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Totally Dope HubSpot Renewals Guide for Businesses (+ Examples)

Picture of George B. Thomas George B. Thomas Oct 9, 2023 1:00:00 PM

HubSpot

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Ultimate HubSpot Renewals Guide for Companies (Step-by-Step Process)

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How to Manage HubSpot Subscription Renewals

Locate your HubSpot renewal details (a tutorial)
Avoid these 3 costly HubSpot renewal mistakes
Review HubSpot data and metrics
Talk to in-house HubSpot users (+ discussion prompts)
Talk to your HubSpot representatives
Remember, "scared money don't make money"

When it comes to being the proud owner of a HubSpot hub (or three), you're always going to be in the hot seat with making smart, strategic decisions about the technology you're using to support your company's growth goals.

For example, are you going to stick with one HubSpot hub, or are you going to spring for multiple hubs, as they continue to expand what's possible with the platform? I mean, heck, there's a reason why we've dedicated so many episodes of the HubHeroes Podcast to unpacking each of hub individually ...

Why go HubSpot Marketing Hub?
Why go HubSpot Sales Hub?
Why go HubSpot Service Hub?
Why go HubSpot CMS Hub?
Why go HubSpot Operations Hub?
What the heck is HubSpot Commerce Hub? (Coming next week!)

... you can do so much with HubSpot!

And I'd be willing to make a friendly wager that our dedicated friends at the Big Orange Sprocket will never stop innovating new ways for all of us to grow better. That means making the right HubSpot choices for your business requires tremendous thought and care — what's right for you may not be right for someone else.

But taking a step back from these initial decisions you make when you invest in HubSpot, there is one bigger decision that will come back month after month, quarter after quarter, or year after year (depending on your agreement) — because it isn't a decision you make once, you make it over and over.

Should you renew HubSpot? If so, should you make changes?

That's right, even after you sign on the dotted line with HubSpot when you first jump into the big orange swimming pool of growth, you'll need to revisit this investment every time your renewal comes up!

Yes, every single time.

Sure, we've all got more than a few set-it-and-forget it subscriptions that are best left on autopilot — there's a difference between needing to pause to evaluate a current business investment, and over-engineering something that should be a no-brainer decision. However, you shouldn't let your HubSpot renewal time pass by without some serious introspection.

This is particularly true because it can be way too easy to make trigger-happy cost-cutting decisions when you've got larger budget issues at play. In some cases, those choices aren't the end of the world. In other cases, like with HubSpot, short-sighted cost-cutting measures at renewal time can really cost you in the long run.

Is this HubSpot renewal guide for you?

That's why I (along with the other HubHeroes) created this guide, so you can make the smartest decision possible about your HubSpot renewal, balancing both your business priorities and current budget considerations.

This HubSpot renewal guide is for two groups of humans out there:

Organizational folks who own the decision of your HubSpot investment; you've got a big responsibility on your shoulders, and we're going to help you do right by your organization and your people.
Internal HubSpot users who aren't decision-makers about HubSpot, but would absolutely be impacted by changes to your HubSpot investment; you need to know what decision-makers are thinking about and how to constructively participate in the decision-making process for HubSpot.

And if you think this conversation is only going to be a conversation about your marketing contacts, strap yourselves in, folks! That's merely a small sliver of what this HubSpot renewal conversation entails.

OK, let's dig in!

Part I. Your HubSpot renewal details

I'll be honest, HubSpot doesn't exactly make it easy to keep track of your renewal, which is why some of you folks right now maybe thinking, "Wait, there's a renewal? When the heck is our renewal? I have no freakin' clue!"

It's not a main navigation item in your HubSpot menu, so it's not something you're going to look at on a daily or weekly basis. This is why if your HubSpot renewal schedule is a big ol' question mark in your mind, getting these details is your first step.

