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Some Recent Thoughts...
Juicy Tidbits Without the "Tech Speak"
A compilation of ramblings about everything from HubSpot CMS development to data architecture, integrations and all the tech stuff you never knew you needed to know.
memeify the blog!
Blogs Listing - UPDATE 2024 (Jordan)
JCPenny’s is dead, and so are discount HubSpot Partner services
JCPenny's is dead and now we're doing away with discount HubSpot CMS Development.
Why a Comprehensive HubSpot Implementation is like Running a Marathon
A comprehensive HubSpot implementation will prepare you for the long haul... here's how:
The Do’s and Don’ts of HubSpot Developer Whitelabeling
HubSpot CMS developer white-labeling can be a great way to bring in top talent without having to pay a full salary - but here are the do's and don'ts.
It’s over… a HubSpot CMS developer’s “dear John” letter to WordPress
As a finally-full-time HubSpot CMS developer, this is our "dear John" breakup letter with WordPress.
The Tech Stack Diet: Cutting Back while Reducing Collateral Damage
Looking to cut back on your tech stack? Here's your tech stack diet guide.
5 regrets you’ll have paying for a Wordpress website and their corresponding timeline.
Considering cheaping out with a WordPress website over HubSpot CMS? Here are 5 regets you'll have paying for a WordPress website.
Saving the most on HubSpot starts with a Technical Partner
If you want to save money on your HubSpot subscription, start with a technical HubSpot Partner.
Scaling Organizations Need to Stop Buying HubSpot Marketplace Themes
Here's why scaling organizations need to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
Ethical Outsourcing: Tips for White labeling HubSpot CMS Developers
Here's what you need to know about white labeling HubSpot CMS development and HubSpot reporting contractors for ethical outsourcing.
![\"jcpenny\"](\"https://6534445.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/6534445/BLOG%20Images/jcpenny.jpg\")
“We are not a department store. We don’t inflate our prices before a ‘big sale’ just to discount them and make people feel like they’re getting a deal.” - Jessica Decker.
“We are not a department store. We don’t inflate our prices before a ‘big sale’ just to discount them and make people feel like they’re getting a deal.” - Jessica Decker.
\n
One of the best things about deckerdevs is that we’re unapologetically who we are.
\nNicholas doesn’t like using capital letters.
\nWill breaks the hard news on HubSpot architecture that no one else will say.
\nErica knows how to set boundaries with clients and is a stickler for delivering on deadline.
\nAmber writes tell-it-like-it-is content that is sometimes controversial.
\nJordan creates hilarious graphics for us.
\nOur mascot is a Penguin that Nicholas fondly named hotdog (no caps).
\nJessica is a numbers stickler, balancing sustainable margins so we can price ourselves accordingly.
\n\n
Our value comes in our talent *and* how uniquely ourselves we all are. When people refer you to us, it’s because we do the hard things that no one else can or is willing to do. You pay a premium for that. Do you know why? Because we understand that there’s a learning curve and discovery period to the impossible goals that you set before us. It’s not that we don’t have the talent and drive to get things done, we just take on a lot of jobs that no one else will do or that we’re extremely effective at, because we’ve trained and studied and have the right amount of experience to make that happen.
\n\n
That doesn’t come cheap.
\n\n
If you want cheap, outsource it to a cheap developer, get a finalized product that seems to look okay (that is, if your developer doesn’t get in over their head and ghost you) that you later realize is coded poorly and handicaps you long term…
\n\n
If that’s how you want to go, we’ll see you in a few months.
\n\n
We see this time and time again, it’s not just something we say because we have big egos.
\nFor our CFO and for our development team and the business in general, there’s nothing worse than hearing that a client doesn’t want to pay what it will cost to get the job done right. So, we’re laying down the law, telling it like it is and creating boundaries surrounding what we won’t do when it comes to the prices we charge for the services that we execute.
\n\n
Department stores are dead for a reason. Here’s why we don’t discount like they do:
\n\n
We know exactly what it's going to take to make this happen.
\n\n
I’m going to ask you a few questions, and they’re may seem offensive, but I really genuinely want you to read them anyway:
\n\n
Do you do web development professionally?
\nHave you ever completed a custom resource center?
\nHave you ever worked on a brand new application integration where the client didn’t really know what data they needed imported over or didn’t consider that a 2-way data exchange was even possible?
\n\n
We charge what we charge because that’s what it takes to get the job done correctly the first time.
\nWe charge what we charge because a new integration will inevitably run into roadblocks or hurdles that we have to spend extra time on.
\nWe charge what we charge because we have acquired the talent to make the things that every other developer told you can’t be done actually possible.
\n\n
In the past, we’ve been the type of company that wants to help businesses reach their goals, and we’re still that company. But over time, we’ve been burned, we’ve gotten into situations where we tried to price the best case scenario and gone so grossly over scope that we told ourselves - we’re not going to do this again.
\nWe’ve spent enough time in the trenches to know what your project is going to cost us from a time perspective, and we charge accordingly. No discounts. No compromises. We’re not going to compromise on the work we’re doing, so don’t try to get us to compromise on how we’re being compensated for that work.
\n\n
We're the CarMax of HubSpot development.
\n
I mean, we’re not. But we kinda are.
\n
CarMax is the self proclaimed “disruptor of the automotive” industry: “As the original disruptor of the automotive industry, our “no-haggle” prices transformed car buying and selling from a stressful, dreaded event into the honest, straightforward experience all people deserve.”
\n\n
CarMax charges what they charge for their vehicles. They have a flat fee to close. They make their pricing transparent and there’s no ridiculous back and forth - the price is what it is. That’s how you should consider our transactions. Our pricing isn’t negotiable. We didn’t artificially inflate your proposal or quote just so that we could negotiate our way to the ideal price.
\n\n
Like CarMax, we provide an honest, straightforward experience that our clients deserve.
\nWe understand that some old school business people like to chase the deal… but there’s a gameshow for that and we’re here to do great work and get paid what we deserve to do it.
\n\n
That’s the model.
\nThere’s no catch.
\nThere aren’t any tactics.
\n\n
We’re just honest people doing really great work for a price that we have already predetermined to be the best value we can offer. So don’t haggle us. We don’t devalue the products and services that you sell to your clients and customers - don’t ask us to do that either.
\n\n
We price your job the way we do because we have what it takes to get it done, and we will stop at nothing to do that. So if the mantra “you get what you pay for” is even a little bit true - when it comes to applications and websites that are at the heart of your business, don’t compromise. Because you’ll get in value what you put out in capital.
\n\n
We want to want to work with you.
\n\n
There’s nothing worse than discounting a job only to watch your margin be annihilated when the scenario that you knew was coming actually showed up. All of a sudden, you’re 30 hours over scope and you discounted your quote to boot - so your desire to complete this work or any other work with this client is dwindling, fast.
\n\n
Of course you still do it. You make it work, you make it happen.
\n\n
But when you get done? You’re left with that bad taste in your mouth and all the inevitable regrets that follow as your intuition is poking you right in the gut, “See? I told you so.”
\n\n
It is not easy to be the stickler in business.
\nWe’ve always considered ourselves people pleasers.
\nBut we also have to establish the important boundaries that make what we do sustainable. Like any other business, we want to do great work for our clients on an ongoing basis with no regrets. We want to finish a job and ask you, “Okay! What are we doing next?”
\n\n
We want to be your trusted resource and guide you in all your technology decisions relative to your website, business applications and HubSpot. But we can’t build that relationship long term when you don’t value us for what we bring to the table and what we have to charge to make the relationship sustainable for us. We are fiercely loyal and devoted to our clients, but we will no longer compromise ourselves for those unwilling to value what we do.
\n\n
Read more about our values and ethos
\n\n
We had to put it out there, because we need people to understand that the concept of “you get what you pay for” spans every industry and business. You cannot expect a developer to invest in you if you don’t invest in them. If you need us to work with your budget, the best way to do that is to break your projects down into phases and build in a regular development budget that is sustainable for you so that you can adopt a continuous improvement model in your website and other technology consulting related to your organization.
\n\n
Your website, the HubSpot platform and the technology that work together to make your business move like a well-oiled machine from a revenue perspective require persistent maintenance. They require you to analyze their performance, make tweaks, update processes, establish better reporting and really hone in on the minute details of how your organization’s tools work together to produce results.
\n\n
By short-changing any aspect of your technology - from HubSpot implementation to website development and tech stack, you’re only handicapping your team’s ability to succeed. Invest in a partner that can serve you in the long term by establishing a consistent budget for ROI that you can easily measure.
\n\n
We want to work with you.
\nWe want to help you with your technology in the long term.
\nWe want to make your goals into realities.
\nBut we will not discount.
\n\n
You needed to know that.
\nWe are not a department store.
\nWe are the people with the tools that can get you to where you need to go.
\nInvest in us like you understand how important it is to get there.
\n
“We are not a department store. We don’t inflate our prices before a ‘big sale’ just to discount them and make people feel like they’re getting a deal.” - Jessica Decker.
“We are not a department store. We don’t inflate our prices before a ‘big sale’ just to discount them and make people feel like they’re getting a deal.” - Jessica Decker.
\n
One of the best things about deckerdevs is that we’re unapologetically who we are.
\nNicholas doesn’t like using capital letters.
\nWill breaks the hard news on HubSpot architecture that no one else will say.
\nErica knows how to set boundaries with clients and is a stickler for delivering on deadline.
\nAmber writes tell-it-like-it-is content that is sometimes controversial.
\nJordan creates hilarious graphics for us.
\nOur mascot is a Penguin that Nicholas fondly named hotdog (no caps).
\nJessica is a numbers stickler, balancing sustainable margins so we can price ourselves accordingly.
\n\n
Our value comes in our talent *and* how uniquely ourselves we all are. When people refer you to us, it’s because we do the hard things that no one else can or is willing to do. You pay a premium for that. Do you know why? Because we understand that there’s a learning curve and discovery period to the impossible goals that you set before us. It’s not that we don’t have the talent and drive to get things done, we just take on a lot of jobs that no one else will do or that we’re extremely effective at, because we’ve trained and studied and have the right amount of experience to make that happen.
\n\n
That doesn’t come cheap.
\n\n
If you want cheap, outsource it to a cheap developer, get a finalized product that seems to look okay (that is, if your developer doesn’t get in over their head and ghost you) that you later realize is coded poorly and handicaps you long term…
\n\n
If that’s how you want to go, we’ll see you in a few months.
\n\n
We see this time and time again, it’s not just something we say because we have big egos.
\nFor our CFO and for our development team and the business in general, there’s nothing worse than hearing that a client doesn’t want to pay what it will cost to get the job done right. So, we’re laying down the law, telling it like it is and creating boundaries surrounding what we won’t do when it comes to the prices we charge for the services that we execute.
\n\n
Department stores are dead for a reason. Here’s why we don’t discount like they do:
\n\n
We know exactly what it's going to take to make this happen.
\n\n
I’m going to ask you a few questions, and they’re may seem offensive, but I really genuinely want you to read them anyway:
\n\n
Do you do web development professionally?
\nHave you ever completed a custom resource center?
\nHave you ever worked on a brand new application integration where the client didn’t really know what data they needed imported over or didn’t consider that a 2-way data exchange was even possible?
\n\n
We charge what we charge because that’s what it takes to get the job done correctly the first time.
\nWe charge what we charge because a new integration will inevitably run into roadblocks or hurdles that we have to spend extra time on.
\nWe charge what we charge because we have acquired the talent to make the things that every other developer told you can’t be done actually possible.
\n\n
In the past, we’ve been the type of company that wants to help businesses reach their goals, and we’re still that company. But over time, we’ve been burned, we’ve gotten into situations where we tried to price the best case scenario and gone so grossly over scope that we told ourselves - we’re not going to do this again.
\nWe’ve spent enough time in the trenches to know what your project is going to cost us from a time perspective, and we charge accordingly. No discounts. No compromises. We’re not going to compromise on the work we’re doing, so don’t try to get us to compromise on how we’re being compensated for that work.
\n\n
We're the CarMax of HubSpot development.
\n
I mean, we’re not. But we kinda are.
\n
CarMax is the self proclaimed “disruptor of the automotive” industry: “As the original disruptor of the automotive industry, our “no-haggle” prices transformed car buying and selling from a stressful, dreaded event into the honest, straightforward experience all people deserve.”
\n\n
CarMax charges what they charge for their vehicles. They have a flat fee to close. They make their pricing transparent and there’s no ridiculous back and forth - the price is what it is. That’s how you should consider our transactions. Our pricing isn’t negotiable. We didn’t artificially inflate your proposal or quote just so that we could negotiate our way to the ideal price.
\n\n
Like CarMax, we provide an honest, straightforward experience that our clients deserve.
\nWe understand that some old school business people like to chase the deal… but there’s a gameshow for that and we’re here to do great work and get paid what we deserve to do it.
\n\n
That’s the model.
\nThere’s no catch.
\nThere aren’t any tactics.
\n\n
We’re just honest people doing really great work for a price that we have already predetermined to be the best value we can offer. So don’t haggle us. We don’t devalue the products and services that you sell to your clients and customers - don’t ask us to do that either.
\n\n
We price your job the way we do because we have what it takes to get it done, and we will stop at nothing to do that. So if the mantra “you get what you pay for” is even a little bit true - when it comes to applications and websites that are at the heart of your business, don’t compromise. Because you’ll get in value what you put out in capital.
\n\n
We want to want to work with you.
\n\n
There’s nothing worse than discounting a job only to watch your margin be annihilated when the scenario that you knew was coming actually showed up. All of a sudden, you’re 30 hours over scope and you discounted your quote to boot - so your desire to complete this work or any other work with this client is dwindling, fast.
\n\n
Of course you still do it. You make it work, you make it happen.
\n\n
But when you get done? You’re left with that bad taste in your mouth and all the inevitable regrets that follow as your intuition is poking you right in the gut, “See? I told you so.”
\n\n
It is not easy to be the stickler in business.
\nWe’ve always considered ourselves people pleasers.
\nBut we also have to establish the important boundaries that make what we do sustainable. Like any other business, we want to do great work for our clients on an ongoing basis with no regrets. We want to finish a job and ask you, “Okay! What are we doing next?”
\n\n
We want to be your trusted resource and guide you in all your technology decisions relative to your website, business applications and HubSpot. But we can’t build that relationship long term when you don’t value us for what we bring to the table and what we have to charge to make the relationship sustainable for us. We are fiercely loyal and devoted to our clients, but we will no longer compromise ourselves for those unwilling to value what we do.
\n\n
Read more about our values and ethos
\n\n
We had to put it out there, because we need people to understand that the concept of “you get what you pay for” spans every industry and business. You cannot expect a developer to invest in you if you don’t invest in them. If you need us to work with your budget, the best way to do that is to break your projects down into phases and build in a regular development budget that is sustainable for you so that you can adopt a continuous improvement model in your website and other technology consulting related to your organization.
\n\n
Your website, the HubSpot platform and the technology that work together to make your business move like a well-oiled machine from a revenue perspective require persistent maintenance. They require you to analyze their performance, make tweaks, update processes, establish better reporting and really hone in on the minute details of how your organization’s tools work together to produce results.
\n\n
By short-changing any aspect of your technology - from HubSpot implementation to website development and tech stack, you’re only handicapping your team’s ability to succeed. Invest in a partner that can serve you in the long term by establishing a consistent budget for ROI that you can easily measure.
\n\n
We want to work with you.
\nWe want to help you with your technology in the long term.
\nWe want to make your goals into realities.
\nBut we will not discount.
\n\n
You needed to know that.
\nWe are not a department store.
\nWe are the people with the tools that can get you to where you need to go.
\nInvest in us like you understand how important it is to get there.
\n
“We are not a department store. We don’t inflate our prices before a ‘big sale’ just to discount them and make people feel like they’re getting a deal.” - Jessica Decker.
\n
One of the best things about deckerdevs is that we’re unapologetically who we are.
\nNicholas doesn’t like using capital letters.
\nWill breaks the hard news on HubSpot architecture that no one else will say.
\nErica knows how to set boundaries with clients and is a stickler for delivering on deadline.
\nAmber writes tell-it-like-it-is content that is sometimes controversial.
\nJordan creates hilarious graphics for us.
\nOur mascot is a Penguin that Nicholas fondly named hotdog (no caps).
\nJessica is a numbers stickler, balancing sustainable margins so we can price ourselves accordingly.
\n\n
Our value comes in our talent *and* how uniquely ourselves we all are. When people refer you to us, it’s because we do the hard things that no one else can or is willing to do. You pay a premium for that. Do you know why? Because we understand that there’s a learning curve and discovery period to the impossible goals that you set before us. It’s not that we don’t have the talent and drive to get things done, we just take on a lot of jobs that no one else will do or that we’re extremely effective at, because we’ve trained and studied and have the right amount of experience to make that happen.
\n\n
That doesn’t come cheap.
\n\n
If you want cheap, outsource it to a cheap developer, get a finalized product that seems to look okay (that is, if your developer doesn’t get in over their head and ghost you) that you later realize is coded poorly and handicaps you long term…
\n\n
If that’s how you want to go, we’ll see you in a few months.
\n\n
We see this time and time again, it’s not just something we say because we have big egos.
\nFor our CFO and for our development team and the business in general, there’s nothing worse than hearing that a client doesn’t want to pay what it will cost to get the job done right. So, we’re laying down the law, telling it like it is and creating boundaries surrounding what we won’t do when it comes to the prices we charge for the services that we execute.
\n\n
Department stores are dead for a reason. Here’s why we don’t discount like they do:
\n\n
We know exactly what it's going to take to make this happen.
\n\n
I’m going to ask you a few questions, and they’re may seem offensive, but I really genuinely want you to read them anyway:
\n\n
Do you do web development professionally?
\nHave you ever completed a custom resource center?
\nHave you ever worked on a brand new application integration where the client didn’t really know what data they needed imported over or didn’t consider that a 2-way data exchange was even possible?
\n\n
We charge what we charge because that’s what it takes to get the job done correctly the first time.
\nWe charge what we charge because a new integration will inevitably run into roadblocks or hurdles that we have to spend extra time on.
\nWe charge what we charge because we have acquired the talent to make the things that every other developer told you can’t be done actually possible.
\n\n
In the past, we’ve been the type of company that wants to help businesses reach their goals, and we’re still that company. But over time, we’ve been burned, we’ve gotten into situations where we tried to price the best case scenario and gone so grossly over scope that we told ourselves - we’re not going to do this again.
\nWe’ve spent enough time in the trenches to know what your project is going to cost us from a time perspective, and we charge accordingly. No discounts. No compromises. We’re not going to compromise on the work we’re doing, so don’t try to get us to compromise on how we’re being compensated for that work.
\n\n
We're the CarMax of HubSpot development.
\n
I mean, we’re not. But we kinda are.
\n
CarMax is the self proclaimed “disruptor of the automotive” industry: “As the original disruptor of the automotive industry, our “no-haggle” prices transformed car buying and selling from a stressful, dreaded event into the honest, straightforward experience all people deserve.”
\n\n
CarMax charges what they charge for their vehicles. They have a flat fee to close. They make their pricing transparent and there’s no ridiculous back and forth - the price is what it is. That’s how you should consider our transactions. Our pricing isn’t negotiable. We didn’t artificially inflate your proposal or quote just so that we could negotiate our way to the ideal price.
\n\n
Like CarMax, we provide an honest, straightforward experience that our clients deserve.
\nWe understand that some old school business people like to chase the deal… but there’s a gameshow for that and we’re here to do great work and get paid what we deserve to do it.
\n\n
That’s the model.
\nThere’s no catch.
\nThere aren’t any tactics.
\n\n
We’re just honest people doing really great work for a price that we have already predetermined to be the best value we can offer. So don’t haggle us. We don’t devalue the products and services that you sell to your clients and customers - don’t ask us to do that either.
\n\n
We price your job the way we do because we have what it takes to get it done, and we will stop at nothing to do that. So if the mantra “you get what you pay for” is even a little bit true - when it comes to applications and websites that are at the heart of your business, don’t compromise. Because you’ll get in value what you put out in capital.
\n\n
We want to want to work with you.
\n\n
There’s nothing worse than discounting a job only to watch your margin be annihilated when the scenario that you knew was coming actually showed up. All of a sudden, you’re 30 hours over scope and you discounted your quote to boot - so your desire to complete this work or any other work with this client is dwindling, fast.
\n\n
Of course you still do it. You make it work, you make it happen.
\n\n
But when you get done? You’re left with that bad taste in your mouth and all the inevitable regrets that follow as your intuition is poking you right in the gut, “See? I told you so.”
\n\n
It is not easy to be the stickler in business.
\nWe’ve always considered ourselves people pleasers.
\nBut we also have to establish the important boundaries that make what we do sustainable. Like any other business, we want to do great work for our clients on an ongoing basis with no regrets. We want to finish a job and ask you, “Okay! What are we doing next?”
\n\n
We want to be your trusted resource and guide you in all your technology decisions relative to your website, business applications and HubSpot. But we can’t build that relationship long term when you don’t value us for what we bring to the table and what we have to charge to make the relationship sustainable for us. We are fiercely loyal and devoted to our clients, but we will no longer compromise ourselves for those unwilling to value what we do.
\n\n
Read more about our values and ethos
\n\n
We had to put it out there, because we need people to understand that the concept of “you get what you pay for” spans every industry and business. You cannot expect a developer to invest in you if you don’t invest in them. If you need us to work with your budget, the best way to do that is to break your projects down into phases and build in a regular development budget that is sustainable for you so that you can adopt a continuous improvement model in your website and other technology consulting related to your organization.
\n\n
Your website, the HubSpot platform and the technology that work together to make your business move like a well-oiled machine from a revenue perspective require persistent maintenance. They require you to analyze their performance, make tweaks, update processes, establish better reporting and really hone in on the minute details of how your organization’s tools work together to produce results.
\n\n
By short-changing any aspect of your technology - from HubSpot implementation to website development and tech stack, you’re only handicapping your team’s ability to succeed. Invest in a partner that can serve you in the long term by establishing a consistent budget for ROI that you can easily measure.
\n\n
We want to work with you.
\nWe want to help you with your technology in the long term.
\nWe want to make your goals into realities.
\nBut we will not discount.
\n\n
You needed to know that.
\nWe are not a department store.
\nWe are the people with the tools that can get you to where you need to go.
\nInvest in us like you understand how important it is to get there.
\n
“We are not a department store. We don’t inflate our prices before a ‘big sale’ just to discount them and make people feel like they’re getting a deal.” - Jessica Decker.
\n
One of the best things about deckerdevs is that we’re unapologetically who we are.
\nNicholas doesn’t like using capital letters.
\nWill breaks the hard news on HubSpot architecture that no one else will say.
\nErica knows how to set boundaries with clients and is a stickler for delivering on deadline.
\nAmber writes tell-it-like-it-is content that is sometimes controversial.
\nJordan creates hilarious graphics for us.
\nOur mascot is a Penguin that Nicholas fondly named hotdog (no caps).
\nJessica is a numbers stickler, balancing sustainable margins so we can price ourselves accordingly.
\n\n
Our value comes in our talent *and* how uniquely ourselves we all are. When people refer you to us, it’s because we do the hard things that no one else can or is willing to do. You pay a premium for that. Do you know why? Because we understand that there’s a learning curve and discovery period to the impossible goals that you set before us. It’s not that we don’t have the talent and drive to get things done, we just take on a lot of jobs that no one else will do or that we’re extremely effective at, because we’ve trained and studied and have the right amount of experience to make that happen.
\n\n
That doesn’t come cheap.
\n\n
If you want cheap, outsource it to a cheap developer, get a finalized product that seems to look okay (that is, if your developer doesn’t get in over their head and ghost you) that you later realize is coded poorly and handicaps you long term…
\n\n
If that’s how you want to go, we’ll see you in a few months.
\n\n
We see this time and time again, it’s not just something we say because we have big egos.
\nFor our CFO and for our development team and the business in general, there’s nothing worse than hearing that a client doesn’t want to pay what it will cost to get the job done right. So, we’re laying down the law, telling it like it is and creating boundaries surrounding what we won’t do when it comes to the prices we charge for the services that we execute.
\n\n
Department stores are dead for a reason. Here’s why we don’t discount like they do:
\n\n
We know exactly what it's going to take to make this happen.
\n\n
I’m going to ask you a few questions, and they’re may seem offensive, but I really genuinely want you to read them anyway:
\n\n
Do you do web development professionally?
\nHave you ever completed a custom resource center?
\nHave you ever worked on a brand new application integration where the client didn’t really know what data they needed imported over or didn’t consider that a 2-way data exchange was even possible?
\n\n
We charge what we charge because that’s what it takes to get the job done correctly the first time.
\nWe charge what we charge because a new integration will inevitably run into roadblocks or hurdles that we have to spend extra time on.
\nWe charge what we charge because we have acquired the talent to make the things that every other developer told you can’t be done actually possible.
\n\n
In the past, we’ve been the type of company that wants to help businesses reach their goals, and we’re still that company. But over time, we’ve been burned, we’ve gotten into situations where we tried to price the best case scenario and gone so grossly over scope that we told ourselves - we’re not going to do this again.
\nWe’ve spent enough time in the trenches to know what your project is going to cost us from a time perspective, and we charge accordingly. No discounts. No compromises. We’re not going to compromise on the work we’re doing, so don’t try to get us to compromise on how we’re being compensated for that work.
\n\n
We're the CarMax of HubSpot development.
\n
I mean, we’re not. But we kinda are.
\n
CarMax is the self proclaimed “disruptor of the automotive” industry: “As the original disruptor of the automotive industry, our “no-haggle” prices transformed car buying and selling from a stressful, dreaded event into the honest, straightforward experience all people deserve.”
\n\n
CarMax charges what they charge for their vehicles. They have a flat fee to close. They make their pricing transparent and there’s no ridiculous back and forth - the price is what it is. That’s how you should consider our transactions. Our pricing isn’t negotiable. We didn’t artificially inflate your proposal or quote just so that we could negotiate our way to the ideal price.
\n\n
Like CarMax, we provide an honest, straightforward experience that our clients deserve.
\nWe understand that some old school business people like to chase the deal… but there’s a gameshow for that and we’re here to do great work and get paid what we deserve to do it.
\n\n
That’s the model.
\nThere’s no catch.
\nThere aren’t any tactics.
\n\n
We’re just honest people doing really great work for a price that we have already predetermined to be the best value we can offer. So don’t haggle us. We don’t devalue the products and services that you sell to your clients and customers - don’t ask us to do that either.
\n\n
We price your job the way we do because we have what it takes to get it done, and we will stop at nothing to do that. So if the mantra “you get what you pay for” is even a little bit true - when it comes to applications and websites that are at the heart of your business, don’t compromise. Because you’ll get in value what you put out in capital.
\n\n
We want to want to work with you.
\n\n
There’s nothing worse than discounting a job only to watch your margin be annihilated when the scenario that you knew was coming actually showed up. All of a sudden, you’re 30 hours over scope and you discounted your quote to boot - so your desire to complete this work or any other work with this client is dwindling, fast.
\n\n
Of course you still do it. You make it work, you make it happen.
\n\n
But when you get done? You’re left with that bad taste in your mouth and all the inevitable regrets that follow as your intuition is poking you right in the gut, “See? I told you so.”
\n\n
It is not easy to be the stickler in business.
\nWe’ve always considered ourselves people pleasers.
\nBut we also have to establish the important boundaries that make what we do sustainable. Like any other business, we want to do great work for our clients on an ongoing basis with no regrets. We want to finish a job and ask you, “Okay! What are we doing next?”
\n\n
We want to be your trusted resource and guide you in all your technology decisions relative to your website, business applications and HubSpot. But we can’t build that relationship long term when you don’t value us for what we bring to the table and what we have to charge to make the relationship sustainable for us. We are fiercely loyal and devoted to our clients, but we will no longer compromise ourselves for those unwilling to value what we do.
\n\n
Read more about our values and ethos
\n\n
We had to put it out there, because we need people to understand that the concept of “you get what you pay for” spans every industry and business. You cannot expect a developer to invest in you if you don’t invest in them. If you need us to work with your budget, the best way to do that is to break your projects down into phases and build in a regular development budget that is sustainable for you so that you can adopt a continuous improvement model in your website and other technology consulting related to your organization.
\n\n
Your website, the HubSpot platform and the technology that work together to make your business move like a well-oiled machine from a revenue perspective require persistent maintenance. They require you to analyze their performance, make tweaks, update processes, establish better reporting and really hone in on the minute details of how your organization’s tools work together to produce results.
\n\n
By short-changing any aspect of your technology - from HubSpot implementation to website development and tech stack, you’re only handicapping your team’s ability to succeed. Invest in a partner that can serve you in the long term by establishing a consistent budget for ROI that you can easily measure.
\n\n
We want to work with you.
\nWe want to help you with your technology in the long term.
\nWe want to make your goals into realities.
\nBut we will not discount.
\n\n
You needed to know that.
\nWe are not a department store.
\nWe are the people with the tools that can get you to where you need to go.
\nInvest in us like you understand how important it is to get there.
\n
“We are not a department store. We don’t inflate our prices before a ‘big sale’ just to discount them and make people feel like they’re getting a deal.” - Jessica Decker.
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“We are not a department store. We don’t inflate our prices before a ‘big sale’ just to discount them and make people feel like they’re getting a deal.” - Jessica Decker.
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\n
One of the best things about deckerdevs is that we’re unapologetically who we are.
\nNicholas doesn’t like using capital letters.
\nWill breaks the hard news on HubSpot architecture that no one else will say.
\nErica knows how to set boundaries with clients and is a stickler for delivering on deadline.
\nAmber writes tell-it-like-it-is content that is sometimes controversial.
\nJordan creates hilarious graphics for us.
\nOur mascot is a Penguin that Nicholas fondly named hotdog (no caps).
\nJessica is a numbers stickler, balancing sustainable margins so we can price ourselves accordingly.
\n\n
Our value comes in our talent *and* how uniquely ourselves we all are. When people refer you to us, it’s because we do the hard things that no one else can or is willing to do. You pay a premium for that. Do you know why? Because we understand that there’s a learning curve and discovery period to the impossible goals that you set before us. It’s not that we don’t have the talent and drive to get things done, we just take on a lot of jobs that no one else will do or that we’re extremely effective at, because we’ve trained and studied and have the right amount of experience to make that happen.
\n\n
That doesn’t come cheap.
\n\n
If you want cheap, outsource it to a cheap developer, get a finalized product that seems to look okay (that is, if your developer doesn’t get in over their head and ghost you) that you later realize is coded poorly and handicaps you long term…
\n\n
If that’s how you want to go, we’ll see you in a few months.
\n\n
We see this time and time again, it’s not just something we say because we have big egos.
\nFor our CFO and for our development team and the business in general, there’s nothing worse than hearing that a client doesn’t want to pay what it will cost to get the job done right. So, we’re laying down the law, telling it like it is and creating boundaries surrounding what we won’t do when it comes to the prices we charge for the services that we execute.
\n\n
Department stores are dead for a reason. Here’s why we don’t discount like they do:
\n\n
We know exactly what it's going to take to make this happen.
\n\n
I’m going to ask you a few questions, and they’re may seem offensive, but I really genuinely want you to read them anyway:
\n\n
Do you do web development professionally?
\nHave you ever completed a custom resource center?
\nHave you ever worked on a brand new application integration where the client didn’t really know what data they needed imported over or didn’t consider that a 2-way data exchange was even possible?
\n\n
We charge what we charge because that’s what it takes to get the job done correctly the first time.
\nWe charge what we charge because a new integration will inevitably run into roadblocks or hurdles that we have to spend extra time on.
\nWe charge what we charge because we have acquired the talent to make the things that every other developer told you can’t be done actually possible.
\n\n
In the past, we’ve been the type of company that wants to help businesses reach their goals, and we’re still that company. But over time, we’ve been burned, we’ve gotten into situations where we tried to price the best case scenario and gone so grossly over scope that we told ourselves - we’re not going to do this again.
\nWe’ve spent enough time in the trenches to know what your project is going to cost us from a time perspective, and we charge accordingly. No discounts. No compromises. We’re not going to compromise on the work we’re doing, so don’t try to get us to compromise on how we’re being compensated for that work.
\n\n
We're the CarMax of HubSpot development.
\n
I mean, we’re not. But we kinda are.
\n
CarMax is the self proclaimed “disruptor of the automotive” industry: “As the original disruptor of the automotive industry, our “no-haggle” prices transformed car buying and selling from a stressful, dreaded event into the honest, straightforward experience all people deserve.”
\n\n
CarMax charges what they charge for their vehicles. They have a flat fee to close. They make their pricing transparent and there’s no ridiculous back and forth - the price is what it is. That’s how you should consider our transactions. Our pricing isn’t negotiable. We didn’t artificially inflate your proposal or quote just so that we could negotiate our way to the ideal price.
\n\n
Like CarMax, we provide an honest, straightforward experience that our clients deserve.
\nWe understand that some old school business people like to chase the deal… but there’s a gameshow for that and we’re here to do great work and get paid what we deserve to do it.
\n\n
That’s the model.
\nThere’s no catch.
\nThere aren’t any tactics.
\n\n
We’re just honest people doing really great work for a price that we have already predetermined to be the best value we can offer. So don’t haggle us. We don’t devalue the products and services that you sell to your clients and customers - don’t ask us to do that either.
\n\n
We price your job the way we do because we have what it takes to get it done, and we will stop at nothing to do that. So if the mantra “you get what you pay for” is even a little bit true - when it comes to applications and websites that are at the heart of your business, don’t compromise. Because you’ll get in value what you put out in capital.
\n\n
We want to want to work with you.
\n\n
There’s nothing worse than discounting a job only to watch your margin be annihilated when the scenario that you knew was coming actually showed up. All of a sudden, you’re 30 hours over scope and you discounted your quote to boot - so your desire to complete this work or any other work with this client is dwindling, fast.
\n\n
Of course you still do it. You make it work, you make it happen.
\n\n
But when you get done? You’re left with that bad taste in your mouth and all the inevitable regrets that follow as your intuition is poking you right in the gut, “See? I told you so.”
\n\n
It is not easy to be the stickler in business.
\nWe’ve always considered ourselves people pleasers.
\nBut we also have to establish the important boundaries that make what we do sustainable. Like any other business, we want to do great work for our clients on an ongoing basis with no regrets. We want to finish a job and ask you, “Okay! What are we doing next?”
\n\n
We want to be your trusted resource and guide you in all your technology decisions relative to your website, business applications and HubSpot. But we can’t build that relationship long term when you don’t value us for what we bring to the table and what we have to charge to make the relationship sustainable for us. We are fiercely loyal and devoted to our clients, but we will no longer compromise ourselves for those unwilling to value what we do.
\n\n
Read more about our values and ethos
\n\n
We had to put it out there, because we need people to understand that the concept of “you get what you pay for” spans every industry and business. You cannot expect a developer to invest in you if you don’t invest in them. If you need us to work with your budget, the best way to do that is to break your projects down into phases and build in a regular development budget that is sustainable for you so that you can adopt a continuous improvement model in your website and other technology consulting related to your organization.
\n\n
Your website, the HubSpot platform and the technology that work together to make your business move like a well-oiled machine from a revenue perspective require persistent maintenance. They require you to analyze their performance, make tweaks, update processes, establish better reporting and really hone in on the minute details of how your organization’s tools work together to produce results.
\n\n
By short-changing any aspect of your technology - from HubSpot implementation to website development and tech stack, you’re only handicapping your team’s ability to succeed. Invest in a partner that can serve you in the long term by establishing a consistent budget for ROI that you can easily measure.
\n\n
We want to work with you.
\nWe want to help you with your technology in the long term.
\nWe want to make your goals into realities.
\nBut we will not discount.
\n\n
You needed to know that.
\nWe are not a department store.
\nWe are the people with the tools that can get you to where you need to go.
\nInvest in us like you understand how important it is to get there.
\n
“We are not a department store. We don’t inflate our prices before a ‘big sale’ just to discount them and make people feel like they’re getting a deal.” - Jessica Decker.
Running is kind of awful, at the outset, isn’t it? A few of the people on our team are runners, and while they claim to love it, I’ve never actually seen a runner on the side of the road that looks happy to be there. Why? Runners don’t usually run for how It feels while they’re doing it. They run for the results it gets them. For the runners high, for the cardio fitness, for the optimal heart health, the way it gets their blood and metabolism pumping and how they feel after they break a time record. This got me thinking about how running and the customer’s journey with HubSpot aren’t all that different. ![\"hubspot](\"https://6534445.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/6534445/BLOG%20Images/hubspot%20dashboard.png\")
You start up as a business, and you have very little clue what you’re doing. Maybe you’ve got the foundations right - you put one leg in front of the other. You know how to run. You can do this. Then, you get your small customer base. You’ve run the business version of a 5k. A few more customers? And you’re running 5k’s all the time. Before you know it, you’ve closed a huge account - and now you’re into 10k races. But, what’s next? As a business owner you’re ready to scale… and you’re considering the business version of a half or full marathon. But how do you get from 6 miles to 26 miles? Maybe you need a little help.
A comprehensive HubSpot implementation is a lot like being coached through a marathon. With extraordinary business benefits, a HubSpot implementation executed by a gifted technical partner and HubSpot architect can really take your business to places you’ve never been before, but that doesn’t come without difficulty.
Here’s what your HubSpot implementation may be just like preparing to run a marathon:
Running is kind of awful, at the outset, isn’t it? A few of the people on our team are runners, and while they claim to love it, I’ve never actually seen a runner on the side of the road that looks happy to be there. Why? Runners don’t usually run for how It feels while they’re doing it. They run for the results it gets them. For the runners high, for the cardio fitness, for the optimal heart health, the way it gets their blood and metabolism pumping and how they feel after they break a time record. This got me thinking about how running and the customer’s journey with HubSpot aren’t all that different. You start up as a business, and you have very little clue what you’re doing. Maybe you’ve got the foundations right - you put one leg in front of the other. You know how to run. You can do this. Then, you get your small customer base. You’ve run the business version of a 5k. A few more customers? And you’re running 5k’s all the time. Before you know it, you’ve closed a huge account - and now you’re into 10k races. But, what’s next? As a business owner you’re ready to scale… and you’re considering the business version of a half or full marathon. But how do you get from 6 miles to 26 miles? Maybe you need a little help.
A comprehensive HubSpot implementation is a lot like being coached through a marathon. With extraordinary business benefits, a HubSpot implementation executed by a gifted technical partner and HubSpot architect can really take your business to places you’ve never been before, but that doesn’t come without difficulty.
Here’s what your HubSpot implementation may be just like preparing to run a marathon:
You’re gonna be challenged so you can grow.
\n
Watching others excel at something is great. So many spectators can sit on the sidelines of elite marathons and watch the runners work their butts off to get to the finish line. But when you take the appropriate steps to engage HubSpot as a platform to help your business scale? All of a sudden, you’re in the race.
That’s intimidating, right? An entire platform to learn after your company shelled out a buttload of money for HubSpot? How are you going to take this on? The firehorse phenomenon is very real here.
A comprehensive HubSpot Implementation gives you not just the roadmap to becoming successful, but active coaching along the way. Anyone can create a running schedule or provide a tutorial on improving your stamina. But an implementation goes deeper into your business processes and your tech stack and provides comprehensive training to help you get to the finish line and reach activation inside each of your different Hubs.
Reaching activation status in each of your individual HubSpot hubs means that you’re engaging with the platform in a deep way, leveraging the different tools in your marketing, sales and service segments to really be successful, according to tried and true metrics measured by HubSpot in the countless other companies they serve.
You can’t just set an intention to run a marathon and not work every day to increase your stamina, distance, and condition yourself with the right diet and sleep schedule to make it possible, right?
This is gonna be a lot, because it’s going to completely transform your business as a result, so you might as well embrace the grueling schedule ahead of you - it’s for your own success.
It’s the longest race you can run.
\n
Implementation isn’t onboarding. Onboarding is like taking a tour around the race route. You’re really on your own. There are some basic setup items that an agency or Architect may help you with; some basic training that you’ll go through. But by and large - all the training is on you. You get up every day yourself, you set up your portal on your own, you hope that you’re using the right tools and technique, you run the long distances, you gauge your progress, and you do all the legwork to hopefully get to that 26.2 mile marker at the end.
An implementation on the other hand? It’s concierge coaching. We’re in the trenches with you. We’re not just gonna guide you around the software, but actively implement things for you. We go beyond just importing contacts, setting up social media and installing code to identifying comprehensive goals (what pace do you want to run? How quickly do you want to complete this marathon?) and really breaking them down to help you get there in the allotted time frame. It’s not just reaching the finish line, it’s improving your gait and making it more efficient to get the most of your race and mechanics.
This is it. This is the way you get to the next level in business. HubSpot is one of the top marketing, service, sales and automation platforms around and bringing all those elements together supercharges your business as a whole. But when you receive a comprehensive HubSpot implementation? It’s elite training. It’s digging in and really understanding the power behind all tools in HubSpot and taking those tools, merging them with your business processes and existing applications. Through a period of careful planning, diligence and setup, it is really empowering the way you use that software.
If a simple onboarding is a self-guided 5k race, a full HubSpot implementation executed by a skilled HubSpot Architect is the way you run your record time in a full marathon. It’s the deepest you can go, and those that complete it? They’re changed forever.
It may not feel good until you’re done.
\n
Marathon training and marathons themselves are a lot of work. Running a marathon means waking up early in the weeks and months prior. It means making plans you don’t want to make and it means giving up on those “fun” things so that you can get the return. You might have to reconfigure how you address reporting or dig deep into your processes and shift a few things to fit best with HubSpots automations and reporting. You might have to build integrations to situate yourself in the best possible way - but it’s not about how you feel when you’re being coached through, it’s about the results that you’re going to get when you’re done with the implementation.
After an implementation? All the race jitters are gone, because you know exactly what you’re doing, your plan is in front of you, and you have done everything you possibly can to prepare for the road ahead. The only thing left to do is start running.
But that preparation doesn’t happen overnight. There’s grueling prep.
You’re gonna be told your diet isn’t optimal, you’re gonna be asked to make some foundational shifts, and you might not love that. It might be difficult. But you know what? It’s always going to be worth it.
Related: Why you might hate your HubSpot Architect
\n
You’ll have a lot less collateral damage.
