What are the differences between Onboarding with HubGem and HubSpot?

We are often asked by the clients we serve in our sector when looking to implement HubSpot,  about the differences between Onboarding with HubSpot and Onboarding with us. We want to outline some key differences and help you to make the best decision for your organisation when it comes to implementing HubSpot CRM into your organisation.

What is Onboarding?

Onboarding is the nurturing process that allows new users and customers to get acquainted and comfortable with using HubSpot. This is achieved by providing step-by-step training, guidance, tutorials, and support and celebrating each success milestone.

When choosing HubSpot as a solution for your organisation, it is compulsory for your organisation to undergo Onboarding as part of your implementation process, whether it be with HubSpot or with one of their partners; like us. 

So let's dive into some of the differences between the Onboarding we provide at HubGem versus the Onboarding provided by HubSpot. 

Sector experience

At HubGem we are education specialists. We set up HubSpot accounts specific to each individual organisation's needs, and know how to customise the system to suit schools, colleges and universities. Our knowledge of the sector means you will not waste time having to work out how to configure the complexities of multiple relationships between parents and children. This is not something obvious to do in HubSpot and has taken years of experience to find the perfect formula for schools.

With HubSpot Onboarding, there is often very little experience in setting up accounts for education or schools. They will show you how to use the marketing and sales tools with no insight into using HubSpot for admissions or any experience of working with parent/child set-ups; it's a lot more basic and not sector specific. 

The set-up

At HubGem, we like to deliver our Onboarding with a 'hands-on' approach. Our team will set your account up for success, with 'Full Works Onboarding' with hands-on technical support being our most popular service. We also like to spend time scoping and really understanding the needs of the organisation first before beginning the set-up. This means that your account is ready to use quickly and in line with best practices for schools, whilst still being bespoke to your organisation's needs. 

With HubSpot Onboarding, there is often little to no hands-on support, it is very much a 'we show and you do it all'. This means your team will need to find time to dedicate to setting up your HubSpot account and ensuring this is done correctly. This will likely lead to a longer wait to see the benefits and ROI of using HubSpot. There is also a high likelihood that the set-up will not be suitable for admissions day-to-day and would require fixing - something we see quite often. 

Project management 

We like to provide full project management of your implementation - we will guide you through every step of the Onboarding process and understand the best way for schools to set up HubSpot. We manage an online project management board where the teams involved (usually marketing and admissions) have access to Q&A support and tracking of project progress, in addition to the regular training/consulting and hands-on technical set-up. 

HubSpot does not do any project management for you, with most of their Onboarding you will only receive weekly calls providing non-sector-specific training. 

Strategy

We like to offer, if needed,  support with strategy and inbound lead generation - we can advise on how to attract, engage and convert more leads using HubSpot tools with inbound strategic advice. We can help you to build keep-warm journeys and workflows which will result in more personalised marketing communications. 

With HubSpot's Onboarding, you will receive little to no advice on inbound strategy and lead generation, but you may receive some training material like a blog or a video.

Time-to-value

Our Onboarding provides quicker time-to-value and long-term success. Implementing HubSpot in schools is what we do, all day every day. This experience will help you see success in the short and long term.

HubSpot's Onboarding, due to not being sector specific, will create a longer time-to-value and we often come across accounts Onboarded by HubSpot without sector knowledge who then have to spend money with us to fix the problems that could have been avoided if set up correctly in the beginning.

iSAMS user?

If you use iSAMS and want to integrate the two systems together you will most likely need to go through Onboarding with us. We prepare your HubSpot account specifically for the ease of integrating with iSAMS. We have lots of experience in getting your account just right so it works with iSAMS and we understand the capabilities and limitations of the iSAMS API. Whereas, HubSpot has little to no understanding of what iSAMS is, how it would integrate and how to prepare HubSpot for integration, making it difficult to integrate with iSAMS in the future. 

We also have 'exclusive' access to the iSAMS integration - we have paid significant upfront and yearly recurring costs to develop the world's first integration between HubSpot and iSAMS. We maintain global exclusivity at this point in time, so if you wish to access the integration our Onboarding is compulsory (even if you have had Onboarding elsewhere) for us to configure your HubSpot account accordingly. We are iSAMS Enterprise Partners and are backed by a team of specialist developers.

Pricing

As mentioned above, the Onboarding offered by HubGem is significantly different to that offered by HubSpot. With sector experience and best practice, strategic advice, training, hands-on technical support and full project management our Onboarding plans cover significantly more than HubSpot's offering. In fact, HubSpot regularly introduce schools, colleges and universities to us for onboarding as they know that organisations working with a partner for onboarding see greater levels of success and satisfaction with the HubSpot platform. Our most popular Onboarding option is 'Full Works' and this is essential if you are and admissions team wanting to use HubSpot for your admissions pipeline management or if you want to configure your account for the iSAMS integration.  Our onboarding is not priced based on the Hubs you use, however, if you are opting for just one Hub from either Sales Hub or Service Hub Professional as standalone HubSpot products we can discuss with you how to get the most out of your onboarding and explore adapted schedules and whether we need to amend your schedule and pricing accordingly. 

Click here to view our Onboarding pricing options.

With HubSpot, the Onboarding pricing is split between the hubs/levels on your HubSpot account. With Sales Professional being £820 and Marketing Professional being £2,450 (most likely having both this would be £3270)-  increasing significantly for Enterprise, this includes no hands-on support and is usually unsuitable for those wanting to configure HubSpot for complex admissions processes or in preparation for the iSAMS sync. 

Why HubGem?

In conclusion, if you are a school, college, university, agent, or any other organisation serving the education sector, we would recommend one of our Onboarding options, to make sure you are receiving the best training and advice to set your account up specifically for your organisation's needs. 

We are uniquely placed to help you streamline processes and increase the impact of your marketing and admissions. 

On top of this, we are Diamond tiered HubSpot partners and have the HubSpot seal of approval showing our experience in helping education organisations implement HubSpot CRM to make their growth goals a reality.  

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