Locate your HubSpot renewal details

Here's where you find it:

Once you're inside account and billing, you'll see what your current subscriptions are, as well as when they're set to renew:

hubspot-renewals

As I mentioned earlier, not everyone has the same renewal cycle! You might have a monthly, quarterly, or annual arrangement with HubSpot ... or, I've even seen some folks who multi-year contracts in place! My point here is you need to nail down the specifics of your subscription for yourself. Don't assume your HubSpot subscriptions is monthly, quarterly, annual, or something else.

Set your HubSpot renewal permissions

Another great way to maintain visibility and control over your HubSpot subscription — especially if you have lots of HubSpot decision-makers and stakeholders involved — is to record who your decision-makers are within HubSpot:

Screen Shot 2023-10-09 at 12.51.27 PM

I bet you didn't know you could do this!

In one neat and tidy spot (also under Account & Billing for your HubSpot portal), you can guarantee anyone who needs to be involved with any part of the HubSpot subscription process will be. Of course, don't wait until HubSpot's automated renewal notices hit your inboxes to start having the renewal conversation.

Part II. Costly HubSpot renewal mistakes to avoid

1. Immediately blaming HubSpot for your problems

At an inbound-enabled organization, HubSpot can be the crown jewel of your technology stack, which means renewal time should be a great opportunity for admins and business owners to evaluate your entire data model and process ... but the key word in that previous statement, ladies and gentlemen, is "should."

Historically speaking, all too often I see people waiting until the last dang minute to make the call on their HubSpot renewal. In a meaningful number of cases, they're folks who bought into the idea of HubSpot but struggled to see the ROI they were looking for from the platform. As a result, they kicked the can down the road to the last possible moment to make the decision.

When you wait to the last minute to have these all-important HubSpot conversations, you're setting yourself up to fail. You don't have time to ask yourself critical questions like:

Why are we struggling with HubSpot really?
Did we even set up HubSpot properly in the first 30 to 60 days?
Did we cut corners where we shouldn't have with the platform?
Are we disappointed because we're just using HubSpot as a glorified email tool?
Did you accidentally set the conditions for HubSpot to be the Future Home of Tomorrow no one will ever move into?
Have you taken the time to make the HubSpot platform work for you and your teams, maximizing the potential of the platform?
Should you have a dedicated, in-house HubSpot Super Admin?

Hey, I know we're all busy people, and many of you out there who are the HubSpot owners of your organization wear multiple hats. However, before you start pointing the finger at HubSpot and getting rid of it, you need to be honest with yourself about whether or not HubSpot is actually the problem.

And you can't wait until the 11th hour to ask these questions either. Not only will you not have enough time to get the answers you need, you'll never give yourself a chance to remedy the issues before you decide it's not worth the effort.

2. Treating HubSpot as a fixed cost in your budget

When you don't have a plan for HubSpot, and you don't have a looming budget issue keeping you up at night, you can end up on the opposite side of the spectrum ... throwing money at software without really thinking too much about it.

If you fall into this category, don't beat yourself up too much. When business is good, it's easy to be less stressed about these decisions. Still, you should look at your HubSpot renewal time as an opportunity to answer two questions:

What are you currently doing with HubSpot?
What do you want to do with HubSpot?

These two questions can help you unearth possibilities for expansion and evolution in your relationship with HubSpot. It can also prevent you from accidentally "burning money" with software you're not using, depending on what your answers are.

The key here is to challenge yourself with your use of HubSpot. As a platform, HubSpot is a gateway to incredible growth potential across your company's marketing, sales, service, and operations. But if you're blindly letting it renew, with little to no evaluation of how you're using it, there's a good chance you're letting all of that growth potential go to waste, as you let the software atrophy.

3. Forgetting what else you get with HubSpot

Finally, you have to remember when you invest in HubSpot, you're getting so much more than what the software has to offer ... although that is a heck of a lot!