\n
You know what happens when you’re not prepared to run a marathon and you just head out there and do it? Injuries. Running a marathon isn’t any easy thing, even with careful preparation. Engaging the help of a coach helps get your body prepared adequately so you don’t end up injuring yourself. The cost of a race you didn’t prepare for is almost always injuries and the comparison between marathons and comprehensive HubSpot Implementation is especially relevant here.
The collateral damage of taking on HubSpot yourself, without a comprehensive implementation with a gifted HubSpot Architect can mean delays in getting up and running with HubSpot, it can mean wasted budget in paying for a tool that you’re not using, it can mean significant marketing and sales budget wasted through poorly configured reports that aren’t helping you determine where your ROI is… there are SO many issues that can arise when you don’t invest in a proper implementation.
But, perhaps one of the worst, is that many organizations that don’t opt in for HubSpot Implementation, lose employees. That’s right. Adding a game changing platform requires adoption from all ends and when you don’t pay for proper Implementations or Onboarding, you’re going to see frustrated employees that are trying their best to integrate the system into their processes, but can’t do it adequately.
You’re not going to see the valuable power behind HubSpot as a platform or the game changing way it can completely revolutionize business decisions if you don’t have someone that’s helping you implement the software properly from the start.
Injuries suck, but losing a key employee or annihilating budget can mean game over.
Related: The Cost of a Mishandled HubSpot Implementation - Employees
\n
Integrating a new platform into your business processes is no small task. Rather than just winging it, or opting in to just run a 5k in HubSpot by electing a simple Hubspot onboarding, go for the marathon.
It may feel difficult or impossible when you get started, but with the help of your gifted coach (HubSpot Architect) the sky’s the limit for where your business can go.
Ultramarathons are next on the horizon, but if you don’t get started you can’t reach that highest level. Implementing HubSpot inside your organization will feel a lot less overwhelming and net you much greater success by choosing an expert to get you trained and implemented properly from the get go.
\n
\n
","rss_summary":"
Running is kind of awful, at the outset, isn’t it? A few of the people on our team are runners, and while they claim to love it, I’ve never actually seen a runner on the side of the road that looks happy to be there. Why? Runners don’t usually run for how It feels while they’re doing it. They run for the results it gets them. For the runners high, for the cardio fitness, for the optimal heart health, the way it gets their blood and metabolism pumping and how they feel after they break a time record. This got me thinking about how running and the customer’s journey with HubSpot aren’t all that different. You start up as a business, and you have very little clue what you’re doing. Maybe you’ve got the foundations right - you put one leg in front of the other. You know how to run. You can do this. Then, you get your small customer base. You’ve run the business version of a 5k. A few more customers? And you’re running 5k’s all the time. Before you know it, you’ve closed a huge account - and now you’re into 10k races. But, what’s next? As a business owner you’re ready to scale… and you’re considering the business version of a half or full marathon. But how do you get from 6 miles to 26 miles? Maybe you need a little help.
A comprehensive HubSpot implementation is a lot like being coached through a marathon. With extraordinary business benefits, a HubSpot implementation executed by a gifted technical partner and HubSpot architect can really take your business to places you’ve never been before, but that doesn’t come without difficulty.
Here’s what your HubSpot implementation may be just like preparing to run a marathon:
Running is kind of awful, at the outset, isn’t it? A few of the people on our team are runners, and while they claim to love it, I’ve never actually seen a runner on the side of the road that looks happy to be there. Why? Runners don’t usually run for how It feels while they’re doing it. They run for the results it gets them. For the runners high, for the cardio fitness, for the optimal heart health, the way it gets their blood and metabolism pumping and how they feel after they break a time record. This got me thinking about how running and the customer’s journey with HubSpot aren’t all that different. You start up as a business, and you have very little clue what you’re doing. Maybe you’ve got the foundations right - you put one leg in front of the other. You know how to run. You can do this. Then, you get your small customer base. You’ve run the business version of a 5k. A few more customers? And you’re running 5k’s all the time. Before you know it, you’ve closed a huge account - and now you’re into 10k races. But, what’s next? As a business owner you’re ready to scale… and you’re considering the business version of a half or full marathon. But how do you get from 6 miles to 26 miles? Maybe you need a little help.
A comprehensive HubSpot implementation is a lot like being coached through a marathon. With extraordinary business benefits, a HubSpot implementation executed by a gifted technical partner and HubSpot architect can really take your business to places you’ve never been before, but that doesn’t come without difficulty.
Here’s what your HubSpot implementation may be just like preparing to run a marathon:
You’re gonna be challenged so you can grow.
\n
Watching others excel at something is great. So many spectators can sit on the sidelines of elite marathons and watch the runners work their butts off to get to the finish line. But when you take the appropriate steps to engage HubSpot as a platform to help your business scale? All of a sudden, you’re in the race.
That’s intimidating, right? An entire platform to learn after your company shelled out a buttload of money for HubSpot? How are you going to take this on? The firehorse phenomenon is very real here.
A comprehensive HubSpot Implementation gives you not just the roadmap to becoming successful, but active coaching along the way. Anyone can create a running schedule or provide a tutorial on improving your stamina. But an implementation goes deeper into your business processes and your tech stack and provides comprehensive training to help you get to the finish line and reach activation inside each of your different Hubs.
Reaching activation status in each of your individual HubSpot hubs means that you’re engaging with the platform in a deep way, leveraging the different tools in your marketing, sales and service segments to really be successful, according to tried and true metrics measured by HubSpot in the countless other companies they serve.
You can’t just set an intention to run a marathon and not work every day to increase your stamina, distance, and condition yourself with the right diet and sleep schedule to make it possible, right?
This is gonna be a lot, because it’s going to completely transform your business as a result, so you might as well embrace the grueling schedule ahead of you - it’s for your own success.
It’s the longest race you can run.
\n
Implementation isn’t onboarding. Onboarding is like taking a tour around the race route. You’re really on your own. There are some basic setup items that an agency or Architect may help you with; some basic training that you’ll go through. But by and large - all the training is on you. You get up every day yourself, you set up your portal on your own, you hope that you’re using the right tools and technique, you run the long distances, you gauge your progress, and you do all the legwork to hopefully get to that 26.2 mile marker at the end.
An implementation on the other hand? It’s concierge coaching. We’re in the trenches with you. We’re not just gonna guide you around the software, but actively implement things for you. We go beyond just importing contacts, setting up social media and installing code to identifying comprehensive goals (what pace do you want to run? How quickly do you want to complete this marathon?) and really breaking them down to help you get there in the allotted time frame. It’s not just reaching the finish line, it’s improving your gait and making it more efficient to get the most of your race and mechanics.
This is it. This is the way you get to the next level in business. HubSpot is one of the top marketing, service, sales and automation platforms around and bringing all those elements together supercharges your business as a whole. But when you receive a comprehensive HubSpot implementation? It’s elite training. It’s digging in and really understanding the power behind all tools in HubSpot and taking those tools, merging them with your business processes and existing applications. Through a period of careful planning, diligence and setup, it is really empowering the way you use that software.
If a simple onboarding is a self-guided 5k race, a full HubSpot implementation executed by a skilled HubSpot Architect is the way you run your record time in a full marathon. It’s the deepest you can go, and those that complete it? They’re changed forever.
It may not feel good until you’re done.
\n
Marathon training and marathons themselves are a lot of work. Running a marathon means waking up early in the weeks and months prior. It means making plans you don’t want to make and it means giving up on those “fun” things so that you can get the return. You might have to reconfigure how you address reporting or dig deep into your processes and shift a few things to fit best with HubSpots automations and reporting. You might have to build integrations to situate yourself in the best possible way - but it’s not about how you feel when you’re being coached through, it’s about the results that you’re going to get when you’re done with the implementation.
After an implementation? All the race jitters are gone, because you know exactly what you’re doing, your plan is in front of you, and you have done everything you possibly can to prepare for the road ahead. The only thing left to do is start running.
But that preparation doesn’t happen overnight. There’s grueling prep.
You’re gonna be told your diet isn’t optimal, you’re gonna be asked to make some foundational shifts, and you might not love that. It might be difficult. But you know what? It’s always going to be worth it.
Related: Why you might hate your HubSpot Architect
\n
You’ll have a lot less collateral damage.
\n
You know what happens when you’re not prepared to run a marathon and you just head out there and do it? Injuries. Running a marathon isn’t any easy thing, even with careful preparation. Engaging the help of a coach helps get your body prepared adequately so you don’t end up injuring yourself. The cost of a race you didn’t prepare for is almost always injuries and the comparison between marathons and comprehensive HubSpot Implementation is especially relevant here.
The collateral damage of taking on HubSpot yourself, without a comprehensive implementation with a gifted HubSpot Architect can mean delays in getting up and running with HubSpot, it can mean wasted budget in paying for a tool that you’re not using, it can mean significant marketing and sales budget wasted through poorly configured reports that aren’t helping you determine where your ROI is… there are SO many issues that can arise when you don’t invest in a proper implementation.
But, perhaps one of the worst, is that many organizations that don’t opt in for HubSpot Implementation, lose employees. That’s right. Adding a game changing platform requires adoption from all ends and when you don’t pay for proper Implementations or Onboarding, you’re going to see frustrated employees that are trying their best to integrate the system into their processes, but can’t do it adequately.
You’re not going to see the valuable power behind HubSpot as a platform or the game changing way it can completely revolutionize business decisions if you don’t have someone that’s helping you implement the software properly from the start.
Injuries suck, but losing a key employee or annihilating budget can mean game over.
Related: The Cost of a Mishandled HubSpot Implementation - Employees
\n
Integrating a new platform into your business processes is no small task. Rather than just winging it, or opting in to just run a 5k in HubSpot by electing a simple Hubspot onboarding, go for the marathon.
It may feel difficult or impossible when you get started, but with the help of your gifted coach (HubSpot Architect) the sky’s the limit for where your business can go.
Ultramarathons are next on the horizon, but if you don’t get started you can’t reach that highest level. Implementing HubSpot inside your organization will feel a lot less overwhelming and net you much greater success by choosing an expert to get you trained and implemented properly from the get go.
\n
\n
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Running is kind of awful, at the outset, isn’t it? A few of the people on our team are runners, and while they claim to love it, I’ve never actually seen a runner on the side of the road that looks happy to be there. Why? Runners don’t usually run for how It feels while they’re doing it. They run for the results it gets them. For the runners high, for the cardio fitness, for the optimal heart health, the way it gets their blood and metabolism pumping and how they feel after they break a time record. This got me thinking about how running and the customer’s journey with HubSpot aren’t all that different. You start up as a business, and you have very little clue what you’re doing. Maybe you’ve got the foundations right - you put one leg in front of the other. You know how to run. You can do this. Then, you get your small customer base. You’ve run the business version of a 5k. A few more customers? And you’re running 5k’s all the time. Before you know it, you’ve closed a huge account - and now you’re into 10k races. But, what’s next? As a business owner you’re ready to scale… and you’re considering the business version of a half or full marathon. But how do you get from 6 miles to 26 miles? Maybe you need a little help.
A comprehensive HubSpot implementation is a lot like being coached through a marathon. With extraordinary business benefits, a HubSpot implementation executed by a gifted technical partner and HubSpot architect can really take your business to places you’ve never been before, but that doesn’t come without difficulty.
Here’s what your HubSpot implementation may be just like preparing to run a marathon:
You’re gonna be challenged so you can grow.
\n
Watching others excel at something is great. So many spectators can sit on the sidelines of elite marathons and watch the runners work their butts off to get to the finish line. But when you take the appropriate steps to engage HubSpot as a platform to help your business scale? All of a sudden, you’re in the race.
That’s intimidating, right? An entire platform to learn after your company shelled out a buttload of money for HubSpot? How are you going to take this on? The firehorse phenomenon is very real here.
A comprehensive HubSpot Implementation gives you not just the roadmap to becoming successful, but active coaching along the way. Anyone can create a running schedule or provide a tutorial on improving your stamina. But an implementation goes deeper into your business processes and your tech stack and provides comprehensive training to help you get to the finish line and reach activation inside each of your different Hubs.
Reaching activation status in each of your individual HubSpot hubs means that you’re engaging with the platform in a deep way, leveraging the different tools in your marketing, sales and service segments to really be successful, according to tried and true metrics measured by HubSpot in the countless other companies they serve.
You can’t just set an intention to run a marathon and not work every day to increase your stamina, distance, and condition yourself with the right diet and sleep schedule to make it possible, right?
This is gonna be a lot, because it’s going to completely transform your business as a result, so you might as well embrace the grueling schedule ahead of you - it’s for your own success.
It’s the longest race you can run.
\n
Implementation isn’t onboarding. Onboarding is like taking a tour around the race route. You’re really on your own. There are some basic setup items that an agency or Architect may help you with; some basic training that you’ll go through. But by and large - all the training is on you. You get up every day yourself, you set up your portal on your own, you hope that you’re using the right tools and technique, you run the long distances, you gauge your progress, and you do all the legwork to hopefully get to that 26.2 mile marker at the end.
An implementation on the other hand? It’s concierge coaching. We’re in the trenches with you. We’re not just gonna guide you around the software, but actively implement things for you. We go beyond just importing contacts, setting up social media and installing code to identifying comprehensive goals (what pace do you want to run? How quickly do you want to complete this marathon?) and really breaking them down to help you get there in the allotted time frame. It’s not just reaching the finish line, it’s improving your gait and making it more efficient to get the most of your race and mechanics.
This is it. This is the way you get to the next level in business. HubSpot is one of the top marketing, service, sales and automation platforms around and bringing all those elements together supercharges your business as a whole. But when you receive a comprehensive HubSpot implementation? It’s elite training. It’s digging in and really understanding the power behind all tools in HubSpot and taking those tools, merging them with your business processes and existing applications. Through a period of careful planning, diligence and setup, it is really empowering the way you use that software.
If a simple onboarding is a self-guided 5k race, a full HubSpot implementation executed by a skilled HubSpot Architect is the way you run your record time in a full marathon. It’s the deepest you can go, and those that complete it? They’re changed forever.
It may not feel good until you’re done.
\n
Marathon training and marathons themselves are a lot of work. Running a marathon means waking up early in the weeks and months prior. It means making plans you don’t want to make and it means giving up on those “fun” things so that you can get the return. You might have to reconfigure how you address reporting or dig deep into your processes and shift a few things to fit best with HubSpots automations and reporting. You might have to build integrations to situate yourself in the best possible way - but it’s not about how you feel when you’re being coached through, it’s about the results that you’re going to get when you’re done with the implementation.
After an implementation? All the race jitters are gone, because you know exactly what you’re doing, your plan is in front of you, and you have done everything you possibly can to prepare for the road ahead. The only thing left to do is start running.
But that preparation doesn’t happen overnight. There’s grueling prep.
You’re gonna be told your diet isn’t optimal, you’re gonna be asked to make some foundational shifts, and you might not love that. It might be difficult. But you know what? It’s always going to be worth it.
Related: Why you might hate your HubSpot Architect
\n
You’ll have a lot less collateral damage.
\n
You know what happens when you’re not prepared to run a marathon and you just head out there and do it? Injuries. Running a marathon isn’t any easy thing, even with careful preparation. Engaging the help of a coach helps get your body prepared adequately so you don’t end up injuring yourself. The cost of a race you didn’t prepare for is almost always injuries and the comparison between marathons and comprehensive HubSpot Implementation is especially relevant here.
The collateral damage of taking on HubSpot yourself, without a comprehensive implementation with a gifted HubSpot Architect can mean delays in getting up and running with HubSpot, it can mean wasted budget in paying for a tool that you’re not using, it can mean significant marketing and sales budget wasted through poorly configured reports that aren’t helping you determine where your ROI is… there are SO many issues that can arise when you don’t invest in a proper implementation.
But, perhaps one of the worst, is that many organizations that don’t opt in for HubSpot Implementation, lose employees. That’s right. Adding a game changing platform requires adoption from all ends and when you don’t pay for proper Implementations or Onboarding, you’re going to see frustrated employees that are trying their best to integrate the system into their processes, but can’t do it adequately.
You’re not going to see the valuable power behind HubSpot as a platform or the game changing way it can completely revolutionize business decisions if you don’t have someone that’s helping you implement the software properly from the start.
Injuries suck, but losing a key employee or annihilating budget can mean game over.
Related: The Cost of a Mishandled HubSpot Implementation - Employees
\n
Integrating a new platform into your business processes is no small task. Rather than just winging it, or opting in to just run a 5k in HubSpot by electing a simple Hubspot onboarding, go for the marathon.
It may feel difficult or impossible when you get started, but with the help of your gifted coach (HubSpot Architect) the sky’s the limit for where your business can go.
Ultramarathons are next on the horizon, but if you don’t get started you can’t reach that highest level. Implementing HubSpot inside your organization will feel a lot less overwhelming and net you much greater success by choosing an expert to get you trained and implemented properly from the get go.
\n
\n
","postBodyRss":"
Running is kind of awful, at the outset, isn’t it? A few of the people on our team are runners, and while they claim to love it, I’ve never actually seen a runner on the side of the road that looks happy to be there. Why? Runners don’t usually run for how It feels while they’re doing it. They run for the results it gets them. For the runners high, for the cardio fitness, for the optimal heart health, the way it gets their blood and metabolism pumping and how they feel after they break a time record. This got me thinking about how running and the customer’s journey with HubSpot aren’t all that different. You start up as a business, and you have very little clue what you’re doing. Maybe you’ve got the foundations right - you put one leg in front of the other. You know how to run. You can do this. Then, you get your small customer base. You’ve run the business version of a 5k. A few more customers? And you’re running 5k’s all the time. Before you know it, you’ve closed a huge account - and now you’re into 10k races. But, what’s next? As a business owner you’re ready to scale… and you’re considering the business version of a half or full marathon. But how do you get from 6 miles to 26 miles? Maybe you need a little help.
A comprehensive HubSpot implementation is a lot like being coached through a marathon. With extraordinary business benefits, a HubSpot implementation executed by a gifted technical partner and HubSpot architect can really take your business to places you’ve never been before, but that doesn’t come without difficulty.
Here’s what your HubSpot implementation may be just like preparing to run a marathon:
You’re gonna be challenged so you can grow.
\n
Watching others excel at something is great. So many spectators can sit on the sidelines of elite marathons and watch the runners work their butts off to get to the finish line. But when you take the appropriate steps to engage HubSpot as a platform to help your business scale? All of a sudden, you’re in the race.
That’s intimidating, right? An entire platform to learn after your company shelled out a buttload of money for HubSpot? How are you going to take this on? The firehorse phenomenon is very real here.
A comprehensive HubSpot Implementation gives you not just the roadmap to becoming successful, but active coaching along the way. Anyone can create a running schedule or provide a tutorial on improving your stamina. But an implementation goes deeper into your business processes and your tech stack and provides comprehensive training to help you get to the finish line and reach activation inside each of your different Hubs.
Reaching activation status in each of your individual HubSpot hubs means that you’re engaging with the platform in a deep way, leveraging the different tools in your marketing, sales and service segments to really be successful, according to tried and true metrics measured by HubSpot in the countless other companies they serve.
You can’t just set an intention to run a marathon and not work every day to increase your stamina, distance, and condition yourself with the right diet and sleep schedule to make it possible, right?
This is gonna be a lot, because it’s going to completely transform your business as a result, so you might as well embrace the grueling schedule ahead of you - it’s for your own success.
It’s the longest race you can run.
\n
Implementation isn’t onboarding. Onboarding is like taking a tour around the race route. You’re really on your own. There are some basic setup items that an agency or Architect may help you with; some basic training that you’ll go through. But by and large - all the training is on you. You get up every day yourself, you set up your portal on your own, you hope that you’re using the right tools and technique, you run the long distances, you gauge your progress, and you do all the legwork to hopefully get to that 26.2 mile marker at the end.
An implementation on the other hand? It’s concierge coaching. We’re in the trenches with you. We’re not just gonna guide you around the software, but actively implement things for you. We go beyond just importing contacts, setting up social media and installing code to identifying comprehensive goals (what pace do you want to run? How quickly do you want to complete this marathon?) and really breaking them down to help you get there in the allotted time frame. It’s not just reaching the finish line, it’s improving your gait and making it more efficient to get the most of your race and mechanics.
This is it. This is the way you get to the next level in business. HubSpot is one of the top marketing, service, sales and automation platforms around and bringing all those elements together supercharges your business as a whole. But when you receive a comprehensive HubSpot implementation? It’s elite training. It’s digging in and really understanding the power behind all tools in HubSpot and taking those tools, merging them with your business processes and existing applications. Through a period of careful planning, diligence and setup, it is really empowering the way you use that software.
If a simple onboarding is a self-guided 5k race, a full HubSpot implementation executed by a skilled HubSpot Architect is the way you run your record time in a full marathon. It’s the deepest you can go, and those that complete it? They’re changed forever.
It may not feel good until you’re done.
\n
Marathon training and marathons themselves are a lot of work. Running a marathon means waking up early in the weeks and months prior. It means making plans you don’t want to make and it means giving up on those “fun” things so that you can get the return. You might have to reconfigure how you address reporting or dig deep into your processes and shift a few things to fit best with HubSpots automations and reporting. You might have to build integrations to situate yourself in the best possible way - but it’s not about how you feel when you’re being coached through, it’s about the results that you’re going to get when you’re done with the implementation.
After an implementation? All the race jitters are gone, because you know exactly what you’re doing, your plan is in front of you, and you have done everything you possibly can to prepare for the road ahead. The only thing left to do is start running.
But that preparation doesn’t happen overnight. There’s grueling prep.
You’re gonna be told your diet isn’t optimal, you’re gonna be asked to make some foundational shifts, and you might not love that. It might be difficult. But you know what? It’s always going to be worth it.
Related: Why you might hate your HubSpot Architect
\n
You’ll have a lot less collateral damage.
\n
You know what happens when you’re not prepared to run a marathon and you just head out there and do it? Injuries. Running a marathon isn’t any easy thing, even with careful preparation. Engaging the help of a coach helps get your body prepared adequately so you don’t end up injuring yourself. The cost of a race you didn’t prepare for is almost always injuries and the comparison between marathons and comprehensive HubSpot Implementation is especially relevant here.
The collateral damage of taking on HubSpot yourself, without a comprehensive implementation with a gifted HubSpot Architect can mean delays in getting up and running with HubSpot, it can mean wasted budget in paying for a tool that you’re not using, it can mean significant marketing and sales budget wasted through poorly configured reports that aren’t helping you determine where your ROI is… there are SO many issues that can arise when you don’t invest in a proper implementation.
But, perhaps one of the worst, is that many organizations that don’t opt in for HubSpot Implementation, lose employees. That’s right. Adding a game changing platform requires adoption from all ends and when you don’t pay for proper Implementations or Onboarding, you’re going to see frustrated employees that are trying their best to integrate the system into their processes, but can’t do it adequately.
You’re not going to see the valuable power behind HubSpot as a platform or the game changing way it can completely revolutionize business decisions if you don’t have someone that’s helping you implement the software properly from the start.
Injuries suck, but losing a key employee or annihilating budget can mean game over.
Related: The Cost of a Mishandled HubSpot Implementation - Employees
\n
Integrating a new platform into your business processes is no small task. Rather than just winging it, or opting in to just run a 5k in HubSpot by electing a simple Hubspot onboarding, go for the marathon.
It may feel difficult or impossible when you get started, but with the help of your gifted coach (HubSpot Architect) the sky’s the limit for where your business can go.
Ultramarathons are next on the horizon, but if you don’t get started you can’t reach that highest level. Implementing HubSpot inside your organization will feel a lot less overwhelming and net you much greater success by choosing an expert to get you trained and implemented properly from the get go.
\n
\n
","postEmailContent":"
Running is kind of awful, at the outset, isn’t it? A few of the people on our team are runners, and while they claim to love it, I’ve never actually seen a runner on the side of the road that looks happy to be there. Why? Runners don’t usually run for how It feels while they’re doing it. They run for the results it gets them. For the runners high, for the cardio fitness, for the optimal heart health, the way it gets their blood and metabolism pumping and how they feel after they break a time record. This got me thinking about how running and the customer’s journey with HubSpot aren’t all that different.
You start up as a business, and you have very little clue what you’re doing. Maybe you’ve got the foundations right - you put one leg in front of the other. You know how to run. You can do this. Then, you get your small customer base. You’ve run the business version of a 5k. A few more customers? And you’re running 5k’s all the time. Before you know it, you’ve closed a huge account - and now you’re into 10k races. But, what’s next? As a business owner you’re ready to scale… and you’re considering the business version of a half or full marathon. But how do you get from 6 miles to 26 miles? Maybe you need a little help.
A comprehensive HubSpot implementation is a lot like being coached through a marathon. With extraordinary business benefits, a HubSpot implementation executed by a gifted technical partner and HubSpot architect can really take your business to places you’ve never been before, but that doesn’t come without difficulty.
Here’s what your HubSpot implementation may be just like preparing to run a marathon:
Running is kind of awful, at the outset, isn’t it? A few of the people on our team are runners, and while they claim to love it, I’ve never actually seen a runner on the side of the road that looks happy to be there. Why? Runners don’t usually run for how It feels while they’re doing it. They run for the results it gets them. For the runners high, for the cardio fitness, for the optimal heart health, the way it gets their blood and metabolism pumping and how they feel after they break a time record. This got me thinking about how running and the customer’s journey with HubSpot aren’t all that different.
You start up as a business, and you have very little clue what you’re doing. Maybe you’ve got the foundations right - you put one leg in front of the other. You know how to run. You can do this. Then, you get your small customer base. You’ve run the business version of a 5k. A few more customers? And you’re running 5k’s all the time. Before you know it, you’ve closed a huge account - and now you’re into 10k races. But, what’s next? As a business owner you’re ready to scale… and you’re considering the business version of a half or full marathon. But how do you get from 6 miles to 26 miles? Maybe you need a little help.
A comprehensive HubSpot implementation is a lot like being coached through a marathon. With extraordinary business benefits, a HubSpot implementation executed by a gifted technical partner and HubSpot architect can really take your business to places you’ve never been before, but that doesn’t come without difficulty.
Here’s what your HubSpot implementation may be just like preparing to run a marathon:
Running is kind of awful, at the outset, isn’t it? A few of the people on our team are runners, and while they claim to love it, I’ve never actually seen a runner on the side of the road that looks happy to be there. Why? Runners don’t usually run for how It feels while they’re doing it. They run for the results it gets them. For the runners high, for the cardio fitness, for the optimal heart health, the way it gets their blood and metabolism pumping and how they feel after they break a time record. This got me thinking about how running and the customer’s journey with HubSpot aren’t all that different.
You start up as a business, and you have very little clue what you’re doing. Maybe you’ve got the foundations right - you put one leg in front of the other. You know how to run. You can do this. Then, you get your small customer base. You’ve run the business version of a 5k. A few more customers? And you’re running 5k’s all the time. Before you know it, you’ve closed a huge account - and now you’re into 10k races. But, what’s next? As a business owner you’re ready to scale… and you’re considering the business version of a half or full marathon. But how do you get from 6 miles to 26 miles? Maybe you need a little help.
A comprehensive HubSpot implementation is a lot like being coached through a marathon. With extraordinary business benefits, a HubSpot implementation executed by a gifted technical partner and HubSpot architect can really take your business to places you’ve never been before, but that doesn’t come without difficulty.
Here’s what your HubSpot implementation may be just like preparing to run a marathon:
Running is kind of awful, at the outset, isn’t it? A few of the people on our team are runners, and while they claim to love it, I’ve never actually seen a runner on the side of the road that looks happy to be there. Why? Runners don’t usually run for how It feels while they’re doing it. They run for the results it gets them. For the runners high, for the cardio fitness, for the optimal heart health, the way it gets their blood and metabolism pumping and how they feel after they break a time record. This got me thinking about how running and the customer’s journey with HubSpot aren’t all that different. You start up as a business, and you have very little clue what you’re doing. Maybe you’ve got the foundations right - you put one leg in front of the other. You know how to run. You can do this. Then, you get your small customer base. You’ve run the business version of a 5k. A few more customers? And you’re running 5k’s all the time. Before you know it, you’ve closed a huge account - and now you’re into 10k races. But, what’s next? As a business owner you’re ready to scale… and you’re considering the business version of a half or full marathon. But how do you get from 6 miles to 26 miles? Maybe you need a little help.
A comprehensive HubSpot implementation is a lot like being coached through a marathon. With extraordinary business benefits, a HubSpot implementation executed by a gifted technical partner and HubSpot architect can really take your business to places you’ve never been before, but that doesn’t come without difficulty.
Here’s what your HubSpot implementation may be just like preparing to run a marathon:
Running is kind of awful, at the outset, isn’t it? A few of the people on our team are runners, and while they claim to love it, I’ve never actually seen a runner on the side of the road that looks happy to be there. Why? Runners don’t usually run for how It feels while they’re doing it. They run for the results it gets them. For the runners high, for the cardio fitness, for the optimal heart health, the way it gets their blood and metabolism pumping and how they feel after they break a time record. This got me thinking about how running and the customer’s journey with HubSpot aren’t all that different.
You start up as a business, and you have very little clue what you’re doing. Maybe you’ve got the foundations right - you put one leg in front of the other. You know how to run. You can do this. Then, you get your small customer base. You’ve run the business version of a 5k. A few more customers? And you’re running 5k’s all the time. Before you know it, you’ve closed a huge account - and now you’re into 10k races. But, what’s next? As a business owner you’re ready to scale… and you’re considering the business version of a half or full marathon. But how do you get from 6 miles to 26 miles? Maybe you need a little help.
A comprehensive HubSpot implementation is a lot like being coached through a marathon. With extraordinary business benefits, a HubSpot implementation executed by a gifted technical partner and HubSpot architect can really take your business to places you’ve never been before, but that doesn’t come without difficulty.
Here’s what your HubSpot implementation may be just like preparing to run a marathon:
Running is kind of awful, at the outset, isn’t it? A few of the people on our team are runners, and while they claim to love it, I’ve never actually seen a runner on the side of the road that looks happy to be there. Why? Runners don’t usually run for how It feels while they’re doing it. They run for the results it gets them. For the runners high, for the cardio fitness, for the optimal heart health, the way it gets their blood and metabolism pumping and how they feel after they break a time record. This got me thinking about how running and the customer’s journey with HubSpot aren’t all that different. You start up as a business, and you have very little clue what you’re doing. Maybe you’ve got the foundations right - you put one leg in front of the other. You know how to run. You can do this. Then, you get your small customer base. You’ve run the business version of a 5k. A few more customers? And you’re running 5k’s all the time. Before you know it, you’ve closed a huge account - and now you’re into 10k races. But, what’s next? As a business owner you’re ready to scale… and you’re considering the business version of a half or full marathon. But how do you get from 6 miles to 26 miles? Maybe you need a little help.
A comprehensive HubSpot implementation is a lot like being coached through a marathon. With extraordinary business benefits, a HubSpot implementation executed by a gifted technical partner and HubSpot architect can really take your business to places you’ve never been before, but that doesn’t come without difficulty.
Here’s what your HubSpot implementation may be just like preparing to run a marathon:
You’re gonna be challenged so you can grow.
\n
Watching others excel at something is great. So many spectators can sit on the sidelines of elite marathons and watch the runners work their butts off to get to the finish line. But when you take the appropriate steps to engage HubSpot as a platform to help your business scale? All of a sudden, you’re in the race.
That’s intimidating, right? An entire platform to learn after your company shelled out a buttload of money for HubSpot? How are you going to take this on? The firehorse phenomenon is very real here.
A comprehensive HubSpot Implementation gives you not just the roadmap to becoming successful, but active coaching along the way. Anyone can create a running schedule or provide a tutorial on improving your stamina. But an implementation goes deeper into your business processes and your tech stack and provides comprehensive training to help you get to the finish line and reach activation inside each of your different Hubs.
Reaching activation status in each of your individual HubSpot hubs means that you’re engaging with the platform in a deep way, leveraging the different tools in your marketing, sales and service segments to really be successful, according to tried and true metrics measured by HubSpot in the countless other companies they serve.
You can’t just set an intention to run a marathon and not work every day to increase your stamina, distance, and condition yourself with the right diet and sleep schedule to make it possible, right?
This is gonna be a lot, because it’s going to completely transform your business as a result, so you might as well embrace the grueling schedule ahead of you - it’s for your own success.
It’s the longest race you can run.
\n
Implementation isn’t onboarding. Onboarding is like taking a tour around the race route. You’re really on your own. There are some basic setup items that an agency or Architect may help you with; some basic training that you’ll go through. But by and large - all the training is on you. You get up every day yourself, you set up your portal on your own, you hope that you’re using the right tools and technique, you run the long distances, you gauge your progress, and you do all the legwork to hopefully get to that 26.2 mile marker at the end.
An implementation on the other hand? It’s concierge coaching. We’re in the trenches with you. We’re not just gonna guide you around the software, but actively implement things for you. We go beyond just importing contacts, setting up social media and installing code to identifying comprehensive goals (what pace do you want to run? How quickly do you want to complete this marathon?) and really breaking them down to help you get there in the allotted time frame. It’s not just reaching the finish line, it’s improving your gait and making it more efficient to get the most of your race and mechanics.
This is it. This is the way you get to the next level in business. HubSpot is one of the top marketing, service, sales and automation platforms around and bringing all those elements together supercharges your business as a whole. But when you receive a comprehensive HubSpot implementation? It’s elite training. It’s digging in and really understanding the power behind all tools in HubSpot and taking those tools, merging them with your business processes and existing applications. Through a period of careful planning, diligence and setup, it is really empowering the way you use that software.
If a simple onboarding is a self-guided 5k race, a full HubSpot implementation executed by a skilled HubSpot Architect is the way you run your record time in a full marathon. It’s the deepest you can go, and those that complete it? They’re changed forever.
It may not feel good until you’re done.
\n
Marathon training and marathons themselves are a lot of work. Running a marathon means waking up early in the weeks and months prior. It means making plans you don’t want to make and it means giving up on those “fun” things so that you can get the return. You might have to reconfigure how you address reporting or dig deep into your processes and shift a few things to fit best with HubSpots automations and reporting. You might have to build integrations to situate yourself in the best possible way - but it’s not about how you feel when you’re being coached through, it’s about the results that you’re going to get when you’re done with the implementation.
After an implementation? All the race jitters are gone, because you know exactly what you’re doing, your plan is in front of you, and you have done everything you possibly can to prepare for the road ahead. The only thing left to do is start running.
But that preparation doesn’t happen overnight. There’s grueling prep.
You’re gonna be told your diet isn’t optimal, you’re gonna be asked to make some foundational shifts, and you might not love that. It might be difficult. But you know what? It’s always going to be worth it.
Related: Why you might hate your HubSpot Architect
\n
You’ll have a lot less collateral damage.
\n
You know what happens when you’re not prepared to run a marathon and you just head out there and do it? Injuries. Running a marathon isn’t any easy thing, even with careful preparation. Engaging the help of a coach helps get your body prepared adequately so you don’t end up injuring yourself. The cost of a race you didn’t prepare for is almost always injuries and the comparison between marathons and comprehensive HubSpot Implementation is especially relevant here.
The collateral damage of taking on HubSpot yourself, without a comprehensive implementation with a gifted HubSpot Architect can mean delays in getting up and running with HubSpot, it can mean wasted budget in paying for a tool that you’re not using, it can mean significant marketing and sales budget wasted through poorly configured reports that aren’t helping you determine where your ROI is… there are SO many issues that can arise when you don’t invest in a proper implementation.
But, perhaps one of the worst, is that many organizations that don’t opt in for HubSpot Implementation, lose employees. That’s right. Adding a game changing platform requires adoption from all ends and when you don’t pay for proper Implementations or Onboarding, you’re going to see frustrated employees that are trying their best to integrate the system into their processes, but can’t do it adequately.
You’re not going to see the valuable power behind HubSpot as a platform or the game changing way it can completely revolutionize business decisions if you don’t have someone that’s helping you implement the software properly from the start.
Injuries suck, but losing a key employee or annihilating budget can mean game over.
Related: The Cost of a Mishandled HubSpot Implementation - Employees
\n
Integrating a new platform into your business processes is no small task. Rather than just winging it, or opting in to just run a 5k in HubSpot by electing a simple Hubspot onboarding, go for the marathon.
It may feel difficult or impossible when you get started, but with the help of your gifted coach (HubSpot Architect) the sky’s the limit for where your business can go.
Ultramarathons are next on the horizon, but if you don’t get started you can’t reach that highest level. Implementing HubSpot inside your organization will feel a lot less overwhelming and net you much greater success by choosing an expert to get you trained and implemented properly from the get go.
\n
\n
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Running is kind of awful, at the outset, isn’t it? A few of the people on our team are runners, and while they claim to love it, I’ve never actually seen a runner on the side of the road that looks happy to be there. Why? Runners don’t usually run for how It feels while they’re doing it. They run for the results it gets them. For the runners high, for the cardio fitness, for the optimal heart health, the way it gets their blood and metabolism pumping and how they feel after they break a time record. This got me thinking about how running and the customer’s journey with HubSpot aren’t all that different. You start up as a business, and you have very little clue what you’re doing. Maybe you’ve got the foundations right - you put one leg in front of the other. You know how to run. You can do this. Then, you get your small customer base. You’ve run the business version of a 5k. A few more customers? And you’re running 5k’s all the time. Before you know it, you’ve closed a huge account - and now you’re into 10k races. But, what’s next? As a business owner you’re ready to scale… and you’re considering the business version of a half or full marathon. But how do you get from 6 miles to 26 miles? Maybe you need a little help.
A comprehensive HubSpot implementation is a lot like being coached through a marathon. With extraordinary business benefits, a HubSpot implementation executed by a gifted technical partner and HubSpot architect can really take your business to places you’ve never been before, but that doesn’t come without difficulty.
Here’s what your HubSpot implementation may be just like preparing to run a marathon:
\n
![](\"https://6534445.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/6534445/image-png-3.png\")
We talk a lot about strategic development services in our marketing. For our long term clients, it’s a critical element of their overall growth strategy. For us, what starts as a simple website module fix or a HubSpot integration quickly evolves into full technology planning, a new website, tweaking a resource center, optimizing page load speeds, sifting through reporting optimization in HubSpot and more. Making HubSpot work for our clients is something we literally geek out on every day. However, when we do this work through agencies - it can become a little convoluted and a client might not necessarily get the full breadth of services available to them.
It’s extremely important for agencies that white-label their HubSpot development talent to make sure they really have the expertise needed to consult fully when it comes to an organization’s technology. Without a full understanding of the opportunity for data integrations, the intricacies of their workflows and the struggles they face on a day to day basis and how you can optimize their technology to truly fix those struggles - how can you call yourself a Partner?
HubSpot developer white-labeling is a service that we’re struggling with increasingly, depending on which agencies we work with. Here’s the long and short of it (here we go with our bold claims):
\n
We talk a lot about strategic development services in our marketing. For our long term clients, it’s a critical element of their overall growth strategy. For us, what starts as a simple website module fix or a HubSpot integration quickly evolves into full technology planning, a new website, tweaking a resource center, optimizing page load speeds, sifting through reporting optimization in HubSpot and more. Making HubSpot work for our clients is something we literally geek out on every day. However, when we do this work through agencies - it can become a little convoluted and a client might not necessarily get the full breadth of services available to them.
It’s extremely important for agencies that white-label their HubSpot development talent to make sure they really have the expertise needed to consult fully when it comes to an organization’s technology. Without a full understanding of the opportunity for data integrations, the intricacies of their workflows and the struggles they face on a day to day basis and how you can optimize their technology to truly fix those struggles - how can you call yourself a Partner?
HubSpot developer white-labeling is a service that we’re struggling with increasingly, depending on which agencies we work with. Here’s the long and short of it (here we go with our bold claims):
If you don’t let your developer speak to your clients directly, you’re doing your agency and the client a disservice.
Believe me, I get it. King of the castle, keeper of the keys - maintaining a singular contact point can be super valuable when it comes to making things easy for the client. But you know that song?
“Sometimes the hardest thing and the right thing are the same.”
It’s a true statement. We find our most successful white-label relationships happen with agencies that trust us to speak to the client directly. You’d be surprised what we can pick out of a conversation - symptoms of poorly configured reporting, optimization opportunities inside HubSpot portals, integration opportunities, basic department workflow issues with applications, opportunities for integrated data analytics - the sky is the limit. But when a partner that doesn’t have the appropriate technology savvy to explain solutions or offer chances for developers and architects to dig deeply into a client’s tech stack and HubSpot portal? There’s a ton of missed opportunity.
Here’s a little insight on the best way we’ve found for agencies to work with a HubSpot CMS developer in a white-label capacity and how being more flexible on how you work with your white-label developer can actually make you much more money.
Indicate where the needs are, but leave space for more.
\n
So many agencies come to us seeking one time development or integration work, but stop short of understanding that they should really let our developers and architects take a look under the hood of their client’s HubSpot portal and website in a more in-depth way.
We don’t mind being told exactly what needs to be done - it’s often easier to work with a HubSpot-savvy agency that really understands a client’s workflow process and can cut some of the preliminary discussions by providing a lot of that information beforehand. When we’re allowed to really dig in and get strategic, though? That’s where the magic happens.
When you leave the needs and budget parameters so closed with a client, you miss opportunities for both you and the client to benefit from a deeper dive. Let your client know that you’re going to have your development team do a full analysis and come back with a comprehensive list of potential improvements and spaces that can be optimized to best situate them for success. There may be a better way to configure their database or resource center or configure their reporting that they haven’t even considered that an agency that isn’t technically focused may not have seen.
Don’t gatekeep.
\n
This is easily the most frustrating part of taking on white-label work:
“Well, explain this to me in more detail so I can explain it to them.”
We’ve played telephone plenty, but odds are high you’re not going to be able to explain it as well as we will, you might leave out some important details, or you won’t be able to answer the follow-on questions adequately. Rather than gatekeeping or playing telephone here - lets all sit down and have a chat together.
When you gatekeep the client, you might not know what questions to ask, where you can identify processes and other issues inside their HubSpot portal or how you might be able to empower their website beyond the basics of what your agency is good at.
There’s always a way to put agreements and best practices standards in place for how you wish for us to interact with your clients or compensation agreements that we can work out when we quote and upsell strategic technology to your client.
