For companies looking to get their sales team started with HubSpot Sales Hub, the Starter tier offers a great balance of function and affordability. (After all, it’s called Starter for a reason.) 

Even getting your sales team to use a CRM (or customer relationship management software) can be a challenge for many businesses, so any sꦬtep in the CRM direction means progress.&n𒁃bsp;

Because some organizations anticipate heꦓsitancy from their sales reps to fully embrace a CRM, they don’t want to plunk down more money than they need to.

For those in that position, Sales Starter is a good solution. But, I’ll say it again: It’s called Starter for a reason. Many sales teams find that they beg🃏in feeling the limitations sooner than they might think.

Jess Palmeri is a lead HubSpot trainer here at IMPACT. She notes: “Some of our clients begin with Starter for the low financial investment, thinking an upgrade to Pro could happen way down the line. But they find themselves ready to jump to Pro in six to 12 months — way faster than they anticipated.”

If you’re using HubSpot Sa🐽les Hub Starter — or are planning toಌ — here’s how to know if and when an upgrade to Pro is the right call for your business.

Is Sales Hub Starter a long-term solution for my team?

First ꧅off, it’s important to note that differe🔜nt companies can have very different HubSpot needs. 

Larger companies co🅺ming to HubSpot from another CRM such as Salesforce or Zendesk are likely to jump right into Sales Hub Pro. (In fact, we usually recommend our clients use the whole Pro suite, which comes with discou𒁃nts.) They’re likely to know what they need, and it’s just a question of integrations and data migration that need to be addressed before they get up and running.

A smaller business might be coming to HubSpot after using spreadsheets or another home-grown organizational system. For them, Sales Hub Starter is a big step up, and it might actually be a fairly long-term solution. If they’re🐭 not growing rapidly, Starter could work for them forever. 

But for maﷺny businesses, Starter is just that — a way to learn HubSpot and get their feet wet before upgrading. 

And the price is right. 

According to Jess, “If a company is starting from scratch, the Starter rate of $25 per seat per༒ month is much more palatable than $100𝓡 per seat per month for Pro.”

But when they’re ready,ꩵ the functionality of Pro easily justifies the cost. So, let’s see exactly what it is that Pro offers that’s worth the extra cost.

3 key Sales Hub Pro features that cause people to upgrade

Although Sales Hub P🧜ro offers , Jess says it comes down to three features that make it a worthwhile investment for our clients.

1. Custom reporting and sales analytics

First up, with Pro you will have access to am🅷azing reporting and analytics tools that let you easily look at data in ways that would normally take hours to compile.

Jess says “Hub🅷Spot has a that almost eliminates the need to build your own sales reports.” ♏There are numerous reporting options that can be configured to your team’s needs. 

If you want to look at a report on close r𝕴ates or see how long your deals are taking, you can see that in a few clicks. Says Jess (affectionately), “It would take one of your nerdy people a good bit of time to build a report like the one you can easily get with Sales Hub Pro.”

So you can deploy your nerds elsewhere. 

2. Automation and sequences

“If you want to automate anything in your sales process,” Jess says, “you’ll need the fun🌼ction⭕ality that’s available in Pro.” 

Automation improves your sales team’s performance from start to finish. Automation is generally used more by managers than by the sales reps themselves. When a lead comes in, that lead can be automatically assigned to one of your sales reps oﷺn a round-robin basis. 

Then, as a deal moves from one stage to another, that can trigger certain actions to occur, which could include emails being sent or notificati🥂ons going to a manager.

These automation features keep teams running smoothly and give manager🧔s insights into each sales rep’s pipeline.

Sequences

Related to au🐭tomation are sequences, which allow your team to more easily follow up with pr🌟ospects in the sales process. Email sequences allow for nurturing campaigns to keep prospects engaged who are not yet ready to buy. 

For example, if a site visitor comes and reads several articles about a particular product, a rep could trigger a sequence that sends several helpful emails related to their needs 📖— without the sales rep having to send each one individually. 

Sales reps find the🃏mselves sending very similar emails to client after client. Rather than having to write out the same follow-up email after each exploratory call, say, they can build a template and start a sequence.

Then, they don’t ha🦩ve to remember to send another email in three days if the first one didn’t get a response. The sequence automatically takes ca𝓀re of this.

For sales reps working dozens of deals at once, s🌳ꦕequences help economize the process and prevent things from slipping through the cracks. 

3. Prospecting Workspace

HubSpot's Prospecting🌳 Workspace is the cen🌸ter of a salesperson's day-to-day workload. Here they can see their tasks, access their contacts, and stay up on what actions are the highest priority. 

()

For salespeople used to less sophisticated systems, Prospecting Workspace is a game-chan𝓀ger — and it's . You'll see much more efficiency from your sales team almost immediately. 

How to know when the time is right for your HubSpot upgrade

Considering your unique needs, how will you know if or when an upgrade makes sense? Jess offers a simple solution to this complex question: Listen to your sales team. 

“If they’re just using the CRM to keep track of their pipeline,” she says, “you’ve probably not outgrown Starter.” But when they start using the tool more heavily — and mentioning how expanded functi✨onality could help them — you might 💦be ready to upgrade. 

“Once your sales reps are logging and tracking all of their deal activity, as well as aꦜll of their communication with prospects,” Jess ܫ;says, “they’re going to start to feel the limitations of the Starter tier.”

How will you know whe🌺n to upgrade? Listen to your sales team. 

The same thing can be said for data. If🔴 your sales team bemoans the fact that they can’t parse and analyze the HubSpot data because doꦛing so is too labor-intensive, Sales Hub Pro is probably in your near future. 

Remember, an upgrade to your HubSpot CRM is a good sign!

Although no business wants to spend money it doesn’t have to, don’t be upset by th🌃e fact that you’re moving from Starter to Pro. If you’re in the market to upgrade, it usually has to do with three things:

1. Your sales team is fully bought into using the CRM. They’re tracking deals and logging call notes with it. This should be celebrated. Some sales teams are very resistant 💙to gꦉetting even this far. 
2. You’re growing. More revenue means more sales reps, more deals, and more customers. You might just need a bigger and better system to keep track of it all.
3. You’re using data to make decisions. Paying for HubSpot is paying for data. When you have data you can make sense of, you can make better decisions about how you market and sell to your customers. Paying a little more each month to make more informed decisions sounds like a good deal to me. 

Still, you want to make sure you’re not overpaying to get what you need. Check out this article: Think you’re paying too much for HubSpot? Hꦚere’s how to get your money’s worth. 

When you’re ready to make the jump, though, you should see the upgrade to Pr🔴o as a clear metric of progress. You’ll be amazed by what you can do.