For example, there's also HubSpot Academy, which we've talked at length at how life-changing and powerful it can be for you and your teams:

You also join a much larger, global community of like-minded inbound practitioners who are all committed to this incredible goal of growing better together. There's the annual (dare I say "life-changing") INBOUND event HubSpot puts on every year in Boston, as well as HubSpot User Groups (affectionally and perfectly nicknamed "HUGs") that meet throughout the year:

Screen Shot 2023-10-09 at 1.40.51 PM

Bottom line, folks, HubSpot is so much more than just software, but you have to make the effort to learn that for yourself and step into the community.

Part III. HubSpot data + metrics review

Now that we've got the right mindset about our HubSpot investment, let's start reviewing the details that will help us all make the right call come renewal time!

First, you're going to want to look at your HubSpot data.

"What data, George?! There's a ton of data!"

Well, I've gotta be honest here. "It depends" is the answer to your question, because you will need to review the data that is the most relevant to the investment in HubSpot you currently have. Still, I can give you some pointers of what you should be looking at.

Your performance data

When you invested in HubSpot, you likely wanted to improve something. For example, if you invested in HubSpot for marketing and sales, you likely were looking for HubSpot to help you increase leads and deals closed.

Well, how did you do? Are you seeing lots of leads come in, but your sales team is struggling to close? Are you seeing lots of site traffic to your organic content, but not a lot of leads coming through? Are you experiencing steady, month-over-month growth across all your KPIs?

To be fair here, if you're not seeing the results you were looking for, please remember you need to refrain from immediately assuming HubSpot is the problem. You might have an SEO content strategy problem, you might have a sales enablement strategy problem, and so on. HubSpot isn't your strategy. It's a platform, and it's only ever going to be as smart or effective as the strategy you put into it.

Once more with feeling, that's why having these conversations early and often is so important. The more time you have, the more proactive and effective you can be at addressing inbound challenges that may crop up. Honestly, if you're waiting to conduct ROI retrospectives for inbound or HubSpot, you've got larger problems.

🔎 More HubSpot ROI reporting resources:

At the end of the day, C-suite folks and business owners care primarily about the bottom line — as they should — so that's a drum you should be beating (when it comes to showcasing the value of your work) long before you have to pony up more money for HubSpot.

Evaluate your marketing contacts usage

This is also one of the most talked-about parts of the HubSpot renewal conversation, since marketing contacts are a primary driver of how much HubSpot will cost you:

Screen Shot 2023-10-09 at 2.08.08 PM

The more marketing contacts you have in your HubSpot database, the more you'll be forking over for the software.

Marketing contacts are those contacts in your HubSpot database you plan to (and may be currently) interacting with — for example, targeting for ads, enrolling in workflows, sending emails, and so on. Or, more simply, they're the incredible humans you're looking to support and serve through your inbound efforts.

Remember, it's all about the humans, folks!

Now, you can also have non-marketing contacts in your database, and they will not count against your total. But you cannot market to those non-marketing contacts in any way, shape, or form. If you're still confused, HubSpot has a great marketing contacts knowledge base article that can give you more detail.

How integral is HubSpot to your core operations?

OK, this isn't a metric you can find tucked away on a HubSpot dashboard, but it's a very, very important "data point" you need to think about when evaluating your HubSpot renewal decision.

When you're stressed about your budget, you might think cutting out HubSpot is the answer to your prayers ... but months later, you realize you've cut yourself off at the knees with costly consequences:

Automated workflows are now manual processes the humans in your company have to oversee and execute at each step, adding hours of bloat into their work days.
The experience your potential customers are having with your website now is less than ideal, because you don't have a unified, polished web presence anymore. Now everything is patch-worked together across multiple platforms.
If you're using commerce tools like invoicing and payments, what will happen to that payment experience if you choose to drop it?
If you take away HubSpot Sales Hub, are you ready for a world where your sales team doesn't have access to playbooks, templates, or meetings, thus creating more work that takes them away from selling? Are they?
What will you do when you can no longer link your marketing data with your sales data, because you decide you don't need to HubSpot Sales Hub anymore? Without both, you can never measure (without a lot of pain and spotty data syncing) the to-the-dollar ROI of your efforts.