Agree on compensation structures that work for everyone.
\n
One time we discovered that an agency was marking our labor up by 300%.
We didn’t work with that agency again. Maybe that’s not good business, but for us - we like long term, sustainable relationships, and something about that felt… unethical. While we want to help HubSpot Partner agencies out with whitelabel HubSpot CMS development, it needs to make sense for us, financially and for our growth. Something that added insult to injury? At the same time, that agency was also requiring us to work under their company e-mail inside the portal, meaning that the partner got Managed Credit in HubSpot. While some of you may not realize what that means - for us it means that we have to work harder somewhere else to get our Managed Credit up enough to maintain an existing or reach a new tier.
If we don’t adequately benefit from the work we’re doing, it makes us less incentivized to do that kind of work, which brings me to my next point…
Related: Ethical Outsourcing Tips for HubSpot CMS Developer Whitelabeling
\n
True white-label services are going to start costing more money.
\n
It’s not that we don’t love our agency clients, but we’re a business first. As such? We have to do the work that we love while earning money and continuing to tier as a HubSpot Partner to earn the perks that come with that.
Our Agency Partnerships are important to us, but we can only continue them in the way that’s most sustainable for us. We will no longer be able to work in a portal under an agency’s e-mail domain and will expect to share Managed Credit for the work that we do. In doing this we seek to even the playing field, make things more fair, and get credit for the work that we’re doing to show the world - and our other prospects, what we’re capable of.
If you’re a HubSpot client that’s reading this and not an agency, we hope that you do your diligence to understand if the relationship between the developer and the agency that you’re working with is fair and how working with that developer more directly will help you supercharge your technology strategy.
If you’re a HubSport Partner agency that’s reading this and you’re not getting the most out of your whitelabel partner, the points above might be why. Take the time to really analyze the relationship you have with your whitelabel HubSpot CMS developer and determine if they’re benefitting as much as you and where there could be gaps in communication with the client that more direct contact can fill.
At the end of the day, we’re all here for the success of the client and to build incredible marketing and lead generation machines that move forward the missions of our clients. Let’s do that sustainably.
\n
We talk a lot about strategic development services in our marketing. For our long term clients, it’s a critical element of their overall growth strategy. For us, what starts as a simple website module fix or a HubSpot integration quickly evolves into full technology planning, a new website, tweaking a resource center, optimizing page load speeds, sifting through reporting optimization in HubSpot and more. Making HubSpot work for our clients is something we literally geek out on every day. However, when we do this work through agencies - it can become a little convoluted and a client might not necessarily get the full breadth of services available to them.
It’s extremely important for agencies that white-label their HubSpot development talent to make sure they really have the expertise needed to consult fully when it comes to an organization’s technology. Without a full understanding of the opportunity for data integrations, the intricacies of their workflows and the struggles they face on a day to day basis and how you can optimize their technology to truly fix those struggles - how can you call yourself a Partner?
HubSpot developer white-labeling is a service that we’re struggling with increasingly, depending on which agencies we work with. Here’s the long and short of it (here we go with our bold claims):
\n
We talk a lot about strategic development services in our marketing. For our long term clients, it’s a critical element of their overall growth strategy. For us, what starts as a simple website module fix or a HubSpot integration quickly evolves into full technology planning, a new website, tweaking a resource center, optimizing page load speeds, sifting through reporting optimization in HubSpot and more. Making HubSpot work for our clients is something we literally geek out on every day. However, when we do this work through agencies - it can become a little convoluted and a client might not necessarily get the full breadth of services available to them.
It’s extremely important for agencies that white-label their HubSpot development talent to make sure they really have the expertise needed to consult fully when it comes to an organization’s technology. Without a full understanding of the opportunity for data integrations, the intricacies of their workflows and the struggles they face on a day to day basis and how you can optimize their technology to truly fix those struggles - how can you call yourself a Partner?
HubSpot developer white-labeling is a service that we’re struggling with increasingly, depending on which agencies we work with. Here’s the long and short of it (here we go with our bold claims):
If you don’t let your developer speak to your clients directly, you’re doing your agency and the client a disservice.
Believe me, I get it. King of the castle, keeper of the keys - maintaining a singular contact point can be super valuable when it comes to making things easy for the client. But you know that song?
“Sometimes the hardest thing and the right thing are the same.”
It’s a true statement. We find our most successful white-label relationships happen with agencies that trust us to speak to the client directly. You’d be surprised what we can pick out of a conversation - symptoms of poorly configured reporting, optimization opportunities inside HubSpot portals, integration opportunities, basic department workflow issues with applications, opportunities for integrated data analytics - the sky is the limit. But when a partner that doesn’t have the appropriate technology savvy to explain solutions or offer chances for developers and architects to dig deeply into a client’s tech stack and HubSpot portal? There’s a ton of missed opportunity.
Here’s a little insight on the best way we’ve found for agencies to work with a HubSpot CMS developer in a white-label capacity and how being more flexible on how you work with your white-label developer can actually make you much more money.
Indicate where the needs are, but leave space for more.
\n
So many agencies come to us seeking one time development or integration work, but stop short of understanding that they should really let our developers and architects take a look under the hood of their client’s HubSpot portal and website in a more in-depth way.
We don’t mind being told exactly what needs to be done - it’s often easier to work with a HubSpot-savvy agency that really understands a client’s workflow process and can cut some of the preliminary discussions by providing a lot of that information beforehand. When we’re allowed to really dig in and get strategic, though? That’s where the magic happens.
When you leave the needs and budget parameters so closed with a client, you miss opportunities for both you and the client to benefit from a deeper dive. Let your client know that you’re going to have your development team do a full analysis and come back with a comprehensive list of potential improvements and spaces that can be optimized to best situate them for success. There may be a better way to configure their database or resource center or configure their reporting that they haven’t even considered that an agency that isn’t technically focused may not have seen.
Don’t gatekeep.
\n
This is easily the most frustrating part of taking on white-label work:
“Well, explain this to me in more detail so I can explain it to them.”
We’ve played telephone plenty, but odds are high you’re not going to be able to explain it as well as we will, you might leave out some important details, or you won’t be able to answer the follow-on questions adequately. Rather than gatekeeping or playing telephone here - lets all sit down and have a chat together.
When you gatekeep the client, you might not know what questions to ask, where you can identify processes and other issues inside their HubSpot portal or how you might be able to empower their website beyond the basics of what your agency is good at.
There’s always a way to put agreements and best practices standards in place for how you wish for us to interact with your clients or compensation agreements that we can work out when we quote and upsell strategic technology to your client.
Agree on compensation structures that work for everyone.
\n
One time we discovered that an agency was marking our labor up by 300%.
We didn’t work with that agency again. Maybe that’s not good business, but for us - we like long term, sustainable relationships, and something about that felt… unethical. While we want to help HubSpot Partner agencies out with whitelabel HubSpot CMS development, it needs to make sense for us, financially and for our growth. Something that added insult to injury? At the same time, that agency was also requiring us to work under their company e-mail inside the portal, meaning that the partner got Managed Credit in HubSpot. While some of you may not realize what that means - for us it means that we have to work harder somewhere else to get our Managed Credit up enough to maintain an existing or reach a new tier.
If we don’t adequately benefit from the work we’re doing, it makes us less incentivized to do that kind of work, which brings me to my next point…
Related: Ethical Outsourcing Tips for HubSpot CMS Developer Whitelabeling
\n
True white-label services are going to start costing more money.
\n
It’s not that we don’t love our agency clients, but we’re a business first. As such? We have to do the work that we love while earning money and continuing to tier as a HubSpot Partner to earn the perks that come with that.
Our Agency Partnerships are important to us, but we can only continue them in the way that’s most sustainable for us. We will no longer be able to work in a portal under an agency’s e-mail domain and will expect to share Managed Credit for the work that we do. In doing this we seek to even the playing field, make things more fair, and get credit for the work that we’re doing to show the world - and our other prospects, what we’re capable of.
If you’re a HubSpot client that’s reading this and not an agency, we hope that you do your diligence to understand if the relationship between the developer and the agency that you’re working with is fair and how working with that developer more directly will help you supercharge your technology strategy.
If you’re a HubSport Partner agency that’s reading this and you’re not getting the most out of your whitelabel partner, the points above might be why. Take the time to really analyze the relationship you have with your whitelabel HubSpot CMS developer and determine if they’re benefitting as much as you and where there could be gaps in communication with the client that more direct contact can fill.
At the end of the day, we’re all here for the success of the client and to build incredible marketing and lead generation machines that move forward the missions of our clients. Let’s do that sustainably.
\n
We talk a lot about strategic development services in our marketing. For our long term clients, it’s a critical element of their overall growth strategy. For us, what starts as a simple website module fix or a HubSpot integration quickly evolves into full technology planning, a new website, tweaking a resource center, optimizing page load speeds, sifting through reporting optimization in HubSpot and more. Making HubSpot work for our clients is something we literally geek out on every day. However, when we do this work through agencies - it can become a little convoluted and a client might not necessarily get the full breadth of services available to them.
It’s extremely important for agencies that white-label their HubSpot development talent to make sure they really have the expertise needed to consult fully when it comes to an organization’s technology. Without a full understanding of the opportunity for data integrations, the intricacies of their workflows and the struggles they face on a day to day basis and how you can optimize their technology to truly fix those struggles - how can you call yourself a Partner?
HubSpot developer white-labeling is a service that we’re struggling with increasingly, depending on which agencies we work with. Here’s the long and short of it (here we go with our bold claims):
If you don’t let your developer speak to your clients directly, you’re doing your agency and the client a disservice.
Believe me, I get it. King of the castle, keeper of the keys - maintaining a singular contact point can be super valuable when it comes to making things easy for the client. But you know that song?
“Sometimes the hardest thing and the right thing are the same.”
It’s a true statement. We find our most successful white-label relationships happen with agencies that trust us to speak to the client directly. You’d be surprised what we can pick out of a conversation - symptoms of poorly configured reporting, optimization opportunities inside HubSpot portals, integration opportunities, basic department workflow issues with applications, opportunities for integrated data analytics - the sky is the limit. But when a partner that doesn’t have the appropriate technology savvy to explain solutions or offer chances for developers and architects to dig deeply into a client’s tech stack and HubSpot portal? There’s a ton of missed opportunity.
Here’s a little insight on the best way we’ve found for agencies to work with a HubSpot CMS developer in a white-label capacity and how being more flexible on how you work with your white-label developer can actually make you much more money.
Indicate where the needs are, but leave space for more.
\n
So many agencies come to us seeking one time development or integration work, but stop short of understanding that they should really let our developers and architects take a look under the hood of their client’s HubSpot portal and website in a more in-depth way.
We don’t mind being told exactly what needs to be done - it’s often easier to work with a HubSpot-savvy agency that really understands a client’s workflow process and can cut some of the preliminary discussions by providing a lot of that information beforehand. When we’re allowed to really dig in and get strategic, though? That’s where the magic happens.
When you leave the needs and budget parameters so closed with a client, you miss opportunities for both you and the client to benefit from a deeper dive. Let your client know that you’re going to have your development team do a full analysis and come back with a comprehensive list of potential improvements and spaces that can be optimized to best situate them for success. There may be a better way to configure their database or resource center or configure their reporting that they haven’t even considered that an agency that isn’t technically focused may not have seen.
Don’t gatekeep.
\n
This is easily the most frustrating part of taking on white-label work:
“Well, explain this to me in more detail so I can explain it to them.”
We’ve played telephone plenty, but odds are high you’re not going to be able to explain it as well as we will, you might leave out some important details, or you won’t be able to answer the follow-on questions adequately. Rather than gatekeeping or playing telephone here - lets all sit down and have a chat together.
When you gatekeep the client, you might not know what questions to ask, where you can identify processes and other issues inside their HubSpot portal or how you might be able to empower their website beyond the basics of what your agency is good at.
There’s always a way to put agreements and best practices standards in place for how you wish for us to interact with your clients or compensation agreements that we can work out when we quote and upsell strategic technology to your client.
Agree on compensation structures that work for everyone.
\n
One time we discovered that an agency was marking our labor up by 300%.
We didn’t work with that agency again. Maybe that’s not good business, but for us - we like long term, sustainable relationships, and something about that felt… unethical. While we want to help HubSpot Partner agencies out with whitelabel HubSpot CMS development, it needs to make sense for us, financially and for our growth. Something that added insult to injury? At the same time, that agency was also requiring us to work under their company e-mail inside the portal, meaning that the partner got Managed Credit in HubSpot. While some of you may not realize what that means - for us it means that we have to work harder somewhere else to get our Managed Credit up enough to maintain an existing or reach a new tier.
If we don’t adequately benefit from the work we’re doing, it makes us less incentivized to do that kind of work, which brings me to my next point…
Related: Ethical Outsourcing Tips for HubSpot CMS Developer Whitelabeling
\n
True white-label services are going to start costing more money.
\n
It’s not that we don’t love our agency clients, but we’re a business first. As such? We have to do the work that we love while earning money and continuing to tier as a HubSpot Partner to earn the perks that come with that.
Our Agency Partnerships are important to us, but we can only continue them in the way that’s most sustainable for us. We will no longer be able to work in a portal under an agency’s e-mail domain and will expect to share Managed Credit for the work that we do. In doing this we seek to even the playing field, make things more fair, and get credit for the work that we’re doing to show the world - and our other prospects, what we’re capable of.
If you’re a HubSpot client that’s reading this and not an agency, we hope that you do your diligence to understand if the relationship between the developer and the agency that you’re working with is fair and how working with that developer more directly will help you supercharge your technology strategy.
If you’re a HubSport Partner agency that’s reading this and you’re not getting the most out of your whitelabel partner, the points above might be why. Take the time to really analyze the relationship you have with your whitelabel HubSpot CMS developer and determine if they’re benefitting as much as you and where there could be gaps in communication with the client that more direct contact can fill.
At the end of the day, we’re all here for the success of the client and to build incredible marketing and lead generation machines that move forward the missions of our clients. Let’s do that sustainably.
\n
We talk a lot about strategic development services in our marketing. For our long term clients, it’s a critical element of their overall growth strategy. For us, what starts as a simple website module fix or a HubSpot integration quickly evolves into full technology planning, a new website, tweaking a resource center, optimizing page load speeds, sifting through reporting optimization in HubSpot and more. Making HubSpot work for our clients is something we literally geek out on every day. However, when we do this work through agencies - it can become a little convoluted and a client might not necessarily get the full breadth of services available to them.
It’s extremely important for agencies that white-label their HubSpot development talent to make sure they really have the expertise needed to consult fully when it comes to an organization’s technology. Without a full understanding of the opportunity for data integrations, the intricacies of their workflows and the struggles they face on a day to day basis and how you can optimize their technology to truly fix those struggles - how can you call yourself a Partner?
HubSpot developer white-labeling is a service that we’re struggling with increasingly, depending on which agencies we work with. Here’s the long and short of it (here we go with our bold claims):
If you don’t let your developer speak to your clients directly, you’re doing your agency and the client a disservice.
Believe me, I get it. King of the castle, keeper of the keys - maintaining a singular contact point can be super valuable when it comes to making things easy for the client. But you know that song?
“Sometimes the hardest thing and the right thing are the same.”
It’s a true statement. We find our most successful white-label relationships happen with agencies that trust us to speak to the client directly. You’d be surprised what we can pick out of a conversation - symptoms of poorly configured reporting, optimization opportunities inside HubSpot portals, integration opportunities, basic department workflow issues with applications, opportunities for integrated data analytics - the sky is the limit. But when a partner that doesn’t have the appropriate technology savvy to explain solutions or offer chances for developers and architects to dig deeply into a client’s tech stack and HubSpot portal? There’s a ton of missed opportunity.
Here’s a little insight on the best way we’ve found for agencies to work with a HubSpot CMS developer in a white-label capacity and how being more flexible on how you work with your white-label developer can actually make you much more money.
Indicate where the needs are, but leave space for more.
\n
So many agencies come to us seeking one time development or integration work, but stop short of understanding that they should really let our developers and architects take a look under the hood of their client’s HubSpot portal and website in a more in-depth way.
We don’t mind being told exactly what needs to be done - it’s often easier to work with a HubSpot-savvy agency that really understands a client’s workflow process and can cut some of the preliminary discussions by providing a lot of that information beforehand. When we’re allowed to really dig in and get strategic, though? That’s where the magic happens.
When you leave the needs and budget parameters so closed with a client, you miss opportunities for both you and the client to benefit from a deeper dive. Let your client know that you’re going to have your development team do a full analysis and come back with a comprehensive list of potential improvements and spaces that can be optimized to best situate them for success. There may be a better way to configure their database or resource center or configure their reporting that they haven’t even considered that an agency that isn’t technically focused may not have seen.
Don’t gatekeep.
\n
This is easily the most frustrating part of taking on white-label work:
“Well, explain this to me in more detail so I can explain it to them.”
We’ve played telephone plenty, but odds are high you’re not going to be able to explain it as well as we will, you might leave out some important details, or you won’t be able to answer the follow-on questions adequately. Rather than gatekeeping or playing telephone here - lets all sit down and have a chat together.
When you gatekeep the client, you might not know what questions to ask, where you can identify processes and other issues inside their HubSpot portal or how you might be able to empower their website beyond the basics of what your agency is good at.
There’s always a way to put agreements and best practices standards in place for how you wish for us to interact with your clients or compensation agreements that we can work out when we quote and upsell strategic technology to your client.
Agree on compensation structures that work for everyone.
\n
One time we discovered that an agency was marking our labor up by 300%.
We didn’t work with that agency again. Maybe that’s not good business, but for us - we like long term, sustainable relationships, and something about that felt… unethical. While we want to help HubSpot Partner agencies out with whitelabel HubSpot CMS development, it needs to make sense for us, financially and for our growth. Something that added insult to injury? At the same time, that agency was also requiring us to work under their company e-mail inside the portal, meaning that the partner got Managed Credit in HubSpot. While some of you may not realize what that means - for us it means that we have to work harder somewhere else to get our Managed Credit up enough to maintain an existing or reach a new tier.
If we don’t adequately benefit from the work we’re doing, it makes us less incentivized to do that kind of work, which brings me to my next point…
Related: Ethical Outsourcing Tips for HubSpot CMS Developer Whitelabeling
\n
True white-label services are going to start costing more money.
\n
It’s not that we don’t love our agency clients, but we’re a business first. As such? We have to do the work that we love while earning money and continuing to tier as a HubSpot Partner to earn the perks that come with that.
Our Agency Partnerships are important to us, but we can only continue them in the way that’s most sustainable for us. We will no longer be able to work in a portal under an agency’s e-mail domain and will expect to share Managed Credit for the work that we do. In doing this we seek to even the playing field, make things more fair, and get credit for the work that we’re doing to show the world - and our other prospects, what we’re capable of.
If you’re a HubSpot client that’s reading this and not an agency, we hope that you do your diligence to understand if the relationship between the developer and the agency that you’re working with is fair and how working with that developer more directly will help you supercharge your technology strategy.
If you’re a HubSport Partner agency that’s reading this and you’re not getting the most out of your whitelabel partner, the points above might be why. Take the time to really analyze the relationship you have with your whitelabel HubSpot CMS developer and determine if they’re benefitting as much as you and where there could be gaps in communication with the client that more direct contact can fill.
At the end of the day, we’re all here for the success of the client and to build incredible marketing and lead generation machines that move forward the missions of our clients. Let’s do that sustainably.
\n
We talk a lot about strategic development services in our marketing. For our long term clients, it’s a critical element of their overall growth strategy. For us, what starts as a simple website module fix or a HubSpot integration quickly evolves into full technology planning, a new website, tweaking a resource center, optimizing page load speeds, sifting through reporting optimization in HubSpot and more. Making HubSpot work for our clients is something we literally geek out on every day. However, when we do this work through agencies - it can become a little convoluted and a client might not necessarily get the full breadth of services available to them.
It’s extremely important for agencies that white-label their HubSpot development talent to make sure they really have the expertise needed to consult fully when it comes to an organization’s technology. Without a full understanding of the opportunity for data integrations, the intricacies of their workflows and the struggles they face on a day to day basis and how you can optimize their technology to truly fix those struggles - how can you call yourself a Partner?
HubSpot developer white-labeling is a service that we’re struggling with increasingly, depending on which agencies we work with. Here’s the long and short of it (here we go with our bold claims):
\n
We talk a lot about strategic development services in our marketing. For our long term clients, it’s a critical element of their overall growth strategy. For us, what starts as a simple website module fix or a HubSpot integration quickly evolves into full technology planning, a new website, tweaking a resource center, optimizing page load speeds, sifting through reporting optimization in HubSpot and more. Making HubSpot work for our clients is something we literally geek out on every day. However, when we do this work through agencies - it can become a little convoluted and a client might not necessarily get the full breadth of services available to them.
It’s extremely important for agencies that white-label their HubSpot development talent to make sure they really have the expertise needed to consult fully when it comes to an organization’s technology. Without a full understanding of the opportunity for data integrations, the intricacies of their workflows and the struggles they face on a day to day basis and how you can optimize their technology to truly fix those struggles - how can you call yourself a Partner?
HubSpot developer white-labeling is a service that we’re struggling with increasingly, depending on which agencies we work with. Here’s the long and short of it (here we go with our bold claims):
\n
We talk a lot about strategic development services in our marketing. For our long term clients, it’s a critical element of their overall growth strategy. For us, what starts as a simple website module fix or a HubSpot integration quickly evolves into full technology planning, a new website, tweaking a resource center, optimizing page load speeds, sifting through reporting optimization in HubSpot and more. Making HubSpot work for our clients is something we literally geek out on every day. However, when we do this work through agencies - it can become a little convoluted and a client might not necessarily get the full breadth of services available to them.
It’s extremely important for agencies that white-label their HubSpot development talent to make sure they really have the expertise needed to consult fully when it comes to an organization’s technology. Without a full understanding of the opportunity for data integrations, the intricacies of their workflows and the struggles they face on a day to day basis and how you can optimize their technology to truly fix those struggles - how can you call yourself a Partner?
HubSpot developer white-labeling is a service that we’re struggling with increasingly, depending on which agencies we work with. Here’s the long and short of it (here we go with our bold claims):
\n
We talk a lot about strategic development services in our marketing. For our long term clients, it’s a critical element of their overall growth strategy. For us, what starts as a simple website module fix or a HubSpot integration quickly evolves into full technology planning, a new website, tweaking a resource center, optimizing page load speeds, sifting through reporting optimization in HubSpot and more. Making HubSpot work for our clients is something we literally geek out on every day. However, when we do this work through agencies - it can become a little convoluted and a client might not necessarily get the full breadth of services available to them.
It’s extremely important for agencies that white-label their HubSpot development talent to make sure they really have the expertise needed to consult fully when it comes to an organization’s technology. Without a full understanding of the opportunity for data integrations, the intricacies of their workflows and the struggles they face on a day to day basis and how you can optimize their technology to truly fix those struggles - how can you call yourself a Partner?
HubSpot developer white-labeling is a service that we’re struggling with increasingly, depending on which agencies we work with. Here’s the long and short of it (here we go with our bold claims):
\n
We talk a lot about strategic development services in our marketing. For our long term clients, it’s a critical element of their overall growth strategy. For us, what starts as a simple website module fix or a HubSpot integration quickly evolves into full technology planning, a new website, tweaking a resource center, optimizing page load speeds, sifting through reporting optimization in HubSpot and more. Making HubSpot work for our clients is something we literally geek out on every day. However, when we do this work through agencies - it can become a little convoluted and a client might not necessarily get the full breadth of services available to them.
It’s extremely important for agencies that white-label their HubSpot development talent to make sure they really have the expertise needed to consult fully when it comes to an organization’s technology. Without a full understanding of the opportunity for data integrations, the intricacies of their workflows and the struggles they face on a day to day basis and how you can optimize their technology to truly fix those struggles - how can you call yourself a Partner?
HubSpot developer white-labeling is a service that we’re struggling with increasingly, depending on which agencies we work with. Here’s the long and short of it (here we go with our bold claims):
\n
We talk a lot about strategic development services in our marketing. For our long term clients, it’s a critical element of their overall growth strategy. For us, what starts as a simple website module fix or a HubSpot integration quickly evolves into full technology planning, a new website, tweaking a resource center, optimizing page load speeds, sifting through reporting optimization in HubSpot and more. Making HubSpot work for our clients is something we literally geek out on every day. However, when we do this work through agencies - it can become a little convoluted and a client might not necessarily get the full breadth of services available to them.
It’s extremely important for agencies that white-label their HubSpot development talent to make sure they really have the expertise needed to consult fully when it comes to an organization’s technology. Without a full understanding of the opportunity for data integrations, the intricacies of their workflows and the struggles they face on a day to day basis and how you can optimize their technology to truly fix those struggles - how can you call yourself a Partner?
HubSpot developer white-labeling is a service that we’re struggling with increasingly, depending on which agencies we work with. Here’s the long and short of it (here we go with our bold claims):
If you don’t let your developer speak to your clients directly, you’re doing your agency and the client a disservice.
Believe me, I get it. King of the castle, keeper of the keys - maintaining a singular contact point can be super valuable when it comes to making things easy for the client. But you know that song?
“Sometimes the hardest thing and the right thing are the same.”
It’s a true statement. We find our most successful white-label relationships happen with agencies that trust us to speak to the client directly. You’d be surprised what we can pick out of a conversation - symptoms of poorly configured reporting, optimization opportunities inside HubSpot portals, integration opportunities, basic department workflow issues with applications, opportunities for integrated data analytics - the sky is the limit. But when a partner that doesn’t have the appropriate technology savvy to explain solutions or offer chances for developers and architects to dig deeply into a client’s tech stack and HubSpot portal? There’s a ton of missed opportunity.
Here’s a little insight on the best way we’ve found for agencies to work with a HubSpot CMS developer in a white-label capacity and how being more flexible on how you work with your white-label developer can actually make you much more money.
Indicate where the needs are, but leave space for more.
\n
So many agencies come to us seeking one time development or integration work, but stop short of understanding that they should really let our developers and architects take a look under the hood of their client’s HubSpot portal and website in a more in-depth way.
We don’t mind being told exactly what needs to be done - it’s often easier to work with a HubSpot-savvy agency that really understands a client’s workflow process and can cut some of the preliminary discussions by providing a lot of that information beforehand. When we’re allowed to really dig in and get strategic, though? That’s where the magic happens.
When you leave the needs and budget parameters so closed with a client, you miss opportunities for both you and the client to benefit from a deeper dive. Let your client know that you’re going to have your development team do a full analysis and come back with a comprehensive list of potential improvements and spaces that can be optimized to best situate them for success. There may be a better way to configure their database or resource center or configure their reporting that they haven’t even considered that an agency that isn’t technically focused may not have seen.
Don’t gatekeep.
\n
This is easily the most frustrating part of taking on white-label work:
“Well, explain this to me in more detail so I can explain it to them.”
We’ve played telephone plenty, but odds are high you’re not going to be able to explain it as well as we will, you might leave out some important details, or you won’t be able to answer the follow-on questions adequately. Rather than gatekeeping or playing telephone here - lets all sit down and have a chat together.
When you gatekeep the client, you might not know what questions to ask, where you can identify processes and other issues inside their HubSpot portal or how you might be able to empower their website beyond the basics of what your agency is good at.
There’s always a way to put agreements and best practices standards in place for how you wish for us to interact with your clients or compensation agreements that we can work out when we quote and upsell strategic technology to your client.
Agree on compensation structures that work for everyone.
\n
One time we discovered that an agency was marking our labor up by 300%.
We didn’t work with that agency again. Maybe that’s not good business, but for us - we like long term, sustainable relationships, and something about that felt… unethical. While we want to help HubSpot Partner agencies out with whitelabel HubSpot CMS development, it needs to make sense for us, financially and for our growth. Something that added insult to injury? At the same time, that agency was also requiring us to work under their company e-mail inside the portal, meaning that the partner got Managed Credit in HubSpot. While some of you may not realize what that means - for us it means that we have to work harder somewhere else to get our Managed Credit up enough to maintain an existing or reach a new tier.
If we don’t adequately benefit from the work we’re doing, it makes us less incentivized to do that kind of work, which brings me to my next point…
Related: Ethical Outsourcing Tips for HubSpot CMS Developer Whitelabeling
\n
True white-label services are going to start costing more money.
\n
It’s not that we don’t love our agency clients, but we’re a business first. As such? We have to do the work that we love while earning money and continuing to tier as a HubSpot Partner to earn the perks that come with that.
Our Agency Partnerships are important to us, but we can only continue them in the way that’s most sustainable for us. We will no longer be able to work in a portal under an agency’s e-mail domain and will expect to share Managed Credit for the work that we do. In doing this we seek to even the playing field, make things more fair, and get credit for the work that we’re doing to show the world - and our other prospects, what we’re capable of.
If you’re a HubSpot client that’s reading this and not an agency, we hope that you do your diligence to understand if the relationship between the developer and the agency that you’re working with is fair and how working with that developer more directly will help you supercharge your technology strategy.
If you’re a HubSport Partner agency that’s reading this and you’re not getting the most out of your whitelabel partner, the points above might be why. Take the time to really analyze the relationship you have with your whitelabel HubSpot CMS developer and determine if they’re benefitting as much as you and where there could be gaps in communication with the client that more direct contact can fill.
At the end of the day, we’re all here for the success of the client and to build incredible marketing and lead generation machines that move forward the missions of our clients. Let’s do that sustainably.
\n
We talk a lot about strategic development services in our marketing. For our long term clients, it’s a critical element of their overall growth strategy. For us, what starts as a simple website module fix or a HubSpot integration quickly evolves into full technology planning, a new website, tweaking a resource center, optimizing page load speeds, sifting through reporting optimization in HubSpot and more. Making HubSpot work for our clients is something we literally geek out on every day. However, when we do this work through agencies - it can become a little convoluted and a client might not necessarily get the full breadth of services available to them.
It’s extremely important for agencies that white-label their HubSpot development talent to make sure they really have the expertise needed to consult fully when it comes to an organization’s technology. Without a full understanding of the opportunity for data integrations, the intricacies of their workflows and the struggles they face on a day to day basis and how you can optimize their technology to truly fix those struggles - how can you call yourself a Partner?
HubSpot developer white-labeling is a service that we’re struggling with increasingly, depending on which agencies we work with. Here’s the long and short of it (here we go with our bold claims):
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\n
Breakups are the pits, aren’t they? But outgrowing something (or someone) you love happens all the time. Needs change, people grow apart and what served someone well for so long just doesn’t get the job done any longer. This is how we’ve been feeling about WordPress for quite some time. I’ve been teetering on the edge of dropping WordPress as a platform for over a year, but hadn’t quite pulled the plug. It’s no secret that many small businesses outgrow WordPress quickly, but previously I wanted to have an option for small businesses that might not have had the budget to move over to HubSpot CMS. But now? With CMS Starter being such a compelling option for small businesses? It’s time, once and for all, it’s time for us to break up with WordPress.
\n\n
![](\"https://6534445.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/6534445/breakup%20copy-jpg.jpeg\")
As finally-full-time HubSpot CMS Developers, this break up has been a long time coming.
Here’s our Dear John letter to WordPress as a platform:
—------------------------------
Dear WordPress:
It was a love story like no other. For decades, you delivered flexible development that I couldn’t get anywhere else. You made dreams come true - and not just mine. You were the foundation by which I judged all other platforms and by and large all of them paled in comparison to your capabilities, for a website platform. They were endless, and I was in awe at my ability to deliver for my small business clients. In the style of Bette Middler, you were the wind beneath my wings in so many ways. We were the power couple, the most dynamic duo. You and I did some incredible things together.
But, maybe I was jaded, in some ways. Maybe I didn’t know what love was supposed to look like, because while we reached so many destinations together, the bumps along the way and after were increasingly noticeable. The shiny newness of everything I delivered with you came to a crashing halt as I encountered more and more prospects that weren’t maintaining you properly, developers whose “best” practices and coding was terrible, leaving clients open to attacks on their website and business. The increased downtime, the decreased page speed as a result of bloated websites patched up in far too many plugins.
Related: 5 Signs You’ve Outgrown WordPress CMS
\n
So much of our small business clients’ valuable technology budget is being dumped into repairs, maintenance and the like, where we know that if we just move them over to HubSpot CMS, they don’t have to constantly pay to repair broken plugins, speed up incredibly slow websites and piece together things in ways that are making website growth and flexibility entirely unattainable. The monthly payment they’re making doesn’t have to go to maintaining the status quo or fixing broken code. Instead, it powers up a far more powerful infrastructure with boosted security and gives them the opportunity to look at the road ahead.
In a world where the freedom exists to do whatever you want, maybe we need more guardrails on our website platform and the people in charge of it. Wordpress is too open and anyone can add to a website. Lacking logic for problem solving and poor coding skills just add website bloat. Sometimes, the people in charge of the website that you’ve entrusted with the livelihood of your internet presence simply don’t know enough about web development to know what’s right.
Related: 7 Developer Interview Questions to ask - Part 1
\n
Or maybe… they haven’t yet discovered that there’s something better out there.
Our path is coming to a close not just because our relationship is over, but because I’ve found something new. Something that delivers in all the same ways… and more. I didn’t realize what I was missing, where a love like this could take me, until I let go of all my preconceptions of what I thought small business website development had to look like.
Related: It’s time to leave WordPress for HubSpot CMS
\n
For a long time the custom development I wanted to do in HubSpot wasn’t viable, but the platform has come so far in the last few years.. I’ve learned through the years that love is an investment. That you can grow together. That there isn’t any such thing as an “expensive” or “budget” website. That you eventually pay later in time, resources and missed opportunities what you’re unwilling to pay for in the initial stages of development.
I mean, the statistics don’t lie…
According to BetterStudio:
13,000 WordPress websites are hacked every day
8% of WordPress sites are hacked due to weak or stolen passwords
Outdated Wordpress websites are blamed for 61% of attacks
Cleaning up a hacked WordPress website can cost upwards of $5,000
More than 99% of all security vulnerabilities in the WordPress ecosystem were found in themes and plugins in 2021.
So many of our clients opt for Wordpress thinking they can have a bare bones custom site and add plugins to add the functionality they need later on… but every new plugin opens up new vulnerabilities and increased urgency for mitigating the risks.
And yet? Plugins and themes sit outdated either because the client isn’t applying them or because they’re abandoned by the developer themselves and not issuing updates - which is an entirely different problem that gets overlooked commonly.
So? It’s time to let go. I’ve already broken down the regrets you have after paying for a WordPress website and I think it’s finally time to end an era. You’ve been good to us, I’ve loved you (and sometimes hated you) for so long, and I’ll never forget all the flexibility (and many of the headaches that came with it) you brought to the table.
Bon voyage, old friend. It’s been a ride. I appreciate the good times and I’ll never forget what we’ve done and helped businesses achieve inside WordPress. But I’m a commitment kinda guy and deckerdevs has made its final decision: we’re all-in HubSpot CMS.
Sincerely,
Nicholas Decker & the deckerdevs dev team
—----------------
Simply put: there’s a better way to website.
And HubSpot CMS development? It doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg. Will it be cheap? No. Worth it? Hell yes.
Believe me when I say, this thing we have with HubSpot? It’s the real deal and not any kinda fling. We’ve been in a relationship with HubSpot for over a decade. We’re just going all-in now. 
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\n
\n
Breakups are the pits, aren’t they? But outgrowing something (or someone) you love happens all the time. Needs change, people grow apart and what served someone well for so long just doesn’t get the job done any longer. This is how we’ve been feeling about WordPress for quite some time. I’ve been teetering on the edge of dropping WordPress as a platform for over a year, but hadn’t quite pulled the plug. It’s no secret that many small businesses outgrow WordPress quickly, but previously I wanted to have an option for small businesses that might not have had the budget to move over to HubSpot CMS. But now? With CMS Starter being such a compelling option for small businesses? It’s time, once and for all, it’s time for us to break up with WordPress.
\n\n
As finally-full-time HubSpot CMS Developers, this break up has been a long time coming.
Here’s our Dear John letter to WordPress as a platform:
—------------------------------
Dear WordPress:
It was a love story like no other. For decades, you delivered flexible development that I couldn’t get anywhere else. You made dreams come true - and not just mine. You were the foundation by which I judged all other platforms and by and large all of them paled in comparison to your capabilities, for a website platform. They were endless, and I was in awe at my ability to deliver for my small business clients. In the style of Bette Middler, you were the wind beneath my wings in so many ways. We were the power couple, the most dynamic duo. You and I did some incredible things together.
But, maybe I was jaded, in some ways. Maybe I didn’t know what love was supposed to look like, because while we reached so many destinations together, the bumps along the way and after were increasingly noticeable. The shiny newness of everything I delivered with you came to a crashing halt as I encountered more and more prospects that weren’t maintaining you properly, developers whose “best” practices and coding was terrible, leaving clients open to attacks on their website and business. The increased downtime, the decreased page speed as a result of bloated websites patched up in far too many plugins.
Related: 5 Signs You’ve Outgrown WordPress CMS
\n
So much of our small business clients’ valuable technology budget is being dumped into repairs, maintenance and the like, where we know that if we just move them over to HubSpot CMS, they don’t have to constantly pay to repair broken plugins, speed up incredibly slow websites and piece together things in ways that are making website growth and flexibility entirely unattainable. The monthly payment they’re making doesn’t have to go to maintaining the status quo or fixing broken code. Instead, it powers up a far more powerful infrastructure with boosted security and gives them the opportunity to look at the road ahead.
In a world where the freedom exists to do whatever you want, maybe we need more guardrails on our website platform and the people in charge of it. Wordpress is too open and anyone can add to a website. Lacking logic for problem solving and poor coding skills just add website bloat. Sometimes, the people in charge of the website that you’ve entrusted with the livelihood of your internet presence simply don’t know enough about web development to know what’s right.
Related: 7 Developer Interview Questions to ask - Part 1
\n
Or maybe… they haven’t yet discovered that there’s something better out there.
Our path is coming to a close not just because our relationship is over, but because I’ve found something new. Something that delivers in all the same ways… and more. I didn’t realize what I was missing, where a love like this could take me, until I let go of all my preconceptions of what I thought small business website development had to look like.
Related: It’s time to leave WordPress for HubSpot CMS
\n
For a long time the custom development I wanted to do in HubSpot wasn’t viable, but the platform has come so far in the last few years.. I’ve learned through the years that love is an investment. That you can grow together. That there isn’t any such thing as an “expensive” or “budget” website. That you eventually pay later in time, resources and missed opportunities what you’re unwilling to pay for in the initial stages of development.
I mean, the statistics don’t lie…
According to BetterStudio:
13,000 WordPress websites are hacked every day
8% of WordPress sites are hacked due to weak or stolen passwords
Outdated Wordpress websites are blamed for 61% of attacks
Cleaning up a hacked WordPress website can cost upwards of $5,000
More than 99% of all security vulnerabilities in the WordPress ecosystem were found in themes and plugins in 2021.
So many of our clients opt for Wordpress thinking they can have a bare bones custom site and add plugins to add the functionality they need later on… but every new plugin opens up new vulnerabilities and increased urgency for mitigating the risks.
And yet? Plugins and themes sit outdated either because the client isn’t applying them or because they’re abandoned by the developer themselves and not issuing updates - which is an entirely different problem that gets overlooked commonly.
So? It’s time to let go. I’ve already broken down the regrets you have after paying for a WordPress website and I think it’s finally time to end an era. You’ve been good to us, I’ve loved you (and sometimes hated you) for so long, and I’ll never forget all the flexibility (and many of the headaches that came with it) you brought to the table.
Bon voyage, old friend. It’s been a ride. I appreciate the good times and I’ll never forget what we’ve done and helped businesses achieve inside WordPress. But I’m a commitment kinda guy and deckerdevs has made its final decision: we’re all-in HubSpot CMS.
Sincerely,
Nicholas Decker & the deckerdevs dev team
—----------------
Simply put: there’s a better way to website.
And HubSpot CMS development? It doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg. Will it be cheap? No. Worth it? Hell yes.
Believe me when I say, this thing we have with HubSpot? It’s the real deal and not any kinda fling. We’ve been in a relationship with HubSpot for over a decade. We’re just going all-in now.
\n
\n
Breakups are the pits, aren’t they? But outgrowing something (or someone) you love happens all the time. Needs change, people grow apart and what served someone well for so long just doesn’t get the job done any longer. This is how we’ve been feeling about WordPress for quite some time. I’ve been teetering on the edge of dropping WordPress as a platform for over a year, but hadn’t quite pulled the plug. It’s no secret that many small businesses outgrow WordPress quickly, but previously I wanted to have an option for small businesses that might not have had the budget to move over to HubSpot CMS. But now? With CMS Starter being such a compelling option for small businesses? It’s time, once and for all, it’s time for us to break up with WordPress.
\n\n
As finally-full-time HubSpot CMS Developers, this break up has been a long time coming.
Here’s our Dear John letter to WordPress as a platform:
—------------------------------
Dear WordPress:
It was a love story like no other. For decades, you delivered flexible development that I couldn’t get anywhere else. You made dreams come true - and not just mine. You were the foundation by which I judged all other platforms and by and large all of them paled in comparison to your capabilities, for a website platform. They were endless, and I was in awe at my ability to deliver for my small business clients. In the style of Bette Middler, you were the wind beneath my wings in so many ways. We were the power couple, the most dynamic duo. You and I did some incredible things together.
But, maybe I was jaded, in some ways. Maybe I didn’t know what love was supposed to look like, because while we reached so many destinations together, the bumps along the way and after were increasingly noticeable. The shiny newness of everything I delivered with you came to a crashing halt as I encountered more and more prospects that weren’t maintaining you properly, developers whose “best” practices and coding was terrible, leaving clients open to attacks on their website and business. The increased downtime, the decreased page speed as a result of bloated websites patched up in far too many plugins.
Related: 5 Signs You’ve Outgrown WordPress CMS
\n
So much of our small business clients’ valuable technology budget is being dumped into repairs, maintenance and the like, where we know that if we just move them over to HubSpot CMS, they don’t have to constantly pay to repair broken plugins, speed up incredibly slow websites and piece together things in ways that are making website growth and flexibility entirely unattainable. The monthly payment they’re making doesn’t have to go to maintaining the status quo or fixing broken code. Instead, it powers up a far more powerful infrastructure with boosted security and gives them the opportunity to look at the road ahead.
