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HubSpot vs. Salesforce

1/27/2023 Update

We routinely hear that EDO's are being quoted $25,000 for Salesforce Onboarding...that's the standard price to get salesforce set up and running for a small economic development organization. That cost does not include the software licenses! 

 

What you need to know. 

 

There are 4 different salesforce partners that work with economic developers.  

There is one salesforce partner, in our opinion, that gets it right. So, if your heart is set on salesforce or if you are required to buy this product, call us and we'll tell you who this partner is.

Here's how to see a free online demo of Salesforce for Economic Development.  

Click Here to view this slideshow from salesforce

 

salesforce for economic development online demonstration best crm for economic development

https://guided-tour.herokuapp.com/tours/economic-development

 

Insights

  • Salesforce is a great fit for organizations with over 100 employees and complex processes and software requirements.
  • Pardot is the salesforce marketing suite - it's priced separately and ranks lower than HubSpot's Marketing Hub Professional package.
  • With the right version of salesforce, you can do almost anything (with enough time and money to pay developers)
  • You can configure salesforce to meet your needs on your own - but you'd be wise to hire a salesforce admin.
  • If you want to become a salesforce admin, read this... These are great, high paying jobs by the way!
  • If you want to become a salesforce architect read this.
  • Plan on paying your salesforce partner a lot of money over the years. Salesforce upgrades are very involved, labor intensive - especially if you're using Custom Objects and or lots of customizations.
  • While you may get a 3 year fixed price, expect price increases annually.

INSIDER TIPS

Ask about price at the beginning of a demonstration. Save time!

Ask for a free trial of the system. If you can't figure the system out on your own, it's going to be a steep learning curve!

HubSpot vs. Microsoft CRM 365 

January 11, 2023 Update

We routinely hear that EDO's are being quoted $9,500 to $25,000 for CRM Only Onboarding...that's the standard price to get Dynamics set up and running for an economic development organization. That cost does not include the software licenses which are $95 - 150+/user/month.  Marketing software is not included. 

There are 2 different Microsoft partners that work with economic developers.  

Our founder, Tom Wengler, was one of the original founders of Cloud Nine, a Microsoft Partner that built the Cloud Nine Economic Development Accelerator that is still being sold today after the company changed hands 3 times over the last 4 years.

Insights

  • Microsoft  is a great fit for organizations with over 100 employees and complex processes and software requirements
  • Click Dimensions (sold separately) is a Microsoft Dynamics recommended marketing suite - it's priced separately and ranks lower than HubSpot's Marketing Hub Professional license. Microsoft also has offers Microsoft Dynamics 365 Marketing this is sold separately.
  • With the right version of Microsoft Dynamics, you can do almost anything (with enough time and money to pay developers).
  • You can configure Microsoft Dynamics to meet your needs on your own - but you'd be wise to hire a partner. The Do-It-Yourself option will likely be a disaster unless you've got a seasoned, experienced developer with the right Microsoft Certifications. Even then, you'll struggle to build this system. It's powerful and complex!
  • Dynamics 365 Developers Guide - Link
  • Economic Development installations require the creation of multiple Objects (called Entities by Microsoft).  Every additional Entity adds cost and complexity.
  • While you may get a 3 year fixed price, expect price increases annually.

INSIDER TIPS

Ask about price at the beginning of a demonstration. Save time!

Ask for a free trial of the system. If you can't figure the system out on your own, it's going to be a steep learning curve!

HubSpot vs. Executive Pulse / Synchronist / EDForge / ED Lead Tracker 

2022 Update

We routinely hear that EDO's are being quoted $3,000 to $6,500 for CRM Only Onboarding...That cost does not include the software licenses.

Yes, there are software developers that have created a CRM system for economic developers from the "ground up".

Executive Pulse claims to be the leader in this group and they are best known for their BRE capabilities. 

These systems are / were developed and supported by smaller teams.

Synchronist is ceasing operations by January, 2023.  We have a process to port Synchronist data over to HubSpot. 

 

 

INTEGRATIONS - ABILITY TO WORK WITH YOUR OTHER SOFTWARE

  • Outlook and G-mail integrations should be tested before purchase.
  • It's awfully difficult to compete against support tools and the security technology provided by HubSpot, Salesforce, and Microsoft.
  • Integrations are limited - HubSpot, Microsoft and Salesforce all have over 1,000 systems that integrate.

SECURITY

  • Be sure to check for 2 factor security authentication (minimum) and the stronger, single-sign-on security.
  • Check to see where the data is hosted and ask your IT team to investigate their security model.

SUPPORT AND LONG TERM COST OF OWNERSHIP

  • Check for online courses, searchable knowledge base, and help documents.
  • Is live chat, phone support provided?
  • Check support fees. Understand the software upgrade cycle - do updates require work on your part or is the software updated instantly?
  • Can you and your team add to and modify the software on your own, without assistance? Do you need to be a computer programmer to improve your software?

INSIDER TIPS

Ask about price at the beginning of a demonstration. Save time!

Ask for a free trial of the system. If you can't figure out the basics of how to operate the system out on your own, it's going to be a steep learning curve!

