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. 

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. 

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. 

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

You’ll have a lot less collateral damage.

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

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.