We have taken an honest look at the issues that we’ve come across in our short tenure as a HubSpot Partner. While we have only formally been a HubSpot agency for a short while, we have been working with HubSpot CMS, all related hubs, and HubSpot agencies for much, much longer. Through that time we’ve seen some recurring problems within HubSpot agencies and HubSpot CMS developers in general.

We hear over and over from new agency clients or small businesses that they didn’t get what they needed from their development partner, that the developer over-promised their skills or that the project went wildly over scope. These types of issues are symptoms of a bigger problem: lacking technical expertise at the sales and executive levels. Even HubSpot Partner agencies that are owned by web developers can run into these problems when their staff is overworked or underpaid. Our solution? Fractional technical directors or outsourcing to a skilled HubSpot development agency for more money.

We know. You don’t want to pay more for a service that you’re marking up and risk losing margin, but some of us need to take a serious look at our development partner and ask ourselves, is this a good fit? Where you’re paying less, you’re almost always sacrificing more somewhere else — it’s just a matter of where.

So, hear us out. Here’s why we believe you should pay more for HubSpot CMS development outsourcing for agencies or a fractional technical director as a HubSpot agency.

There's a breakdown between sales and development, and its usually found in over-promising.

We ask all our agency clients to include us in scoping and estimation of all projects and not to throw out a number until we have the opportunity to look closely at a website project, integration, or web app. When an executive or sales professional begins pitching a new website or integration project sale without getting preliminary information or including us on the call, we sometimes run into issues.

An account manager or even the executive team can throw out a ballpark figure based on their experience, only to find there’s a huge customer portal or some other sort of integration required to make it happen.

There is absolutely no question that talented HubSpot CMS developers are difficult to find and retain, but at times there can be issues associated with development that result from a sales or executive team that isn’t technically minded. We leave our booking link open to our clients and often sit in on sales calls with them to help determine the best course of action for a website project, based on budget, desired platform, functionality, required integrations, and goals.

When a sales professional runs a HubSpot CMS development project request meeting, they usually don’t know what information to ask for and miss a lot of important insights. By including your developer in the initial stages of the meeting, you can closely manage expectations and build confidence in your prospect or customer by showing them that you have people on your side that have executed these projects before and know exactly what is needed to complete them.

Sometimes when executive teams lack technical acumen, they are taken advantage of.

We recently encountered a client whose Wordpress developer told them that they could develop a website in HubSpot CMS without any issues. A few weeks and thousands of dollars later, their web developer ghosted them and they went into their portal only to find hard-coded modules implemented that didn’t allow for marketers to complete any edits whatsoever without coding knowledge. It ended up costing them and their client thousands more to have the work entirely redone.

This is the type of issue that can occur if an agency is inexpensively outsourcing and doesn’t have much technical acumen. If you’re outsourcing cheap web development, you should at least consider paying a consultant or HubSpot developer to interview and vet your talent to make sure that you’re getting what you’re paying for.

When it comes to value, when you pay less you’ll compromise on something and pay for that lack of experience down the road. A gifted developer will work more efficiently and be better able to make suggestions during the sales process up front to not only give an accurate estimate, but to really wow the client by not just delivering what they want, but taking those ideas to the next level.

Related: Why an Experienced Web Developer? Your Website Isn't a Sub Sandwich.

An experienced developer can really flex their skills and leverage the capabilities of HubSpot.

Great developers geek out on things like custom objects, line of business application integrations, and other fun projects. If you’re just starting a website development project with an existing client or new prospect, your salesperson or executive team may not know how to take the robust tools available in HubSpot and really integrate the client’s website and business processes into it.

By leveraging an experienced developer as a technical director, you can include them where necessary in your sales meetings and take the time to understand how tools like Operations Hub, Services Hub, and Sales Hub can integrate with your website to create a truly comprehensive experience for the client and customer.

The client expects the expertise that you promised them.

We prefer to work with agencies. They have the understanding and knowledge of the process to create a really amazing website design that functions in a way that serves the customer. They usually have a seamless process for design, they’re willing to interface with the client, and they usually bring us well-qualified clients that “get it.” Our relationships with our agency clients are our favorite and most consistent relationships, hands down.

Every now and then we are referred to an agency that wants to operate on price alone. They don’t understand the value of a gifted developer, they aren’t seeing the red flags that pop up when they find cheap development, and they don’t have a process in place to quality control the work that they do outsource. Most often, those clients don’t have a robust web development side of their business.

We find this interesting, because in the same sales meeting where that agency convinced the client of their value, they’re selling a project short by not honoring their own beliefs when it comes to getting value for what you’re willing to pay for.

We get it. Business is business. But you can’t, in good conscience, pitch a mission to bring incredible marketing into the world and let your development lag short of that, can you?

Related: 6 Signs it's Time to Ditch Your HubSpot Developer

When you spend so much time talking about customer delight, but also spend a lot of time trying to find the cheapest way to source your development talent while still billing the client as much as possible, we’re not sure you’re being true to your mission.

Instead, maybe what you get in value in these projects over time and the increased trust from your clients and customers means that paying a little more up front is worth it.

Maybe spending a little more for experienced developers that you bring into the fold as part of your sales process can be a complete game-changer for the services you offer and the ways you delight your clients and customers.

Maybe you can completely change your agency by hiring top-tier talent.

We like to think so anyway.