In a world where the freedom exists to do whatever you want, maybe we need more guardrails on our website platform and the people in charge of it. Wordpress is too open and anyone can add to a website. Lacking logic for problem solving and poor coding skills just add website bloat. Sometimes, the people in charge of the website that you’ve entrusted with the livelihood of your internet presence simply don’t know enough about web development to know what’s right.
Related: 7 Developer Interview Questions to ask - Part 1
\n
Or maybe… they haven’t yet discovered that there’s something better out there.
Our path is coming to a close not just because our relationship is over, but because I’ve found something new. Something that delivers in all the same ways… and more. I didn’t realize what I was missing, where a love like this could take me, until I let go of all my preconceptions of what I thought small business website development had to look like.
Related: It’s time to leave WordPress for HubSpot CMS
\n
For a long time the custom development I wanted to do in HubSpot wasn’t viable, but the platform has come so far in the last few years.. I’ve learned through the years that love is an investment. That you can grow together. That there isn’t any such thing as an “expensive” or “budget” website. That you eventually pay later in time, resources and missed opportunities what you’re unwilling to pay for in the initial stages of development.
I mean, the statistics don’t lie…
According to BetterStudio:
13,000 WordPress websites are hacked every day
8% of WordPress sites are hacked due to weak or stolen passwords
Outdated Wordpress websites are blamed for 61% of attacks
Cleaning up a hacked WordPress website can cost upwards of $5,000
More than 99% of all security vulnerabilities in the WordPress ecosystem were found in themes and plugins in 2021.
So many of our clients opt for Wordpress thinking they can have a bare bones custom site and add plugins to add the functionality they need later on… but every new plugin opens up new vulnerabilities and increased urgency for mitigating the risks.
And yet? Plugins and themes sit outdated either because the client isn’t applying them or because they’re abandoned by the developer themselves and not issuing updates - which is an entirely different problem that gets overlooked commonly.
So? It’s time to let go. I’ve already broken down the regrets you have after paying for a WordPress website and I think it’s finally time to end an era. You’ve been good to us, I’ve loved you (and sometimes hated you) for so long, and I’ll never forget all the flexibility (and many of the headaches that came with it) you brought to the table.
Bon voyage, old friend. It’s been a ride. I appreciate the good times and I’ll never forget what we’ve done and helped businesses achieve inside WordPress. But I’m a commitment kinda guy and deckerdevs has made its final decision: we’re all-in HubSpot CMS.
Sincerely,
Nicholas Decker & the deckerdevs dev team
—----------------
Simply put: there’s a better way to website.
And HubSpot CMS development? It doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg. Will it be cheap? No. Worth it? Hell yes.
Believe me when I say, this thing we have with HubSpot? It’s the real deal and not any kinda fling. We’ve been in a relationship with HubSpot for over a decade. We’re just going all-in now.
\n
\n
Breakups are the pits, aren’t they? But outgrowing something (or someone) you love happens all the time. Needs change, people grow apart and what served someone well for so long just doesn’t get the job done any longer. This is how we’ve been feeling about WordPress for quite some time. I’ve been teetering on the edge of dropping WordPress as a platform for over a year, but hadn’t quite pulled the plug. It’s no secret that many small businesses outgrow WordPress quickly, but previously I wanted to have an option for small businesses that might not have had the budget to move over to HubSpot CMS. But now? With CMS Starter being such a compelling option for small businesses? It’s time, once and for all, it’s time for us to break up with WordPress.
\n\n
As finally-full-time HubSpot CMS Developers, this break up has been a long time coming.
Here’s our Dear John letter to WordPress as a platform:
—------------------------------
Dear WordPress:
It was a love story like no other. For decades, you delivered flexible development that I couldn’t get anywhere else. You made dreams come true - and not just mine. You were the foundation by which I judged all other platforms and by and large all of them paled in comparison to your capabilities, for a website platform. They were endless, and I was in awe at my ability to deliver for my small business clients. In the style of Bette Middler, you were the wind beneath my wings in so many ways. We were the power couple, the most dynamic duo. You and I did some incredible things together.
But, maybe I was jaded, in some ways. Maybe I didn’t know what love was supposed to look like, because while we reached so many destinations together, the bumps along the way and after were increasingly noticeable. The shiny newness of everything I delivered with you came to a crashing halt as I encountered more and more prospects that weren’t maintaining you properly, developers whose “best” practices and coding was terrible, leaving clients open to attacks on their website and business. The increased downtime, the decreased page speed as a result of bloated websites patched up in far too many plugins.
Related: 5 Signs You’ve Outgrown WordPress CMS
\n
So much of our small business clients’ valuable technology budget is being dumped into repairs, maintenance and the like, where we know that if we just move them over to HubSpot CMS, they don’t have to constantly pay to repair broken plugins, speed up incredibly slow websites and piece together things in ways that are making website growth and flexibility entirely unattainable. The monthly payment they’re making doesn’t have to go to maintaining the status quo or fixing broken code. Instead, it powers up a far more powerful infrastructure with boosted security and gives them the opportunity to look at the road ahead.
In a world where the freedom exists to do whatever you want, maybe we need more guardrails on our website platform and the people in charge of it. Wordpress is too open and anyone can add to a website. Lacking logic for problem solving and poor coding skills just add website bloat. Sometimes, the people in charge of the website that you’ve entrusted with the livelihood of your internet presence simply don’t know enough about web development to know what’s right.
Related: 7 Developer Interview Questions to ask - Part 1
\n
Or maybe… they haven’t yet discovered that there’s something better out there.
Our path is coming to a close not just because our relationship is over, but because I’ve found something new. Something that delivers in all the same ways… and more. I didn’t realize what I was missing, where a love like this could take me, until I let go of all my preconceptions of what I thought small business website development had to look like.
Related: It’s time to leave WordPress for HubSpot CMS
\n
For a long time the custom development I wanted to do in HubSpot wasn’t viable, but the platform has come so far in the last few years.. I’ve learned through the years that love is an investment. That you can grow together. That there isn’t any such thing as an “expensive” or “budget” website. That you eventually pay later in time, resources and missed opportunities what you’re unwilling to pay for in the initial stages of development.
I mean, the statistics don’t lie…
According to BetterStudio:
13,000 WordPress websites are hacked every day
8% of WordPress sites are hacked due to weak or stolen passwords
Outdated Wordpress websites are blamed for 61% of attacks
Cleaning up a hacked WordPress website can cost upwards of $5,000
More than 99% of all security vulnerabilities in the WordPress ecosystem were found in themes and plugins in 2021.
So many of our clients opt for Wordpress thinking they can have a bare bones custom site and add plugins to add the functionality they need later on… but every new plugin opens up new vulnerabilities and increased urgency for mitigating the risks.
And yet? Plugins and themes sit outdated either because the client isn’t applying them or because they’re abandoned by the developer themselves and not issuing updates - which is an entirely different problem that gets overlooked commonly.
So? It’s time to let go. I’ve already broken down the regrets you have after paying for a WordPress website and I think it’s finally time to end an era. You’ve been good to us, I’ve loved you (and sometimes hated you) for so long, and I’ll never forget all the flexibility (and many of the headaches that came with it) you brought to the table.
Bon voyage, old friend. It’s been a ride. I appreciate the good times and I’ll never forget what we’ve done and helped businesses achieve inside WordPress. But I’m a commitment kinda guy and deckerdevs has made its final decision: we’re all-in HubSpot CMS.
Sincerely,
Nicholas Decker & the deckerdevs dev team
—----------------
Simply put: there’s a better way to website.
And HubSpot CMS development? It doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg. Will it be cheap? No. Worth it? Hell yes.
Believe me when I say, this thing we have with HubSpot? It’s the real deal and not any kinda fling. We’ve been in a relationship with HubSpot for over a decade. We’re just going all-in now.
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\n
\n
Breakups are the pits, aren’t they? But outgrowing something (or someone) you love happens all the time. Needs change, people grow apart and what served someone well for so long just doesn’t get the job done any longer. This is how we’ve been feeling about WordPress for quite some time. I’ve been teetering on the edge of dropping WordPress as a platform for over a year, but hadn’t quite pulled the plug. It’s no secret that many small businesses outgrow WordPress quickly, but previously I wanted to have an option for small businesses that might not have had the budget to move over to HubSpot CMS. But now? With CMS Starter being such a compelling option for small businesses? It’s time, once and for all, it’s time for us to break up with WordPress.
\n\n
As finally-full-time HubSpot CMS Developers, this break up has been a long time coming.
Here’s our Dear John letter to WordPress as a platform:
—------------------------------
Dear WordPress:
It was a love story like no other. For decades, you delivered flexible development that I couldn’t get anywhere else. You made dreams come true - and not just mine. You were the foundation by which I judged all other platforms and by and large all of them paled in comparison to your capabilities, for a website platform. They were endless, and I was in awe at my ability to deliver for my small business clients. In the style of Bette Middler, you were the wind beneath my wings in so many ways. We were the power couple, the most dynamic duo. You and I did some incredible things together.
But, maybe I was jaded, in some ways. Maybe I didn’t know what love was supposed to look like, because while we reached so many destinations together, the bumps along the way and after were increasingly noticeable. The shiny newness of everything I delivered with you came to a crashing halt as I encountered more and more prospects that weren’t maintaining you properly, developers whose “best” practices and coding was terrible, leaving clients open to attacks on their website and business. The increased downtime, the decreased page speed as a result of bloated websites patched up in far too many plugins.
Related: 5 Signs You’ve Outgrown WordPress CMS
\n
So much of our small business clients’ valuable technology budget is being dumped into repairs, maintenance and the like, where we know that if we just move them over to HubSpot CMS, they don’t have to constantly pay to repair broken plugins, speed up incredibly slow websites and piece together things in ways that are making website growth and flexibility entirely unattainable. The monthly payment they’re making doesn’t have to go to maintaining the status quo or fixing broken code. Instead, it powers up a far more powerful infrastructure with boosted security and gives them the opportunity to look at the road ahead.
In a world where the freedom exists to do whatever you want, maybe we need more guardrails on our website platform and the people in charge of it. Wordpress is too open and anyone can add to a website. Lacking logic for problem solving and poor coding skills just add website bloat. Sometimes, the people in charge of the website that you’ve entrusted with the livelihood of your internet presence simply don’t know enough about web development to know what’s right.
Related: 7 Developer Interview Questions to ask - Part 1
\n
Or maybe… they haven’t yet discovered that there’s something better out there.
Our path is coming to a close not just because our relationship is over, but because I’ve found something new. Something that delivers in all the same ways… and more. I didn’t realize what I was missing, where a love like this could take me, until I let go of all my preconceptions of what I thought small business website development had to look like.
Related: It’s time to leave WordPress for HubSpot CMS
\n
For a long time the custom development I wanted to do in HubSpot wasn’t viable, but the platform has come so far in the last few years.. I’ve learned through the years that love is an investment. That you can grow together. That there isn’t any such thing as an “expensive” or “budget” website. That you eventually pay later in time, resources and missed opportunities what you’re unwilling to pay for in the initial stages of development.
I mean, the statistics don’t lie…
According to BetterStudio:
13,000 WordPress websites are hacked every day
8% of WordPress sites are hacked due to weak or stolen passwords
Outdated Wordpress websites are blamed for 61% of attacks
Cleaning up a hacked WordPress website can cost upwards of $5,000
More than 99% of all security vulnerabilities in the WordPress ecosystem were found in themes and plugins in 2021.
So many of our clients opt for Wordpress thinking they can have a bare bones custom site and add plugins to add the functionality they need later on… but every new plugin opens up new vulnerabilities and increased urgency for mitigating the risks.
And yet? Plugins and themes sit outdated either because the client isn’t applying them or because they’re abandoned by the developer themselves and not issuing updates - which is an entirely different problem that gets overlooked commonly.
So? It’s time to let go. I’ve already broken down the regrets you have after paying for a WordPress website and I think it’s finally time to end an era. You’ve been good to us, I’ve loved you (and sometimes hated you) for so long, and I’ll never forget all the flexibility (and many of the headaches that came with it) you brought to the table.
Bon voyage, old friend. It’s been a ride. I appreciate the good times and I’ll never forget what we’ve done and helped businesses achieve inside WordPress. But I’m a commitment kinda guy and deckerdevs has made its final decision: we’re all-in HubSpot CMS.
Sincerely,
Nicholas Decker & the deckerdevs dev team
—----------------
Simply put: there’s a better way to website.
And HubSpot CMS development? It doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg. Will it be cheap? No. Worth it? Hell yes.
Believe me when I say, this thing we have with HubSpot? It’s the real deal and not any kinda fling. We’ve been in a relationship with HubSpot for over a decade. We’re just going all-in now.
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Tech Stack Diet: Cutting Back while Reducing Collateral Damage ","id":133854205738,"includeDefaultCustomCss":null,"isCaptchaRequired":true,"isCrawlableByBots":false,"isDraft":false,"isInstanceLayoutPage":false,"isInstantEmailEnabled":false,"isPublished":true,"isSocialPublishingEnabled":false,"keywords":[],"label":"The Tech Stack Diet: Cutting Back while Reducing Collateral Damage ","language":"en","lastEditSessionId":null,"lastEditUpdateId":null,"layoutSections":{},"legacyBlogTabid":null,"legacyId":null,"legacyPostGuid":null,"linkRelCanonicalUrl":null,"listTemplate":"","liveDomain":"deckerdevs.com","mab":false,"mabExperimentId":null,"mabMaster":false,"mabVariant":false,"meta":{"html_title":"The Tech Stack Diet: Cutting Back while Reducing Collateral Damage ","public_access_rules":[],"public_access_rules_enabled":false,"enable_google_amp_output_override":false,"generate_json_ld_enabled":true,"composition_id":0,"is_crawlable_by_bots":false,"use_featured_image":true,"post_summary":"
Managing a growing tech stack as a new CMO or Marketing Director or even in a consulting role can be, well, complicated to say the least. It’s your job to optimize their marketing technology and budget, get more return out of their investments, bridge the gap between sales and marketing and really hone in their messaging, voice and strategy. No pressure. You already know what it’ll take to get this done: Hard conversations, getting as deep into the granular details of existing sales and marketing structures as possible and inevitably - pulling apart that tech stack and sometimes even ruffling feathers in other departments or with the rest of the executive team.
\n","post_body":"Managing a growing tech stack as a new CMO or Marketing Director or even in a consulting role can be, well, complicated to say the least. It’s your job to optimize their marketing technology and budget, get more return out of their investments, bridge the gap between sales and marketing and really hone in their messaging, voice and strategy. No pressure. You already know what it’ll take to get this done: Hard conversations, getting as deep into the granular details of existing sales and marketing structures as possible and inevitably - pulling apart that tech stack and sometimes even ruffling feathers in other departments or with the rest of the executive team.
\n\n![\"tech](\"https://6534445.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/6534445/tech%20stack%20diet.jpg\")
Increasingly, employees and managers inside departments are seeking approval for applications that help make their job easier. While these applications may be inexpensive on their own, they can quickly add up and disrupt workflow, sometimes hiding access to important data for other aligned departments and overlapping features with existing technology inside the organization that isn’t widely adopted.
A bloated tech stack is an issue plaguing so many organizations and those tasked with cutting back the fat often catch the wrath of the employees, management and executives that brought in the application to begin with. In a complicated dance of compromise, here are our best tips for cutting back your tech stack while reducing collateral damage:
Log your calories.
\nAccording to ChiefMarTec.com, The average small business with 500 employees or less has 172 applications. Midmarket? 255 applications, on average. Enterprise organizations? 664 applications. The best way to cut fat is always to consume consciously and just like your calorie counting diet tracker, you need a document that establishes the long list of applications used inside your organization. A simple spreadsheet will do. Once you create it, you’ll want to add the following columns:
\n- \n
- name of the application \n
- the department that uses it \n
- who is in charge of the billing \n
- what role it plays in business processes \n
- number of users \n
- number of app integrations \n
- apps that you own that it integrates with already \n
- number of integrations you’re using \n
- renewal date / contract period \n
- total application cost \n
Through this exercise you’ll have a better understanding of the total budget spend throughout your organization on business applications, which may have overlapping features and learn how widely adopted they are throughout the organization.It is important not to cut applications based on budget spend alone, but to do a comprehensive analysis of the company’s overall application spend and see where consolidation may be available.
\n
Do some research.
\n
Picking the best diet for you requires that you rabbit hole into macro and micronutrients and create a plan and lifestyle around it - this is a great parallel for trimming down your tech stack, as well. By conducting individual interviews with the users of each application, you can gain a better understanding for how deeply this application is ingrained into the day to day lives of your employees.
Questions that you may want to ask:
\n- \n
- How often do you use this application? \n
- Which functions are most important to you? \n
- If you could gain the functionality that you have with this application through another application, would you consider
adopting another application? \n - Are you relying on the apps analytics? \n
- Are the analytics available to you sufficient? \n
- Would it be better to centralize your analytics instead? \n
- What features would you like to see that aren’t included in this app? \n
- What are the biggest workflow redundancies you’re experiencing in your role? \n
- What challenges still exist for you to most effectively execute in your role? \n
By asking questions not just about the application itself and understanding the big picture of the struggles of each individual role inside your organization, you can explore how other applications, integrations or process improvements can optimize while also potentially cutting expenses for underutilized or feature-redundant applications.
Analyze the value of what you’re consuming.
\n
It isn’t the amount of food you consume that causes the extra fat to accumulate, it’s the lacking nutrients in some of the food you’re consuming. So often analysts go into an organization’s technology stack looking to cut as much spend as possible, but we find that quality over quantity is the best approach here.
After you conduct your interviews, you can dig deeply into the ROI and use that you’re seeing from the applications used in each department. You can create test user accounts and dig into the features, create a short list of applications that may be up for renewal that you want to either negotiate down or eliminate entirely.
This is where the hard conversations will come in. Nothing worth having comes easy and there’s plenty of chance here to ruffle feathers and upset people that are responsible for bringing in those applications or who may be adverse to adopting new applications, even if they integrate better or provide the same functionality.
\n
In any difficult conversation, logic and facts are the most important, even though hierarchies and organizational politics have their own role. Present your data logically and unemotionally. While you may not always win, you can always be certain that if you’ve done your diligence in showing which applications are showing ROI and which are unnecessary when you stick to the facts.
Don’t miss hidden calories.
\n
You log all your meals, but might’ve forgotten that gas station candy bar. For the long term success of your technology, you need to catch all the missing pieces. Shadow IT is something that many don’t take into account when they’re performing technology audits, and it’s a very important consideration. Employees persistently pay for technology on their own and submit for reimbursement inside their organizations in the form of an expense report, yet these applications are rarely measured inside an organization’s tech stack.
While individual costs for applications may not be extreme, when small subscription costs for multiple applications multiply across hundreds of employees, they can have a significant impact on a business’ budget and application count. That doesn’t even take into account the potential issue for data privacy and security issues with employee-owned application subscriptions.
Take the time to do an audit of these subscriptions separately and determine where there may be trending needs and whether or not it may make sense to roll out this application companywide or which existing application inside the organization may suit this user’s needs just as well without the added expense.
Create a plan and stick to it.
\n
Take time to establish a strategy surrounding consolidating your technology application list without losing functionality. After analysis, execution will always net you the greatest results. What do you do with a diet plan? You execute it.
The features you need to save you money with one application may sometimes be obtained by upgrading your subscription with another software application. Having a beat on where your subscriptions are at, leveraging exactly what you’re paying for and consolidating where possible is the perfect starting point to reducing your technology spend and optimizing your budget, and potentially ultimately positively impacting data access, efficiency and productivity across your organization as a whole.
While this is a massive undertaking for any individual, especially a brand new CMO that may be new and transitioning from another role, it’s incredibly rewarding. By taking your time, diligently interviewing users, and establishing overall spend and number of applications, you can quickly help your executive team see where a lot of your budget is being spent and how best to optimize it. Always approach any tech stack audit with the company’s long term goals and vision in mind and choose compromise with technology that supports your users and their productivity.
If you encounter issues as you’re digging into your tech stack, and not quite sure where and how to optimize your analytics, or bridge the gap between your applications - a technical partner can help exponentially here.
","rss_summary":"
Managing a growing tech stack as a new CMO or Marketing Director or even in a consulting role can be, well, complicated to say the least. It’s your job to optimize their marketing technology and budget, get more return out of their investments, bridge the gap between sales and marketing and really hone in their messaging, voice and strategy. No pressure. You already know what it’ll take to get this done: Hard conversations, getting as deep into the granular details of existing sales and marketing structures as possible and inevitably - pulling apart that tech stack and sometimes even ruffling feathers in other departments or with the rest of the executive team.
\n","rss_body":"Managing a growing tech stack as a new CMO or Marketing Director or even in a consulting role can be, well, complicated to say the least. It’s your job to optimize their marketing technology and budget, get more return out of their investments, bridge the gap between sales and marketing and really hone in their messaging, voice and strategy. No pressure. You already know what it’ll take to get this done: Hard conversations, getting as deep into the granular details of existing sales and marketing structures as possible and inevitably - pulling apart that tech stack and sometimes even ruffling feathers in other departments or with the rest of the executive team.
\n\n
Increasingly, employees and managers inside departments are seeking approval for applications that help make their job easier. While these applications may be inexpensive on their own, they can quickly add up and disrupt workflow, sometimes hiding access to important data for other aligned departments and overlapping features with existing technology inside the organization that isn’t widely adopted.
A bloated tech stack is an issue plaguing so many organizations and those tasked with cutting back the fat often catch the wrath of the employees, management and executives that brought in the application to begin with. In a complicated dance of compromise, here are our best tips for cutting back your tech stack while reducing collateral damage:
Log your calories.
\nAccording to ChiefMarTec.com, The average small business with 500 employees or less has 172 applications. Midmarket? 255 applications, on average. Enterprise organizations? 664 applications. The best way to cut fat is always to consume consciously and just like your calorie counting diet tracker, you need a document that establishes the long list of applications used inside your organization. A simple spreadsheet will do. Once you create it, you’ll want to add the following columns:
\n- \n
- name of the application \n
- the department that uses it \n
- who is in charge of the billing \n
- what role it plays in business processes \n
- number of users \n
- number of app integrations \n
- apps that you own that it integrates with already \n
- number of integrations you’re using \n
- renewal date / contract period \n
- total application cost \n
Through this exercise you’ll have a better understanding of the total budget spend throughout your organization on business applications, which may have overlapping features and learn how widely adopted they are throughout the organization.It is important not to cut applications based on budget spend alone, but to do a comprehensive analysis of the company’s overall application spend and see where consolidation may be available.
\n
Do some research.
\n
Picking the best diet for you requires that you rabbit hole into macro and micronutrients and create a plan and lifestyle around it - this is a great parallel for trimming down your tech stack, as well. By conducting individual interviews with the users of each application, you can gain a better understanding for how deeply this application is ingrained into the day to day lives of your employees.
Questions that you may want to ask:
\n- \n
- How often do you use this application? \n
- Which functions are most important to you? \n
- If you could gain the functionality that you have with this application through another application, would you consider
adopting another application? \n - Are you relying on the apps analytics? \n
- Are the analytics available to you sufficient? \n
- Would it be better to centralize your analytics instead? \n
- What features would you like to see that aren’t included in this app? \n
- What are the biggest workflow redundancies you’re experiencing in your role? \n
- What challenges still exist for you to most effectively execute in your role? \n
By asking questions not just about the application itself and understanding the big picture of the struggles of each individual role inside your organization, you can explore how other applications, integrations or process improvements can optimize while also potentially cutting expenses for underutilized or feature-redundant applications.
Analyze the value of what you’re consuming.
\n
It isn’t the amount of food you consume that causes the extra fat to accumulate, it’s the lacking nutrients in some of the food you’re consuming. So often analysts go into an organization’s technology stack looking to cut as much spend as possible, but we find that quality over quantity is the best approach here.
After you conduct your interviews, you can dig deeply into the ROI and use that you’re seeing from the applications used in each department. You can create test user accounts and dig into the features, create a short list of applications that may be up for renewal that you want to either negotiate down or eliminate entirely.
This is where the hard conversations will come in. Nothing worth having comes easy and there’s plenty of chance here to ruffle feathers and upset people that are responsible for bringing in those applications or who may be adverse to adopting new applications, even if they integrate better or provide the same functionality.
\n
In any difficult conversation, logic and facts are the most important, even though hierarchies and organizational politics have their own role. Present your data logically and unemotionally. While you may not always win, you can always be certain that if you’ve done your diligence in showing which applications are showing ROI and which are unnecessary when you stick to the facts.
Don’t miss hidden calories.
\n
You log all your meals, but might’ve forgotten that gas station candy bar. For the long term success of your technology, you need to catch all the missing pieces. Shadow IT is something that many don’t take into account when they’re performing technology audits, and it’s a very important consideration. Employees persistently pay for technology on their own and submit for reimbursement inside their organizations in the form of an expense report, yet these applications are rarely measured inside an organization’s tech stack.
While individual costs for applications may not be extreme, when small subscription costs for multiple applications multiply across hundreds of employees, they can have a significant impact on a business’ budget and application count. That doesn’t even take into account the potential issue for data privacy and security issues with employee-owned application subscriptions.
Take the time to do an audit of these subscriptions separately and determine where there may be trending needs and whether or not it may make sense to roll out this application companywide or which existing application inside the organization may suit this user’s needs just as well without the added expense.
Create a plan and stick to it.
\n
Take time to establish a strategy surrounding consolidating your technology application list without losing functionality. After analysis, execution will always net you the greatest results. What do you do with a diet plan? You execute it.
The features you need to save you money with one application may sometimes be obtained by upgrading your subscription with another software application. Having a beat on where your subscriptions are at, leveraging exactly what you’re paying for and consolidating where possible is the perfect starting point to reducing your technology spend and optimizing your budget, and potentially ultimately positively impacting data access, efficiency and productivity across your organization as a whole.
While this is a massive undertaking for any individual, especially a brand new CMO that may be new and transitioning from another role, it’s incredibly rewarding. By taking your time, diligently interviewing users, and establishing overall spend and number of applications, you can quickly help your executive team see where a lot of your budget is being spent and how best to optimize it. Always approach any tech stack audit with the company’s long term goals and vision in mind and choose compromise with technology that supports your users and their productivity.
If you encounter issues as you’re digging into your tech stack, and not quite sure where and how to optimize your analytics, or bridge the gap between your applications - a technical partner can help exponentially here.
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Managing a growing tech stack as a new CMO or Marketing Director or even in a consulting role can be, well, complicated to say the least. It’s your job to optimize their marketing technology and budget, get more return out of their investments, bridge the gap between sales and marketing and really hone in their messaging, voice and strategy. No pressure. You already know what it’ll take to get this done: Hard conversations, getting as deep into the granular details of existing sales and marketing structures as possible and inevitably - pulling apart that tech stack and sometimes even ruffling feathers in other departments or with the rest of the executive team.
\n\n
Increasingly, employees and managers inside departments are seeking approval for applications that help make their job easier. While these applications may be inexpensive on their own, they can quickly add up and disrupt workflow, sometimes hiding access to important data for other aligned departments and overlapping features with existing technology inside the organization that isn’t widely adopted.
A bloated tech stack is an issue plaguing so many organizations and those tasked with cutting back the fat often catch the wrath of the employees, management and executives that brought in the application to begin with. In a complicated dance of compromise, here are our best tips for cutting back your tech stack while reducing collateral damage:
Log your calories.
\nAccording to ChiefMarTec.com, The average small business with 500 employees or less has 172 applications. Midmarket? 255 applications, on average. Enterprise organizations? 664 applications. The best way to cut fat is always to consume consciously and just like your calorie counting diet tracker, you need a document that establishes the long list of applications used inside your organization. A simple spreadsheet will do. Once you create it, you’ll want to add the following columns:
\n- \n
- name of the application \n
- the department that uses it \n
- who is in charge of the billing \n
- what role it plays in business processes \n
- number of users \n
- number of app integrations \n
- apps that you own that it integrates with already \n
- number of integrations you’re using \n
- renewal date / contract period \n
- total application cost \n
Through this exercise you’ll have a better understanding of the total budget spend throughout your organization on business applications, which may have overlapping features and learn how widely adopted they are throughout the organization.It is important not to cut applications based on budget spend alone, but to do a comprehensive analysis of the company’s overall application spend and see where consolidation may be available.
\n
Do some research.
\n
Picking the best diet for you requires that you rabbit hole into macro and micronutrients and create a plan and lifestyle around it - this is a great parallel for trimming down your tech stack, as well. By conducting individual interviews with the users of each application, you can gain a better understanding for how deeply this application is ingrained into the day to day lives of your employees.
Questions that you may want to ask:
\n- \n
- How often do you use this application? \n
- Which functions are most important to you? \n
- If you could gain the functionality that you have with this application through another application, would you consider
adopting another application? \n - Are you relying on the apps analytics? \n
- Are the analytics available to you sufficient? \n
- Would it be better to centralize your analytics instead? \n
- What features would you like to see that aren’t included in this app? \n
- What are the biggest workflow redundancies you’re experiencing in your role? \n
- What challenges still exist for you to most effectively execute in your role? \n
By asking questions not just about the application itself and understanding the big picture of the struggles of each individual role inside your organization, you can explore how other applications, integrations or process improvements can optimize while also potentially cutting expenses for underutilized or feature-redundant applications.
Analyze the value of what you’re consuming.
\n
It isn’t the amount of food you consume that causes the extra fat to accumulate, it’s the lacking nutrients in some of the food you’re consuming. So often analysts go into an organization’s technology stack looking to cut as much spend as possible, but we find that quality over quantity is the best approach here.
After you conduct your interviews, you can dig deeply into the ROI and use that you’re seeing from the applications used in each department. You can create test user accounts and dig into the features, create a short list of applications that may be up for renewal that you want to either negotiate down or eliminate entirely.
This is where the hard conversations will come in. Nothing worth having comes easy and there’s plenty of chance here to ruffle feathers and upset people that are responsible for bringing in those applications or who may be adverse to adopting new applications, even if they integrate better or provide the same functionality.
\n
In any difficult conversation, logic and facts are the most important, even though hierarchies and organizational politics have their own role. Present your data logically and unemotionally. While you may not always win, you can always be certain that if you’ve done your diligence in showing which applications are showing ROI and which are unnecessary when you stick to the facts.
Don’t miss hidden calories.
\n
You log all your meals, but might’ve forgotten that gas station candy bar. For the long term success of your technology, you need to catch all the missing pieces. Shadow IT is something that many don’t take into account when they’re performing technology audits, and it’s a very important consideration. Employees persistently pay for technology on their own and submit for reimbursement inside their organizations in the form of an expense report, yet these applications are rarely measured inside an organization’s tech stack.
While individual costs for applications may not be extreme, when small subscription costs for multiple applications multiply across hundreds of employees, they can have a significant impact on a business’ budget and application count. That doesn’t even take into account the potential issue for data privacy and security issues with employee-owned application subscriptions.
Take the time to do an audit of these subscriptions separately and determine where there may be trending needs and whether or not it may make sense to roll out this application companywide or which existing application inside the organization may suit this user’s needs just as well without the added expense.
Create a plan and stick to it.
\n
Take time to establish a strategy surrounding consolidating your technology application list without losing functionality. After analysis, execution will always net you the greatest results. What do you do with a diet plan? You execute it.
The features you need to save you money with one application may sometimes be obtained by upgrading your subscription with another software application. Having a beat on where your subscriptions are at, leveraging exactly what you’re paying for and consolidating where possible is the perfect starting point to reducing your technology spend and optimizing your budget, and potentially ultimately positively impacting data access, efficiency and productivity across your organization as a whole.
While this is a massive undertaking for any individual, especially a brand new CMO that may be new and transitioning from another role, it’s incredibly rewarding. By taking your time, diligently interviewing users, and establishing overall spend and number of applications, you can quickly help your executive team see where a lot of your budget is being spent and how best to optimize it. Always approach any tech stack audit with the company’s long term goals and vision in mind and choose compromise with technology that supports your users and their productivity.
If you encounter issues as you’re digging into your tech stack, and not quite sure where and how to optimize your analytics, or bridge the gap between your applications - a technical partner can help exponentially here.
","postBodyRss":"
Managing a growing tech stack as a new CMO or Marketing Director or even in a consulting role can be, well, complicated to say the least. It’s your job to optimize their marketing technology and budget, get more return out of their investments, bridge the gap between sales and marketing and really hone in their messaging, voice and strategy. No pressure. You already know what it’ll take to get this done: Hard conversations, getting as deep into the granular details of existing sales and marketing structures as possible and inevitably - pulling apart that tech stack and sometimes even ruffling feathers in other departments or with the rest of the executive team.
\n\n
Increasingly, employees and managers inside departments are seeking approval for applications that help make their job easier. While these applications may be inexpensive on their own, they can quickly add up and disrupt workflow, sometimes hiding access to important data for other aligned departments and overlapping features with existing technology inside the organization that isn’t widely adopted.
A bloated tech stack is an issue plaguing so many organizations and those tasked with cutting back the fat often catch the wrath of the employees, management and executives that brought in the application to begin with. In a complicated dance of compromise, here are our best tips for cutting back your tech stack while reducing collateral damage:
Log your calories.
\nAccording to ChiefMarTec.com, The average small business with 500 employees or less has 172 applications. Midmarket? 255 applications, on average. Enterprise organizations? 664 applications. The best way to cut fat is always to consume consciously and just like your calorie counting diet tracker, you need a document that establishes the long list of applications used inside your organization. A simple spreadsheet will do. Once you create it, you’ll want to add the following columns:
\n- \n
- name of the application \n
- the department that uses it \n
- who is in charge of the billing \n
- what role it plays in business processes \n
- number of users \n
- number of app integrations \n
- apps that you own that it integrates with already \n
- number of integrations you’re using \n
- renewal date / contract period \n
- total application cost \n
Through this exercise you’ll have a better understanding of the total budget spend throughout your organization on business applications, which may have overlapping features and learn how widely adopted they are throughout the organization.It is important not to cut applications based on budget spend alone, but to do a comprehensive analysis of the company’s overall application spend and see where consolidation may be available.
\n
Do some research.
\n
Picking the best diet for you requires that you rabbit hole into macro and micronutrients and create a plan and lifestyle around it - this is a great parallel for trimming down your tech stack, as well. By conducting individual interviews with the users of each application, you can gain a better understanding for how deeply this application is ingrained into the day to day lives of your employees.
Questions that you may want to ask:
\n- \n
- How often do you use this application? \n
- Which functions are most important to you? \n
- If you could gain the functionality that you have with this application through another application, would you consider
adopting another application? \n - Are you relying on the apps analytics? \n
- Are the analytics available to you sufficient? \n
- Would it be better to centralize your analytics instead? \n
- What features would you like to see that aren’t included in this app? \n
- What are the biggest workflow redundancies you’re experiencing in your role? \n
- What challenges still exist for you to most effectively execute in your role? \n
By asking questions not just about the application itself and understanding the big picture of the struggles of each individual role inside your organization, you can explore how other applications, integrations or process improvements can optimize while also potentially cutting expenses for underutilized or feature-redundant applications.
Analyze the value of what you’re consuming.
\n
It isn’t the amount of food you consume that causes the extra fat to accumulate, it’s the lacking nutrients in some of the food you’re consuming. So often analysts go into an organization’s technology stack looking to cut as much spend as possible, but we find that quality over quantity is the best approach here.
After you conduct your interviews, you can dig deeply into the ROI and use that you’re seeing from the applications used in each department. You can create test user accounts and dig into the features, create a short list of applications that may be up for renewal that you want to either negotiate down or eliminate entirely.
This is where the hard conversations will come in. Nothing worth having comes easy and there’s plenty of chance here to ruffle feathers and upset people that are responsible for bringing in those applications or who may be adverse to adopting new applications, even if they integrate better or provide the same functionality.
\n
In any difficult conversation, logic and facts are the most important, even though hierarchies and organizational politics have their own role. Present your data logically and unemotionally. While you may not always win, you can always be certain that if you’ve done your diligence in showing which applications are showing ROI and which are unnecessary when you stick to the facts.
Don’t miss hidden calories.
\n
You log all your meals, but might’ve forgotten that gas station candy bar. For the long term success of your technology, you need to catch all the missing pieces. Shadow IT is something that many don’t take into account when they’re performing technology audits, and it’s a very important consideration. Employees persistently pay for technology on their own and submit for reimbursement inside their organizations in the form of an expense report, yet these applications are rarely measured inside an organization’s tech stack.
While individual costs for applications may not be extreme, when small subscription costs for multiple applications multiply across hundreds of employees, they can have a significant impact on a business’ budget and application count. That doesn’t even take into account the potential issue for data privacy and security issues with employee-owned application subscriptions.
Take the time to do an audit of these subscriptions separately and determine where there may be trending needs and whether or not it may make sense to roll out this application companywide or which existing application inside the organization may suit this user’s needs just as well without the added expense.
Create a plan and stick to it.
\n
Take time to establish a strategy surrounding consolidating your technology application list without losing functionality. After analysis, execution will always net you the greatest results. What do you do with a diet plan? You execute it.
The features you need to save you money with one application may sometimes be obtained by upgrading your subscription with another software application. Having a beat on where your subscriptions are at, leveraging exactly what you’re paying for and consolidating where possible is the perfect starting point to reducing your technology spend and optimizing your budget, and potentially ultimately positively impacting data access, efficiency and productivity across your organization as a whole.
While this is a massive undertaking for any individual, especially a brand new CMO that may be new and transitioning from another role, it’s incredibly rewarding. By taking your time, diligently interviewing users, and establishing overall spend and number of applications, you can quickly help your executive team see where a lot of your budget is being spent and how best to optimize it. Always approach any tech stack audit with the company’s long term goals and vision in mind and choose compromise with technology that supports your users and their productivity.
If you encounter issues as you’re digging into your tech stack, and not quite sure where and how to optimize your analytics, or bridge the gap between your applications - a technical partner can help exponentially here.
","postEmailContent":"
Managing a growing tech stack as a new CMO or Marketing Director or even in a consulting role can be, well, complicated to say the least. It’s your job to optimize their marketing technology and budget, get more return out of their investments, bridge the gap between sales and marketing and really hone in their messaging, voice and strategy. No pressure. You already know what it’ll take to get this done: Hard conversations, getting as deep into the granular details of existing sales and marketing structures as possible and inevitably - pulling apart that tech stack and sometimes even ruffling feathers in other departments or with the rest of the executive team.
","postFeaturedImageIfEnabled":"https://6534445.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/6534445/tech%20stack%20diet.jpg","postListContent":"Managing a growing tech stack as a new CMO or Marketing Director or even in a consulting role can be, well, complicated to say the least. It’s your job to optimize their marketing technology and budget, get more return out of their investments, bridge the gap between sales and marketing and really hone in their messaging, voice and strategy. No pressure. You already know what it’ll take to get this done: Hard conversations, getting as deep into the granular details of existing sales and marketing structures as possible and inevitably - pulling apart that tech stack and sometimes even ruffling feathers in other departments or with the rest of the executive team.
","postListSummaryFeaturedImage":"https://6534445.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/6534445/tech%20stack%20diet.jpg","postRssContent":"Managing a growing tech stack as a new CMO or Marketing Director or even in a consulting role can be, well, complicated to say the least. It’s your job to optimize their marketing technology and budget, get more return out of their investments, bridge the gap between sales and marketing and really hone in their messaging, voice and strategy. No pressure. You already know what it’ll take to get this done: Hard conversations, getting as deep into the granular details of existing sales and marketing structures as possible and inevitably - pulling apart that tech stack and sometimes even ruffling feathers in other departments or with the rest of the executive team.
","postRssSummaryFeaturedImage":"https://6534445.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/6534445/tech%20stack%20diet.jpg","postSummary":"Managing a growing tech stack as a new CMO or Marketing Director or even in a consulting role can be, well, complicated to say the least. It’s your job to optimize their marketing technology and budget, get more return out of their investments, bridge the gap between sales and marketing and really hone in their messaging, voice and strategy. No pressure. You already know what it’ll take to get this done: Hard conversations, getting as deep into the granular details of existing sales and marketing structures as possible and inevitably - pulling apart that tech stack and sometimes even ruffling feathers in other departments or with the rest of the executive team.
\n","postSummaryRss":"Managing a growing tech stack as a new CMO or Marketing Director or even in a consulting role can be, well, complicated to say the least. It’s your job to optimize their marketing technology and budget, get more return out of their investments, bridge the gap between sales and marketing and really hone in their messaging, voice and strategy. No pressure. You already know what it’ll take to get this done: Hard conversations, getting as deep into the granular details of existing sales and marketing structures as possible and inevitably - pulling apart that tech stack and sometimes even ruffling feathers in other departments or with the rest of the executive team.
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\n\n
Increasingly, employees and managers inside departments are seeking approval for applications that help make their job easier. While these applications may be inexpensive on their own, they can quickly add up and disrupt workflow, sometimes hiding access to important data for other aligned departments and overlapping features with existing technology inside the organization that isn’t widely adopted.
A bloated tech stack is an issue plaguing so many organizations and those tasked with cutting back the fat often catch the wrath of the employees, management and executives that brought in the application to begin with. In a complicated dance of compromise, here are our best tips for cutting back your tech stack while reducing collateral damage:
Log your calories.
\nAccording to ChiefMarTec.com, The average small business with 500 employees or less has 172 applications. Midmarket? 255 applications, on average. Enterprise organizations? 664 applications. The best way to cut fat is always to consume consciously and just like your calorie counting diet tracker, you need a document that establishes the long list of applications used inside your organization. A simple spreadsheet will do. Once you create it, you’ll want to add the following columns:
\n- \n
- name of the application \n
- the department that uses it \n
- who is in charge of the billing \n
- what role it plays in business processes \n
- number of users \n
- number of app integrations \n
- apps that you own that it integrates with already \n
- number of integrations you’re using \n
- renewal date / contract period \n
- total application cost \n
Through this exercise you’ll have a better understanding of the total budget spend throughout your organization on business applications, which may have overlapping features and learn how widely adopted they are throughout the organization.It is important not to cut applications based on budget spend alone, but to do a comprehensive analysis of the company’s overall application spend and see where consolidation may be available.
