  & @BérangèreL  for relpying. I think I got some great feedback I can work with. I'll be trying the different solutions listed above.

Kind regards,

Nathanaël

[louischausse · Accepted solution]

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

[trevordjones · Accepted solution]

Hi @NJ_001 ,

So sorry!  I started a reply to this yesterday and got sidetracked!

1.) I have this working today for a couple of clients, and you can definitely get it done with the right tools.

2.) Ultimately, scheduled workflows are the most reliable tool for this.  You can schedule them to run once each month based upon the expiration date of the existing agreement.  

3.) Scheduled workflows require an OperationsHub Professional subscription from HubSpot.

4.) I would definitely use a workflow to set a current contract expiration date property on the Company record whenever a new agreement is made, which will be updated if you renew early or modify your agreement with the customer.  Using this property, rather than the close date of the agreement, avoids creating deals at the wrong time because another deal has been executed, such as an early extension or upgrade.

5.) I would have a dedicated pipeline for renewal business, which will make it easy for you to filter reports and monitor activity in this pipeline with single object deal reports, or just using a kanban board.

[BérangèreL · Accepted solution]

Hi @NJ_001,

Great questions, I love to read your post, thanks for asking the Community!

First, I'd like to share these similar threads that might give you ideas for workflows:

- Post-sale deal stages and churn
- Combining expansion booking with a renewal

I also wanted to invite a couple of subject matter experts and some of our Community Members to this conversation: Hi @JohnnyTargaryen, @Josh, @Seyed, @David_HubSnacks, @JonDFreeman, @sales @MaticUzmah, @emphills, @Jnix284 and @Jonno_Price do you have suggestions to help @NJ_001, please?

Also, if anybody else has anything to add and/or share, please feel free to join in the conversation 🙂

Thank you very much and have a fantastic day!

Best,
Bérangère

[Jnix284]

Thanks for the tag @BérangèreL, nothing to add, looks like there's a lot of great insights from @trevordjones and viable solution from @louischausse to get this built out 👏