In today’s modern environment, businesses have become more customer-centric than ever. All the enterprise processes and products are aligned to cater to the fluctuating needs and demands of the customers to boost sales and profitability. Regardless of the industry, every business is making deliberate and vigorous efforts in Market research to understand their customers better and serve them beyond expectations. What makes this task more challenging is the vast source of information and communication that makes the consumers more informed and ambitious.
This is where the sales software and CRM platforms help your sales team to bridge the gap and establish a close and fruitful relationship with the customers. Whether you are looking for a B2B lead generation or serving individual customers, efficient sales and customer relationship software support can mean the difference between success and failure. Professional companies such as bizprospex are often a good choice for data mining services or research to enhance the productivity of your marketing and sales strategies.
The importance of customer relationships emphasizes the need for a tech stack that not only delivers quality results but is also encouraging for your sales team. Your team must love using it and strive to earn greater value from it.
Looking at the present trend, many companies are making a shift from Salesforce to Hubspot to serve their sales team. However, taking a blind leap can be catastrophic. There are several technical and human aspects that you need to consider before making the call. From choosing the right package to drafting the most efficient and effective adoption plan, you need to make sure that your team is happy with your decision and you are earning high yields in terms of acquiring and serving customers.
Have a clear vision about the migration
If you are thinking of shifting from Salesforce to Hubspot, you first need to identify the reason for doing so. Before diving into the migration process, it is crucial to understand why you want to make this transition. It provides you a clear view of where you want to reach and what you expect to earn from the move. There can be numerous parameters driving your decision to switch to Hubspot that are influenced by countless internal and external factors. However, some reasons are common for organizations. Most companies decide to change their CRM to Hubspot for the following three primary reasons.
Salesforce is a bit intricate to work with. The ease and convenience of the teams is often the factor that pushes the change to Hubspot.
Hubspot is a scalable and flexible CRM platform that can be adapted to almost any enterprise ecosystem. It offers several integrations that also help in accommodating your business growth and expansion.
The learning curve of Hubspot is not as steep as that of the Salesforce. Its user-friendly interfaces make it a preferred choice and a call for change.
In short, Hubspot is ideal for businesses that do not need to make their CRM complicated and let multiple teams work on it.
Respect the needs of your team
For any change to be successful, compatibility and alignment with the fundamental business process is imperative. Before you finalize shifting to Hubspot, you must thoroughly understand your current processes and the requirements of your team to accomplish them.
Once you are sure that the new software will not only support but also boost the current processes, look for the acceptance levels in your team. Evaluate how much ready and willing your team is to bring about the change. An evaluation of the sentiments towards the current Salesforce software can give valuable insight in this regard.
Are your team members working with the Salesforce for years and are resistant to any change? Is the team new that finds Salesforce inconvenient or is willing to jump to a more user-friendly option? Answers to such questions can give you a clear idea of how well the new platform will be received by your team.
Companies often overlook this aspect that leads to a lot of friction within the organization. Consider the readiness of the team before you switch the software.
Plan the management and integration of data
Let us look at some technical aspects of migrating the CRM software. One of the most vital technical considerations is data management and integration and related features.
You need to make conscious efforts to clean up your existing Salesforce data to ensure that you carry only the important data while migrating to Hubspot. Take a closer look at your datasets in the current platform and carefully pick the most relevant ones that you would really need while migrating. Such clean-ups not only allow you to take forward only 'good data' but also make efficient use of your resources.
One easy way to find the 'good data' is to ask yourself how you are going to utilize this data post-migration. If you are unable to sort to an appropriate reply, you probably do not need that data and spend your time and efforts on it.
Create a roadmap to structure data
Another technical aspect is how your data will be structured. It is critical in enabling rapid and efficient use of data in the processes after the transition is done. Usability and efficient access are crucial in boosting productivity and generating valuable returns from the system.
Different platforms would structure your data differently. You need to look at the way the current and new platform breaks down the data objects. Generally, what is accounts in Salesforce, is a company in Hubspot, opportunities are deals, and contacts or leads in Salesforce are contacts in Hubspot.
You can also create your customized data objects in Salesforce while Hubspot deprives you of that facility. You need to ensure that your data fits in the structure of HubSpot before you import and also ensure error-free operations after that.
Conduct a detailed analysis of your current process
You cannot make an accurate analysis of data and data structure without knowing your current internal processes in depth. It is important to have an insight into how your team is using the current system to serve your prospects and customers. You can assess the response and inclinations from your audience using data scraping services to evaluate the outcomes and quality of current processes.
Make an exhaustive assessment of the features and offerings of Salesforce and the set up of your current processes and automation in the system. Examine the processes at both macro and micro levels to know the nuances and also get a clear big picture. This will give you an idea about the changes you will have to make in the processes to fit them into Hubspot. This will provide bedrock for a smooth transition to achieve the same or elevated set of processes in the new system.
Establish training plans
CRM or sales software serves several stakeholders and not just the sales team. The software cannot serve the purpose of greater B2B lead generation and enhanced relations with the prospects without the support and agreement of all parties involved. You have to bring all the stakeholders on the same page regarding the way it must be used within the organization.
In simple words, you must align your sales team, marketing team, customer service executives, and all other staff members along with the usage of the new system. As all the teams will be introduced to Hubspot for the first time, you need to figure out the most efficient way of training them all. The requirements of different teams will be different which is why your training programs need to be people-centric, diverse, and focused.
Luckily Hubspot provides certified training for almost all of its sections. You can opt for its instructive articles, Hubspot academy, or Hubspot trainers as per your requirements.
Identify non-Hubspot tools that could integrate with ease
Even if you find Hubspot a better option for your team, it may not serve all your needs by itself. Usually, businesses do not find all that they need right out of the box when it comes to Hubspot. However, it compensates for its shortcomings with an extremely flexible architecture that allows the integration of several tools. You can find the tools that fulfill your needs and integrate that with Hubspot seamlessly with minimum time and effort. A little Market research can help you find the missing functionalities and the most efficient way to integrate them into Hubspot CRM.
Decide whether to keep the migration a complete internet job or consider partnering with professional experts
Lastly, you need to consider how you are going to accomplish this project. Would you like to work with a professional partner or keep it a completely internal venture? Plenty of companies such as bizprospex provide boarding and migration support to ensure the success of the change you initiated. The two primary factors that drive this decision are budget and the type of service you need. If you choose to collaborate with a partner, make sure that you find a service that lies within your budget. Also, consider the type of services you need including onboarding, workflow, campaigns, etc to decide on the type of agency that suits your needs the best.
Murtaza is ceo and founder of bizprospex. He helps B2B companies to clean their crm data.