\n
Do some research.
\n
Picking the best diet for you requires that you rabbit hole into macro and micronutrients and create a plan and lifestyle around it - this is a great parallel for trimming down your tech stack, as well. By conducting individual interviews with the users of each application, you can gain a better understanding for how deeply this application is ingrained into the day to day lives of your employees.
Questions that you may want to ask:
\n- \n
- How often do you use this application? \n
- Which functions are most important to you? \n
- If you could gain the functionality that you have with this application through another application, would you consider
adopting another application? \n - Are you relying on the apps analytics? \n
- Are the analytics available to you sufficient? \n
- Would it be better to centralize your analytics instead? \n
- What features would you like to see that aren’t included in this app? \n
- What are the biggest workflow redundancies you’re experiencing in your role? \n
- What challenges still exist for you to most effectively execute in your role? \n
By asking questions not just about the application itself and understanding the big picture of the struggles of each individual role inside your organization, you can explore how other applications, integrations or process improvements can optimize while also potentially cutting expenses for underutilized or feature-redundant applications.
Analyze the value of what you’re consuming.
\n
It isn’t the amount of food you consume that causes the extra fat to accumulate, it’s the lacking nutrients in some of the food you’re consuming. So often analysts go into an organization’s technology stack looking to cut as much spend as possible, but we find that quality over quantity is the best approach here.
After you conduct your interviews, you can dig deeply into the ROI and use that you’re seeing from the applications used in each department. You can create test user accounts and dig into the features, create a short list of applications that may be up for renewal that you want to either negotiate down or eliminate entirely.
This is where the hard conversations will come in. Nothing worth having comes easy and there’s plenty of chance here to ruffle feathers and upset people that are responsible for bringing in those applications or who may be adverse to adopting new applications, even if they integrate better or provide the same functionality.
\n
In any difficult conversation, logic and facts are the most important, even though hierarchies and organizational politics have their own role. Present your data logically and unemotionally. While you may not always win, you can always be certain that if you’ve done your diligence in showing which applications are showing ROI and which are unnecessary when you stick to the facts.
Don’t miss hidden calories.
\n
You log all your meals, but might’ve forgotten that gas station candy bar. For the long term success of your technology, you need to catch all the missing pieces. Shadow IT is something that many don’t take into account when they’re performing technology audits, and it’s a very important consideration. Employees persistently pay for technology on their own and submit for reimbursement inside their organizations in the form of an expense report, yet these applications are rarely measured inside an organization’s tech stack.
While individual costs for applications may not be extreme, when small subscription costs for multiple applications multiply across hundreds of employees, they can have a significant impact on a business’ budget and application count. That doesn’t even take into account the potential issue for data privacy and security issues with employee-owned application subscriptions.
Take the time to do an audit of these subscriptions separately and determine where there may be trending needs and whether or not it may make sense to roll out this application companywide or which existing application inside the organization may suit this user’s needs just as well without the added expense.
Create a plan and stick to it.
\n
Take time to establish a strategy surrounding consolidating your technology application list without losing functionality. After analysis, execution will always net you the greatest results. What do you do with a diet plan? You execute it.
The features you need to save you money with one application may sometimes be obtained by upgrading your subscription with another software application. Having a beat on where your subscriptions are at, leveraging exactly what you’re paying for and consolidating where possible is the perfect starting point to reducing your technology spend and optimizing your budget, and potentially ultimately positively impacting data access, efficiency and productivity across your organization as a whole.
While this is a massive undertaking for any individual, especially a brand new CMO that may be new and transitioning from another role, it’s incredibly rewarding. By taking your time, diligently interviewing users, and establishing overall spend and number of applications, you can quickly help your executive team see where a lot of your budget is being spent and how best to optimize it. Always approach any tech stack audit with the company’s long term goals and vision in mind and choose compromise with technology that supports your users and their productivity.
If you encounter issues as you’re digging into your tech stack, and not quite sure where and how to optimize your analytics, or bridge the gap between your applications - a technical partner can help exponentially here.
","rssSummary":"
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It’s great for small and growing businesses to build a customized website with features that they need. While it is debatably a step above a platform like Squarespace and has a significantly lower cost when you add functionality for e-commerce versus added apps on a platform like Shopify, it has problems of its own. Hands down, though, it’s one of the top flexible solutions for small business owners for the price point, flexibility and capabilities.
When we started on as a HubSpot Partner, we made the decision to only develop on WP-Engine and HubSpot CMS. But as we continue to expand the capabilities of HubSpot for its users, we’re moving further and further away from Wordpress as a whole. For many HubSpot customers, migrating over from Wordpress to HubSpot seems daunting and cost prohibitive. While free and inexpensive HubSpot themes are available on Marketplace, they typically don’t serve the needs of a scaling business, for a number of reasons. Check out why scaling organizations need to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
Recently we completed a HubSpot CMS website development proposal using a framework that we’ve developed that drastically decreases the average price for customer development on HubSpot CMS. The proposal was competitive for HubSpot development, but still more expensive than the Wordpress proposal from the other developer, and while we won’t go back into the problem with cheap outsourced web development, we want to be very clear about the inevitable when you are marketing on the HubSpot platform as a scaling business and choose Wordpress for content management and that’s - you’re gonna regret it. It’s simply a matter of time. Not only are you going to regret it, but you’re going to have a full timeline of regret that we’ve seen countless times for companies that choose to compromise by using Wordpress.
So, here they are - the 5 regrets you’ll have paying for a custom Wordpress website and their corresponding timeline:
Wordpress has its purpose. It’s great for small and growing businesses to build a customized website with features that they need. While it is debatably a step above a platform like Squarespace and has a significantly lower cost when you add functionality for e-commerce versus added apps on a platform like Shopify, it has problems of its own. Hands down, though, it’s one of the top flexible solutions for small business owners for the price point, flexibility and capabilities.
When we started on as a HubSpot Partner, we made the decision to only develop on WP-Engine and HubSpot CMS. But as we continue to expand the capabilities of HubSpot for its users, we’re moving further and further away from Wordpress as a whole. For many HubSpot customers, migrating over from Wordpress to HubSpot seems daunting and cost prohibitive. While free and inexpensive HubSpot themes are available on Marketplace, they typically don’t serve the needs of a scaling business, for a number of reasons. Check out why scaling organizations need to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
Recently we completed a HubSpot CMS website development proposal using a framework that we’ve developed that drastically decreases the average price for customer development on HubSpot CMS. The proposal was competitive for HubSpot development, but still more expensive than the Wordpress proposal from the other developer, and while we won’t go back into the problem with cheap outsourced web development, we want to be very clear about the inevitable when you are marketing on the HubSpot platform as a scaling business and choose Wordpress for content management and that’s - you’re gonna regret it. It’s simply a matter of time. Not only are you going to regret it, but you’re going to have a full timeline of regret that we’ve seen countless times for companies that choose to compromise by using Wordpress.
So, here they are - the 5 regrets you’ll have paying for a custom Wordpress website and their corresponding timeline:
Immediately - you’ll spend more time (and money) on maintenance and security.
\n
One of the biggest brags on HubSpot CMS is that the security, maintenance and updates are included out of the box for every level of the software - so you’ll not find that an app is out of date and the security is compromised. Bugs, updates, maintenance, and all of that stuff just happens in the back end. This is huge and probably one of the biggest headaches for Wordpress users - out of date or broken plugins can take their website down, and if they’re not paying actively for maintenance, tracking down someone to help while their website is done can be difficult, time consuming and costly depending on how long your website is down.
This cost can range from $50 to a few hundred dollars every month just to keep your website up and running. So often people get caught up in the financial contract with HubSpot without factoring in their own budget for ongoing maintenance and security fixes in WordPress. Or, worse, they opt in to Wordpress because they don’t think they have to pay that monthly fee, finish their website and things persistently break, they have to field 60,000 spam comments because there was no captcha or security build around spam comments and across the board it just becomes a massive maintenance pain.
Lack of maintenance on theme and plugin updates can mean security vulnerabilities to hackers. In fact, WPScan reports that 97% of vulnerabilities inside WordPress are not because of the platform itself, but because of the add-on themes and plugins not being updated adequately.
You don’t have to worry about any of that when you sign on with HubSpot, but you pay a subscription fee for that luxury.
A monthly fee for peace of mind? Might be worth it, don’t you think?
Related: HubSpot Blog - 14 WordPress Security Issues & Vulnerabilities you Should Know About
\n
A few months in - you’ll want to add *a lot* more functionality
\n
Designing and building a website is one thing, but actually using it as a marketer? That’s something totally different. More often than not, your web developer will complete a website for you on WordPress and you’ll start working with it, only to realize that you’re missing some functionality. No big deal, Wordpress has over 60,000 apps that allow you to customize the features on your website. The only problem? They all have to be managed separately and have their own settings and some of them are paid.
Not only that, but the plugins often conflict with one another, some are poorly maintained by their developers, and they can leave large security holes in your website at large if they’re not well maintained.
Now we’re adding both cost *and* risk, but also? Weight.
6 months later… your website will be slower.
\n
Each new plugin you add to your website adds in processes and information that have to be loaded in the back end. And because WordPress defaults to querying the database numerous times on every page reload. It only takes a few heavy plugins for this to completely annihilate the user experience. And we’ve talked about this at length in our discussion of factors bogging down your website.
Website bloat is a problem with many Wordpress websites that increases with time. While a developer can manage this more proactively by installing WP Cache and optimizing what they can, largely as your needs grow you’ll either need to completely redesign your website or switch to a better framework that can more adequately handle the needs of your growing business.
8 months in… things may start to break.
\n
When you work inside HubSpot, as long as you’re able to find a really reputable developer, for the most part you can grow your website with that developer. The same person (ideally), then, Is responsible for all the updates and changes on your website and because of how the HubSpot’s CMS works, and how a reputable developer works within it, you’ll not experience broken plugins or apps, or the same kind of website bloat that you might by adding features over time to your WordPress site.
However, when you add tons of different apps and plugins inside WordPress, things may start to break. Whether its from poor maintenance by a developer that needs to be updating your website and plugins, or whether you have a plugin that isn’t being updated by the developer that created it, when you’re relying on so many different plugins for your website, it is common for these plugins to break your website and for you to experience downtime as a result.
Depending on the size of your business, the cost of website downtime can vary from a few hundred dollars to thousands, tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars in missed revenue. For businesses that do any kind of business online, even if they’re in the business to business realm, the cost of developing and paying for the HubSpot platform has long term benefits that you probably won’t notice, since your website downtime will be much more limited on HubSpot than it will with WordPress.
A year later, spam may become a full time job.
\n
Spam is a problem for many websites, but for so many businesses that use WordPress for their website content management comment and form spam is a huge issue. Even with login and captcha plugins, it can be a full time job just to moderate spam comments and manage the trash that comes into your inbox from your forms. Adding Google or WPForms or another captcha option can be helpful for form spam, but for many business owners they end up turning off comments entirely that use Wordpress.
Spam issues with forms and content are so much less bad on HubSpot CMS. Imagine how much time you could regain not deleting hundreds of spam comments on your blog every few months?
2 years in - you’ll have no website growth strategy and have to start the process all over again.
\n
One of the best parts of working with clients that host their websites with HubSpot is we adopt a continuous improvement model with them and the platform at large and framework we use as a foundation is capable of handling scale. HubSpot’s platform can easily be upgraded to enterprise level, and multiple features like Mega Menus, Resource Centers and ROI calculators can be added on without adding too much bulk to a website load time through management of tools like HubDB.
When you add on to a WordPress website over time, it’s not always capable of handling the additional load and you’ll often find yourself growing frustrated with the load speed, security issues and plugins from different developers that sometimes don’t play together perfectly. Leveraging HubSpot from the get go ensures that you can scale by utilizing a continuous growth model and build your website improvements into a predictable monthly budget that allows you to build the features you need without having to redesign your website entirely every few years.
The bottom line?
Wordpress is great for small businesses, but as your business scales, you’ll quickly outgrow it in functionality or have to redesign your website completely too often to keep it loading fast and get all the features you want. While the cost may be more upfront, you’ll have a secure foundation with HubSpot and a gifted development partner can help you scale over time using a predictable budget that suits your needs.
Can a small budget boost save you a year or two of regret being stuck on WordPress? We say yes.
Wordpress has its purpose. It’s great for small and growing businesses to build a customized website with features that they need. While it is debatably a step above a platform like Squarespace and has a significantly lower cost when you add functionality for e-commerce versus added apps on a platform like Shopify, it has problems of its own. Hands down, though, it’s one of the top flexible solutions for small business owners for the price point, flexibility and capabilities.
When we started on as a HubSpot Partner, we made the decision to only develop on WP-Engine and HubSpot CMS. But as we continue to expand the capabilities of HubSpot for its users, we’re moving further and further away from Wordpress as a whole. For many HubSpot customers, migrating over from Wordpress to HubSpot seems daunting and cost prohibitive. While free and inexpensive HubSpot themes are available on Marketplace, they typically don’t serve the needs of a scaling business, for a number of reasons. Check out why scaling organizations need to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
Recently we completed a HubSpot CMS website development proposal using a framework that we’ve developed that drastically decreases the average price for customer development on HubSpot CMS. The proposal was competitive for HubSpot development, but still more expensive than the Wordpress proposal from the other developer, and while we won’t go back into the problem with cheap outsourced web development, we want to be very clear about the inevitable when you are marketing on the HubSpot platform as a scaling business and choose Wordpress for content management and that’s - you’re gonna regret it. It’s simply a matter of time. Not only are you going to regret it, but you’re going to have a full timeline of regret that we’ve seen countless times for companies that choose to compromise by using Wordpress.
So, here they are - the 5 regrets you’ll have paying for a custom Wordpress website and their corresponding timeline:
Wordpress has its purpose. It’s great for small and growing businesses to build a customized website with features that they need. While it is debatably a step above a platform like Squarespace and has a significantly lower cost when you add functionality for e-commerce versus added apps on a platform like Shopify, it has problems of its own. Hands down, though, it’s one of the top flexible solutions for small business owners for the price point, flexibility and capabilities.
When we started on as a HubSpot Partner, we made the decision to only develop on WP-Engine and HubSpot CMS. But as we continue to expand the capabilities of HubSpot for its users, we’re moving further and further away from Wordpress as a whole. For many HubSpot customers, migrating over from Wordpress to HubSpot seems daunting and cost prohibitive. While free and inexpensive HubSpot themes are available on Marketplace, they typically don’t serve the needs of a scaling business, for a number of reasons. Check out why scaling organizations need to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
Recently we completed a HubSpot CMS website development proposal using a framework that we’ve developed that drastically decreases the average price for customer development on HubSpot CMS. The proposal was competitive for HubSpot development, but still more expensive than the Wordpress proposal from the other developer, and while we won’t go back into the problem with cheap outsourced web development, we want to be very clear about the inevitable when you are marketing on the HubSpot platform as a scaling business and choose Wordpress for content management and that’s - you’re gonna regret it. It’s simply a matter of time. Not only are you going to regret it, but you’re going to have a full timeline of regret that we’ve seen countless times for companies that choose to compromise by using Wordpress.
So, here they are - the 5 regrets you’ll have paying for a custom Wordpress website and their corresponding timeline:
Immediately - you’ll spend more time (and money) on maintenance and security.
\n
One of the biggest brags on HubSpot CMS is that the security, maintenance and updates are included out of the box for every level of the software - so you’ll not find that an app is out of date and the security is compromised. Bugs, updates, maintenance, and all of that stuff just happens in the back end. This is huge and probably one of the biggest headaches for Wordpress users - out of date or broken plugins can take their website down, and if they’re not paying actively for maintenance, tracking down someone to help while their website is done can be difficult, time consuming and costly depending on how long your website is down.
This cost can range from $50 to a few hundred dollars every month just to keep your website up and running. So often people get caught up in the financial contract with HubSpot without factoring in their own budget for ongoing maintenance and security fixes in WordPress. Or, worse, they opt in to Wordpress because they don’t think they have to pay that monthly fee, finish their website and things persistently break, they have to field 60,000 spam comments because there was no captcha or security build around spam comments and across the board it just becomes a massive maintenance pain.
Lack of maintenance on theme and plugin updates can mean security vulnerabilities to hackers. In fact, WPScan reports that 97% of vulnerabilities inside WordPress are not because of the platform itself, but because of the add-on themes and plugins not being updated adequately.
You don’t have to worry about any of that when you sign on with HubSpot, but you pay a subscription fee for that luxury.
A monthly fee for peace of mind? Might be worth it, don’t you think?
Related: HubSpot Blog - 14 WordPress Security Issues & Vulnerabilities you Should Know About
\n
A few months in - you’ll want to add *a lot* more functionality
\n
Designing and building a website is one thing, but actually using it as a marketer? That’s something totally different. More often than not, your web developer will complete a website for you on WordPress and you’ll start working with it, only to realize that you’re missing some functionality. No big deal, Wordpress has over 60,000 apps that allow you to customize the features on your website. The only problem? They all have to be managed separately and have their own settings and some of them are paid.
Not only that, but the plugins often conflict with one another, some are poorly maintained by their developers, and they can leave large security holes in your website at large if they’re not well maintained.
Now we’re adding both cost *and* risk, but also? Weight.
6 months later… your website will be slower.
\n
Each new plugin you add to your website adds in processes and information that have to be loaded in the back end. And because WordPress defaults to querying the database numerous times on every page reload. It only takes a few heavy plugins for this to completely annihilate the user experience. And we’ve talked about this at length in our discussion of factors bogging down your website.
Website bloat is a problem with many Wordpress websites that increases with time. While a developer can manage this more proactively by installing WP Cache and optimizing what they can, largely as your needs grow you’ll either need to completely redesign your website or switch to a better framework that can more adequately handle the needs of your growing business.
8 months in… things may start to break.
\n
When you work inside HubSpot, as long as you’re able to find a really reputable developer, for the most part you can grow your website with that developer. The same person (ideally), then, Is responsible for all the updates and changes on your website and because of how the HubSpot’s CMS works, and how a reputable developer works within it, you’ll not experience broken plugins or apps, or the same kind of website bloat that you might by adding features over time to your WordPress site.
However, when you add tons of different apps and plugins inside WordPress, things may start to break. Whether its from poor maintenance by a developer that needs to be updating your website and plugins, or whether you have a plugin that isn’t being updated by the developer that created it, when you’re relying on so many different plugins for your website, it is common for these plugins to break your website and for you to experience downtime as a result.
Depending on the size of your business, the cost of website downtime can vary from a few hundred dollars to thousands, tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars in missed revenue. For businesses that do any kind of business online, even if they’re in the business to business realm, the cost of developing and paying for the HubSpot platform has long term benefits that you probably won’t notice, since your website downtime will be much more limited on HubSpot than it will with WordPress.
A year later, spam may become a full time job.
\n
Spam is a problem for many websites, but for so many businesses that use WordPress for their website content management comment and form spam is a huge issue. Even with login and captcha plugins, it can be a full time job just to moderate spam comments and manage the trash that comes into your inbox from your forms. Adding Google or WPForms or another captcha option can be helpful for form spam, but for many business owners they end up turning off comments entirely that use Wordpress.
Spam issues with forms and content are so much less bad on HubSpot CMS. Imagine how much time you could regain not deleting hundreds of spam comments on your blog every few months?
2 years in - you’ll have no website growth strategy and have to start the process all over again.
\n
One of the best parts of working with clients that host their websites with HubSpot is we adopt a continuous improvement model with them and the platform at large and framework we use as a foundation is capable of handling scale. HubSpot’s platform can easily be upgraded to enterprise level, and multiple features like Mega Menus, Resource Centers and ROI calculators can be added on without adding too much bulk to a website load time through management of tools like HubDB.
When you add on to a WordPress website over time, it’s not always capable of handling the additional load and you’ll often find yourself growing frustrated with the load speed, security issues and plugins from different developers that sometimes don’t play together perfectly. Leveraging HubSpot from the get go ensures that you can scale by utilizing a continuous growth model and build your website improvements into a predictable monthly budget that allows you to build the features you need without having to redesign your website entirely every few years.
The bottom line?
Wordpress is great for small businesses, but as your business scales, you’ll quickly outgrow it in functionality or have to redesign your website completely too often to keep it loading fast and get all the features you want. While the cost may be more upfront, you’ll have a secure foundation with HubSpot and a gifted development partner can help you scale over time using a predictable budget that suits your needs.
Can a small budget boost save you a year or two of regret being stuck on WordPress? We say yes.
Wordpress has its purpose. It’s great for small and growing businesses to build a customized website with features that they need. While it is debatably a step above a platform like Squarespace and has a significantly lower cost when you add functionality for e-commerce versus added apps on a platform like Shopify, it has problems of its own. Hands down, though, it’s one of the top flexible solutions for small business owners for the price point, flexibility and capabilities.
When we started on as a HubSpot Partner, we made the decision to only develop on WP-Engine and HubSpot CMS. But as we continue to expand the capabilities of HubSpot for its users, we’re moving further and further away from Wordpress as a whole. For many HubSpot customers, migrating over from Wordpress to HubSpot seems daunting and cost prohibitive. While free and inexpensive HubSpot themes are available on Marketplace, they typically don’t serve the needs of a scaling business, for a number of reasons. Check out why scaling organizations need to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
Recently we completed a HubSpot CMS website development proposal using a framework that we’ve developed that drastically decreases the average price for customer development on HubSpot CMS. The proposal was competitive for HubSpot development, but still more expensive than the Wordpress proposal from the other developer, and while we won’t go back into the problem with cheap outsourced web development, we want to be very clear about the inevitable when you are marketing on the HubSpot platform as a scaling business and choose Wordpress for content management and that’s - you’re gonna regret it. It’s simply a matter of time. Not only are you going to regret it, but you’re going to have a full timeline of regret that we’ve seen countless times for companies that choose to compromise by using Wordpress.
So, here they are - the 5 regrets you’ll have paying for a custom Wordpress website and their corresponding timeline:
Immediately - you’ll spend more time (and money) on maintenance and security.
\n
One of the biggest brags on HubSpot CMS is that the security, maintenance and updates are included out of the box for every level of the software - so you’ll not find that an app is out of date and the security is compromised. Bugs, updates, maintenance, and all of that stuff just happens in the back end. This is huge and probably one of the biggest headaches for Wordpress users - out of date or broken plugins can take their website down, and if they’re not paying actively for maintenance, tracking down someone to help while their website is done can be difficult, time consuming and costly depending on how long your website is down.
This cost can range from $50 to a few hundred dollars every month just to keep your website up and running. So often people get caught up in the financial contract with HubSpot without factoring in their own budget for ongoing maintenance and security fixes in WordPress. Or, worse, they opt in to Wordpress because they don’t think they have to pay that monthly fee, finish their website and things persistently break, they have to field 60,000 spam comments because there was no captcha or security build around spam comments and across the board it just becomes a massive maintenance pain.
Lack of maintenance on theme and plugin updates can mean security vulnerabilities to hackers. In fact, WPScan reports that 97% of vulnerabilities inside WordPress are not because of the platform itself, but because of the add-on themes and plugins not being updated adequately.
You don’t have to worry about any of that when you sign on with HubSpot, but you pay a subscription fee for that luxury.
A monthly fee for peace of mind? Might be worth it, don’t you think?
Related: HubSpot Blog - 14 WordPress Security Issues & Vulnerabilities you Should Know About
\n
A few months in - you’ll want to add *a lot* more functionality
\n
Designing and building a website is one thing, but actually using it as a marketer? That’s something totally different. More often than not, your web developer will complete a website for you on WordPress and you’ll start working with it, only to realize that you’re missing some functionality. No big deal, Wordpress has over 60,000 apps that allow you to customize the features on your website. The only problem? They all have to be managed separately and have their own settings and some of them are paid.
Not only that, but the plugins often conflict with one another, some are poorly maintained by their developers, and they can leave large security holes in your website at large if they’re not well maintained.
Now we’re adding both cost *and* risk, but also? Weight.
6 months later… your website will be slower.
\n
Each new plugin you add to your website adds in processes and information that have to be loaded in the back end. And because WordPress defaults to querying the database numerous times on every page reload. It only takes a few heavy plugins for this to completely annihilate the user experience. And we’ve talked about this at length in our discussion of factors bogging down your website.
Website bloat is a problem with many Wordpress websites that increases with time. While a developer can manage this more proactively by installing WP Cache and optimizing what they can, largely as your needs grow you’ll either need to completely redesign your website or switch to a better framework that can more adequately handle the needs of your growing business.
8 months in… things may start to break.
\n
When you work inside HubSpot, as long as you’re able to find a really reputable developer, for the most part you can grow your website with that developer. The same person (ideally), then, Is responsible for all the updates and changes on your website and because of how the HubSpot’s CMS works, and how a reputable developer works within it, you’ll not experience broken plugins or apps, or the same kind of website bloat that you might by adding features over time to your WordPress site.
However, when you add tons of different apps and plugins inside WordPress, things may start to break. Whether its from poor maintenance by a developer that needs to be updating your website and plugins, or whether you have a plugin that isn’t being updated by the developer that created it, when you’re relying on so many different plugins for your website, it is common for these plugins to break your website and for you to experience downtime as a result.
Depending on the size of your business, the cost of website downtime can vary from a few hundred dollars to thousands, tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars in missed revenue. For businesses that do any kind of business online, even if they’re in the business to business realm, the cost of developing and paying for the HubSpot platform has long term benefits that you probably won’t notice, since your website downtime will be much more limited on HubSpot than it will with WordPress.
A year later, spam may become a full time job.
\n
Spam is a problem for many websites, but for so many businesses that use WordPress for their website content management comment and form spam is a huge issue. Even with login and captcha plugins, it can be a full time job just to moderate spam comments and manage the trash that comes into your inbox from your forms. Adding Google or WPForms or another captcha option can be helpful for form spam, but for many business owners they end up turning off comments entirely that use Wordpress.
Spam issues with forms and content are so much less bad on HubSpot CMS. Imagine how much time you could regain not deleting hundreds of spam comments on your blog every few months?
2 years in - you’ll have no website growth strategy and have to start the process all over again.
\n
One of the best parts of working with clients that host their websites with HubSpot is we adopt a continuous improvement model with them and the platform at large and framework we use as a foundation is capable of handling scale. HubSpot’s platform can easily be upgraded to enterprise level, and multiple features like Mega Menus, Resource Centers and ROI calculators can be added on without adding too much bulk to a website load time through management of tools like HubDB.
When you add on to a WordPress website over time, it’s not always capable of handling the additional load and you’ll often find yourself growing frustrated with the load speed, security issues and plugins from different developers that sometimes don’t play together perfectly. Leveraging HubSpot from the get go ensures that you can scale by utilizing a continuous growth model and build your website improvements into a predictable monthly budget that allows you to build the features you need without having to redesign your website entirely every few years.
The bottom line?
Wordpress is great for small businesses, but as your business scales, you’ll quickly outgrow it in functionality or have to redesign your website completely too often to keep it loading fast and get all the features you want. While the cost may be more upfront, you’ll have a secure foundation with HubSpot and a gifted development partner can help you scale over time using a predictable budget that suits your needs.
Can a small budget boost save you a year or two of regret being stuck on WordPress? We say yes.
Wordpress has its purpose. It’s great for small and growing businesses to build a customized website with features that they need. While it is debatably a step above a platform like Squarespace and has a significantly lower cost when you add functionality for e-commerce versus added apps on a platform like Shopify, it has problems of its own. Hands down, though, it’s one of the top flexible solutions for small business owners for the price point, flexibility and capabilities.
When we started on as a HubSpot Partner, we made the decision to only develop on WP-Engine and HubSpot CMS. But as we continue to expand the capabilities of HubSpot for its users, we’re moving further and further away from Wordpress as a whole. For many HubSpot customers, migrating over from Wordpress to HubSpot seems daunting and cost prohibitive. While free and inexpensive HubSpot themes are available on Marketplace, they typically don’t serve the needs of a scaling business, for a number of reasons. Check out why scaling organizations need to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
Recently we completed a HubSpot CMS website development proposal using a framework that we’ve developed that drastically decreases the average price for customer development on HubSpot CMS. The proposal was competitive for HubSpot development, but still more expensive than the Wordpress proposal from the other developer, and while we won’t go back into the problem with cheap outsourced web development, we want to be very clear about the inevitable when you are marketing on the HubSpot platform as a scaling business and choose Wordpress for content management and that’s - you’re gonna regret it. It’s simply a matter of time. Not only are you going to regret it, but you’re going to have a full timeline of regret that we’ve seen countless times for companies that choose to compromise by using Wordpress.
So, here they are - the 5 regrets you’ll have paying for a custom Wordpress website and their corresponding timeline:
Immediately - you’ll spend more time (and money) on maintenance and security.
\n
One of the biggest brags on HubSpot CMS is that the security, maintenance and updates are included out of the box for every level of the software - so you’ll not find that an app is out of date and the security is compromised. Bugs, updates, maintenance, and all of that stuff just happens in the back end. This is huge and probably one of the biggest headaches for Wordpress users - out of date or broken plugins can take their website down, and if they’re not paying actively for maintenance, tracking down someone to help while their website is done can be difficult, time consuming and costly depending on how long your website is down.
This cost can range from $50 to a few hundred dollars every month just to keep your website up and running. So often people get caught up in the financial contract with HubSpot without factoring in their own budget for ongoing maintenance and security fixes in WordPress. Or, worse, they opt in to Wordpress because they don’t think they have to pay that monthly fee, finish their website and things persistently break, they have to field 60,000 spam comments because there was no captcha or security build around spam comments and across the board it just becomes a massive maintenance pain.
Lack of maintenance on theme and plugin updates can mean security vulnerabilities to hackers. In fact, WPScan reports that 97% of vulnerabilities inside WordPress are not because of the platform itself, but because of the add-on themes and plugins not being updated adequately.
You don’t have to worry about any of that when you sign on with HubSpot, but you pay a subscription fee for that luxury.
A monthly fee for peace of mind? Might be worth it, don’t you think?
Related: HubSpot Blog - 14 WordPress Security Issues & Vulnerabilities you Should Know About
\n
A few months in - you’ll want to add *a lot* more functionality
\n
Designing and building a website is one thing, but actually using it as a marketer? That’s something totally different. More often than not, your web developer will complete a website for you on WordPress and you’ll start working with it, only to realize that you’re missing some functionality. No big deal, Wordpress has over 60,000 apps that allow you to customize the features on your website. The only problem? They all have to be managed separately and have their own settings and some of them are paid.
Not only that, but the plugins often conflict with one another, some are poorly maintained by their developers, and they can leave large security holes in your website at large if they’re not well maintained.
Now we’re adding both cost *and* risk, but also? Weight.
6 months later… your website will be slower.
\n
Each new plugin you add to your website adds in processes and information that have to be loaded in the back end. And because WordPress defaults to querying the database numerous times on every page reload. It only takes a few heavy plugins for this to completely annihilate the user experience. And we’ve talked about this at length in our discussion of factors bogging down your website.
Website bloat is a problem with many Wordpress websites that increases with time. While a developer can manage this more proactively by installing WP Cache and optimizing what they can, largely as your needs grow you’ll either need to completely redesign your website or switch to a better framework that can more adequately handle the needs of your growing business.
8 months in… things may start to break.
\n
When you work inside HubSpot, as long as you’re able to find a really reputable developer, for the most part you can grow your website with that developer. The same person (ideally), then, Is responsible for all the updates and changes on your website and because of how the HubSpot’s CMS works, and how a reputable developer works within it, you’ll not experience broken plugins or apps, or the same kind of website bloat that you might by adding features over time to your WordPress site.
However, when you add tons of different apps and plugins inside WordPress, things may start to break. Whether its from poor maintenance by a developer that needs to be updating your website and plugins, or whether you have a plugin that isn’t being updated by the developer that created it, when you’re relying on so many different plugins for your website, it is common for these plugins to break your website and for you to experience downtime as a result.
Depending on the size of your business, the cost of website downtime can vary from a few hundred dollars to thousands, tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars in missed revenue. For businesses that do any kind of business online, even if they’re in the business to business realm, the cost of developing and paying for the HubSpot platform has long term benefits that you probably won’t notice, since your website downtime will be much more limited on HubSpot than it will with WordPress.
A year later, spam may become a full time job.
\n
Spam is a problem for many websites, but for so many businesses that use WordPress for their website content management comment and form spam is a huge issue. Even with login and captcha plugins, it can be a full time job just to moderate spam comments and manage the trash that comes into your inbox from your forms. Adding Google or WPForms or another captcha option can be helpful for form spam, but for many business owners they end up turning off comments entirely that use Wordpress.
Spam issues with forms and content are so much less bad on HubSpot CMS. Imagine how much time you could regain not deleting hundreds of spam comments on your blog every few months?
2 years in - you’ll have no website growth strategy and have to start the process all over again.
\n
One of the best parts of working with clients that host their websites with HubSpot is we adopt a continuous improvement model with them and the platform at large and framework we use as a foundation is capable of handling scale. HubSpot’s platform can easily be upgraded to enterprise level, and multiple features like Mega Menus, Resource Centers and ROI calculators can be added on without adding too much bulk to a website load time through management of tools like HubDB.
When you add on to a WordPress website over time, it’s not always capable of handling the additional load and you’ll often find yourself growing frustrated with the load speed, security issues and plugins from different developers that sometimes don’t play together perfectly. Leveraging HubSpot from the get go ensures that you can scale by utilizing a continuous growth model and build your website improvements into a predictable monthly budget that allows you to build the features you need without having to redesign your website entirely every few years.
The bottom line?
Wordpress is great for small businesses, but as your business scales, you’ll quickly outgrow it in functionality or have to redesign your website completely too often to keep it loading fast and get all the features you want. While the cost may be more upfront, you’ll have a secure foundation with HubSpot and a gifted development partner can help you scale over time using a predictable budget that suits your needs.
Can a small budget boost save you a year or two of regret being stuck on WordPress? We say yes.
Wordpress has its purpose. It’s great for small and growing businesses to build a customized website with features that they need. While it is debatably a step above a platform like Squarespace and has a significantly lower cost when you add functionality for e-commerce versus added apps on a platform like Shopify, it has problems of its own. Hands down, though, it’s one of the top flexible solutions for small business owners for the price point, flexibility and capabilities.
When we started on as a HubSpot Partner, we made the decision to only develop on WP-Engine and HubSpot CMS. But as we continue to expand the capabilities of HubSpot for its users, we’re moving further and further away from Wordpress as a whole. For many HubSpot customers, migrating over from Wordpress to HubSpot seems daunting and cost prohibitive. While free and inexpensive HubSpot themes are available on Marketplace, they typically don’t serve the needs of a scaling business, for a number of reasons. Check out why scaling organizations need to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
Recently we completed a HubSpot CMS website development proposal using a framework that we’ve developed that drastically decreases the average price for customer development on HubSpot CMS. The proposal was competitive for HubSpot development, but still more expensive than the Wordpress proposal from the other developer, and while we won’t go back into the problem with cheap outsourced web development, we want to be very clear about the inevitable when you are marketing on the HubSpot platform as a scaling business and choose Wordpress for content management and that’s - you’re gonna regret it. It’s simply a matter of time. Not only are you going to regret it, but you’re going to have a full timeline of regret that we’ve seen countless times for companies that choose to compromise by using Wordpress.
So, here they are - the 5 regrets you’ll have paying for a custom Wordpress website and their corresponding timeline:
Wordpress has its purpose. It’s great for small and growing businesses to build a customized website with features that they need. While it is debatably a step above a platform like Squarespace and has a significantly lower cost when you add functionality for e-commerce versus added apps on a platform like Shopify, it has problems of its own. Hands down, though, it’s one of the top flexible solutions for small business owners for the price point, flexibility and capabilities.
When we started on as a HubSpot Partner, we made the decision to only develop on WP-Engine and HubSpot CMS. But as we continue to expand the capabilities of HubSpot for its users, we’re moving further and further away from Wordpress as a whole. For many HubSpot customers, migrating over from Wordpress to HubSpot seems daunting and cost prohibitive. While free and inexpensive HubSpot themes are available on Marketplace, they typically don’t serve the needs of a scaling business, for a number of reasons. Check out why scaling organizations need to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
Recently we completed a HubSpot CMS website development proposal using a framework that we’ve developed that drastically decreases the average price for customer development on HubSpot CMS. The proposal was competitive for HubSpot development, but still more expensive than the Wordpress proposal from the other developer, and while we won’t go back into the problem with cheap outsourced web development, we want to be very clear about the inevitable when you are marketing on the HubSpot platform as a scaling business and choose Wordpress for content management and that’s - you’re gonna regret it. It’s simply a matter of time. Not only are you going to regret it, but you’re going to have a full timeline of regret that we’ve seen countless times for companies that choose to compromise by using Wordpress.
So, here they are - the 5 regrets you’ll have paying for a custom Wordpress website and their corresponding timeline:
Wordpress has its purpose. It’s great for small and growing businesses to build a customized website with features that they need. While it is debatably a step above a platform like Squarespace and has a significantly lower cost when you add functionality for e-commerce versus added apps on a platform like Shopify, it has problems of its own. Hands down, though, it’s one of the top flexible solutions for small business owners for the price point, flexibility and capabilities.
When we started on as a HubSpot Partner, we made the decision to only develop on WP-Engine and HubSpot CMS. But as we continue to expand the capabilities of HubSpot for its users, we’re moving further and further away from Wordpress as a whole. For many HubSpot customers, migrating over from Wordpress to HubSpot seems daunting and cost prohibitive. While free and inexpensive HubSpot themes are available on Marketplace, they typically don’t serve the needs of a scaling business, for a number of reasons. Check out why scaling organizations need to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
Recently we completed a HubSpot CMS website development proposal using a framework that we’ve developed that drastically decreases the average price for customer development on HubSpot CMS. The proposal was competitive for HubSpot development, but still more expensive than the Wordpress proposal from the other developer, and while we won’t go back into the problem with cheap outsourced web development, we want to be very clear about the inevitable when you are marketing on the HubSpot platform as a scaling business and choose Wordpress for content management and that’s - you’re gonna regret it. It’s simply a matter of time. Not only are you going to regret it, but you’re going to have a full timeline of regret that we’ve seen countless times for companies that choose to compromise by using Wordpress.
So, here they are - the 5 regrets you’ll have paying for a custom Wordpress website and their corresponding timeline:
Wordpress has its purpose. It’s great for small and growing businesses to build a customized website with features that they need. While it is debatably a step above a platform like Squarespace and has a significantly lower cost when you add functionality for e-commerce versus added apps on a platform like Shopify, it has problems of its own. Hands down, though, it’s one of the top flexible solutions for small business owners for the price point, flexibility and capabilities.
When we started on as a HubSpot Partner, we made the decision to only develop on WP-Engine and HubSpot CMS. But as we continue to expand the capabilities of HubSpot for its users, we’re moving further and further away from Wordpress as a whole. For many HubSpot customers, migrating over from Wordpress to HubSpot seems daunting and cost prohibitive. While free and inexpensive HubSpot themes are available on Marketplace, they typically don’t serve the needs of a scaling business, for a number of reasons. Check out why scaling organizations need to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
Recently we completed a HubSpot CMS website development proposal using a framework that we’ve developed that drastically decreases the average price for customer development on HubSpot CMS. The proposal was competitive for HubSpot development, but still more expensive than the Wordpress proposal from the other developer, and while we won’t go back into the problem with cheap outsourced web development, we want to be very clear about the inevitable when you are marketing on the HubSpot platform as a scaling business and choose Wordpress for content management and that’s - you’re gonna regret it. It’s simply a matter of time. Not only are you going to regret it, but you’re going to have a full timeline of regret that we’ve seen countless times for companies that choose to compromise by using Wordpress.
So, here they are - the 5 regrets you’ll have paying for a custom Wordpress website and their corresponding timeline:
Wordpress has its purpose. It’s great for small and growing businesses to build a customized website with features that they need. While it is debatably a step above a platform like Squarespace and has a significantly lower cost when you add functionality for e-commerce versus added apps on a platform like Shopify, it has problems of its own. Hands down, though, it’s one of the top flexible solutions for small business owners for the price point, flexibility and capabilities.
When we started on as a HubSpot Partner, we made the decision to only develop on WP-Engine and HubSpot CMS. But as we continue to expand the capabilities of HubSpot for its users, we’re moving further and further away from Wordpress as a whole. For many HubSpot customers, migrating over from Wordpress to HubSpot seems daunting and cost prohibitive. While free and inexpensive HubSpot themes are available on Marketplace, they typically don’t serve the needs of a scaling business, for a number of reasons. Check out why scaling organizations need to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
Recently we completed a HubSpot CMS website development proposal using a framework that we’ve developed that drastically decreases the average price for customer development on HubSpot CMS. The proposal was competitive for HubSpot development, but still more expensive than the Wordpress proposal from the other developer, and while we won’t go back into the problem with cheap outsourced web development, we want to be very clear about the inevitable when you are marketing on the HubSpot platform as a scaling business and choose Wordpress for content management and that’s - you’re gonna regret it. It’s simply a matter of time. Not only are you going to regret it, but you’re going to have a full timeline of regret that we’ve seen countless times for companies that choose to compromise by using Wordpress.
So, here they are - the 5 regrets you’ll have paying for a custom Wordpress website and their corresponding timeline:
Wordpress has its purpose. It’s great for small and growing businesses to build a customized website with features that they need. While it is debatably a step above a platform like Squarespace and has a significantly lower cost when you add functionality for e-commerce versus added apps on a platform like Shopify, it has problems of its own. Hands down, though, it’s one of the top flexible solutions for small business owners for the price point, flexibility and capabilities.
When we started on as a HubSpot Partner, we made the decision to only develop on WP-Engine and HubSpot CMS. But as we continue to expand the capabilities of HubSpot for its users, we’re moving further and further away from Wordpress as a whole. For many HubSpot customers, migrating over from Wordpress to HubSpot seems daunting and cost prohibitive. While free and inexpensive HubSpot themes are available on Marketplace, they typically don’t serve the needs of a scaling business, for a number of reasons. Check out why scaling organizations need to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
Recently we completed a HubSpot CMS website development proposal using a framework that we’ve developed that drastically decreases the average price for customer development on HubSpot CMS. The proposal was competitive for HubSpot development, but still more expensive than the Wordpress proposal from the other developer, and while we won’t go back into the problem with cheap outsourced web development, we want to be very clear about the inevitable when you are marketing on the HubSpot platform as a scaling business and choose Wordpress for content management and that’s - you’re gonna regret it. It’s simply a matter of time. Not only are you going to regret it, but you’re going to have a full timeline of regret that we’ve seen countless times for companies that choose to compromise by using Wordpress.