 

 

Marketing software is not included. 

Look for third party integrations with mailchimp, constant contact, Survey Monkey.  HubSpot has these same integrations, but they don't work as well as using HubSpot's built-in email marketing suite.  Our clients typically save money by unsubscribing to mailchimp and constant contact.

Ask how the software works with your website.

Ask about how the software works with online forms, chat tools, email templates, website landing pages, online ad accounts, etc.  You'll see and get all of this with HubSpot.

ROI Calculator

Calculate your potential return on investment from a marketing / sales use perspective.

 

  • Share this with your leadership team or board
  • Run this for Sales (CRM-Closing Sales, Projects, etc.) and then for Marketing (lead generation)
  • Economic Development - measure your Deals in terms of CapX or Real Estate Development
  • Tourism - measure Deals in terms of average Tourist Spend or Average Convention / Event Revenue

 

 
roio

ROI Calculator FAQ's

How does HubSpot obtain the customer data used in the ROI calculator?

HubSpot collects data as customers interact with them via their websites or use HubSpot’s subscription services. What they collect, how they use the information they collect, how they share that information, and how customers can manage their information are all described in their Privacy Policy.

What types of customer data are used in the ROI calculator?

The data utilized in the ROI calculator falls into two categories:

HubSpot collects Personal Data from customers when they submit web forms or interact with our websites, for example subscribing to a HubSpot blog, signing up for a webinar, or requesting customer support. HubSpot also collects Personal Data when customers sign-up for a HubSpot account, create or modify user information, set preferences, or provide any other related information to access or utilize our Subscription Service. 

Usage data includes metrics and information regarding customers’ use and interaction with the Subscription Service such as what product features they use the most, when an object (like a ticket) is created and closed, and how often certain features (like workflows) are triggered in their account.

To ensure HubSpot maintains the privacy of their customers’ data, they use anonymization to remove or modify personally identifiable information, so that data cannot be associated with any one individual. HubSpot employs three standard anonymization techniques to customer outcomes data: attribute suppression, generalization and aggregation.

Which HubSpot customers are included in the data used in the ROI calculator?

The data used in this calculator is based on aggregated data from HubSpot customers globally who owned Marketing or Sales Hub Professional or Enterprise for at least 12 months between January 2019 and April 2022. 

In order to be included, the sample for each metric Marketing Hub customers also met the following criteria:

  • Website traffic - must have installed the HubSpot tracking code on website.
  • Marketing leads - must have activated the forms feature.
  • Website conversion rate - must have installed the HubSpot tracking code on website and activated the forms feature.

Sample sizes for each region and industry cohort and metric vary.  But, in order to ensure data privacy and accuracy, HubSpot does not share aggregated data from customer cohorts with sample sizes that do not reach their established cohort size threshold. In these cases, they default to the use of the global value for that metric.

How is the average improvement for each metric determined?

The average improvement for each metric reflects customer performance 12 months post-purchase compared to the average set in the first month after purchasing Marketing Hub or Sales Hub.

The exception is web-conversion rate in which customer performance 12 months post-purchase is compared to the average set in the first three months post-purchase.

HubSpot believes it is critically important to ensure the average improvement values used in this calculator reflect the experience of HubSpot’s customers as accurately as possible. Therefore, before analyzing customer’s data, they screen the data to check for errors, missing data and data distribution. They also employ statistical techniques to identify outliers and clean data so that unusual values do not distort monthly averages. In the case of highly skewed distributions, they use the median value as opposed to the mean because medians are found to be the best measure of central tendency in the case of skewed data.

What does HubSpot (or the partner) do with the data I enter in the calculator?

If cookies are enabled, HubSpot locally stores your selected:

  • Industry
  • Currency
  • Region

These items are cleared whenever you clear your cookies, and are scoped to the current browser being used (e.g., you can’t pick up in Safari where you left off in Chrome).  These properties are not being used to identify you in any way. HubSpot only uses these fields to provide you results based on data that best aligns to you (i.e., your industry or region) and presented in your currency. Everything else you enter into the calculator is saved in-memory while you are interacting with the app. Any data not listed above is cleared as soon as you close your tab/browser window. For more information on how HubSpot uses cookies, please refer to their Cookie Policy.

Am I guaranteed to see the results I obtain from this calculator?

The data used in this calculator is based on aggregated data from many thousands of HubSpot customers globally.

Please keep in mind that results for individual businesses, including your own as well as HubSpot’s, may differ based on their own markets, customer base, industry, geography, stage, and/or other factors. Therefore, we (and HubSpot) cannot guarantee you will see the exact results you obtain from the ROI Calculator if you purchase Marketing Hub or Sales Hub.

 

Convergence Privacy Policy:

You can unsubscribe from our communications at any time. For more information on how to unsubscribe, our privacy practices, and how we are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy, please review our Privacy Policy.

You will receive and email from us after this form is filled out. This is an example of how you might use HubSpot as well. In that email, you will be able to click a HubSpot meetings link that gives you the opportunity to schedule a call with us directly.

(615) 237-7752

Email Tom