It happens more often than we wish it did: We’re approached by or referred to a prospective client who had hired a HubSpot CMS Developer and “didn’t get what they expected,”or we hear, “We wish we would’ve done it differently.” Sometimes, we had scoped the project ourselves only to lose it to another developer who promised a cheaper price but ended up delivering  an inferior product. It’s not uncommon. 

It’s like when you walk into a mechanic’s shop: You get quoted a price to have your car fixed, and you think what you’re paying for is straightforward service. You pay the fee, you receive the deliverable, your car is functioning. It works and you saved a bundle of money, right? Well, this is how it should go. Until you find out that the mechanic who worked on your car didn’t complete an important check and all of a sudden you’re broken down on the side of the road. We’ve outlined the basic problem with cheap outsourced web development before, but let’s dig into the specifics. 

An inexperienced or inexpensive development team can always get a job done. If you know exactly what you want and have planned exactly how it will work, there is a chance you’ll get exactly what you asked for at the price you want. Around here we don’t operate that way, though. We’re not order takers. You can’t come up to us with your submarine sandwich order and ask for mayonnaise and mustard and provolone cheese and turkey; we’ll suggest the amazing dijon mustard we just got in or the bread that makes everything come together in a symphony of flavor. Around here, we’re dream makers. We talk to you honestly about your wishlist, bringing practical knowledge and suggesting additional features based on experience.  

What you get may be different from what you originally conceived, but in so many ways it makes for the best possible result. After all, we’ve been making sandwiches for a long time, and you might not even know what you’re missing when you’re choosing ingredients yourself. And in this analogy we also fail to mention — you’re sharing this sandwich with every single person who encounters it, so what happens if they hate it? We’ve had time to pore through data to understand what works together and what doesn’t and what’s going to please the audience you’re trying to attract. 

Here are just a few reasons you should make sure you hire an experienced HubSpot CMS developer:

Experience matters.

Albert Einstein once said, “The only source of knowledge is experience.” We agree. Our years of experience as HubSpot CMS developers mean that we’ve seen it ALL — the good, the bad, and the ugly. Our owner and lead developer built one of the first websites on HubSpot CMS. Over the years we’ve completed so many projects, and HubSpot CMS is our go-to suggestion for website redesign projects, because of its flexibility. 

As HubSpot has gained popularity, the number of companies adopting the platform has skyrocketed while the number of developers with significant experience in HubSpot CMS is still limited. So many projects at varying stages have fallen upon us to complete or re-develop as a result of inexperienced development teams taking on projects that were over their heads. It’s always unfortunate to be the final destination for frustrated clients who didn’t get what they wanted the first time around, but at least we’re able to deliver where other developers failed.

HubSpot CMS is different. 

We’ve seen developers who market themselves as experienced in HubSpot CMS to win jobs. These developers will hard code an entire website rather than creating flexible and full-featured modules, offering no flexibility for the marketers, and then ghost a client after taking thousands of dollars from them. Yeah. It really happens: We’re doing a case study on it now. . 

HubSpot CMS has its own programming language.  If a developer insists they can code inside HubSpot, but lack meaningful experience with it, you shouldn’t work with them. It’s not that developing on HubSpot CMS is hard, it’s that if your developers really know your way around, you’ll find yourself with an exciting set of powerful modules that are way more flexible than you ever imagined, putting power back into the hands of marketers to create really beautiful pages without navigating any code. 

Your foundation is important. 

When the structure of what you’re building is built properly by an experienced HubSpot CMS development team, you won’t have many issues with load speed or optimization issues. We’ve seen inexperienced HubSpot agencies create messy, poorly written code or misconfigure databases for resource centers that bogged down load speed and created such a horrible user experience that their bounce rate skyrocketed. (Check out 5 factors bogging down your website for more insight on the impact of page load times on user experience and conversion.) 

With one in four users bailing on a website that takes more than 4 seconds to load, the small amount of money you saved by opting for a slow-loading site will end up costing you tens of thousands in potential revenue over the course of the life of your website. Starting with a veteran HubSpot partner developer, on the other hand, will situate you well because they’ll know the ins and outs of the platform and have all the necessary knowledge to code pages that perform. 

Don’t end up doing it over again. 

We’ve seen a prospect go to another developer for work and then come back and ask us to redo it. It sometimes turns out that what the client thought they wanted didn’t provide the best user experience, and the developer just took the job and executed without offering additional insight or having the appropriate expertise to assist. 

We don’t hold grudges: We understand that budgets are budgets and the extra expense paid for the education they needed to gain the confidence to hire someone they could trust. But no one wants to do a project over again! Make sure you properly qualify your developer. Determine their level of expertise in HubSpot CMS by asking about past work, how many HubSpot CMS projects they’ve completed in the last year, and how they stay up to date with the platform — and always ask for customer references!

If you’re using or considering HubSpot CMS, you already know your website isn’t static. It’s a super-robust, constantly evolving lead generation tool and probably one of the most significant sources of revenue your company has. While you may think you know exactly what you want when it comes to your next new module, resource center, or website redesign, it’s important you don’t treat this next project like placing an order at your local sub shop. 

Rattling off a list of features and ingredients you think you may want to an inexperienced developer the same way you’d order a sub at the deli may not get you the results that you’re looking for. Instead, take your desired list of features and ingredients and sit down with a skilled HubSpot developer to determine your best course of action. Forget the quick-serve sub shop altogether. Instead, sit down with an expert who has been there and cultivate perfection so you can deliver even tastier marketing morsels than you ever imagined. 

 A good developer can help you build your next project even better. Hire someone with experience in HubSpot CMS, give them the details of the project, ask them for feedback, and take the time to really get to know the team that you’ll be working with. Some of the most successful projects  have been with clients with whom we can dig into page speed, user experience, conversion, and more. A design might look great, but we’ll be able to provide feedback on how it might bog down page load speed, interrupt conversions, or skyrocket bounce rates. 

Allowing us to explore and conceive with you gives you confidence that we have the experience and knowledge to get you where you need to go — and far beyond, to places you never dreamed you could reach.