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How to Migrate from Salesforce to HubSpot: Step-by-Step Guide
November 26, 2024
You’re probably here because Salesforce has become more of a hassle than a help.
Maybe it’s the complexity, the cost, or seeing your team struggle with simple tasks.
Every year, thousands of businesses migrate from Salesforce to HubSpot, seeking simpler pricing, better user experience, and streamlined processes.
However, this switch can significantly impact your operations, customer relationships, and profits. In short, Salesforce to HubSpot migration needs good planning, accurate data handling, and a clear understanding of both platforms to transfer your business information smoothly.
This guide covers everything about moving from Salesforce to HubSpot, including:
So, let’s get started!
Salesforce and HubSpot both are top-notch customer relationship management (CRM) software. From organizing projects to automating marketing funnels, both tools offer unmatched capabilities.
Salesforce has been the go-to CRM for enterprise-level businesses, known for its endless customization options. But let's face it - how many of those features do you actually use? HubSpot on the other hand, offers a smart, user-friendly CRM with practical features that you’ll actually use.
Here’s a quick breakdown of key differences:
Now that you know the difference, check out why companies are migrating from Salesforce CRM to HubSpot CRM.
Businesses that switch from Salesforce to HubSpot can save costs and streamline operations. Have a closer look at what makes HubSpot a smart choice for growing businesses:
Now that we know WHY, let’s quickly jump to HOW.
Salesforce to HubSpot CRM migration offers three distinct approaches that provide different levels of support and control.
HubSpot's expertise becomes your advantage with this approach. Their team guides you through best practices and solution design as you manage setup and configuration. This approach ensures a smooth transition over a few months without disrupting your business operations.
Note: The HubSpot team can guide you, NOT migrate data for you.
Certified HubSpot partners such as TripleDart deliver a complete solution by handling your entire migration process from start to finish. Partners deliver:
This flexible option blends HubSpot's guidance with partner support. You keep control of specific project activities while getting expert help with complex migration tasks. With this model, you can ensure that your team stays hands-on with simpler elements, such as data preparation, while relying on the partner's experience for challenging components like custom integrations, advanced configurations, or specialized training.
Here's a comparison of these approaches:
Each method supports the migration of all standard objects, including contacts, accounts, opportunities, and custom objects. Your choice should align with your team's technical skills, timeline, and available resources.
Note: The migration can run while both systems stay active, so your productivity never drops.
A solid migration strategy plays a significant role in your Salesforce to HubSpot migration journey. Your well-laid-out approach will cause minimal disruption to business operations and maximize the benefits of your new CRM system.
Firstly, analyze and evaluate your Salesforce implementation as it will provide the foundation for improvement. Your assessment needs to cover:
A clear objective drives a successful migration strategy. You can complete migration in around three months by running both systems and avoiding any productivity loss. Your timeline should include these steps:
The decision to self-migrate or work with a partner depends on your team's technical expertise and available resources. Partner-led migrations offer competitive pricing compared to self-managed approaches. They also come with extra configuration support beyond simple training.
A certified HubSpot implementation partner can provide valuable hands-on assistance throughout complex migrations. This option proves invaluable when you need your business operations to run smoothly during the transition.
Achieving success in migrating from Salesforce to HubSpot requires careful planning and execution, regardless of your chosen approach.
To prevent spending months correcting avoidable mistakes, it's crucial to prepare your data properly. Here are the key steps to ensure a smooth transition.
The first step is a thorough assessment of your current Salesforce data. Here are a few key action points:
Pro tip: You can leverage Salesforce’s native analytics tools to find the fields your team uses currently. And you’ll be surprised to see that only 40-50% of custom fields are actually used.
Before migrating from Salesforce to HubSpot, it's essential to clean and organize your CRM data to ensure a smooth transition. This step will not only enhance data accuracy but also prevent potential errors during the migration process. Here’s what a complete data cleanup involves:
After cleaning, organize your data to make sure the records are logically ordered.
The process usually takes 1-2 weeks (also depends upon the size of the company.) This initial investment of time will protect your new system from inheriting bad data.