So, here they are - the 5 regrets you’ll have paying for a custom Wordpress website and their corresponding timeline:
Immediately - you’ll spend more time (and money) on maintenance and security.
\n
One of the biggest brags on HubSpot CMS is that the security, maintenance and updates are included out of the box for every level of the software - so you’ll not find that an app is out of date and the security is compromised. Bugs, updates, maintenance, and all of that stuff just happens in the back end. This is huge and probably one of the biggest headaches for Wordpress users - out of date or broken plugins can take their website down, and if they’re not paying actively for maintenance, tracking down someone to help while their website is done can be difficult, time consuming and costly depending on how long your website is down.
This cost can range from $50 to a few hundred dollars every month just to keep your website up and running. So often people get caught up in the financial contract with HubSpot without factoring in their own budget for ongoing maintenance and security fixes in WordPress. Or, worse, they opt in to Wordpress because they don’t think they have to pay that monthly fee, finish their website and things persistently break, they have to field 60,000 spam comments because there was no captcha or security build around spam comments and across the board it just becomes a massive maintenance pain.
Lack of maintenance on theme and plugin updates can mean security vulnerabilities to hackers. In fact, WPScan reports that 97% of vulnerabilities inside WordPress are not because of the platform itself, but because of the add-on themes and plugins not being updated adequately.
You don’t have to worry about any of that when you sign on with HubSpot, but you pay a subscription fee for that luxury.
A monthly fee for peace of mind? Might be worth it, don’t you think?
Related: HubSpot Blog - 14 WordPress Security Issues & Vulnerabilities you Should Know About
\n
A few months in - you’ll want to add *a lot* more functionality
\n
Designing and building a website is one thing, but actually using it as a marketer? That’s something totally different. More often than not, your web developer will complete a website for you on WordPress and you’ll start working with it, only to realize that you’re missing some functionality. No big deal, Wordpress has over 60,000 apps that allow you to customize the features on your website. The only problem? They all have to be managed separately and have their own settings and some of them are paid.
Not only that, but the plugins often conflict with one another, some are poorly maintained by their developers, and they can leave large security holes in your website at large if they’re not well maintained.
Now we’re adding both cost *and* risk, but also? Weight.
6 months later… your website will be slower.
\n
Each new plugin you add to your website adds in processes and information that have to be loaded in the back end. And because WordPress defaults to querying the database numerous times on every page reload. It only takes a few heavy plugins for this to completely annihilate the user experience. And we’ve talked about this at length in our discussion of factors bogging down your website.
Website bloat is a problem with many Wordpress websites that increases with time. While a developer can manage this more proactively by installing WP Cache and optimizing what they can, largely as your needs grow you’ll either need to completely redesign your website or switch to a better framework that can more adequately handle the needs of your growing business.
8 months in… things may start to break.
\n
When you work inside HubSpot, as long as you’re able to find a really reputable developer, for the most part you can grow your website with that developer. The same person (ideally), then, Is responsible for all the updates and changes on your website and because of how the HubSpot’s CMS works, and how a reputable developer works within it, you’ll not experience broken plugins or apps, or the same kind of website bloat that you might by adding features over time to your WordPress site.
However, when you add tons of different apps and plugins inside WordPress, things may start to break. Whether its from poor maintenance by a developer that needs to be updating your website and plugins, or whether you have a plugin that isn’t being updated by the developer that created it, when you’re relying on so many different plugins for your website, it is common for these plugins to break your website and for you to experience downtime as a result.
Depending on the size of your business, the cost of website downtime can vary from a few hundred dollars to thousands, tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars in missed revenue. For businesses that do any kind of business online, even if they’re in the business to business realm, the cost of developing and paying for the HubSpot platform has long term benefits that you probably won’t notice, since your website downtime will be much more limited on HubSpot than it will with WordPress.
A year later, spam may become a full time job.
\n
Spam is a problem for many websites, but for so many businesses that use WordPress for their website content management comment and form spam is a huge issue. Even with login and captcha plugins, it can be a full time job just to moderate spam comments and manage the trash that comes into your inbox from your forms. Adding Google or WPForms or another captcha option can be helpful for form spam, but for many business owners they end up turning off comments entirely that use Wordpress.
Spam issues with forms and content are so much less bad on HubSpot CMS. Imagine how much time you could regain not deleting hundreds of spam comments on your blog every few months?
2 years in - you’ll have no website growth strategy and have to start the process all over again.
\n
One of the best parts of working with clients that host their websites with HubSpot is we adopt a continuous improvement model with them and the platform at large and framework we use as a foundation is capable of handling scale. HubSpot’s platform can easily be upgraded to enterprise level, and multiple features like Mega Menus, Resource Centers and ROI calculators can be added on without adding too much bulk to a website load time through management of tools like HubDB.
When you add on to a WordPress website over time, it’s not always capable of handling the additional load and you’ll often find yourself growing frustrated with the load speed, security issues and plugins from different developers that sometimes don’t play together perfectly. Leveraging HubSpot from the get go ensures that you can scale by utilizing a continuous growth model and build your website improvements into a predictable monthly budget that allows you to build the features you need without having to redesign your website entirely every few years.
The bottom line?
Wordpress is great for small businesses, but as your business scales, you’ll quickly outgrow it in functionality or have to redesign your website completely too often to keep it loading fast and get all the features you want. While the cost may be more upfront, you’ll have a secure foundation with HubSpot and a gifted development partner can help you scale over time using a predictable budget that suits your needs.
Can a small budget boost save you a year or two of regret being stuck on WordPress? We say yes.
Wordpress has its purpose. It’s great for small and growing businesses to build a customized website with features that they need. While it is debatably a step above a platform like Squarespace and has a significantly lower cost when you add functionality for e-commerce versus added apps on a platform like Shopify, it has problems of its own. Hands down, though, it’s one of the top flexible solutions for small business owners for the price point, flexibility and capabilities.
When we started on as a HubSpot Partner, we made the decision to only develop on WP-Engine and HubSpot CMS. But as we continue to expand the capabilities of HubSpot for its users, we’re moving further and further away from Wordpress as a whole. For many HubSpot customers, migrating over from Wordpress to HubSpot seems daunting and cost prohibitive. While free and inexpensive HubSpot themes are available on Marketplace, they typically don’t serve the needs of a scaling business, for a number of reasons. Check out why scaling organizations need to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
Recently we completed a HubSpot CMS website development proposal using a framework that we’ve developed that drastically decreases the average price for customer development on HubSpot CMS. The proposal was competitive for HubSpot development, but still more expensive than the Wordpress proposal from the other developer, and while we won’t go back into the problem with cheap outsourced web development, we want to be very clear about the inevitable when you are marketing on the HubSpot platform as a scaling business and choose Wordpress for content management and that’s - you’re gonna regret it. It’s simply a matter of time. Not only are you going to regret it, but you’re going to have a full timeline of regret that we’ve seen countless times for companies that choose to compromise by using Wordpress.
So, here they are - the 5 regrets you’ll have paying for a custom Wordpress website and their corresponding timeline:
“How can I save money on my HubSpot subscription?”
This is something that many businesses considering HubSpot for the first time or customers that have been with HubSpot for a while find themselves asking. HubSpot is one of the most robust marketing automation and process management tools on the market. There are very few pieces of software that do what HubSpot does or integrate as deeply into your business processes. All that functionality comes with a price tag.
“How can I save money on my HubSpot subscription?”
This is something that many businesses considering HubSpot for the first time or customers that have been with HubSpot for a while find themselves asking. HubSpot is one of the most robust marketing automation and process management tools on the market. There are very few pieces of software that do what HubSpot does or integrate as deeply into your business processes. All that functionality comes with a price tag.
![\"saving](\"https://6534445.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/6534445/saving%20money.jpeg\")
Because HubSpot isn’t a cheap product, many companies go directly to the source, thinking that will yield them the best price. While it can be good to go directly to HubSpot to get your HubSpot subscription or receive bundle pricing for multiple Hubs, it’s not the way to get the best value. HubSpot’s direct reps don’t have any more information than a certified HubSpot Partner. In fact, few of them are qualified to make deep consulting decisions like how your data should be configured in HubSpot and which Hubs are ideal for you based on your organization's infrastructure. And? You can’t always guarantee the best price when going direct. All HubSpot Partners have channel account managers (CAMs) whose job it is to play the middleman and make sure that we can get our clients the best deal for our customers on that monthly or annual subscription price that they pay.
It’s worthwhile to note, the most important way to save money on HubSpot isn’t on your software subscription itself - the way to save money is by purchasing the right products, leveraging all their features and optimizing what you have so that you can make the most of what you’re paying for. Maybe we’re talking value over purchase price, but ultimately - it all matters for the bottom line.
Here’s why we think you can save the most on your HubSpot subscription by working with a technical partner:
Your interests are most considered with a Technical HubSpot Partner.
\n
For any agency, but particularly a specialized technical HubSpot Partner, we want to make the most of your budget. Every dollar you save on your HubSpot subscription is another dollar you can invest in your marketing, reporting and technology strategy. For that reason, an agency has much more vested interest in making sure that you get the best deal than a HubSpot representative does - particularly because the higher the contract value, the more the HubSpot sales representative gets paid. But using a Technical Partner with an on-staff HubSpot architect stands to ensure you save the most money. How?
When HubSpot reps sell HubSpot, their biggest focus is on the number of deals and value of those deals that they can get by the end of the month or quarter. I don’t think this is anything that we need to hide at this point, as HubSpot has made it clear in how they’ve restructured partner tiers and shifted the availability to certain perks so that new account sales are HubSpot’s focus when it comes to their reps and even agency partners.
The culture that this focus on sales fosters is competitive and garners results, but isn’t always what every customer needs. There have been many times when a customer wasn’t ready to close the deal with HubSpot, but we’ve seen pressure come from direct reps to make sure that the deal is closed. Last month, for example, we received an e-mail on June 30th at 5:03pm from a HubSpot rep, asking if they should kill a deal because a prospective customer was sitting on the contract for a few days. Needless to say, it was both frustrating and shocking, and while we were able to insulate the client from the pressure of that experience, it created an awareness that the best interest of the customer isn’t the biggest priority for everyone.
Additionally, bundling Hubs that sometimes won’t be leveraged properly, or are simply not needed is another way that customers can get the perception of savings without the actual benefit. For an organization getting started on HubSpot, it can be valuable to purchase multiple hubs to fully integrate your business processes into HubSpot and get the most detailed reporting, but properly integrating those departments can take time, training, custom integration builds and a lot of patience and company wide adoption, which is not something that is easy to garner. Purchasing these bundles without first consulting a Technical HubSpot Partner and HubSpot Architect can set you up for failure, frustration and a ton of wasted money because of the perceived deal that was marketed to you without taking a deep dive into your data, processes and business structure.
You’ll get set up properly from the start and avoid costly delays.
\n
One of the biggest complaints that we get from HubSpot customers that are engaging our assistance is that they’ve been paying for HubSpot for months, but they haven’t fully completed onboarding or been set up in a way that really makes sense for their goals. This is usually a symptom of being sold too quickly before your organization has the time to break down their timelines, goals, data structure and other elements of how your business will best integrate with HubSpot. It can also be a symptom of investing in the wrong company and not paying for a comprehensive implementation versus a basic HubSpot Onboarding. (You can learn about the difference here.)
You may want to get setup on HubSpot quickly, but how quickly your onboarding is completed is less important than what is included in that onboarding. A basic HubSpot setup is nothing like a comprehensive implementation and it pays companies back tenfold to invest in a HubSpot architect. Going beyond the basics and understanding not only how HubSpot’s robust features can help your workflow, but how they can help you learn (through more customized reporting configuration) what elements of your marketing and business processes are most successful is invaluable from a cost savings perspective.
According to Userlane.com, organizations worldwide waste $1.4 Trillion annually on digital transformation projects that have no actual impact on business operations and the bottom line. The article goes on to say that, “Low digital adoption derives from lack of continuous training and performance support.”
Don’t get caught up in a quick setup and onboarding to get started quickly, take the time to hire a HubSpot Architect and Technical Partner before you even purchase HubSpot so that you can implement training across departments, get your reporting and custom objects configured properly and make sure you have the data you need to make the decisions that will help you scale in the long term. It’s part of why you’re paying for HubSpot in the first place, right?
Related: Signs your HubSpot configuration isn’t helping you scale
\n
You have a full on consultant at your disposal to help you hone in your budget.
\n
Over time in your journey with HubSpot, you’ll start to realize that where you started is not where you’ll need to end up. Purchasing HubSpot (even if you purchase multiple Hubs from the outset) and starting your journey into the analytics of marketing automation isn’t even close to the final iteration of what your marketing, sales, operations and services processes will look like over time.
Ideally, you’ll be successful in optimizing all your departments and need to scale over time. You might need to complete integrations with your accounting software or find that an external line of business project management software is no longer suited for your team as it grows. You might need ongoing technical consulting and find that you want to do more with HubSpot, but aren’t sure how to configure it.
By partnering with a technical partner that has your best interests in mind from the start, you make sure that you’re setup properly so that when it comes time to work together on scaling, integrations, and big picture business decisions, your foundation is solid and your HubSpot Architect and Technical Partner can act in a more informed way.
Think of partnering with a Technical Partner from the start like an extension of your company. We’re a full on technology department that isn’t just there for fire drills and one-time projects, but the long haul. The fact that we’ll already have a deep understanding of your data management and processes only means that we can make faster, more informed decisions on your behalf when it comes time for your organization to scale.
Working with a technical partner long term means that you save money on the front end with HubSpot, ensure that you have the right Hubs to get started with and configure everything properly the first time. It means that you have the ability to regularly consult with and grow with a partner that has laid your foundation and really understands your everyday challenges and goals. It means that you’ll be set up on HubSpot properly and not pay for months of your subscription license totally unused because you’re not configured properly. It means that you’ll have better adoption across all departments because you’ve paid someone to give you the expertise, training and support that you need.
Saving money on your HubSpot subscription matters, but you’ll save exponentially more when you engage a HubSpot Architect and Technical Partner to work in tandem towards your goals.
“How can I save money on my HubSpot subscription?”
This is something that many businesses considering HubSpot for the first time or customers that have been with HubSpot for a while find themselves asking. HubSpot is one of the most robust marketing automation and process management tools on the market. There are very few pieces of software that do what HubSpot does or integrate as deeply into your business processes. All that functionality comes with a price tag.
“How can I save money on my HubSpot subscription?”
This is something that many businesses considering HubSpot for the first time or customers that have been with HubSpot for a while find themselves asking. HubSpot is one of the most robust marketing automation and process management tools on the market. There are very few pieces of software that do what HubSpot does or integrate as deeply into your business processes. All that functionality comes with a price tag.
Because HubSpot isn’t a cheap product, many companies go directly to the source, thinking that will yield them the best price. While it can be good to go directly to HubSpot to get your HubSpot subscription or receive bundle pricing for multiple Hubs, it’s not the way to get the best value. HubSpot’s direct reps don’t have any more information than a certified HubSpot Partner. In fact, few of them are qualified to make deep consulting decisions like how your data should be configured in HubSpot and which Hubs are ideal for you based on your organization's infrastructure. And? You can’t always guarantee the best price when going direct. All HubSpot Partners have channel account managers (CAMs) whose job it is to play the middleman and make sure that we can get our clients the best deal for our customers on that monthly or annual subscription price that they pay.
It’s worthwhile to note, the most important way to save money on HubSpot isn’t on your software subscription itself - the way to save money is by purchasing the right products, leveraging all their features and optimizing what you have so that you can make the most of what you’re paying for. Maybe we’re talking value over purchase price, but ultimately - it all matters for the bottom line.
Here’s why we think you can save the most on your HubSpot subscription by working with a technical partner:
Your interests are most considered with a Technical HubSpot Partner.
\n
For any agency, but particularly a specialized technical HubSpot Partner, we want to make the most of your budget. Every dollar you save on your HubSpot subscription is another dollar you can invest in your marketing, reporting and technology strategy. For that reason, an agency has much more vested interest in making sure that you get the best deal than a HubSpot representative does - particularly because the higher the contract value, the more the HubSpot sales representative gets paid. But using a Technical Partner with an on-staff HubSpot architect stands to ensure you save the most money. How?
When HubSpot reps sell HubSpot, their biggest focus is on the number of deals and value of those deals that they can get by the end of the month or quarter. I don’t think this is anything that we need to hide at this point, as HubSpot has made it clear in how they’ve restructured partner tiers and shifted the availability to certain perks so that new account sales are HubSpot’s focus when it comes to their reps and even agency partners.
The culture that this focus on sales fosters is competitive and garners results, but isn’t always what every customer needs. There have been many times when a customer wasn’t ready to close the deal with HubSpot, but we’ve seen pressure come from direct reps to make sure that the deal is closed. Last month, for example, we received an e-mail on June 30th at 5:03pm from a HubSpot rep, asking if they should kill a deal because a prospective customer was sitting on the contract for a few days. Needless to say, it was both frustrating and shocking, and while we were able to insulate the client from the pressure of that experience, it created an awareness that the best interest of the customer isn’t the biggest priority for everyone.
Additionally, bundling Hubs that sometimes won’t be leveraged properly, or are simply not needed is another way that customers can get the perception of savings without the actual benefit. For an organization getting started on HubSpot, it can be valuable to purchase multiple hubs to fully integrate your business processes into HubSpot and get the most detailed reporting, but properly integrating those departments can take time, training, custom integration builds and a lot of patience and company wide adoption, which is not something that is easy to garner. Purchasing these bundles without first consulting a Technical HubSpot Partner and HubSpot Architect can set you up for failure, frustration and a ton of wasted money because of the perceived deal that was marketed to you without taking a deep dive into your data, processes and business structure.
You’ll get set up properly from the start and avoid costly delays.
\n
One of the biggest complaints that we get from HubSpot customers that are engaging our assistance is that they’ve been paying for HubSpot for months, but they haven’t fully completed onboarding or been set up in a way that really makes sense for their goals. This is usually a symptom of being sold too quickly before your organization has the time to break down their timelines, goals, data structure and other elements of how your business will best integrate with HubSpot. It can also be a symptom of investing in the wrong company and not paying for a comprehensive implementation versus a basic HubSpot Onboarding. (You can learn about the difference here.)
You may want to get setup on HubSpot quickly, but how quickly your onboarding is completed is less important than what is included in that onboarding. A basic HubSpot setup is nothing like a comprehensive implementation and it pays companies back tenfold to invest in a HubSpot architect. Going beyond the basics and understanding not only how HubSpot’s robust features can help your workflow, but how they can help you learn (through more customized reporting configuration) what elements of your marketing and business processes are most successful is invaluable from a cost savings perspective.
According to Userlane.com, organizations worldwide waste $1.4 Trillion annually on digital transformation projects that have no actual impact on business operations and the bottom line. The article goes on to say that, “Low digital adoption derives from lack of continuous training and performance support.”
Don’t get caught up in a quick setup and onboarding to get started quickly, take the time to hire a HubSpot Architect and Technical Partner before you even purchase HubSpot so that you can implement training across departments, get your reporting and custom objects configured properly and make sure you have the data you need to make the decisions that will help you scale in the long term. It’s part of why you’re paying for HubSpot in the first place, right?
Related: Signs your HubSpot configuration isn’t helping you scale
\n
You have a full on consultant at your disposal to help you hone in your budget.
\n
Over time in your journey with HubSpot, you’ll start to realize that where you started is not where you’ll need to end up. Purchasing HubSpot (even if you purchase multiple Hubs from the outset) and starting your journey into the analytics of marketing automation isn’t even close to the final iteration of what your marketing, sales, operations and services processes will look like over time.
Ideally, you’ll be successful in optimizing all your departments and need to scale over time. You might need to complete integrations with your accounting software or find that an external line of business project management software is no longer suited for your team as it grows. You might need ongoing technical consulting and find that you want to do more with HubSpot, but aren’t sure how to configure it.
By partnering with a technical partner that has your best interests in mind from the start, you make sure that you’re setup properly so that when it comes time to work together on scaling, integrations, and big picture business decisions, your foundation is solid and your HubSpot Architect and Technical Partner can act in a more informed way.
Think of partnering with a Technical Partner from the start like an extension of your company. We’re a full on technology department that isn’t just there for fire drills and one-time projects, but the long haul. The fact that we’ll already have a deep understanding of your data management and processes only means that we can make faster, more informed decisions on your behalf when it comes time for your organization to scale.
Working with a technical partner long term means that you save money on the front end with HubSpot, ensure that you have the right Hubs to get started with and configure everything properly the first time. It means that you have the ability to regularly consult with and grow with a partner that has laid your foundation and really understands your everyday challenges and goals. It means that you’ll be set up on HubSpot properly and not pay for months of your subscription license totally unused because you’re not configured properly. It means that you’ll have better adoption across all departments because you’ve paid someone to give you the expertise, training and support that you need.
Saving money on your HubSpot subscription matters, but you’ll save exponentially more when you engage a HubSpot Architect and Technical Partner to work in tandem towards your goals.
“How can I save money on my HubSpot subscription?”
This is something that many businesses considering HubSpot for the first time or customers that have been with HubSpot for a while find themselves asking. HubSpot is one of the most robust marketing automation and process management tools on the market. There are very few pieces of software that do what HubSpot does or integrate as deeply into your business processes. All that functionality comes with a price tag.
Because HubSpot isn’t a cheap product, many companies go directly to the source, thinking that will yield them the best price. While it can be good to go directly to HubSpot to get your HubSpot subscription or receive bundle pricing for multiple Hubs, it’s not the way to get the best value. HubSpot’s direct reps don’t have any more information than a certified HubSpot Partner. In fact, few of them are qualified to make deep consulting decisions like how your data should be configured in HubSpot and which Hubs are ideal for you based on your organization's infrastructure. And? You can’t always guarantee the best price when going direct. All HubSpot Partners have channel account managers (CAMs) whose job it is to play the middleman and make sure that we can get our clients the best deal for our customers on that monthly or annual subscription price that they pay.
It’s worthwhile to note, the most important way to save money on HubSpot isn’t on your software subscription itself - the way to save money is by purchasing the right products, leveraging all their features and optimizing what you have so that you can make the most of what you’re paying for. Maybe we’re talking value over purchase price, but ultimately - it all matters for the bottom line.
Here’s why we think you can save the most on your HubSpot subscription by working with a technical partner:
Your interests are most considered with a Technical HubSpot Partner.
\n
For any agency, but particularly a specialized technical HubSpot Partner, we want to make the most of your budget. Every dollar you save on your HubSpot subscription is another dollar you can invest in your marketing, reporting and technology strategy. For that reason, an agency has much more vested interest in making sure that you get the best deal than a HubSpot representative does - particularly because the higher the contract value, the more the HubSpot sales representative gets paid. But using a Technical Partner with an on-staff HubSpot architect stands to ensure you save the most money. How?
When HubSpot reps sell HubSpot, their biggest focus is on the number of deals and value of those deals that they can get by the end of the month or quarter. I don’t think this is anything that we need to hide at this point, as HubSpot has made it clear in how they’ve restructured partner tiers and shifted the availability to certain perks so that new account sales are HubSpot’s focus when it comes to their reps and even agency partners.
The culture that this focus on sales fosters is competitive and garners results, but isn’t always what every customer needs. There have been many times when a customer wasn’t ready to close the deal with HubSpot, but we’ve seen pressure come from direct reps to make sure that the deal is closed. Last month, for example, we received an e-mail on June 30th at 5:03pm from a HubSpot rep, asking if they should kill a deal because a prospective customer was sitting on the contract for a few days. Needless to say, it was both frustrating and shocking, and while we were able to insulate the client from the pressure of that experience, it created an awareness that the best interest of the customer isn’t the biggest priority for everyone.
Additionally, bundling Hubs that sometimes won’t be leveraged properly, or are simply not needed is another way that customers can get the perception of savings without the actual benefit. For an organization getting started on HubSpot, it can be valuable to purchase multiple hubs to fully integrate your business processes into HubSpot and get the most detailed reporting, but properly integrating those departments can take time, training, custom integration builds and a lot of patience and company wide adoption, which is not something that is easy to garner. Purchasing these bundles without first consulting a Technical HubSpot Partner and HubSpot Architect can set you up for failure, frustration and a ton of wasted money because of the perceived deal that was marketed to you without taking a deep dive into your data, processes and business structure.
You’ll get set up properly from the start and avoid costly delays.
\n
One of the biggest complaints that we get from HubSpot customers that are engaging our assistance is that they’ve been paying for HubSpot for months, but they haven’t fully completed onboarding or been set up in a way that really makes sense for their goals. This is usually a symptom of being sold too quickly before your organization has the time to break down their timelines, goals, data structure and other elements of how your business will best integrate with HubSpot. It can also be a symptom of investing in the wrong company and not paying for a comprehensive implementation versus a basic HubSpot Onboarding. (You can learn about the difference here.)
You may want to get setup on HubSpot quickly, but how quickly your onboarding is completed is less important than what is included in that onboarding. A basic HubSpot setup is nothing like a comprehensive implementation and it pays companies back tenfold to invest in a HubSpot architect. Going beyond the basics and understanding not only how HubSpot’s robust features can help your workflow, but how they can help you learn (through more customized reporting configuration) what elements of your marketing and business processes are most successful is invaluable from a cost savings perspective.
According to Userlane.com, organizations worldwide waste $1.4 Trillion annually on digital transformation projects that have no actual impact on business operations and the bottom line. The article goes on to say that, “Low digital adoption derives from lack of continuous training and performance support.”
Don’t get caught up in a quick setup and onboarding to get started quickly, take the time to hire a HubSpot Architect and Technical Partner before you even purchase HubSpot so that you can implement training across departments, get your reporting and custom objects configured properly and make sure you have the data you need to make the decisions that will help you scale in the long term. It’s part of why you’re paying for HubSpot in the first place, right?
Related: Signs your HubSpot configuration isn’t helping you scale
\n
You have a full on consultant at your disposal to help you hone in your budget.
\n
Over time in your journey with HubSpot, you’ll start to realize that where you started is not where you’ll need to end up. Purchasing HubSpot (even if you purchase multiple Hubs from the outset) and starting your journey into the analytics of marketing automation isn’t even close to the final iteration of what your marketing, sales, operations and services processes will look like over time.
Ideally, you’ll be successful in optimizing all your departments and need to scale over time. You might need to complete integrations with your accounting software or find that an external line of business project management software is no longer suited for your team as it grows. You might need ongoing technical consulting and find that you want to do more with HubSpot, but aren’t sure how to configure it.
By partnering with a technical partner that has your best interests in mind from the start, you make sure that you’re setup properly so that when it comes time to work together on scaling, integrations, and big picture business decisions, your foundation is solid and your HubSpot Architect and Technical Partner can act in a more informed way.
Think of partnering with a Technical Partner from the start like an extension of your company. We’re a full on technology department that isn’t just there for fire drills and one-time projects, but the long haul. The fact that we’ll already have a deep understanding of your data management and processes only means that we can make faster, more informed decisions on your behalf when it comes time for your organization to scale.
Working with a technical partner long term means that you save money on the front end with HubSpot, ensure that you have the right Hubs to get started with and configure everything properly the first time. It means that you have the ability to regularly consult with and grow with a partner that has laid your foundation and really understands your everyday challenges and goals. It means that you’ll be set up on HubSpot properly and not pay for months of your subscription license totally unused because you’re not configured properly. It means that you’ll have better adoption across all departments because you’ve paid someone to give you the expertise, training and support that you need.
Saving money on your HubSpot subscription matters, but you’ll save exponentially more when you engage a HubSpot Architect and Technical Partner to work in tandem towards your goals.
“How can I save money on my HubSpot subscription?”
This is something that many businesses considering HubSpot for the first time or customers that have been with HubSpot for a while find themselves asking. HubSpot is one of the most robust marketing automation and process management tools on the market. There are very few pieces of software that do what HubSpot does or integrate as deeply into your business processes. All that functionality comes with a price tag.
Because HubSpot isn’t a cheap product, many companies go directly to the source, thinking that will yield them the best price. While it can be good to go directly to HubSpot to get your HubSpot subscription or receive bundle pricing for multiple Hubs, it’s not the way to get the best value. HubSpot’s direct reps don’t have any more information than a certified HubSpot Partner. In fact, few of them are qualified to make deep consulting decisions like how your data should be configured in HubSpot and which Hubs are ideal for you based on your organization's infrastructure. And? You can’t always guarantee the best price when going direct. All HubSpot Partners have channel account managers (CAMs) whose job it is to play the middleman and make sure that we can get our clients the best deal for our customers on that monthly or annual subscription price that they pay.
It’s worthwhile to note, the most important way to save money on HubSpot isn’t on your software subscription itself - the way to save money is by purchasing the right products, leveraging all their features and optimizing what you have so that you can make the most of what you’re paying for. Maybe we’re talking value over purchase price, but ultimately - it all matters for the bottom line.
Here’s why we think you can save the most on your HubSpot subscription by working with a technical partner:
Your interests are most considered with a Technical HubSpot Partner.
\n
For any agency, but particularly a specialized technical HubSpot Partner, we want to make the most of your budget. Every dollar you save on your HubSpot subscription is another dollar you can invest in your marketing, reporting and technology strategy. For that reason, an agency has much more vested interest in making sure that you get the best deal than a HubSpot representative does - particularly because the higher the contract value, the more the HubSpot sales representative gets paid. But using a Technical Partner with an on-staff HubSpot architect stands to ensure you save the most money. How?
When HubSpot reps sell HubSpot, their biggest focus is on the number of deals and value of those deals that they can get by the end of the month or quarter. I don’t think this is anything that we need to hide at this point, as HubSpot has made it clear in how they’ve restructured partner tiers and shifted the availability to certain perks so that new account sales are HubSpot’s focus when it comes to their reps and even agency partners.
The culture that this focus on sales fosters is competitive and garners results, but isn’t always what every customer needs. There have been many times when a customer wasn’t ready to close the deal with HubSpot, but we’ve seen pressure come from direct reps to make sure that the deal is closed. Last month, for example, we received an e-mail on June 30th at 5:03pm from a HubSpot rep, asking if they should kill a deal because a prospective customer was sitting on the contract for a few days. Needless to say, it was both frustrating and shocking, and while we were able to insulate the client from the pressure of that experience, it created an awareness that the best interest of the customer isn’t the biggest priority for everyone.
Additionally, bundling Hubs that sometimes won’t be leveraged properly, or are simply not needed is another way that customers can get the perception of savings without the actual benefit. For an organization getting started on HubSpot, it can be valuable to purchase multiple hubs to fully integrate your business processes into HubSpot and get the most detailed reporting, but properly integrating those departments can take time, training, custom integration builds and a lot of patience and company wide adoption, which is not something that is easy to garner. Purchasing these bundles without first consulting a Technical HubSpot Partner and HubSpot Architect can set you up for failure, frustration and a ton of wasted money because of the perceived deal that was marketed to you without taking a deep dive into your data, processes and business structure.
You’ll get set up properly from the start and avoid costly delays.
\n
One of the biggest complaints that we get from HubSpot customers that are engaging our assistance is that they’ve been paying for HubSpot for months, but they haven’t fully completed onboarding or been set up in a way that really makes sense for their goals. This is usually a symptom of being sold too quickly before your organization has the time to break down their timelines, goals, data structure and other elements of how your business will best integrate with HubSpot. It can also be a symptom of investing in the wrong company and not paying for a comprehensive implementation versus a basic HubSpot Onboarding. (You can learn about the difference here.)
You may want to get setup on HubSpot quickly, but how quickly your onboarding is completed is less important than what is included in that onboarding. A basic HubSpot setup is nothing like a comprehensive implementation and it pays companies back tenfold to invest in a HubSpot architect. Going beyond the basics and understanding not only how HubSpot’s robust features can help your workflow, but how they can help you learn (through more customized reporting configuration) what elements of your marketing and business processes are most successful is invaluable from a cost savings perspective.
According to Userlane.com, organizations worldwide waste $1.4 Trillion annually on digital transformation projects that have no actual impact on business operations and the bottom line. The article goes on to say that, “Low digital adoption derives from lack of continuous training and performance support.”
Don’t get caught up in a quick setup and onboarding to get started quickly, take the time to hire a HubSpot Architect and Technical Partner before you even purchase HubSpot so that you can implement training across departments, get your reporting and custom objects configured properly and make sure you have the data you need to make the decisions that will help you scale in the long term. It’s part of why you’re paying for HubSpot in the first place, right?
Related: Signs your HubSpot configuration isn’t helping you scale
\n
You have a full on consultant at your disposal to help you hone in your budget.
\n
Over time in your journey with HubSpot, you’ll start to realize that where you started is not where you’ll need to end up. Purchasing HubSpot (even if you purchase multiple Hubs from the outset) and starting your journey into the analytics of marketing automation isn’t even close to the final iteration of what your marketing, sales, operations and services processes will look like over time.
Ideally, you’ll be successful in optimizing all your departments and need to scale over time. You might need to complete integrations with your accounting software or find that an external line of business project management software is no longer suited for your team as it grows. You might need ongoing technical consulting and find that you want to do more with HubSpot, but aren’t sure how to configure it.
By partnering with a technical partner that has your best interests in mind from the start, you make sure that you’re setup properly so that when it comes time to work together on scaling, integrations, and big picture business decisions, your foundation is solid and your HubSpot Architect and Technical Partner can act in a more informed way.
Think of partnering with a Technical Partner from the start like an extension of your company. We’re a full on technology department that isn’t just there for fire drills and one-time projects, but the long haul. The fact that we’ll already have a deep understanding of your data management and processes only means that we can make faster, more informed decisions on your behalf when it comes time for your organization to scale.
Working with a technical partner long term means that you save money on the front end with HubSpot, ensure that you have the right Hubs to get started with and configure everything properly the first time. It means that you have the ability to regularly consult with and grow with a partner that has laid your foundation and really understands your everyday challenges and goals. It means that you’ll be set up on HubSpot properly and not pay for months of your subscription license totally unused because you’re not configured properly. It means that you’ll have better adoption across all departments because you’ve paid someone to give you the expertise, training and support that you need.
Saving money on your HubSpot subscription matters, but you’ll save exponentially more when you engage a HubSpot Architect and Technical Partner to work in tandem towards your goals.
“How can I save money on my HubSpot subscription?”
This is something that many businesses considering HubSpot for the first time or customers that have been with HubSpot for a while find themselves asking. HubSpot is one of the most robust marketing automation and process management tools on the market. There are very few pieces of software that do what HubSpot does or integrate as deeply into your business processes. All that functionality comes with a price tag.
“How can I save money on my HubSpot subscription?”
This is something that many businesses considering HubSpot for the first time or customers that have been with HubSpot for a while find themselves asking. HubSpot is one of the most robust marketing automation and process management tools on the market. There are very few pieces of software that do what HubSpot does or integrate as deeply into your business processes. All that functionality comes with a price tag.
“How can I save money on my HubSpot subscription?”
This is something that many businesses considering HubSpot for the first time or customers that have been with HubSpot for a while find themselves asking. HubSpot is one of the most robust marketing automation and process management tools on the market. There are very few pieces of software that do what HubSpot does or integrate as deeply into your business processes. All that functionality comes with a price tag.
“How can I save money on my HubSpot subscription?”
This is something that many businesses considering HubSpot for the first time or customers that have been with HubSpot for a while find themselves asking. HubSpot is one of the most robust marketing automation and process management tools on the market. There are very few pieces of software that do what HubSpot does or integrate as deeply into your business processes. All that functionality comes with a price tag.
“How can I save money on my HubSpot subscription?”
This is something that many businesses considering HubSpot for the first time or customers that have been with HubSpot for a while find themselves asking. HubSpot is one of the most robust marketing automation and process management tools on the market. There are very few pieces of software that do what HubSpot does or integrate as deeply into your business processes. All that functionality comes with a price tag.
“How can I save money on my HubSpot subscription?”
This is something that many businesses considering HubSpot for the first time or customers that have been with HubSpot for a while find themselves asking. HubSpot is one of the most robust marketing automation and process management tools on the market. There are very few pieces of software that do what HubSpot does or integrate as deeply into your business processes. All that functionality comes with a price tag.
Because HubSpot isn’t a cheap product, many companies go directly to the source, thinking that will yield them the best price. While it can be good to go directly to HubSpot to get your HubSpot subscription or receive bundle pricing for multiple Hubs, it’s not the way to get the best value. HubSpot’s direct reps don’t have any more information than a certified HubSpot Partner. In fact, few of them are qualified to make deep consulting decisions like how your data should be configured in HubSpot and which Hubs are ideal for you based on your organization's infrastructure. And? You can’t always guarantee the best price when going direct. All HubSpot Partners have channel account managers (CAMs) whose job it is to play the middleman and make sure that we can get our clients the best deal for our customers on that monthly or annual subscription price that they pay.
It’s worthwhile to note, the most important way to save money on HubSpot isn’t on your software subscription itself - the way to save money is by purchasing the right products, leveraging all their features and optimizing what you have so that you can make the most of what you’re paying for. Maybe we’re talking value over purchase price, but ultimately - it all matters for the bottom line.
Here’s why we think you can save the most on your HubSpot subscription by working with a technical partner:
Your interests are most considered with a Technical HubSpot Partner.
\n
For any agency, but particularly a specialized technical HubSpot Partner, we want to make the most of your budget. Every dollar you save on your HubSpot subscription is another dollar you can invest in your marketing, reporting and technology strategy. For that reason, an agency has much more vested interest in making sure that you get the best deal than a HubSpot representative does - particularly because the higher the contract value, the more the HubSpot sales representative gets paid. But using a Technical Partner with an on-staff HubSpot architect stands to ensure you save the most money. How?
When HubSpot reps sell HubSpot, their biggest focus is on the number of deals and value of those deals that they can get by the end of the month or quarter. I don’t think this is anything that we need to hide at this point, as HubSpot has made it clear in how they’ve restructured partner tiers and shifted the availability to certain perks so that new account sales are HubSpot’s focus when it comes to their reps and even agency partners.
The culture that this focus on sales fosters is competitive and garners results, but isn’t always what every customer needs. There have been many times when a customer wasn’t ready to close the deal with HubSpot, but we’ve seen pressure come from direct reps to make sure that the deal is closed. Last month, for example, we received an e-mail on June 30th at 5:03pm from a HubSpot rep, asking if they should kill a deal because a prospective customer was sitting on the contract for a few days. Needless to say, it was both frustrating and shocking, and while we were able to insulate the client from the pressure of that experience, it created an awareness that the best interest of the customer isn’t the biggest priority for everyone.
Additionally, bundling Hubs that sometimes won’t be leveraged properly, or are simply not needed is another way that customers can get the perception of savings without the actual benefit. For an organization getting started on HubSpot, it can be valuable to purchase multiple hubs to fully integrate your business processes into HubSpot and get the most detailed reporting, but properly integrating those departments can take time, training, custom integration builds and a lot of patience and company wide adoption, which is not something that is easy to garner. Purchasing these bundles without first consulting a Technical HubSpot Partner and HubSpot Architect can set you up for failure, frustration and a ton of wasted money because of the perceived deal that was marketed to you without taking a deep dive into your data, processes and business structure.
You’ll get set up properly from the start and avoid costly delays.
\n
One of the biggest complaints that we get from HubSpot customers that are engaging our assistance is that they’ve been paying for HubSpot for months, but they haven’t fully completed onboarding or been set up in a way that really makes sense for their goals. This is usually a symptom of being sold too quickly before your organization has the time to break down their timelines, goals, data structure and other elements of how your business will best integrate with HubSpot. It can also be a symptom of investing in the wrong company and not paying for a comprehensive implementation versus a basic HubSpot Onboarding. (You can learn about the difference here.)
You may want to get setup on HubSpot quickly, but how quickly your onboarding is completed is less important than what is included in that onboarding. A basic HubSpot setup is nothing like a comprehensive implementation and it pays companies back tenfold to invest in a HubSpot architect. Going beyond the basics and understanding not only how HubSpot’s robust features can help your workflow, but how they can help you learn (through more customized reporting configuration) what elements of your marketing and business processes are most successful is invaluable from a cost savings perspective.
According to Userlane.com, organizations worldwide waste $1.4 Trillion annually on digital transformation projects that have no actual impact on business operations and the bottom line. The article goes on to say that, “Low digital adoption derives from lack of continuous training and performance support.”
Don’t get caught up in a quick setup and onboarding to get started quickly, take the time to hire a HubSpot Architect and Technical Partner before you even purchase HubSpot so that you can implement training across departments, get your reporting and custom objects configured properly and make sure you have the data you need to make the decisions that will help you scale in the long term. It’s part of why you’re paying for HubSpot in the first place, right?
Related: Signs your HubSpot configuration isn’t helping you scale
\n
You have a full on consultant at your disposal to help you hone in your budget.
\n
Over time in your journey with HubSpot, you’ll start to realize that where you started is not where you’ll need to end up. Purchasing HubSpot (even if you purchase multiple Hubs from the outset) and starting your journey into the analytics of marketing automation isn’t even close to the final iteration of what your marketing, sales, operations and services processes will look like over time.
Ideally, you’ll be successful in optimizing all your departments and need to scale over time. You might need to complete integrations with your accounting software or find that an external line of business project management software is no longer suited for your team as it grows. You might need ongoing technical consulting and find that you want to do more with HubSpot, but aren’t sure how to configure it.
By partnering with a technical partner that has your best interests in mind from the start, you make sure that you’re setup properly so that when it comes time to work together on scaling, integrations, and big picture business decisions, your foundation is solid and your HubSpot Architect and Technical Partner can act in a more informed way.
Think of partnering with a Technical Partner from the start like an extension of your company. We’re a full on technology department that isn’t just there for fire drills and one-time projects, but the long haul. The fact that we’ll already have a deep understanding of your data management and processes only means that we can make faster, more informed decisions on your behalf when it comes time for your organization to scale.