I could go on, but you see my point?

Sure, these aren't literal metrics you can run a report on, but these soft "data points" are mission-critical to making a good decision about your HubSpot future.

Part IV. Talk to in-house HubSpotters

If you're a decision-maker or influencer when it comes to HubSpot, you absolutely must talk to the in-house all-stars who are actually using the software every day. Don't make assumptions about what you think you "know" of HubSpot's value before you make a decision that could greatly impact their day-to-day work ... for better or for worse.

Here are a few powerful questions to help guide these conversations, no matter what team or role you're speaking to:

Do you have the technology you need to be successful in your role?
Is HubSpot making your job easier or harder?
What do you wish HubSpot could do for you?
What HubSpot not able to do for you currently?
If we took away HubSpot, how would that impact you?

If you're talking to folks on specific teams, you can make those conversations more targeted. For example, if you're talking to someone on the marketing team, how would the loss of the landing pages or campaigns tool hurt them? If you're talking to someone on the service team, you could ask them about how well you are (or aren't) maximizing the HubSpot Service Hub knowledge base functionality to make them more efficient.

Sure, these conversations can feel a little scary at first ... like you're opening a can of messy, unnecessary worms about company resources, when you're just trying to make a call about your HubSpot renewal. But these are the very conversations you absolutely must have if you want to make the right decision about HubSpot or any other investments for that matter.

You have to be willing to embrace the messy of what is and isn't working across your organization. Otherwise, you're doomed to make investments that will never fix any of the problems you may be experiencing.

Part V. Talk to HubSpot Sales

OK, once you've gathered your data, talked to your folks, and had some internal discussions about what you think you want to do with your renewal, it's time to talk to someone at HubSpot!

Discounts and contract terms

Yes, HubSpot sales folks are there to sell, but they can also help you. For example, imagine what kind of response you might get (that helps your budget) if you were to ask them something like this:

"If we were to bundle hubs, can we get a discount?"
OR "Hey, I know it's the end of the quarter/year. What kind of discount might be available, so I can help you hit your number?"

You can also see if you're able to change your billing cycle or get other discounted rates if you choose to go with a longer contract term. There are lots of potential avenues for decreased subscription rates with HubSpot, but you need to ask!

However, you need to be strategic about when you ask! Don't ask at the beginning of the month, for example. No one is feeling any pressure to hit their numbers, because the clock just reset on their goals. On the other hand, Day 27 of a 30-day month may be a sweet time to make those asks, because the sales crunch is on!

Evaluating your HubSpot usage

In addition to being a great way to make a deal, folks at HubSpot can also quickly tell you how well you are (or aren't) maximizing your use of HubSpot. Seriously, reach out to your CSM at HubSpot and ask them:

"What are we not doing right now with HubSpot that we should be?"

Is HubSpot happy when you renew your subscription? Absolutely.

But remember, there's a reason why I love HubSpot so freakin' much. They are humans who genuinely care about you and seeing you succeed. They don't want to sell you something you don't need, and they're not going to attack you like one of those old-timey used car salesmen just because you want their expert input on your HubSpot usage.

"Scared money don't make money"

Before I let you all go, I've gotta quote my fellow HubHero, Devyn Bellamy:

"Scared money don't make money."

What did he mean by that? It's simple. You have to spend money to make money. Now, should you spend wisely? Of course. That's what this guide is all about, right?

You need to understand what your data is telling you. You need to be willing to see what's actually working (or not working) and not immediately think HubSpot is to blame. You need to be willing to have detailed conversations with your people about what they need and where they're struggling.

But you can't be afraid to invest in the tools you need to be successful, and your people are counting on you to empower them to do their jobs well.

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