HubSpot Integration in New Zealand

Most of what you want is settings, not software

HubSpot is unusually configurable, and that is the first thing to establish before anyone quotes you for development.

These are all configuration, done by a consultant or by your own administrator, with no code:

• Custom properties on contacts, companies and deals.
• Multiple pipelines with your own deal stages.
• Workflows — routing, task creation, notifications, lead scoring, lifecycle transitions.
• Forms, landing pages, sequences and email templates.
• Quotes, products and a line-item catalogue.
• Dashboards and custom reports.

If a firm proposes code for something on that list, ask them to justify it. Configuration can be changed by your own team next quarter; code comes back to them with an invoice.

Code is right for three things: talking to systems outside HubSpot, logic that workflows genuinely cannot express, and custom objects for the things your business has that HubSpot has no word for.

The tier is the number that catches people out

HubSpot's subscription is often larger than the project fee and is paid to HubSpot, not your developer.

The practical traps:

• Workflows require Professional. A solution designed around automation on a Starter subscription does not work.
• Custom objects require Enterprise on most hubs, which is a substantial step up in annual cost.
• Seat counts add up quickly once operations and finance want to see things.
• Marketing contact limits bite when someone syncs a large customer list in.

Ask every firm to state, in writing, the tier and seat count their proposal requires. A consultant who designs for Enterprise without mentioning it has committed you to a much larger annual bill than the one you approved.

Check the marketplace first

HubSpot's app marketplace covers the common New Zealand connections — Xero, several ecommerce platforms, calendars, phone systems, e-signature. For a straightforward business these are enough and cost a fraction of custom work.

Custom integration earns its money when:

• One end is your own software.
• Invoice line items have to be built from HubSpot data in a particular way.
• The connection has to reach a third system in the same operation.
• The marketplace app does 80 percent and leaves the awkward part to a person.

Ask all five whether an app already does it. The one who says yes is telling you something useful about how they will behave later.

Custom objects: worth it, and not free

Some businesses have a central thing that is neither a contact, a company nor a deal — a property, a vessel, a policy, a subscription, a site. Custom objects let that sit alongside the standard ones, with its own properties, associations and reporting.

They are genuinely good, and they carry two costs. Enterprise tier on most hubs, and a permanent commitment: once your team works in terms of that object, moving off HubSpot becomes considerably harder.

Before agreeing to one, ask whether a custom property on an existing object would do. Often it would.

Adoption decides whether any of this was worth it

The most common HubSpot failure is not technical. It is a beautifully configured instance that the sales team stops updating, so within two months management is reading a pipeline that is six weeks stale.

What prevents it:

• Email and calendar connected, so activity logs itself.
• Required fields kept to the few that are genuinely required.
• Deal stages that match how your people actually describe a deal.
• Training that is about their day, not about the software.
• One person who owns the instance and can say no to a fortieth property.

Ask each firm what they include for training and handover. A quote with none is quoting the build and leaving the outcome to chance.

Ask who maintains the private app

If the work includes a private app or an integration, HubSpot will deprecate API versions on its own schedule and publish the dates well ahead. Somebody has to be watching.

Ask whether ongoing compatibility is included in support or billed as a new job. This is a recurring cost and quotes are frequently silent about it.

Comparing five quotes

Read for:

• Who separated configuration from code, and justified the code?
• Who stated the HubSpot tier and seat count their design requires?
• Who checked the marketplace before proposing to build?
• Who priced data migration as a real line rather than a footnote?
• Who included training and a named owner in your team?

Describe how you sell, which systems hold the information HubSpot does not have, what tier you are on today, and what your team currently keeps in spreadsheets. The firms who work in HubSpot daily will tell you which half of your list is an afternoon of settings.