Working with a technical partner long term means that you save money on the front end with HubSpot, ensure that you have the right Hubs to get started with and configure everything properly the first time. It means that you have the ability to regularly consult with and grow with a partner that has laid your foundation and really understands your everyday challenges and goals. It means that you’ll be set up on HubSpot properly and not pay for months of your subscription license totally unused because you’re not configured properly. It means that you’ll have better adoption across all departments because you’ve paid someone to give you the expertise, training and support that you need.
Saving money on your HubSpot subscription matters, but you’ll save exponentially more when you engage a HubSpot Architect and Technical Partner to work in tandem towards your goals.
“How can I save money on my HubSpot subscription?”
This is something that many businesses considering HubSpot for the first time or customers that have been with HubSpot for a while find themselves asking. HubSpot is one of the most robust marketing automation and process management tools on the market. There are very few pieces of software that do what HubSpot does or integrate as deeply into your business processes. All that functionality comes with a price tag.
Like so many other things that we write about, this one might rub some people the wrong way, but sometimes these discussions are warranted.
::deep breath:: Soooo, here we go:
We want scaling organizations to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
Like so many other things that we write about, this one might rub some people the wrong way, but sometimes these discussions are warranted.
::deep breath:: Soooo, here we go:
We want scaling organizations to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
![](\"https://6534445.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/6534445/NO!%20GOD%20PLEASE%20NO!!-jpg.jpeg\")
At the end of a long negotiation for HubSpot software, all any business wants to do is get migrated over to HubSpot’s marketing and automation tools as quickly as possible, especially if they’re paying for CMS Hub.
Many HubSpot reps and even some creative agencies send clients that have smaller budgets (or who have spent most of their budgets on their HubSpot contract) to the HubSpot Marketplace to browse new themes for their blog or website pitching it as a quick and easy way to get started. While for some businesses the HubSpot theme marketplace is a great way to save money with a boxed solution that can seemingly be implemented fairly easily; in reality, it’s not always a one-size-fits-all solution. Each business is unique.
For scaling organizations, they may run into issues with the HubSpot Marketplace themes that they purchase as they grow. While HubSpot template themes are a great way for the average small business to get onto HubSpot CMS and we never want to discourage a small business away from HubSpot, for scaling businesses HubSpot Marketplace themes may not be the way to go.
As an organization grows in its journey with Hubspot and on HubSpot CMS, they often come to us looking to have us modify or fix their theme. We’ve seen many different types of issues with HubSpot marketplace templates - issues with how their logo appears, formatting issues, implementation, page speed and optimization issues - you name it, we’ve encountered a frustrated business that thought they could just buy a plug and play theme and didn’t quite get what they wanted.
Here are a few reasons that we think you should think twice as a growing organization before you buy a HubSpot marketplace theme, how to approach it if you are a business that does have to purchase a boxed template HubSpot theme, and a suggestion that we think might give you the best compromise between a totally custom website overhaul and a boxed theme that may not suit your needs.
Looks aren’t everything.
\n
HubSpot has a really amazing, thorough process for ensuring that only quality HubSpot templates are submitted on their marketplace. They require thorough documentation, screenshots, live proof of concept and support. In theory, this is a great way to provide accessible websites that work on HubSpot CMS. In reality, these themes are sometimes coded in a way that doesn’t suit your growing business as you scale or needs to be customized, integrated and better organized to suit your marketing content and the unique journey of your buyer.
Related: Website Quality Assurance - Why you need QA in HubSpot CMS Development
\nAny number of things could be hidden behind a HubSpot theme that you purchase, including: poor back end user interface, a lagging, slow website and sometimes? A really dissatisfied customer whose HubSpot launch is now delayed until they can find someone to fix their theme, often for more than they originally paid. It’s not always a hard time, but even just small fixes can sometimes be cumbersome for a new developer to implement if the foundation isn’t set up the right way.
Looks matter, but what’s the use in having a theme that looks pretty in demo, but isn’t actually functioning for your needs?
Usability first.
\n
“We’ll get by with a template for now, then we’ll develop a custom site later on.”
Initial HubSpot contract layouts can leave a business’ marketing or development budget depleted. In so many cases, organizations are compromising on their development - but at what expense? A clunky interface that isn’t intuitive can impact an employee’s productivity and overall happiness.
A poor back end user interface means that your employees simply cannot operate efficiently. And when they can’t post content efficiently or are constantly running into roadblocks in their everyday tasks, it can be wearing on them and a huge time suck. According to The CFO, an online business publication, inefficient processes waste nearly a third of employees time. And with job unhappiness at an all time high as of August 2022, according to CNBC, companies should be doing everything they can to make sure their employees are productive, happy and able to effectively get the job done.
Why? Happy workers are 13% more productive, according to Oxford University.
When you’re considering your HubSpot budget, you need to consider not only which Hubs you’ll need, how to secure them at the best value, but how you can situate your company to be most successful inside HubSpot by choosing a framework or theme that truly suits your needs.
You have little ability to customize.
\n
Hindsight is 20/20, isn’t it? The top complaint we receive when we get clients that are already working inside HubSpot is — I wish I would’ve known. They wish they would’ve looked closer at their data needs, they wish they would’ve bought the right tiers from the outset, they wish they wouldn’t have wasted money with an inexperienced, order-taker developer and they wish they would’ve gotten set up the right way from the start.
Related: Why an experienced HubSpot CMS developer? Your website isn’t a sub sandwich.
\n
The HubSpot Marketplace Themes, whether they’re free or paid, lock you into either using that development agency for your improvements or will eventually require you to pay someone that is going to take longer to accomplish your goals, because they’re working in someone else’s code foundation. In the world of HubSpot Development, there are many ways to build the same framework, and because there’s a lacking centralized knowledge base for HubSpot developers right now (we hope that’s not always the case), it’s a bit Wild West out there sometimes.
Trying to customize an existing template can break functionality and will usually require a bit of an investment for another HubSpot CMS developer to familiarize themselves with how everything has been set up and go poking around before they make your improvements.
Ideally, you’ll vet the company offering the template from the start, question them about their expertise and make sure they’re a fit to work with long term and use your theme as a framework to build on. Just make sure that your framework actually has a stable foundation and can accommodate your needs as you grow.
Related: 7 HubSpot CMS Developer Interview Questions to Ask - Part 1
\n
If you already purchased a HubSpot Marketplace Theme, there’s no need to go out and spend thousands on a new website (yet). But as you grow, you may find that it’s not working as well for you. Odds are good that you can work with the company that developed the theme to customize it to suit your needs. Even if not, there are always ways to work around the infrastructure that you have while you make plans to redesign your site and build a new custom HubSpot framework that will better suit your needs.
What’s most important is finding the right development and technical partner. One that will look at your processes from front to back and really dig into what your needs are and how your HubSpot framework, your data architecture and the processes you’ve put in place will work for your organization in the long term. Ideally, that partner will grow with you in a long term relationship as you scale and continue to improve your marketing and brand over time.
Most often, what we find is that customized design inside a tried and true framework built with the bones you need to grow is the best solution for a business starting out on HubSpot CMS that isn’t quite ready to go all in on a custom build.
\n
Like so many other things that we write about, this one might rub some people the wrong way, but sometimes these discussions are warranted.
::deep breath:: Soooo, here we go:
We want scaling organizations to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
Like so many other things that we write about, this one might rub some people the wrong way, but sometimes these discussions are warranted.
::deep breath:: Soooo, here we go:
We want scaling organizations to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
At the end of a long negotiation for HubSpot software, all any business wants to do is get migrated over to HubSpot’s marketing and automation tools as quickly as possible, especially if they’re paying for CMS Hub.
Many HubSpot reps and even some creative agencies send clients that have smaller budgets (or who have spent most of their budgets on their HubSpot contract) to the HubSpot Marketplace to browse new themes for their blog or website pitching it as a quick and easy way to get started. While for some businesses the HubSpot theme marketplace is a great way to save money with a boxed solution that can seemingly be implemented fairly easily; in reality, it’s not always a one-size-fits-all solution. Each business is unique.
For scaling organizations, they may run into issues with the HubSpot Marketplace themes that they purchase as they grow. While HubSpot template themes are a great way for the average small business to get onto HubSpot CMS and we never want to discourage a small business away from HubSpot, for scaling businesses HubSpot Marketplace themes may not be the way to go.
As an organization grows in its journey with Hubspot and on HubSpot CMS, they often come to us looking to have us modify or fix their theme. We’ve seen many different types of issues with HubSpot marketplace templates - issues with how their logo appears, formatting issues, implementation, page speed and optimization issues - you name it, we’ve encountered a frustrated business that thought they could just buy a plug and play theme and didn’t quite get what they wanted.
Here are a few reasons that we think you should think twice as a growing organization before you buy a HubSpot marketplace theme, how to approach it if you are a business that does have to purchase a boxed template HubSpot theme, and a suggestion that we think might give you the best compromise between a totally custom website overhaul and a boxed theme that may not suit your needs.
Looks aren’t everything.
\n
HubSpot has a really amazing, thorough process for ensuring that only quality HubSpot templates are submitted on their marketplace. They require thorough documentation, screenshots, live proof of concept and support. In theory, this is a great way to provide accessible websites that work on HubSpot CMS. In reality, these themes are sometimes coded in a way that doesn’t suit your growing business as you scale or needs to be customized, integrated and better organized to suit your marketing content and the unique journey of your buyer.
Related: Website Quality Assurance - Why you need QA in HubSpot CMS Development
\nAny number of things could be hidden behind a HubSpot theme that you purchase, including: poor back end user interface, a lagging, slow website and sometimes? A really dissatisfied customer whose HubSpot launch is now delayed until they can find someone to fix their theme, often for more than they originally paid. It’s not always a hard time, but even just small fixes can sometimes be cumbersome for a new developer to implement if the foundation isn’t set up the right way.
Looks matter, but what’s the use in having a theme that looks pretty in demo, but isn’t actually functioning for your needs?
Usability first.
\n
“We’ll get by with a template for now, then we’ll develop a custom site later on.”
Initial HubSpot contract layouts can leave a business’ marketing or development budget depleted. In so many cases, organizations are compromising on their development - but at what expense? A clunky interface that isn’t intuitive can impact an employee’s productivity and overall happiness.
A poor back end user interface means that your employees simply cannot operate efficiently. And when they can’t post content efficiently or are constantly running into roadblocks in their everyday tasks, it can be wearing on them and a huge time suck. According to The CFO, an online business publication, inefficient processes waste nearly a third of employees time. And with job unhappiness at an all time high as of August 2022, according to CNBC, companies should be doing everything they can to make sure their employees are productive, happy and able to effectively get the job done.
Why? Happy workers are 13% more productive, according to Oxford University.
When you’re considering your HubSpot budget, you need to consider not only which Hubs you’ll need, how to secure them at the best value, but how you can situate your company to be most successful inside HubSpot by choosing a framework or theme that truly suits your needs.
You have little ability to customize.
\n
Hindsight is 20/20, isn’t it? The top complaint we receive when we get clients that are already working inside HubSpot is — I wish I would’ve known. They wish they would’ve looked closer at their data needs, they wish they would’ve bought the right tiers from the outset, they wish they wouldn’t have wasted money with an inexperienced, order-taker developer and they wish they would’ve gotten set up the right way from the start.
Related: Why an experienced HubSpot CMS developer? Your website isn’t a sub sandwich.
\n
The HubSpot Marketplace Themes, whether they’re free or paid, lock you into either using that development agency for your improvements or will eventually require you to pay someone that is going to take longer to accomplish your goals, because they’re working in someone else’s code foundation. In the world of HubSpot Development, there are many ways to build the same framework, and because there’s a lacking centralized knowledge base for HubSpot developers right now (we hope that’s not always the case), it’s a bit Wild West out there sometimes.
Trying to customize an existing template can break functionality and will usually require a bit of an investment for another HubSpot CMS developer to familiarize themselves with how everything has been set up and go poking around before they make your improvements.
Ideally, you’ll vet the company offering the template from the start, question them about their expertise and make sure they’re a fit to work with long term and use your theme as a framework to build on. Just make sure that your framework actually has a stable foundation and can accommodate your needs as you grow.
Related: 7 HubSpot CMS Developer Interview Questions to Ask - Part 1
\n
If you already purchased a HubSpot Marketplace Theme, there’s no need to go out and spend thousands on a new website (yet). But as you grow, you may find that it’s not working as well for you. Odds are good that you can work with the company that developed the theme to customize it to suit your needs. Even if not, there are always ways to work around the infrastructure that you have while you make plans to redesign your site and build a new custom HubSpot framework that will better suit your needs.
What’s most important is finding the right development and technical partner. One that will look at your processes from front to back and really dig into what your needs are and how your HubSpot framework, your data architecture and the processes you’ve put in place will work for your organization in the long term. Ideally, that partner will grow with you in a long term relationship as you scale and continue to improve your marketing and brand over time.
Most often, what we find is that customized design inside a tried and true framework built with the bones you need to grow is the best solution for a business starting out on HubSpot CMS that isn’t quite ready to go all in on a custom build.
\n
Like so many other things that we write about, this one might rub some people the wrong way, but sometimes these discussions are warranted.
::deep breath:: Soooo, here we go:
We want scaling organizations to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
At the end of a long negotiation for HubSpot software, all any business wants to do is get migrated over to HubSpot’s marketing and automation tools as quickly as possible, especially if they’re paying for CMS Hub.
Many HubSpot reps and even some creative agencies send clients that have smaller budgets (or who have spent most of their budgets on their HubSpot contract) to the HubSpot Marketplace to browse new themes for their blog or website pitching it as a quick and easy way to get started. While for some businesses the HubSpot theme marketplace is a great way to save money with a boxed solution that can seemingly be implemented fairly easily; in reality, it’s not always a one-size-fits-all solution. Each business is unique.
For scaling organizations, they may run into issues with the HubSpot Marketplace themes that they purchase as they grow. While HubSpot template themes are a great way for the average small business to get onto HubSpot CMS and we never want to discourage a small business away from HubSpot, for scaling businesses HubSpot Marketplace themes may not be the way to go.
As an organization grows in its journey with Hubspot and on HubSpot CMS, they often come to us looking to have us modify or fix their theme. We’ve seen many different types of issues with HubSpot marketplace templates - issues with how their logo appears, formatting issues, implementation, page speed and optimization issues - you name it, we’ve encountered a frustrated business that thought they could just buy a plug and play theme and didn’t quite get what they wanted.
Here are a few reasons that we think you should think twice as a growing organization before you buy a HubSpot marketplace theme, how to approach it if you are a business that does have to purchase a boxed template HubSpot theme, and a suggestion that we think might give you the best compromise between a totally custom website overhaul and a boxed theme that may not suit your needs.
Looks aren’t everything.
\n
HubSpot has a really amazing, thorough process for ensuring that only quality HubSpot templates are submitted on their marketplace. They require thorough documentation, screenshots, live proof of concept and support. In theory, this is a great way to provide accessible websites that work on HubSpot CMS. In reality, these themes are sometimes coded in a way that doesn’t suit your growing business as you scale or needs to be customized, integrated and better organized to suit your marketing content and the unique journey of your buyer.
Related: Website Quality Assurance - Why you need QA in HubSpot CMS Development
\nAny number of things could be hidden behind a HubSpot theme that you purchase, including: poor back end user interface, a lagging, slow website and sometimes? A really dissatisfied customer whose HubSpot launch is now delayed until they can find someone to fix their theme, often for more than they originally paid. It’s not always a hard time, but even just small fixes can sometimes be cumbersome for a new developer to implement if the foundation isn’t set up the right way.
Looks matter, but what’s the use in having a theme that looks pretty in demo, but isn’t actually functioning for your needs?
Usability first.
\n
“We’ll get by with a template for now, then we’ll develop a custom site later on.”
Initial HubSpot contract layouts can leave a business’ marketing or development budget depleted. In so many cases, organizations are compromising on their development - but at what expense? A clunky interface that isn’t intuitive can impact an employee’s productivity and overall happiness.
A poor back end user interface means that your employees simply cannot operate efficiently. And when they can’t post content efficiently or are constantly running into roadblocks in their everyday tasks, it can be wearing on them and a huge time suck. According to The CFO, an online business publication, inefficient processes waste nearly a third of employees time. And with job unhappiness at an all time high as of August 2022, according to CNBC, companies should be doing everything they can to make sure their employees are productive, happy and able to effectively get the job done.
Why? Happy workers are 13% more productive, according to Oxford University.
When you’re considering your HubSpot budget, you need to consider not only which Hubs you’ll need, how to secure them at the best value, but how you can situate your company to be most successful inside HubSpot by choosing a framework or theme that truly suits your needs.
You have little ability to customize.
\n
Hindsight is 20/20, isn’t it? The top complaint we receive when we get clients that are already working inside HubSpot is — I wish I would’ve known. They wish they would’ve looked closer at their data needs, they wish they would’ve bought the right tiers from the outset, they wish they wouldn’t have wasted money with an inexperienced, order-taker developer and they wish they would’ve gotten set up the right way from the start.
Related: Why an experienced HubSpot CMS developer? Your website isn’t a sub sandwich.
\n
The HubSpot Marketplace Themes, whether they’re free or paid, lock you into either using that development agency for your improvements or will eventually require you to pay someone that is going to take longer to accomplish your goals, because they’re working in someone else’s code foundation. In the world of HubSpot Development, there are many ways to build the same framework, and because there’s a lacking centralized knowledge base for HubSpot developers right now (we hope that’s not always the case), it’s a bit Wild West out there sometimes.
Trying to customize an existing template can break functionality and will usually require a bit of an investment for another HubSpot CMS developer to familiarize themselves with how everything has been set up and go poking around before they make your improvements.
Ideally, you’ll vet the company offering the template from the start, question them about their expertise and make sure they’re a fit to work with long term and use your theme as a framework to build on. Just make sure that your framework actually has a stable foundation and can accommodate your needs as you grow.
Related: 7 HubSpot CMS Developer Interview Questions to Ask - Part 1
\n
If you already purchased a HubSpot Marketplace Theme, there’s no need to go out and spend thousands on a new website (yet). But as you grow, you may find that it’s not working as well for you. Odds are good that you can work with the company that developed the theme to customize it to suit your needs. Even if not, there are always ways to work around the infrastructure that you have while you make plans to redesign your site and build a new custom HubSpot framework that will better suit your needs.
What’s most important is finding the right development and technical partner. One that will look at your processes from front to back and really dig into what your needs are and how your HubSpot framework, your data architecture and the processes you’ve put in place will work for your organization in the long term. Ideally, that partner will grow with you in a long term relationship as you scale and continue to improve your marketing and brand over time.
Most often, what we find is that customized design inside a tried and true framework built with the bones you need to grow is the best solution for a business starting out on HubSpot CMS that isn’t quite ready to go all in on a custom build.
\n
Like so many other things that we write about, this one might rub some people the wrong way, but sometimes these discussions are warranted.
::deep breath:: Soooo, here we go:
We want scaling organizations to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
At the end of a long negotiation for HubSpot software, all any business wants to do is get migrated over to HubSpot’s marketing and automation tools as quickly as possible, especially if they’re paying for CMS Hub.
Many HubSpot reps and even some creative agencies send clients that have smaller budgets (or who have spent most of their budgets on their HubSpot contract) to the HubSpot Marketplace to browse new themes for their blog or website pitching it as a quick and easy way to get started. While for some businesses the HubSpot theme marketplace is a great way to save money with a boxed solution that can seemingly be implemented fairly easily; in reality, it’s not always a one-size-fits-all solution. Each business is unique.
For scaling organizations, they may run into issues with the HubSpot Marketplace themes that they purchase as they grow. While HubSpot template themes are a great way for the average small business to get onto HubSpot CMS and we never want to discourage a small business away from HubSpot, for scaling businesses HubSpot Marketplace themes may not be the way to go.
As an organization grows in its journey with Hubspot and on HubSpot CMS, they often come to us looking to have us modify or fix their theme. We’ve seen many different types of issues with HubSpot marketplace templates - issues with how their logo appears, formatting issues, implementation, page speed and optimization issues - you name it, we’ve encountered a frustrated business that thought they could just buy a plug and play theme and didn’t quite get what they wanted.
Here are a few reasons that we think you should think twice as a growing organization before you buy a HubSpot marketplace theme, how to approach it if you are a business that does have to purchase a boxed template HubSpot theme, and a suggestion that we think might give you the best compromise between a totally custom website overhaul and a boxed theme that may not suit your needs.
Looks aren’t everything.
\n
HubSpot has a really amazing, thorough process for ensuring that only quality HubSpot templates are submitted on their marketplace. They require thorough documentation, screenshots, live proof of concept and support. In theory, this is a great way to provide accessible websites that work on HubSpot CMS. In reality, these themes are sometimes coded in a way that doesn’t suit your growing business as you scale or needs to be customized, integrated and better organized to suit your marketing content and the unique journey of your buyer.
Related: Website Quality Assurance - Why you need QA in HubSpot CMS Development
\nAny number of things could be hidden behind a HubSpot theme that you purchase, including: poor back end user interface, a lagging, slow website and sometimes? A really dissatisfied customer whose HubSpot launch is now delayed until they can find someone to fix their theme, often for more than they originally paid. It’s not always a hard time, but even just small fixes can sometimes be cumbersome for a new developer to implement if the foundation isn’t set up the right way.
Looks matter, but what’s the use in having a theme that looks pretty in demo, but isn’t actually functioning for your needs?
Usability first.
\n
“We’ll get by with a template for now, then we’ll develop a custom site later on.”
Initial HubSpot contract layouts can leave a business’ marketing or development budget depleted. In so many cases, organizations are compromising on their development - but at what expense? A clunky interface that isn’t intuitive can impact an employee’s productivity and overall happiness.
A poor back end user interface means that your employees simply cannot operate efficiently. And when they can’t post content efficiently or are constantly running into roadblocks in their everyday tasks, it can be wearing on them and a huge time suck. According to The CFO, an online business publication, inefficient processes waste nearly a third of employees time. And with job unhappiness at an all time high as of August 2022, according to CNBC, companies should be doing everything they can to make sure their employees are productive, happy and able to effectively get the job done.
Why? Happy workers are 13% more productive, according to Oxford University.
When you’re considering your HubSpot budget, you need to consider not only which Hubs you’ll need, how to secure them at the best value, but how you can situate your company to be most successful inside HubSpot by choosing a framework or theme that truly suits your needs.
You have little ability to customize.
\n
Hindsight is 20/20, isn’t it? The top complaint we receive when we get clients that are already working inside HubSpot is — I wish I would’ve known. They wish they would’ve looked closer at their data needs, they wish they would’ve bought the right tiers from the outset, they wish they wouldn’t have wasted money with an inexperienced, order-taker developer and they wish they would’ve gotten set up the right way from the start.
Related: Why an experienced HubSpot CMS developer? Your website isn’t a sub sandwich.
\n
The HubSpot Marketplace Themes, whether they’re free or paid, lock you into either using that development agency for your improvements or will eventually require you to pay someone that is going to take longer to accomplish your goals, because they’re working in someone else’s code foundation. In the world of HubSpot Development, there are many ways to build the same framework, and because there’s a lacking centralized knowledge base for HubSpot developers right now (we hope that’s not always the case), it’s a bit Wild West out there sometimes.
Trying to customize an existing template can break functionality and will usually require a bit of an investment for another HubSpot CMS developer to familiarize themselves with how everything has been set up and go poking around before they make your improvements.
Ideally, you’ll vet the company offering the template from the start, question them about their expertise and make sure they’re a fit to work with long term and use your theme as a framework to build on. Just make sure that your framework actually has a stable foundation and can accommodate your needs as you grow.
Related: 7 HubSpot CMS Developer Interview Questions to Ask - Part 1
\n
If you already purchased a HubSpot Marketplace Theme, there’s no need to go out and spend thousands on a new website (yet). But as you grow, you may find that it’s not working as well for you. Odds are good that you can work with the company that developed the theme to customize it to suit your needs. Even if not, there are always ways to work around the infrastructure that you have while you make plans to redesign your site and build a new custom HubSpot framework that will better suit your needs.
What’s most important is finding the right development and technical partner. One that will look at your processes from front to back and really dig into what your needs are and how your HubSpot framework, your data architecture and the processes you’ve put in place will work for your organization in the long term. Ideally, that partner will grow with you in a long term relationship as you scale and continue to improve your marketing and brand over time.
Most often, what we find is that customized design inside a tried and true framework built with the bones you need to grow is the best solution for a business starting out on HubSpot CMS that isn’t quite ready to go all in on a custom build.
\n
Like so many other things that we write about, this one might rub some people the wrong way, but sometimes these discussions are warranted.
::deep breath:: Soooo, here we go:
We want scaling organizations to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
Like so many other things that we write about, this one might rub some people the wrong way, but sometimes these discussions are warranted.
::deep breath:: Soooo, here we go:
We want scaling organizations to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
Like so many other things that we write about, this one might rub some people the wrong way, but sometimes these discussions are warranted.
::deep breath:: Soooo, here we go:
We want scaling organizations to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
Like so many other things that we write about, this one might rub some people the wrong way, but sometimes these discussions are warranted.
::deep breath:: Soooo, here we go:
We want scaling organizations to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
Like so many other things that we write about, this one might rub some people the wrong way, but sometimes these discussions are warranted.
::deep breath:: Soooo, here we go:
We want scaling organizations to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
Like so many other things that we write about, this one might rub some people the wrong way, but sometimes these discussions are warranted.
::deep breath:: Soooo, here we go:
We want scaling organizations to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
At the end of a long negotiation for HubSpot software, all any business wants to do is get migrated over to HubSpot’s marketing and automation tools as quickly as possible, especially if they’re paying for CMS Hub.
Many HubSpot reps and even some creative agencies send clients that have smaller budgets (or who have spent most of their budgets on their HubSpot contract) to the HubSpot Marketplace to browse new themes for their blog or website pitching it as a quick and easy way to get started. While for some businesses the HubSpot theme marketplace is a great way to save money with a boxed solution that can seemingly be implemented fairly easily; in reality, it’s not always a one-size-fits-all solution. Each business is unique.
For scaling organizations, they may run into issues with the HubSpot Marketplace themes that they purchase as they grow. While HubSpot template themes are a great way for the average small business to get onto HubSpot CMS and we never want to discourage a small business away from HubSpot, for scaling businesses HubSpot Marketplace themes may not be the way to go.
As an organization grows in its journey with Hubspot and on HubSpot CMS, they often come to us looking to have us modify or fix their theme. We’ve seen many different types of issues with HubSpot marketplace templates - issues with how their logo appears, formatting issues, implementation, page speed and optimization issues - you name it, we’ve encountered a frustrated business that thought they could just buy a plug and play theme and didn’t quite get what they wanted.
Here are a few reasons that we think you should think twice as a growing organization before you buy a HubSpot marketplace theme, how to approach it if you are a business that does have to purchase a boxed template HubSpot theme, and a suggestion that we think might give you the best compromise between a totally custom website overhaul and a boxed theme that may not suit your needs.
Looks aren’t everything.
\n
HubSpot has a really amazing, thorough process for ensuring that only quality HubSpot templates are submitted on their marketplace. They require thorough documentation, screenshots, live proof of concept and support. In theory, this is a great way to provide accessible websites that work on HubSpot CMS. In reality, these themes are sometimes coded in a way that doesn’t suit your growing business as you scale or needs to be customized, integrated and better organized to suit your marketing content and the unique journey of your buyer.
Related: Website Quality Assurance - Why you need QA in HubSpot CMS Development
\nAny number of things could be hidden behind a HubSpot theme that you purchase, including: poor back end user interface, a lagging, slow website and sometimes? A really dissatisfied customer whose HubSpot launch is now delayed until they can find someone to fix their theme, often for more than they originally paid. It’s not always a hard time, but even just small fixes can sometimes be cumbersome for a new developer to implement if the foundation isn’t set up the right way.
Looks matter, but what’s the use in having a theme that looks pretty in demo, but isn’t actually functioning for your needs?
Usability first.
\n
“We’ll get by with a template for now, then we’ll develop a custom site later on.”
Initial HubSpot contract layouts can leave a business’ marketing or development budget depleted. In so many cases, organizations are compromising on their development - but at what expense? A clunky interface that isn’t intuitive can impact an employee’s productivity and overall happiness.
A poor back end user interface means that your employees simply cannot operate efficiently. And when they can’t post content efficiently or are constantly running into roadblocks in their everyday tasks, it can be wearing on them and a huge time suck. According to The CFO, an online business publication, inefficient processes waste nearly a third of employees time. And with job unhappiness at an all time high as of August 2022, according to CNBC, companies should be doing everything they can to make sure their employees are productive, happy and able to effectively get the job done.
Why? Happy workers are 13% more productive, according to Oxford University.
When you’re considering your HubSpot budget, you need to consider not only which Hubs you’ll need, how to secure them at the best value, but how you can situate your company to be most successful inside HubSpot by choosing a framework or theme that truly suits your needs.
You have little ability to customize.
\n
Hindsight is 20/20, isn’t it? The top complaint we receive when we get clients that are already working inside HubSpot is — I wish I would’ve known. They wish they would’ve looked closer at their data needs, they wish they would’ve bought the right tiers from the outset, they wish they wouldn’t have wasted money with an inexperienced, order-taker developer and they wish they would’ve gotten set up the right way from the start.
Related: Why an experienced HubSpot CMS developer? Your website isn’t a sub sandwich.
\n
The HubSpot Marketplace Themes, whether they’re free or paid, lock you into either using that development agency for your improvements or will eventually require you to pay someone that is going to take longer to accomplish your goals, because they’re working in someone else’s code foundation. In the world of HubSpot Development, there are many ways to build the same framework, and because there’s a lacking centralized knowledge base for HubSpot developers right now (we hope that’s not always the case), it’s a bit Wild West out there sometimes.
Trying to customize an existing template can break functionality and will usually require a bit of an investment for another HubSpot CMS developer to familiarize themselves with how everything has been set up and go poking around before they make your improvements.
Ideally, you’ll vet the company offering the template from the start, question them about their expertise and make sure they’re a fit to work with long term and use your theme as a framework to build on. Just make sure that your framework actually has a stable foundation and can accommodate your needs as you grow.
Related: 7 HubSpot CMS Developer Interview Questions to Ask - Part 1
\n
If you already purchased a HubSpot Marketplace Theme, there’s no need to go out and spend thousands on a new website (yet). But as you grow, you may find that it’s not working as well for you. Odds are good that you can work with the company that developed the theme to customize it to suit your needs. Even if not, there are always ways to work around the infrastructure that you have while you make plans to redesign your site and build a new custom HubSpot framework that will better suit your needs.
What’s most important is finding the right development and technical partner. One that will look at your processes from front to back and really dig into what your needs are and how your HubSpot framework, your data architecture and the processes you’ve put in place will work for your organization in the long term. Ideally, that partner will grow with you in a long term relationship as you scale and continue to improve your marketing and brand over time.
Most often, what we find is that customized design inside a tried and true framework built with the bones you need to grow is the best solution for a business starting out on HubSpot CMS that isn’t quite ready to go all in on a custom build.
\n
Like so many other things that we write about, this one might rub some people the wrong way, but sometimes these discussions are warranted.
::deep breath:: Soooo, here we go:
We want scaling organizations to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
As HubSpot has grown over the years and expanded their product offerings, there has been more and more opportunities for HubSpot Partner agencies to specialize, expand their service offerings and really be a comprehensive business consultant to their client base. It has also meant investing heavily in the right kind of talent that will help situate your agency to really support the success of your customer in the long term. Exceptional talent is hard to get and harder to keep, particularly in the Millennial generation. In 2014, Deloitte conducted a survey of 7,800 Millennials where 70% of them reportedly expected to be working for themselves by 2025. This generation was also predicted to occupy 75% of the workforce by 2025.
It’s no wonder agencies are struggling with a talent gap. The number of people with deep experience inside the HubSpot platform aren’t many and a lot of the veterans have moved on from being an employee at an agency to opening their own agency. It’s not enough anymore to hire out a new graduate with a fresh degree in Communications or Marketing, get them trained on HubSpot Marketing Pro and send them on their way.
It might’ve worked in the past, but the types of clients that HubSpot is angling for now are much more complex. They’re moving more and more towards Enterprise level clients and the small business in large part is priced out. While HubSpot has recently introduced some packages that are much more small business friendly, when it comes to building the agency that you want to build and servicing multiple customer portals - you sometimes need some backup.
A specialized technical, architecture or reporting partner can dig deeply into an organization’s business processes and glean specialized insight that the average marketing agency employee wouldn’t have experience with. Hiring on a full time version of these specialized contractors would run you hundreds of thousands of dollars. While we prefer to have work referred to us, because we can work faster and more efficiently, we understand that some partners aren’t comfortable with that. However, to help make sure that no boundaries are crossed and things go as smoothly as possible, we wanted to write down a few helpful tips coming from a specialized partner to help you successfully white label HubSpot CMS development, HubSpot architecture, and HubSpot Reporting contractors.
As HubSpot has grown over the years and expanded their product offerings, there has been more and more opportunities for HubSpot Partner agencies to specialize, expand their service offerings and really be a comprehensive business consultant to their client base. It has also meant investing heavily in the right kind of talent that will help situate your agency to really support the success of your customer in the long term. Exceptional talent is hard to get and harder to keep, particularly in the Millennial generation. In 2014, Deloitte conducted a survey of 7,800 Millennials where 70% of them reportedly expected to be working for themselves by 2025. This generation was also predicted to occupy 75% of the workforce by 2025.
It’s no wonder agencies are struggling with a talent gap. The number of people with deep experience inside the HubSpot platform aren’t many and a lot of the veterans have moved on from being an employee at an agency to opening their own agency. It’s not enough anymore to hire out a new graduate with a fresh degree in Communications or Marketing, get them trained on HubSpot Marketing Pro and send them on their way.
It might’ve worked in the past, but the types of clients that HubSpot is angling for now are much more complex. They’re moving more and more towards Enterprise level clients and the small business in large part is priced out. While HubSpot has recently introduced some packages that are much more small business friendly, when it comes to building the agency that you want to build and servicing multiple customer portals - you sometimes need some backup.
A specialized technical, architecture or reporting partner can dig deeply into an organization’s business processes and glean specialized insight that the average marketing agency employee wouldn’t have experience with. Hiring on a full time version of these specialized contractors would run you hundreds of thousands of dollars. While we prefer to have work referred to us, because we can work faster and more efficiently, we understand that some partners aren’t comfortable with that. However, to help make sure that no boundaries are crossed and things go as smoothly as possible, we wanted to write down a few helpful tips coming from a specialized partner to help you successfully white label HubSpot CMS development, HubSpot architecture, and HubSpot Reporting contractors.
Communicate expectations in advance.
\nYou wouldn’t believe the number of stories we have to sit through and the different circumstances we hear as to why we have to white label our services. Here’s a little secret - we don’t really care why. We just want to know how to avoid weird scenarios like the customer going around you, requesting items that are outside of the scope or trying to push in work behind your back. Full transparency is going to allow us to work as efficiently as possible, without having to ask you a lot of additional questions.
We have no issues being your preferred white label HubSpot CMS developer or reporting contractor as long as the expectations and boundaries are crystal clear in advance. If you prefer to be the gatekeeper, we’re totally fine with that. Just know that the more figurative telephones you add in the middle of the process, the less efficiently work will get done.
Commit to clear expectations from the outset and we’ll be sure to be clear about ours as well. We want this relationship and every project to be as seamless as possible and we’re going to make sure we stay within the parameters of what we discuss, because agencies are our best customers and want to keep you guys happy by keeping your customers happy. That said, lay out the ground rules in advance of the engagement. If we’re not comfortable with something, we’ll be able to tell you at the beginning and we’ll be able to negotiate accordingly.
Understand that working in white label formats requires more work.
\nFrom having to login to entirely separate e-mail accounts to texting you to get two-factor authentication codes, the number of situations where we end up having to delay work for access issues are increased when we white label. If we’re not working in your client’s portal under our domain and e-mail, it’s going to cost a little more than if we didn’t have to jump through all those additional hoops.
As you probably know, HubSpot Partners get awarded points for engaging inside customer portals - so if all that work is happening under your e-mail and domain, it comes at an additional cost to us and you should expect to have that passed through to maintain the white label service that you’re requesting.
While that may be a tough pill for some agencies to swallow, the hard fact of the matter is that really high quality, experienced HubSpot technical specialists aren’t as desperate for work as you might think they are. Sometimes new agency clients approach us feeling they’ve got our golden ticket. Don’t get us wrong, we’re grateful for all the partnerships we have with our agency partners, but white label scenarios are more time consuming than working directly with the client. Many HubSpot contractors are inundated with requests and having to jump through more hoops to field them isn’t appealing to a contractor that is already very busy.
If we’re working in a portal under your domain, you’ll likely be billed accordingly and you should expect it. Not only are we not getting a piece of the MRR credit in that portal towards our Partner tiering, but we’re sometimes having to have multiple additional meetings and conversations more than once when we attempt to play telephone to help troubleshoot client issues. If we spend more time doing more work, and get less from it than we would by working with a client directly, there is more expense on our end, so there is more expense on your end. It’s as simple as that.
Be transparent with your fees.
\n![](\"https://i.imgflip.com/7i10dl.jpg\")
We get it. There’s time, effort and work involved in facilitating the details of any contract, even if you’re just coordinating a referral. Communicate your plans in advance for how you’ll be charging the client, how you need to be billed and how we should expect to be paid. We recently conducted an informal survey about margins relative to white label services for HubSpot Partners and understand that many agencies add anywhere from 10-30% to our fee structure to account for their time, but we need you to communicate this in the event that the client asks how much we charge or about any other details.
If you’ve maintained a good, honest rapport with your clients, they understand that the time you spend collaborating with us is valuable and billable. The more transparent you are about your fees with the client and with us, the easier we can all work together and the more sustainable the relationship is for everyone long term.
Unless…
Don’t be greedy. OR offensive.
\nWe found out recently that a white label partner we were working with was charging 300% of our fees for a service that we were white labeling for them that didn’t require any involvement on their end whatsoever. It was pretty offensive for us, we found out accidentally and we’re pretty sure if the client knew, they’d be equally offended.
\nHere’s the thing - you charge what you charge. Sometimes white label partners charge a little less than an agency might charge. When there are significant discrepancies between what your white label partner charges and what you charge, you need to have an honest and open conversation and do what is right. If the client would’ve approached us and told us they were willing to pay a little more, charge the client a little less and still make a really good margin on the service, they wouldn’t have lost their ability to partner with us.
Again, maybe you think what you charge is none of our business. But we’re human and so are your customers. If they know they can find a comparable service for less or that you’re gouging your contractors for really no other reason other than the client can pay it - it’s not going to look good. Be an ethical business and do what’s right by communicating with your contractors and clients in advance. There’s no reason that you can’t come up with a compromise to get paid your fees, make your contractor happy and make your client understand the value of the products or services at the very same time.
Don’t scope creep.
\n
You hate it when clients do it to you, but agencies are sometimes culprits themselves when it comes to scope creep on a project. Clearly delineate the parameters of your projects with both your contractor and your client. By establishing them in advance, the client will know exactly what is included. Leave yourself padding when creating budgets with your clients and work through individual scenarios on a case by case basis with your contractors to make sure that both you and the client are being charged properly for the services you’re getting.
Don’t ask for extra features, pretend you didn’t understand the scope of the original agreement or try to push through an extra request at the tail end of a project. Be the client you want to work with! Your contractors will appreciate it so much.
\nBe gracious with the possible scenarios that may transpire.
\nWe can’t count the number of awkward positions we’ve been put in as a white label contractor. From customers trying to see how much we charge to customers asking to work with us directly and fire an agency - it’s rare, but sometimes there’s some weird stuff that happens. Like, the time that a customer of ours Googled Nicholas Decker HubSpot and found us on an agency’s team page randomly (they added us without our knowledge) and we had to have an awkward conversation about how we don’t actually work for that agency…
Communication is critical, so *we* can operate the right way within it. Make sure that you trust the white label contractors that you work with to make the right decisions that are best for everyone involved and provide a safe format for them to do that. If you don’t trust your contractors, it’s hard for them to feel safe communicating the scenarios that sometimes arise. For example, if the customer is trying to have conversations with a contractor behind your back, there’s a lot to learn from that situation and your contractor should feel safe bringing it up.
By working together to tackle the issue, you can ensure not only that everyone leaves with the optimal outcome, but that you can keep your relationship with both the client and the contractor intact.
Having successful white label relationships can open up your agency to lots of additional service offerings that will not only help you expand the number of customers you reach, but become an even more trusted resource to your HubSpot clients. When you hire an experienced HubSpot professional, you can go far beyond offering marketing services and really digging into the complex business processes and other issues that your clients have that sometimes get in the way of closing deals.
Be a good white label partner by following this simple (and somewhat common sense) list of tips for working with HubSpot CMS development and HubSpot reporting contractors.
As HubSpot has grown over the years and expanded their product offerings, there has been more and more opportunities for HubSpot Partner agencies to specialize, expand their service offerings and really be a comprehensive business consultant to their client base. It has also meant investing heavily in the right kind of talent that will help situate your agency to really support the success of your customer in the long term. Exceptional talent is hard to get and harder to keep, particularly in the Millennial generation. In 2014, Deloitte conducted a survey of 7,800 Millennials where 70% of them reportedly expected to be working for themselves by 2025. This generation was also predicted to occupy 75% of the workforce by 2025.
It’s no wonder agencies are struggling with a talent gap. The number of people with deep experience inside the HubSpot platform aren’t many and a lot of the veterans have moved on from being an employee at an agency to opening their own agency. It’s not enough anymore to hire out a new graduate with a fresh degree in Communications or Marketing, get them trained on HubSpot Marketing Pro and send them on their way.
It might’ve worked in the past, but the types of clients that HubSpot is angling for now are much more complex. They’re moving more and more towards Enterprise level clients and the small business in large part is priced out. While HubSpot has recently introduced some packages that are much more small business friendly, when it comes to building the agency that you want to build and servicing multiple customer portals - you sometimes need some backup.
A specialized technical, architecture or reporting partner can dig deeply into an organization’s business processes and glean specialized insight that the average marketing agency employee wouldn’t have experience with. Hiring on a full time version of these specialized contractors would run you hundreds of thousands of dollars. While we prefer to have work referred to us, because we can work faster and more efficiently, we understand that some partners aren’t comfortable with that. However, to help make sure that no boundaries are crossed and things go as smoothly as possible, we wanted to write down a few helpful tips coming from a specialized partner to help you successfully white label HubSpot CMS development, HubSpot architecture, and HubSpot Reporting contractors.
