Using HubSpot: how many people in your business need training?

If you’re considering HubSpot, then there’s one question that’s bound to be on your mind - how many people in my business actually need to know how to use it? In an ideal world, you’d have everyone up to speed, but a brand new software can take weeks to master, and training can prove expensive if you’re looking to upskill your entire workforce. 

We’re here to help - we’ve broken down the areas of your business that need to have an understanding of HubSpot, and how to make sure that your employees have the knowledge they need, without wasting time and money. 

Deciding how many people to train 

When it comes to training employees on a new system, many business leaders see two main options: train everyone, or train one person and hope that they pass on their knowledge. Both of these options can work, depending on your business, but it’s important to know that there are other options, and what is successful  for other companies might not be for you. 

Deciding who to train depends on how much information you want to get from HubSpot - end-to-end reporting is a great idea in principle, but if your sales team isn’t effectively using the software, then this will be impossible. Likewise, if you have an entire team trying to run different campaigns at once, the data can very quickly become  confusing. Consider the structure of your team, and what you need to be monitoring. Once you have decided this, you can begin  training the necessary people. 

If you’re looking to train just one person 

The most tempting option - train one marketing whizz to use the software, and let them at it. This option only requires one person to have in-depth knowledge of HubSpot, and also means that there’s more control over who has access to the portal and how the campaigns are managed. Plus, this can mean a slightly cheaper fee for HubSpot, as there are extra charges per user for some features.

If you want to explore this route, consider the amount of time needed to transform someone into a “super user”. They’ll need to undergo onboarding, further training, and will need plenty of time to work through HubSpot Academy courses to truly know the tool inside and out. This can take weeks, and you should plan for this when you take on the software. That said, it’s not too difficult to integrate HubSpot into your business with just one user - it just takes time. 

If you’re looking to train just one department 

Sometimes you don’t want your HubSpot knowledge to rest on one person - what if they leave? Or go on holiday? In this case, you might be eyeing up the potential of getting an entire team trained on how to use HubSpot. And if you’re going to do this, there’s one team that will benefit the most from full training: marketing. 

HubSpot was originally developed for inbound marketing, and for this reason, the Marketing Hub is the area likely to give you the most bang for your buck. Your marketing team can use the tools within HubSpot to bring in leads through great content, as well as further tools like PPC, email marketing and social media. Adopting inbound marketing, and using HubSpot to carry out inbound campaigns, can help bring in more leads that your sales team can close, ultimately impacting your business’ bottom line. Consider training different members of the team to be “experts” in a chosen area of the Marketing Hub - this way, you can get greater results and avoid too many conflicting campaigns at once. 

If you’re looking to align your sales and marketing teams 

Training your marketing team only goes so far, and if you’re looking to be able to report on the effectiveness of your marketing strategy, as well as analyse and refine your sales process, then it might be worth training up your sales team too. The HubSpot CRM is a powerful tool to help track engagement with leads, progress of deals, and the overall pipeline. So, with several members of the team up to speed, you can measure how your marketing is impacting your sales, and vice versa. Training your sales team on HubSpot can bring you one step closer to aligning these teams, resulting in smoother business processes, swifter customer acquisition, and a more satisfying ROI. 

If you’re looking to optimise your entire customer journey 

Considering implementing HubSpot across your entire business? For the best results, and to get the most from the software, ideally you need training for your sales, marketing and customer service teams to ensure the entire customer journey is being handled within HubSpot. Each team  can use the Sales, Marketing and Service Hubs to bring in leads, close sales more efficiently, and even enable  your customers to trust and recommend your products or services. For this, it’s worth training each team on the separate Hubs, with specialists for certain aspects of the tool. Rather than focusing on one “super user”, instead you gain business-wide knowledge of the tools, get the most from HubSpot, and ultimately grow your business in the future. 

Ultimately, the amount of team members that you train on HubSpot can be just one, or many, depending on what you need from the tool. If you’re just looking to manage marketing campaigns, then it’s worth having several members of your marketing team up to speed. If you need to see ROI, improvement over time, and an overview of your sales and marketing efforts, then it’s a good idea to involve more teams in the training process. 

It depends on what resources you have available, and how much time and effort you want to invest in the platform. Some B2B companies hire an entire team just to manage their portal, whereas others rely on a single expert to keep their strategies in line. The decision is yours, and at the end of the day it’s not about how many people know HubSpot inside and out - it’s about whether they can work together to deliver the most benefit from the software, and align your business practices in support of measurable, sustainable growth.