Build a backup plan to eliminate any data loss. The data backup process can take a few minutes to several hours, depending upon your data set and system requirements.
Your data consistency depends on proper field mapping. HubSpot has a different set of properties than Salesforce. So, you need to properly map your Salesforce properties to the correspondent Hubspot properties. This helps to ensure that all the data fields are accounted for during transition.
Create a spreadsheet with:
Example of Field Mapping:
Document all your existing Salesforce automations and plan their HubSpot equivalents. Some key considerations are workflow triggers, email templates, notification systems, and integration dependencies.
Next, create a strategic order for migrating different types of data. Here’s an example of a sequence - Companies > Contacts > Deals > Activities > Custom Objects > Documents > Email Templates > Automations.
Before working with live data, it's crucial to create a robust testing framework. This setup should include several key elements, such as:
Now that you’re ready, let’s move to the actual migration process.
Your HubSpot should be properly configured before you start importing any data. A few essential setups include:
The next crucial step is importing your data into HubSpot. There are two ways to migrate data from Salesforce to HubSpot: by using the official migrate Salesforce to HubSpot integration tool or by manually importing the data via CSV file.
Begin with a test run using a small sample set of data—typically 100-200 records that include a mix of object types and data fields.
Once you’re done with testing, start importing the data in the sequence you planned. For example, Companies > Contacts > Deals > Activities > and so on.
Now that you’ve entered the data, the next step is migrating the automation processes. Since direct transfer of workflows between Salesforce and HubSpot is not possible, you'll need to manually recreate your existing Salesforce workflows within HubSpot’s workflow tool.
The best approach is to document your current automations and rebuild them again on HubSpot. This extra effort can also help you enhance your existing processes.
Your email assets need a strategic transfer:
Note that sequence activities will not sync automatically between platforms. You need to rebuild these elements in your new environment. HubSpot's data migration package can streamline the process for complex migrations.
After you’re done with Salesforce to HubSpot migration, you need to work on optimization and training. Your sales team needs to test extensively and monitor the system continuously. Here are a few steps that will help your new CRM system deliver maximum value:
Start your post-migration optimization by testing each migrated component. The key areas include data accuracy, workflow functionality, integration performance, and report generation accuracy. This may take around 3-6 months, depending on your organization size.
Invest in training your entire team to make sure they can leverage it up to its full potential. HubSpot Academy offers certification courses that are a great way to get knowledge about the software. Your plan should include:
Also, you can go for a certified HubSpot solutions partner like TripleDart for HubSpot onboarding services.
Your system needs regular checks to detect problems quickly. Your core team should keep an eye on data synchronization accuracy, workflow performance, response time, and user adoption rate.
Setting up HubSpot properly takes 3-6 months for mid-sized companies. But once it’s all done you can see a drastic improvement in your business operations. Plus, you can combine it with other apps to build a unified tech stack.
Regular quality checks in the weeks after migration will help you succeed. This approach confirms your new CRM works well and your processes and data quality have substantially improved compared to the previous setup.
Check out these 10 points to make your Salesforce to HubSpot migration successful:
Migrating from Salesforce to HubSpot is like moving to a new place - it takes planning, patience, and proper execution. But with the right approach and partners by your side, it's completely manageable.
And your search for the best Salesforce to HubSpot migration partner ends here. TripleDart provides Hubspot migration services for SaaS companies that cover the transfer of data, settings, and configuration from an existing CRM or marketing platform to HubSpot.
TripleDart handles data complexities while maintaining business operations smoothly. Our expert team completes migrations for mid-sized business in just 2-3 weeks. Here’s what makes us stand out:
To know more, book a discovery call with us today.
For small businesses, 2-4 weeks. For enterprise-level companies, expect 6-12 weeks. TripleDart can help you complete mid-sized business migrations in just 2-3 weeks.
Yes, but be selective. Not all historical data adds value to your new system.
While some features might work differently, HubSpot offers comparable functionality for most essential CRM needs.
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