As HubSpot has grown over the years and expanded their product offerings, there has been more and more opportunities for HubSpot Partner agencies to specialize, expand their service offerings and really be a comprehensive business consultant to their client base. It has also meant investing heavily in the right kind of talent that will help situate your agency to really support the success of your customer in the long term. Exceptional talent is hard to get and harder to keep, particularly in the Millennial generation. In 2014, Deloitte conducted a survey of 7,800 Millennials where 70% of them reportedly expected to be working for themselves by 2025. This generation was also predicted to occupy 75% of the workforce by 2025.
It’s no wonder agencies are struggling with a talent gap. The number of people with deep experience inside the HubSpot platform aren’t many and a lot of the veterans have moved on from being an employee at an agency to opening their own agency. It’s not enough anymore to hire out a new graduate with a fresh degree in Communications or Marketing, get them trained on HubSpot Marketing Pro and send them on their way.
It might’ve worked in the past, but the types of clients that HubSpot is angling for now are much more complex. They’re moving more and more towards Enterprise level clients and the small business in large part is priced out. While HubSpot has recently introduced some packages that are much more small business friendly, when it comes to building the agency that you want to build and servicing multiple customer portals - you sometimes need some backup.
A specialized technical, architecture or reporting partner can dig deeply into an organization’s business processes and glean specialized insight that the average marketing agency employee wouldn’t have experience with. Hiring on a full time version of these specialized contractors would run you hundreds of thousands of dollars. While we prefer to have work referred to us, because we can work faster and more efficiently, we understand that some partners aren’t comfortable with that. However, to help make sure that no boundaries are crossed and things go as smoothly as possible, we wanted to write down a few helpful tips coming from a specialized partner to help you successfully white label HubSpot CMS development, HubSpot architecture, and HubSpot Reporting contractors.
Communicate expectations in advance.
\nYou wouldn’t believe the number of stories we have to sit through and the different circumstances we hear as to why we have to white label our services. Here’s a little secret - we don’t really care why. We just want to know how to avoid weird scenarios like the customer going around you, requesting items that are outside of the scope or trying to push in work behind your back. Full transparency is going to allow us to work as efficiently as possible, without having to ask you a lot of additional questions.
We have no issues being your preferred white label HubSpot CMS developer or reporting contractor as long as the expectations and boundaries are crystal clear in advance. If you prefer to be the gatekeeper, we’re totally fine with that. Just know that the more figurative telephones you add in the middle of the process, the less efficiently work will get done.
Commit to clear expectations from the outset and we’ll be sure to be clear about ours as well. We want this relationship and every project to be as seamless as possible and we’re going to make sure we stay within the parameters of what we discuss, because agencies are our best customers and want to keep you guys happy by keeping your customers happy. That said, lay out the ground rules in advance of the engagement. If we’re not comfortable with something, we’ll be able to tell you at the beginning and we’ll be able to negotiate accordingly.
Understand that working in white label formats requires more work.
\nFrom having to login to entirely separate e-mail accounts to texting you to get two-factor authentication codes, the number of situations where we end up having to delay work for access issues are increased when we white label. If we’re not working in your client’s portal under our domain and e-mail, it’s going to cost a little more than if we didn’t have to jump through all those additional hoops.
As you probably know, HubSpot Partners get awarded points for engaging inside customer portals - so if all that work is happening under your e-mail and domain, it comes at an additional cost to us and you should expect to have that passed through to maintain the white label service that you’re requesting.
While that may be a tough pill for some agencies to swallow, the hard fact of the matter is that really high quality, experienced HubSpot technical specialists aren’t as desperate for work as you might think they are. Sometimes new agency clients approach us feeling they’ve got our golden ticket. Don’t get us wrong, we’re grateful for all the partnerships we have with our agency partners, but white label scenarios are more time consuming than working directly with the client. Many HubSpot contractors are inundated with requests and having to jump through more hoops to field them isn’t appealing to a contractor that is already very busy.
If we’re working in a portal under your domain, you’ll likely be billed accordingly and you should expect it. Not only are we not getting a piece of the MRR credit in that portal towards our Partner tiering, but we’re sometimes having to have multiple additional meetings and conversations more than once when we attempt to play telephone to help troubleshoot client issues. If we spend more time doing more work, and get less from it than we would by working with a client directly, there is more expense on our end, so there is more expense on your end. It’s as simple as that.
Be transparent with your fees.
\n
We get it. There’s time, effort and work involved in facilitating the details of any contract, even if you’re just coordinating a referral. Communicate your plans in advance for how you’ll be charging the client, how you need to be billed and how we should expect to be paid. We recently conducted an informal survey about margins relative to white label services for HubSpot Partners and understand that many agencies add anywhere from 10-30% to our fee structure to account for their time, but we need you to communicate this in the event that the client asks how much we charge or about any other details.
If you’ve maintained a good, honest rapport with your clients, they understand that the time you spend collaborating with us is valuable and billable. The more transparent you are about your fees with the client and with us, the easier we can all work together and the more sustainable the relationship is for everyone long term.
Unless…
Don’t be greedy. OR offensive.
\nWe found out recently that a white label partner we were working with was charging 300% of our fees for a service that we were white labeling for them that didn’t require any involvement on their end whatsoever. It was pretty offensive for us, we found out accidentally and we’re pretty sure if the client knew, they’d be equally offended.
\nHere’s the thing - you charge what you charge. Sometimes white label partners charge a little less than an agency might charge. When there are significant discrepancies between what your white label partner charges and what you charge, you need to have an honest and open conversation and do what is right. If the client would’ve approached us and told us they were willing to pay a little more, charge the client a little less and still make a really good margin on the service, they wouldn’t have lost their ability to partner with us.
Again, maybe you think what you charge is none of our business. But we’re human and so are your customers. If they know they can find a comparable service for less or that you’re gouging your contractors for really no other reason other than the client can pay it - it’s not going to look good. Be an ethical business and do what’s right by communicating with your contractors and clients in advance. There’s no reason that you can’t come up with a compromise to get paid your fees, make your contractor happy and make your client understand the value of the products or services at the very same time.
Don’t scope creep.
\n
You hate it when clients do it to you, but agencies are sometimes culprits themselves when it comes to scope creep on a project. Clearly delineate the parameters of your projects with both your contractor and your client. By establishing them in advance, the client will know exactly what is included. Leave yourself padding when creating budgets with your clients and work through individual scenarios on a case by case basis with your contractors to make sure that both you and the client are being charged properly for the services you’re getting.
Don’t ask for extra features, pretend you didn’t understand the scope of the original agreement or try to push through an extra request at the tail end of a project. Be the client you want to work with! Your contractors will appreciate it so much.
\nBe gracious with the possible scenarios that may transpire.
\nWe can’t count the number of awkward positions we’ve been put in as a white label contractor. From customers trying to see how much we charge to customers asking to work with us directly and fire an agency - it’s rare, but sometimes there’s some weird stuff that happens. Like, the time that a customer of ours Googled Nicholas Decker HubSpot and found us on an agency’s team page randomly (they added us without our knowledge) and we had to have an awkward conversation about how we don’t actually work for that agency…
Communication is critical, so *we* can operate the right way within it. Make sure that you trust the white label contractors that you work with to make the right decisions that are best for everyone involved and provide a safe format for them to do that. If you don’t trust your contractors, it’s hard for them to feel safe communicating the scenarios that sometimes arise. For example, if the customer is trying to have conversations with a contractor behind your back, there’s a lot to learn from that situation and your contractor should feel safe bringing it up.
By working together to tackle the issue, you can ensure not only that everyone leaves with the optimal outcome, but that you can keep your relationship with both the client and the contractor intact.
Having successful white label relationships can open up your agency to lots of additional service offerings that will not only help you expand the number of customers you reach, but become an even more trusted resource to your HubSpot clients. When you hire an experienced HubSpot professional, you can go far beyond offering marketing services and really digging into the complex business processes and other issues that your clients have that sometimes get in the way of closing deals.
Be a good white label partner by following this simple (and somewhat common sense) list of tips for working with HubSpot CMS development and HubSpot reporting contractors.
As HubSpot has grown over the years and expanded their product offerings, there has been more and more opportunities for HubSpot Partner agencies to specialize, expand their service offerings and really be a comprehensive business consultant to their client base. It has also meant investing heavily in the right kind of talent that will help situate your agency to really support the success of your customer in the long term. Exceptional talent is hard to get and harder to keep, particularly in the Millennial generation. In 2014, Deloitte conducted a survey of 7,800 Millennials where 70% of them reportedly expected to be working for themselves by 2025. This generation was also predicted to occupy 75% of the workforce by 2025.
It’s no wonder agencies are struggling with a talent gap. The number of people with deep experience inside the HubSpot platform aren’t many and a lot of the veterans have moved on from being an employee at an agency to opening their own agency. It’s not enough anymore to hire out a new graduate with a fresh degree in Communications or Marketing, get them trained on HubSpot Marketing Pro and send them on their way.
It might’ve worked in the past, but the types of clients that HubSpot is angling for now are much more complex. They’re moving more and more towards Enterprise level clients and the small business in large part is priced out. While HubSpot has recently introduced some packages that are much more small business friendly, when it comes to building the agency that you want to build and servicing multiple customer portals - you sometimes need some backup.
A specialized technical, architecture or reporting partner can dig deeply into an organization’s business processes and glean specialized insight that the average marketing agency employee wouldn’t have experience with. Hiring on a full time version of these specialized contractors would run you hundreds of thousands of dollars. While we prefer to have work referred to us, because we can work faster and more efficiently, we understand that some partners aren’t comfortable with that. However, to help make sure that no boundaries are crossed and things go as smoothly as possible, we wanted to write down a few helpful tips coming from a specialized partner to help you successfully white label HubSpot CMS development, HubSpot architecture, and HubSpot Reporting contractors.
Communicate expectations in advance.
\nYou wouldn’t believe the number of stories we have to sit through and the different circumstances we hear as to why we have to white label our services. Here’s a little secret - we don’t really care why. We just want to know how to avoid weird scenarios like the customer going around you, requesting items that are outside of the scope or trying to push in work behind your back. Full transparency is going to allow us to work as efficiently as possible, without having to ask you a lot of additional questions.
We have no issues being your preferred white label HubSpot CMS developer or reporting contractor as long as the expectations and boundaries are crystal clear in advance. If you prefer to be the gatekeeper, we’re totally fine with that. Just know that the more figurative telephones you add in the middle of the process, the less efficiently work will get done.
Commit to clear expectations from the outset and we’ll be sure to be clear about ours as well. We want this relationship and every project to be as seamless as possible and we’re going to make sure we stay within the parameters of what we discuss, because agencies are our best customers and want to keep you guys happy by keeping your customers happy. That said, lay out the ground rules in advance of the engagement. If we’re not comfortable with something, we’ll be able to tell you at the beginning and we’ll be able to negotiate accordingly.
Understand that working in white label formats requires more work.
\nFrom having to login to entirely separate e-mail accounts to texting you to get two-factor authentication codes, the number of situations where we end up having to delay work for access issues are increased when we white label. If we’re not working in your client’s portal under our domain and e-mail, it’s going to cost a little more than if we didn’t have to jump through all those additional hoops.
As you probably know, HubSpot Partners get awarded points for engaging inside customer portals - so if all that work is happening under your e-mail and domain, it comes at an additional cost to us and you should expect to have that passed through to maintain the white label service that you’re requesting.
While that may be a tough pill for some agencies to swallow, the hard fact of the matter is that really high quality, experienced HubSpot technical specialists aren’t as desperate for work as you might think they are. Sometimes new agency clients approach us feeling they’ve got our golden ticket. Don’t get us wrong, we’re grateful for all the partnerships we have with our agency partners, but white label scenarios are more time consuming than working directly with the client. Many HubSpot contractors are inundated with requests and having to jump through more hoops to field them isn’t appealing to a contractor that is already very busy.
If we’re working in a portal under your domain, you’ll likely be billed accordingly and you should expect it. Not only are we not getting a piece of the MRR credit in that portal towards our Partner tiering, but we’re sometimes having to have multiple additional meetings and conversations more than once when we attempt to play telephone to help troubleshoot client issues. If we spend more time doing more work, and get less from it than we would by working with a client directly, there is more expense on our end, so there is more expense on your end. It’s as simple as that.
Be transparent with your fees.
\n
We get it. There’s time, effort and work involved in facilitating the details of any contract, even if you’re just coordinating a referral. Communicate your plans in advance for how you’ll be charging the client, how you need to be billed and how we should expect to be paid. We recently conducted an informal survey about margins relative to white label services for HubSpot Partners and understand that many agencies add anywhere from 10-30% to our fee structure to account for their time, but we need you to communicate this in the event that the client asks how much we charge or about any other details.
If you’ve maintained a good, honest rapport with your clients, they understand that the time you spend collaborating with us is valuable and billable. The more transparent you are about your fees with the client and with us, the easier we can all work together and the more sustainable the relationship is for everyone long term.
Unless…
Don’t be greedy. OR offensive.
\nWe found out recently that a white label partner we were working with was charging 300% of our fees for a service that we were white labeling for them that didn’t require any involvement on their end whatsoever. It was pretty offensive for us, we found out accidentally and we’re pretty sure if the client knew, they’d be equally offended.
\nHere’s the thing - you charge what you charge. Sometimes white label partners charge a little less than an agency might charge. When there are significant discrepancies between what your white label partner charges and what you charge, you need to have an honest and open conversation and do what is right. If the client would’ve approached us and told us they were willing to pay a little more, charge the client a little less and still make a really good margin on the service, they wouldn’t have lost their ability to partner with us.
Again, maybe you think what you charge is none of our business. But we’re human and so are your customers. If they know they can find a comparable service for less or that you’re gouging your contractors for really no other reason other than the client can pay it - it’s not going to look good. Be an ethical business and do what’s right by communicating with your contractors and clients in advance. There’s no reason that you can’t come up with a compromise to get paid your fees, make your contractor happy and make your client understand the value of the products or services at the very same time.
Don’t scope creep.
\n
You hate it when clients do it to you, but agencies are sometimes culprits themselves when it comes to scope creep on a project. Clearly delineate the parameters of your projects with both your contractor and your client. By establishing them in advance, the client will know exactly what is included. Leave yourself padding when creating budgets with your clients and work through individual scenarios on a case by case basis with your contractors to make sure that both you and the client are being charged properly for the services you’re getting.
Don’t ask for extra features, pretend you didn’t understand the scope of the original agreement or try to push through an extra request at the tail end of a project. Be the client you want to work with! Your contractors will appreciate it so much.
\nBe gracious with the possible scenarios that may transpire.
\nWe can’t count the number of awkward positions we’ve been put in as a white label contractor. From customers trying to see how much we charge to customers asking to work with us directly and fire an agency - it’s rare, but sometimes there’s some weird stuff that happens. Like, the time that a customer of ours Googled Nicholas Decker HubSpot and found us on an agency’s team page randomly (they added us without our knowledge) and we had to have an awkward conversation about how we don’t actually work for that agency…
Communication is critical, so *we* can operate the right way within it. Make sure that you trust the white label contractors that you work with to make the right decisions that are best for everyone involved and provide a safe format for them to do that. If you don’t trust your contractors, it’s hard for them to feel safe communicating the scenarios that sometimes arise. For example, if the customer is trying to have conversations with a contractor behind your back, there’s a lot to learn from that situation and your contractor should feel safe bringing it up.
By working together to tackle the issue, you can ensure not only that everyone leaves with the optimal outcome, but that you can keep your relationship with both the client and the contractor intact.
Having successful white label relationships can open up your agency to lots of additional service offerings that will not only help you expand the number of customers you reach, but become an even more trusted resource to your HubSpot clients. When you hire an experienced HubSpot professional, you can go far beyond offering marketing services and really digging into the complex business processes and other issues that your clients have that sometimes get in the way of closing deals.
Be a good white label partner by following this simple (and somewhat common sense) list of tips for working with HubSpot CMS development and HubSpot reporting contractors.
As HubSpot has grown over the years and expanded their product offerings, there has been more and more opportunities for HubSpot Partner agencies to specialize, expand their service offerings and really be a comprehensive business consultant to their client base. It has also meant investing heavily in the right kind of talent that will help situate your agency to really support the success of your customer in the long term. Exceptional talent is hard to get and harder to keep, particularly in the Millennial generation. In 2014, Deloitte conducted a survey of 7,800 Millennials where 70% of them reportedly expected to be working for themselves by 2025. This generation was also predicted to occupy 75% of the workforce by 2025.
It’s no wonder agencies are struggling with a talent gap. The number of people with deep experience inside the HubSpot platform aren’t many and a lot of the veterans have moved on from being an employee at an agency to opening their own agency. It’s not enough anymore to hire out a new graduate with a fresh degree in Communications or Marketing, get them trained on HubSpot Marketing Pro and send them on their way.
It might’ve worked in the past, but the types of clients that HubSpot is angling for now are much more complex. They’re moving more and more towards Enterprise level clients and the small business in large part is priced out. While HubSpot has recently introduced some packages that are much more small business friendly, when it comes to building the agency that you want to build and servicing multiple customer portals - you sometimes need some backup.
A specialized technical, architecture or reporting partner can dig deeply into an organization’s business processes and glean specialized insight that the average marketing agency employee wouldn’t have experience with. Hiring on a full time version of these specialized contractors would run you hundreds of thousands of dollars. While we prefer to have work referred to us, because we can work faster and more efficiently, we understand that some partners aren’t comfortable with that. However, to help make sure that no boundaries are crossed and things go as smoothly as possible, we wanted to write down a few helpful tips coming from a specialized partner to help you successfully white label HubSpot CMS development, HubSpot architecture, and HubSpot Reporting contractors.
Communicate expectations in advance.
\nYou wouldn’t believe the number of stories we have to sit through and the different circumstances we hear as to why we have to white label our services. Here’s a little secret - we don’t really care why. We just want to know how to avoid weird scenarios like the customer going around you, requesting items that are outside of the scope or trying to push in work behind your back. Full transparency is going to allow us to work as efficiently as possible, without having to ask you a lot of additional questions.
We have no issues being your preferred white label HubSpot CMS developer or reporting contractor as long as the expectations and boundaries are crystal clear in advance. If you prefer to be the gatekeeper, we’re totally fine with that. Just know that the more figurative telephones you add in the middle of the process, the less efficiently work will get done.
Commit to clear expectations from the outset and we’ll be sure to be clear about ours as well. We want this relationship and every project to be as seamless as possible and we’re going to make sure we stay within the parameters of what we discuss, because agencies are our best customers and want to keep you guys happy by keeping your customers happy. That said, lay out the ground rules in advance of the engagement. If we’re not comfortable with something, we’ll be able to tell you at the beginning and we’ll be able to negotiate accordingly.
Understand that working in white label formats requires more work.
\nFrom having to login to entirely separate e-mail accounts to texting you to get two-factor authentication codes, the number of situations where we end up having to delay work for access issues are increased when we white label. If we’re not working in your client’s portal under our domain and e-mail, it’s going to cost a little more than if we didn’t have to jump through all those additional hoops.
As you probably know, HubSpot Partners get awarded points for engaging inside customer portals - so if all that work is happening under your e-mail and domain, it comes at an additional cost to us and you should expect to have that passed through to maintain the white label service that you’re requesting.
While that may be a tough pill for some agencies to swallow, the hard fact of the matter is that really high quality, experienced HubSpot technical specialists aren’t as desperate for work as you might think they are. Sometimes new agency clients approach us feeling they’ve got our golden ticket. Don’t get us wrong, we’re grateful for all the partnerships we have with our agency partners, but white label scenarios are more time consuming than working directly with the client. Many HubSpot contractors are inundated with requests and having to jump through more hoops to field them isn’t appealing to a contractor that is already very busy.
If we’re working in a portal under your domain, you’ll likely be billed accordingly and you should expect it. Not only are we not getting a piece of the MRR credit in that portal towards our Partner tiering, but we’re sometimes having to have multiple additional meetings and conversations more than once when we attempt to play telephone to help troubleshoot client issues. If we spend more time doing more work, and get less from it than we would by working with a client directly, there is more expense on our end, so there is more expense on your end. It’s as simple as that.
Be transparent with your fees.
\n
We get it. There’s time, effort and work involved in facilitating the details of any contract, even if you’re just coordinating a referral. Communicate your plans in advance for how you’ll be charging the client, how you need to be billed and how we should expect to be paid. We recently conducted an informal survey about margins relative to white label services for HubSpot Partners and understand that many agencies add anywhere from 10-30% to our fee structure to account for their time, but we need you to communicate this in the event that the client asks how much we charge or about any other details.
If you’ve maintained a good, honest rapport with your clients, they understand that the time you spend collaborating with us is valuable and billable. The more transparent you are about your fees with the client and with us, the easier we can all work together and the more sustainable the relationship is for everyone long term.
Unless…
Don’t be greedy. OR offensive.
\nWe found out recently that a white label partner we were working with was charging 300% of our fees for a service that we were white labeling for them that didn’t require any involvement on their end whatsoever. It was pretty offensive for us, we found out accidentally and we’re pretty sure if the client knew, they’d be equally offended.
\nHere’s the thing - you charge what you charge. Sometimes white label partners charge a little less than an agency might charge. When there are significant discrepancies between what your white label partner charges and what you charge, you need to have an honest and open conversation and do what is right. If the client would’ve approached us and told us they were willing to pay a little more, charge the client a little less and still make a really good margin on the service, they wouldn’t have lost their ability to partner with us.
Again, maybe you think what you charge is none of our business. But we’re human and so are your customers. If they know they can find a comparable service for less or that you’re gouging your contractors for really no other reason other than the client can pay it - it’s not going to look good. Be an ethical business and do what’s right by communicating with your contractors and clients in advance. There’s no reason that you can’t come up with a compromise to get paid your fees, make your contractor happy and make your client understand the value of the products or services at the very same time.
Don’t scope creep.
\n
You hate it when clients do it to you, but agencies are sometimes culprits themselves when it comes to scope creep on a project. Clearly delineate the parameters of your projects with both your contractor and your client. By establishing them in advance, the client will know exactly what is included. Leave yourself padding when creating budgets with your clients and work through individual scenarios on a case by case basis with your contractors to make sure that both you and the client are being charged properly for the services you’re getting.
Don’t ask for extra features, pretend you didn’t understand the scope of the original agreement or try to push through an extra request at the tail end of a project. Be the client you want to work with! Your contractors will appreciate it so much.
\nBe gracious with the possible scenarios that may transpire.
\nWe can’t count the number of awkward positions we’ve been put in as a white label contractor. From customers trying to see how much we charge to customers asking to work with us directly and fire an agency - it’s rare, but sometimes there’s some weird stuff that happens. Like, the time that a customer of ours Googled Nicholas Decker HubSpot and found us on an agency’s team page randomly (they added us without our knowledge) and we had to have an awkward conversation about how we don’t actually work for that agency…
Communication is critical, so *we* can operate the right way within it. Make sure that you trust the white label contractors that you work with to make the right decisions that are best for everyone involved and provide a safe format for them to do that. If you don’t trust your contractors, it’s hard for them to feel safe communicating the scenarios that sometimes arise. For example, if the customer is trying to have conversations with a contractor behind your back, there’s a lot to learn from that situation and your contractor should feel safe bringing it up.
By working together to tackle the issue, you can ensure not only that everyone leaves with the optimal outcome, but that you can keep your relationship with both the client and the contractor intact.
Having successful white label relationships can open up your agency to lots of additional service offerings that will not only help you expand the number of customers you reach, but become an even more trusted resource to your HubSpot clients. When you hire an experienced HubSpot professional, you can go far beyond offering marketing services and really digging into the complex business processes and other issues that your clients have that sometimes get in the way of closing deals.
Be a good white label partner by following this simple (and somewhat common sense) list of tips for working with HubSpot CMS development and HubSpot reporting contractors.
As HubSpot has grown over the years and expanded their product offerings, there has been more and more opportunities for HubSpot Partner agencies to specialize, expand their service offerings and really be a comprehensive business consultant to their client base. It has also meant investing heavily in the right kind of talent that will help situate your agency to really support the success of your customer in the long term. Exceptional talent is hard to get and harder to keep, particularly in the Millennial generation. In 2014, Deloitte conducted a survey of 7,800 Millennials where 70% of them reportedly expected to be working for themselves by 2025. This generation was also predicted to occupy 75% of the workforce by 2025.
It’s no wonder agencies are struggling with a talent gap. The number of people with deep experience inside the HubSpot platform aren’t many and a lot of the veterans have moved on from being an employee at an agency to opening their own agency. It’s not enough anymore to hire out a new graduate with a fresh degree in Communications or Marketing, get them trained on HubSpot Marketing Pro and send them on their way.
It might’ve worked in the past, but the types of clients that HubSpot is angling for now are much more complex. They’re moving more and more towards Enterprise level clients and the small business in large part is priced out. While HubSpot has recently introduced some packages that are much more small business friendly, when it comes to building the agency that you want to build and servicing multiple customer portals - you sometimes need some backup.
A specialized technical, architecture or reporting partner can dig deeply into an organization’s business processes and glean specialized insight that the average marketing agency employee wouldn’t have experience with. Hiring on a full time version of these specialized contractors would run you hundreds of thousands of dollars. While we prefer to have work referred to us, because we can work faster and more efficiently, we understand that some partners aren’t comfortable with that. However, to help make sure that no boundaries are crossed and things go as smoothly as possible, we wanted to write down a few helpful tips coming from a specialized partner to help you successfully white label HubSpot CMS development, HubSpot architecture, and HubSpot Reporting contractors.
As HubSpot has grown over the years and expanded their product offerings, there has been more and more opportunities for HubSpot Partner agencies to specialize, expand their service offerings and really be a comprehensive business consultant to their client base. It has also meant investing heavily in the right kind of talent that will help situate your agency to really support the success of your customer in the long term. Exceptional talent is hard to get and harder to keep, particularly in the Millennial generation. In 2014, Deloitte conducted a survey of 7,800 Millennials where 70% of them reportedly expected to be working for themselves by 2025. This generation was also predicted to occupy 75% of the workforce by 2025.
It’s no wonder agencies are struggling with a talent gap. The number of people with deep experience inside the HubSpot platform aren’t many and a lot of the veterans have moved on from being an employee at an agency to opening their own agency. It’s not enough anymore to hire out a new graduate with a fresh degree in Communications or Marketing, get them trained on HubSpot Marketing Pro and send them on their way.
It might’ve worked in the past, but the types of clients that HubSpot is angling for now are much more complex. They’re moving more and more towards Enterprise level clients and the small business in large part is priced out. While HubSpot has recently introduced some packages that are much more small business friendly, when it comes to building the agency that you want to build and servicing multiple customer portals - you sometimes need some backup.
A specialized technical, architecture or reporting partner can dig deeply into an organization’s business processes and glean specialized insight that the average marketing agency employee wouldn’t have experience with. Hiring on a full time version of these specialized contractors would run you hundreds of thousands of dollars. While we prefer to have work referred to us, because we can work faster and more efficiently, we understand that some partners aren’t comfortable with that. However, to help make sure that no boundaries are crossed and things go as smoothly as possible, we wanted to write down a few helpful tips coming from a specialized partner to help you successfully white label HubSpot CMS development, HubSpot architecture, and HubSpot Reporting contractors.
As HubSpot has grown over the years and expanded their product offerings, there has been more and more opportunities for HubSpot Partner agencies to specialize, expand their service offerings and really be a comprehensive business consultant to their client base. It has also meant investing heavily in the right kind of talent that will help situate your agency to really support the success of your customer in the long term. Exceptional talent is hard to get and harder to keep, particularly in the Millennial generation. In 2014, Deloitte conducted a survey of 7,800 Millennials where 70% of them reportedly expected to be working for themselves by 2025. This generation was also predicted to occupy 75% of the workforce by 2025.
It’s no wonder agencies are struggling with a talent gap. The number of people with deep experience inside the HubSpot platform aren’t many and a lot of the veterans have moved on from being an employee at an agency to opening their own agency. It’s not enough anymore to hire out a new graduate with a fresh degree in Communications or Marketing, get them trained on HubSpot Marketing Pro and send them on their way.
It might’ve worked in the past, but the types of clients that HubSpot is angling for now are much more complex. They’re moving more and more towards Enterprise level clients and the small business in large part is priced out. While HubSpot has recently introduced some packages that are much more small business friendly, when it comes to building the agency that you want to build and servicing multiple customer portals - you sometimes need some backup.
A specialized technical, architecture or reporting partner can dig deeply into an organization’s business processes and glean specialized insight that the average marketing agency employee wouldn’t have experience with. Hiring on a full time version of these specialized contractors would run you hundreds of thousands of dollars. While we prefer to have work referred to us, because we can work faster and more efficiently, we understand that some partners aren’t comfortable with that. However, to help make sure that no boundaries are crossed and things go as smoothly as possible, we wanted to write down a few helpful tips coming from a specialized partner to help you successfully white label HubSpot CMS development, HubSpot architecture, and HubSpot Reporting contractors.
As HubSpot has grown over the years and expanded their product offerings, there has been more and more opportunities for HubSpot Partner agencies to specialize, expand their service offerings and really be a comprehensive business consultant to their client base. It has also meant investing heavily in the right kind of talent that will help situate your agency to really support the success of your customer in the long term. Exceptional talent is hard to get and harder to keep, particularly in the Millennial generation. In 2014, Deloitte conducted a survey of 7,800 Millennials where 70% of them reportedly expected to be working for themselves by 2025. This generation was also predicted to occupy 75% of the workforce by 2025.
It’s no wonder agencies are struggling with a talent gap. The number of people with deep experience inside the HubSpot platform aren’t many and a lot of the veterans have moved on from being an employee at an agency to opening their own agency. It’s not enough anymore to hire out a new graduate with a fresh degree in Communications or Marketing, get them trained on HubSpot Marketing Pro and send them on their way.
It might’ve worked in the past, but the types of clients that HubSpot is angling for now are much more complex. They’re moving more and more towards Enterprise level clients and the small business in large part is priced out. While HubSpot has recently introduced some packages that are much more small business friendly, when it comes to building the agency that you want to build and servicing multiple customer portals - you sometimes need some backup.
A specialized technical, architecture or reporting partner can dig deeply into an organization’s business processes and glean specialized insight that the average marketing agency employee wouldn’t have experience with. Hiring on a full time version of these specialized contractors would run you hundreds of thousands of dollars. While we prefer to have work referred to us, because we can work faster and more efficiently, we understand that some partners aren’t comfortable with that. However, to help make sure that no boundaries are crossed and things go as smoothly as possible, we wanted to write down a few helpful tips coming from a specialized partner to help you successfully white label HubSpot CMS development, HubSpot architecture, and HubSpot Reporting contractors.
As HubSpot has grown over the years and expanded their product offerings, there has been more and more opportunities for HubSpot Partner agencies to specialize, expand their service offerings and really be a comprehensive business consultant to their client base. It has also meant investing heavily in the right kind of talent that will help situate your agency to really support the success of your customer in the long term. Exceptional talent is hard to get and harder to keep, particularly in the Millennial generation. In 2014, Deloitte conducted a survey of 7,800 Millennials where 70% of them reportedly expected to be working for themselves by 2025. This generation was also predicted to occupy 75% of the workforce by 2025.
It’s no wonder agencies are struggling with a talent gap. The number of people with deep experience inside the HubSpot platform aren’t many and a lot of the veterans have moved on from being an employee at an agency to opening their own agency. It’s not enough anymore to hire out a new graduate with a fresh degree in Communications or Marketing, get them trained on HubSpot Marketing Pro and send them on their way.
It might’ve worked in the past, but the types of clients that HubSpot is angling for now are much more complex. They’re moving more and more towards Enterprise level clients and the small business in large part is priced out. While HubSpot has recently introduced some packages that are much more small business friendly, when it comes to building the agency that you want to build and servicing multiple customer portals - you sometimes need some backup.
A specialized technical, architecture or reporting partner can dig deeply into an organization’s business processes and glean specialized insight that the average marketing agency employee wouldn’t have experience with. Hiring on a full time version of these specialized contractors would run you hundreds of thousands of dollars. While we prefer to have work referred to us, because we can work faster and more efficiently, we understand that some partners aren’t comfortable with that. However, to help make sure that no boundaries are crossed and things go as smoothly as possible, we wanted to write down a few helpful tips coming from a specialized partner to help you successfully white label HubSpot CMS development, HubSpot architecture, and HubSpot Reporting contractors.
As HubSpot has grown over the years and expanded their product offerings, there has been more and more opportunities for HubSpot Partner agencies to specialize, expand their service offerings and really be a comprehensive business consultant to their client base. It has also meant investing heavily in the right kind of talent that will help situate your agency to really support the success of your customer in the long term. Exceptional talent is hard to get and harder to keep, particularly in the Millennial generation. In 2014, Deloitte conducted a survey of 7,800 Millennials where 70% of them reportedly expected to be working for themselves by 2025. This generation was also predicted to occupy 75% of the workforce by 2025.
It’s no wonder agencies are struggling with a talent gap. The number of people with deep experience inside the HubSpot platform aren’t many and a lot of the veterans have moved on from being an employee at an agency to opening their own agency. It’s not enough anymore to hire out a new graduate with a fresh degree in Communications or Marketing, get them trained on HubSpot Marketing Pro and send them on their way.
It might’ve worked in the past, but the types of clients that HubSpot is angling for now are much more complex. They’re moving more and more towards Enterprise level clients and the small business in large part is priced out. While HubSpot has recently introduced some packages that are much more small business friendly, when it comes to building the agency that you want to build and servicing multiple customer portals - you sometimes need some backup.
A specialized technical, architecture or reporting partner can dig deeply into an organization’s business processes and glean specialized insight that the average marketing agency employee wouldn’t have experience with. Hiring on a full time version of these specialized contractors would run you hundreds of thousands of dollars. While we prefer to have work referred to us, because we can work faster and more efficiently, we understand that some partners aren’t comfortable with that. However, to help make sure that no boundaries are crossed and things go as smoothly as possible, we wanted to write down a few helpful tips coming from a specialized partner to help you successfully white label HubSpot CMS development, HubSpot architecture, and HubSpot Reporting contractors.
Communicate expectations in advance.
\nYou wouldn’t believe the number of stories we have to sit through and the different circumstances we hear as to why we have to white label our services. Here’s a little secret - we don’t really care why. We just want to know how to avoid weird scenarios like the customer going around you, requesting items that are outside of the scope or trying to push in work behind your back. Full transparency is going to allow us to work as efficiently as possible, without having to ask you a lot of additional questions.
We have no issues being your preferred white label HubSpot CMS developer or reporting contractor as long as the expectations and boundaries are crystal clear in advance. If you prefer to be the gatekeeper, we’re totally fine with that. Just know that the more figurative telephones you add in the middle of the process, the less efficiently work will get done.
Commit to clear expectations from the outset and we’ll be sure to be clear about ours as well. We want this relationship and every project to be as seamless as possible and we’re going to make sure we stay within the parameters of what we discuss, because agencies are our best customers and want to keep you guys happy by keeping your customers happy. That said, lay out the ground rules in advance of the engagement. If we’re not comfortable with something, we’ll be able to tell you at the beginning and we’ll be able to negotiate accordingly.
Understand that working in white label formats requires more work.
\nFrom having to login to entirely separate e-mail accounts to texting you to get two-factor authentication codes, the number of situations where we end up having to delay work for access issues are increased when we white label. If we’re not working in your client’s portal under our domain and e-mail, it’s going to cost a little more than if we didn’t have to jump through all those additional hoops.
As you probably know, HubSpot Partners get awarded points for engaging inside customer portals - so if all that work is happening under your e-mail and domain, it comes at an additional cost to us and you should expect to have that passed through to maintain the white label service that you’re requesting.
While that may be a tough pill for some agencies to swallow, the hard fact of the matter is that really high quality, experienced HubSpot technical specialists aren’t as desperate for work as you might think they are. Sometimes new agency clients approach us feeling they’ve got our golden ticket. Don’t get us wrong, we’re grateful for all the partnerships we have with our agency partners, but white label scenarios are more time consuming than working directly with the client. Many HubSpot contractors are inundated with requests and having to jump through more hoops to field them isn’t appealing to a contractor that is already very busy.
If we’re working in a portal under your domain, you’ll likely be billed accordingly and you should expect it. Not only are we not getting a piece of the MRR credit in that portal towards our Partner tiering, but we’re sometimes having to have multiple additional meetings and conversations more than once when we attempt to play telephone to help troubleshoot client issues. If we spend more time doing more work, and get less from it than we would by working with a client directly, there is more expense on our end, so there is more expense on your end. It’s as simple as that.
Be transparent with your fees.
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We get it. There’s time, effort and work involved in facilitating the details of any contract, even if you’re just coordinating a referral. Communicate your plans in advance for how you’ll be charging the client, how you need to be billed and how we should expect to be paid. We recently conducted an informal survey about margins relative to white label services for HubSpot Partners and understand that many agencies add anywhere from 10-30% to our fee structure to account for their time, but we need you to communicate this in the event that the client asks how much we charge or about any other details.
If you’ve maintained a good, honest rapport with your clients, they understand that the time you spend collaborating with us is valuable and billable. The more transparent you are about your fees with the client and with us, the easier we can all work together and the more sustainable the relationship is for everyone long term.
Unless…
Don’t be greedy. OR offensive.
\nWe found out recently that a white label partner we were working with was charging 300% of our fees for a service that we were white labeling for them that didn’t require any involvement on their end whatsoever. It was pretty offensive for us, we found out accidentally and we’re pretty sure if the client knew, they’d be equally offended.
\nHere’s the thing - you charge what you charge. Sometimes white label partners charge a little less than an agency might charge. When there are significant discrepancies between what your white label partner charges and what you charge, you need to have an honest and open conversation and do what is right. If the client would’ve approached us and told us they were willing to pay a little more, charge the client a little less and still make a really good margin on the service, they wouldn’t have lost their ability to partner with us.
Again, maybe you think what you charge is none of our business. But we’re human and so are your customers. If they know they can find a comparable service for less or that you’re gouging your contractors for really no other reason other than the client can pay it - it’s not going to look good. Be an ethical business and do what’s right by communicating with your contractors and clients in advance. There’s no reason that you can’t come up with a compromise to get paid your fees, make your contractor happy and make your client understand the value of the products or services at the very same time.
Don’t scope creep.
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You hate it when clients do it to you, but agencies are sometimes culprits themselves when it comes to scope creep on a project. Clearly delineate the parameters of your projects with both your contractor and your client. By establishing them in advance, the client will know exactly what is included. Leave yourself padding when creating budgets with your clients and work through individual scenarios on a case by case basis with your contractors to make sure that both you and the client are being charged properly for the services you’re getting.
Don’t ask for extra features, pretend you didn’t understand the scope of the original agreement or try to push through an extra request at the tail end of a project. Be the client you want to work with! Your contractors will appreciate it so much.
\nBe gracious with the possible scenarios that may transpire.
\nWe can’t count the number of awkward positions we’ve been put in as a white label contractor. From customers trying to see how much we charge to customers asking to work with us directly and fire an agency - it’s rare, but sometimes there’s some weird stuff that happens. Like, the time that a customer of ours Googled Nicholas Decker HubSpot and found us on an agency’s team page randomly (they added us without our knowledge) and we had to have an awkward conversation about how we don’t actually work for that agency…
Communication is critical, so *we* can operate the right way within it. Make sure that you trust the white label contractors that you work with to make the right decisions that are best for everyone involved and provide a safe format for them to do that. If you don’t trust your contractors, it’s hard for them to feel safe communicating the scenarios that sometimes arise. For example, if the customer is trying to have conversations with a contractor behind your back, there’s a lot to learn from that situation and your contractor should feel safe bringing it up.
By working together to tackle the issue, you can ensure not only that everyone leaves with the optimal outcome, but that you can keep your relationship with both the client and the contractor intact.
Having successful white label relationships can open up your agency to lots of additional service offerings that will not only help you expand the number of customers you reach, but become an even more trusted resource to your HubSpot clients. When you hire an experienced HubSpot professional, you can go far beyond offering marketing services and really digging into the complex business processes and other issues that your clients have that sometimes get in the way of closing deals.
Be a good white label partner by following this simple (and somewhat common sense) list of tips for working with HubSpot CMS development and HubSpot reporting contractors.
As HubSpot has grown over the years and expanded their product offerings, there has been more and more opportunities for HubSpot Partner agencies to specialize, expand their service offerings and really be a comprehensive business consultant to their client base. It has also meant investing heavily in the right kind of talent that will help situate your agency to really support the success of your customer in the long term. Exceptional talent is hard to get and harder to keep, particularly in the Millennial generation. In 2014, Deloitte conducted a survey of 7,800 Millennials where 70% of them reportedly expected to be working for themselves by 2025. This generation was also predicted to occupy 75% of the workforce by 2025.
It’s no wonder agencies are struggling with a talent gap. The number of people with deep experience inside the HubSpot platform aren’t many and a lot of the veterans have moved on from being an employee at an agency to opening their own agency. It’s not enough anymore to hire out a new graduate with a fresh degree in Communications or Marketing, get them trained on HubSpot Marketing Pro and send them on their way.
It might’ve worked in the past, but the types of clients that HubSpot is angling for now are much more complex. They’re moving more and more towards Enterprise level clients and the small business in large part is priced out. While HubSpot has recently introduced some packages that are much more small business friendly, when it comes to building the agency that you want to build and servicing multiple customer portals - you sometimes need some backup.
A specialized technical, architecture or reporting partner can dig deeply into an organization’s business processes and glean specialized insight that the average marketing agency employee wouldn’t have experience with. Hiring on a full time version of these specialized contractors would run you hundreds of thousands of dollars. While we prefer to have work referred to us, because we can work faster and more efficiently, we understand that some partners aren’t comfortable with that. However, to help make sure that no boundaries are crossed and things go as smoothly as possible, we wanted to write down a few helpful tips coming from a specialized partner to help you successfully white label HubSpot CMS development, HubSpot architecture, and HubSpot Reporting contractors.