In today’s digital climate of instant gratification and infinite choice, customers expect authentic brand experiences that resonate with their needs and are in tune with their stage in their buyer’s journey. The most effective way for a company to achieve this at scale is to harness the power of CRM technology.
But with so many CRM options available, it can be difficult to know which is best suited for the unique needs of your business and customers. In this blog post we’ll not only recommend the best and most user-friendly CRM on the market – we’ll also give you the lowdown on just how much it’ll cost you.
As you’ve probably guessed from the title of this article, our go-to CRM is HubSpot. This is because HubSpot offers an amazing balance between functionality, usability, and innovation that’s nigh-impossible to find in any other CRM provider. This is validated by G2’s grid for the top CRM products on the market today.
What’s more, they’re one of the only providers to offer a fully functional CRM package that’s completely free of charge.
Let’s explore the various HubSpot CRM options that are available, specifically focusing on their impact on your sales team.
Basic HubSpot CRM: Free
The core functionality of HubSpot’s CRM is available to anyone and everyone for absolutely free. As they describe on their CRM page, free access to the HubSpot CRM includes up to a million contacts, unlimited users and no time limit.
One of the best things about the free CRM is that it serves as the foundation for all other paid packages. This proves it’s a perfectly viable and robust CRM system; the lean core upon which additional features and functionality can be built.
Here are some of the key features available from the free HubSpot CRM:
- Unlimited users
- Community support
- 1,000,000 contacts
- Five email templates
- Five document uploads
- Web tracking code
- Fifteen minutes of calls
- Basic sales pipeline (deals)
- Task scheduler
- Gmail & Outlook integration
These features alone can help small businesses and start-ups track their leads, gain more value from their contact list and shorten their sales cycle. That said, for a business to get the most value from the HubSpot CRM, and to empower your sales team with the tools they need to get more business over the line at scale, then you’ll want to look at the paid options.
This is because the free CRM on its own has a few important limitations. For instance: lead activity on your website is only tracked for seven days; you’ll only have access to five snippets, templates and documents; and you’ll only have one meeting scheduling link without any customisation or embedding. But you also won’t have access to one of HubSpot’s most valuable features: automated lead communication.
Sales Hub Starter: $25/paid user/month
If HubSpot’s free CRM is the appetiser, Sales Hub Starter is the all-you-can-eat buffet. Most of the constraints in the free version have been lifted, so your sales team can use many of the tools to their hearts’ content.
Sales Hub Starter offers everything in the free version, but with the following nifty features:
- Up to 1,000 customisable meeting scheduling links
- Universal inbox for team email and chat conversations
- Unlimited email tracking and notifications
- Up to 8 hours of calling per user per month
- 1,000 email templates, canned snippets and HubSpot documents per user
- Email sequencing
- Incoming emails and chat conversations can be routed to individual users
Sales Hub Starter is a quick way to make your sales team more efficient and productive. The sequences tool is worth special mention, as this allows you to automate key sales communication at various stages of your sales funnel. When building outreach campaigns, sequences will ensure you won’t forget any follow up emails or tasks.
Automatic routing is also a great taste of what’s possible with sales automation. It allows you to assign incoming chat, new leads and new incoming emails to specific users, so there’s more control over which team member engages which leads.
While Sales Hub Starter comes in at 25 USD per user per month, you must have at least two paid users. This means the bare minimum you’ll pay for Sales Hub Starter is 50 USD per month.
Sales Hub Professional: $100/paid user/month
Next up on the tier list is Sales Hub Professional. Sticking with the food analogy, if Sales Hub Starter was the all-you-can-eat buffet, Sales Hub Professional is the VIP section with handpicked organic produce and Wagyu beef.
This is because, in addition to everything in the Starter package, Professional empowers your sales team with tools to drive automation and growth. Notable features include:
- Being able to manage up to 50 sales pipelines
- Multi-currency tracking
- Native Salesforce Integration
- Automation of sales tasks and notifications
- Quick and easy quote creation
Sales Hub Pro is perfect for larger teams, as you can roll out high-quality sales processes at scale with automated tasks and deal-based workflows. It also lets sales people put their best face forward, as they can send one-to-one videos in emails directly from the CRM.
While Sales Hub Professional is 100 USD per user per month, you need at least five paid users. This means the bare minimum you’ll pay for Sales Hub Pro is 500 USD per month. This becomes increasingly cost-effective as your business grows and sales processes become more complex.
Sales Hub Enterprise: $120 /paid user/month
Bear with me for one last food analogy. But forget the buffets and the Wagyu Tartare – with Sales Hub Enterprise, you’ve bought the whole damn restaurant. That’s because it’s the most comprehensive and feature-rich CRM option, perfectly suited for medium-to-large businesses with multiple sales teams and management levels.
As HubSpot themselves put it, Sales Hub Enterprise is there to help you scale your business, coach and enable team members at scale, and supercharge your sales pipeline with best-of-breed workflows, tracking and reporting.
Some of the key features available in Enterprise include:
- Improved team management
- Custom sales reports
- Sales Playbooks
- Transcription and recording of sales calls
- Sales quotas for teams and reps
- Calculated properties
- eSignatures
- Tracking of recurring revenue and renewals
So if your business has reached a level where you’re looking for a CRM that simplifies complexity at scale, Sales Hub Enterprise is worth consideration. It’s especially helpful for managers to ensure their teams are performing and have the support they need to excel.
Sales Hub Enterprise is 120 USD per user per month, but you need at least ten paid users. This means, at the very least, Sales Hub Enterprise will cost 1200 USD per month.
So how much will HubSpot CRM actually cost your business?
The answer, as with many things in life, is that it depends. If you’re just starting out or are running a very small business, you might be able to get by without spending a cent. But if your business is growing and you need a robust CRM that empowers your sales reps at scale, you’re looking at upwards of 500 USD per month for Sales Hub Professional or 1200 USD per month for Sales Hub Enterprise.
Selecting the right technology for your business can be the difference between prosperity and tumbleweeds – especially in today’s ruthless global climate. That’s why choosing a partner who can offer guidance and support is so important. At Huble Digital, our consultants are always on hand to offer expert advice and ensure your CRM and sales processes are running like a well-oiled machine. To get in touch or schedule a meeting with a member of the team, click here.
