Whenever you hear that you can get your CRM ready in a week, this usually means low to none personalization for your business. There are many tools that partners use to copy paste processes or configuration for other clients into your HubSpot portal, but this usually ends up in a portal with low adoption and ends up in frustration and abandonment.

So when you hear us at Andimol talking about Implementing your processes in HubSpot CRM what we really mean is a highly customized portal for your business processes and needs.

What do we mean with customization? 

Some clients (still) don’t know that HubSpot can be highly customised. Others have the expectation of us changing everything, even the colors. The reality is in between. But let’s us help you understand the basics of ABC of customization that you SHOULD have. Or at least for you to understand the potential of HubSpot’s customization.

How does HubSpot customization looks like?

Many HubSpot admins think that customising the CRM is just about creating custom properties, editing the names of the pipeline stages, creating some custom reports or even personalizing record views. This is in deed a part of customising the CRM. But there is much more you can do to align the CRM to your business needs.

The POWER of Customising Objects Records

The data model in the CRM will reflect the most important information for your business and will form the foundation of your operations and reporting. Each object is subject of having the proper information for the right team at the right time. Taking advantage of HubSpot standard properties and objects is the first step.

And if that doesn't give you the information you need, you can extend your data model by adding additional information. This can be things like custom objects and custom properties.

👉 Pro Tip here: Not everything should be a custom object

Right now there is a BETA feature that allows us to rename standard object for your business purposes.

⚠️ But be careful with this and please think well before touching and changing everything.

The positive side of this (if you do it right) is that we can now have an extended data model without having to go Enterprise level. 

Another option rather new is taking advance of the object library were you can choose some cool new objects like appointments, services or listings, with custom properties already created and add them to you data model, without coding, and ready to use.

The last option, of course, is to use custom objects to have a clean and complete data model that represents 100% of your data needs.

Customizing Record Views.

The second most important steps is having personalized views for your objects, adding the right columns and filters so that teams can work at ease at all times. 
Now let’s talk about custom Record views.

Most of the times we find many teams working inside a HubSpot portal with many pipelines for deals or for tickets, but all of them sharing the same defect: showing the same information at all times 😱.

Every team has different needs, different information they need to handle at different stages, so why are you still showing the same default information? Ask your teams what they need and when, and create a customized experience for them to facilitate their job and became more efficient.

A key element of the personalisation process involves the implementation of conditional properties and cards that are displayed based on specific property values. For instance, we are introducing a dedicated section for US-based clients, showcasing properties pertinent only to US tax information.

FYI: HubSpot has a card library where you can find standard templates to use when creating a new card in a record (property list, highlights, reports) and also cards from 3rd party apps coming from integrations. 

I have a BIG Tech Stack, can I see it HubSpot? 

So, we ‘ve already mentioned custom cards with properties coming from integrations or 3rd apps. But some times the information shown there is not enough or not completely accurate for your business. In this cases you 'd probably want a custom coded card.

Some of that information could be living already in the CRM in any associated object but also could be living outside HubSpot. But is it possible to see outside information inside HubSpot? We can facilitate this by creating a custom card that functions as a window within another software or platform, displaying the information you require. This will assist your team in visualising a complete process without the need to navigate outside of HubSpot and maintain the same interface.

Some of the best examples of what our clients need when consulting a record is having the possibility to view properties that live on other object without having to change screens and go into that other record.

Others may need to see some custom reports displayed in them or even have special coded cards doing calculations regarding LTV, ARR, upsells or downgrades during the month, Total revenue, among other stuff. Can we make this happened? Of course we can. 

If you are an advance super admin and have a developer on your team you can get inspired on what’s up next. If not, continue reading about some examples that might help you get the idea.

Get the most out of HubSpot by using your data to its full potential using custom cards.

Here are some of the most wonderful examples we have create for our customers:

• For the Real State industry is a MUST to be able to view the information about a Listing (the status of the publication of platforms or the photo) also inside HubSpot.
• Add a custom calculator card to your middle column. Its not uncommon to have the need to add a custom quote calculator within the deals that fetches updated pricing information, and/or in addition to what you are able to do with the standard line item editor.
• Most of our SaaS clients love seeing information about the trials or the account activation and app usage inside their account records in HubSpot to handle the onboarding processes, among other actions.

Customizing Processes in HubSpot

Another important step in your customization journey is defining your process according to your business’s need. Starting for the name of the stages, the required properties between stages, approvals, tasks and automations triggered on each stage.

You can also use playbooks to give teams a guide to know what to do and what information to complete at each stage. This is an effective method of implementing SOPs (standard operating procedures) and ensuring all required properties are completed in one go, in one place.

It is possible to establish your processes, configuration (also known as pipelines or kanban boards), either on deals with the Sales Hub, on tickets with the Service Hub, or on any custom object. This creates a rich infrastructure for your business operations and team collaboration.

Don’t set and forget

Your business changes over time, so it's only natural that your CRM should evolve too. Everything in this article should be audited and updated regularly so that it keeps meeting your goals and adapts accordingly.

We believe your Super admins should regularly talk to the internal teams and suggest the best ways to improve how the operation and the portal are set up.

Would you like to get the most out of your CRM? Then, we invite you to work with us on a technical scoping project to develop a working Proof of Concept (POC) and roadmap to a full solution within your HubSpot portal, enabling your teams to reach their full potential.

☝️We help companies experience the full power of HubSpot.