Salesforce vs HubSpot Decoding the CRM Battle for Ultimate Business Growth CloudArc

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Salesforce vs HubSpot: Decoding the CRM Battle for Ultimate Business Growth

Businesses looking for the best CRM for their business will often assess Hubspot vs. Salesforce to identify which is better suited for their work needs. In this article we will examine some of the base assumptions about both to help provide would-be users with helpful insights in their quest to identify the most effective CRM for their business.

Salesforce is typically thought of as an enterprise-level CRM for use across industries.

It’s known for the ease with which users can customize it for their specific needs as well as adapt it for complex business processes. What can sometimes confuse or overwhelm potential customers is what offering they should select – Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, or any of the other supporting apps that work with core Salesforce offerings. What’s more, there is a Salesforce product that is rarely mentioned but offers most of the same functionality that’s available in Sales Cloud or Service Cloud. This alternative is called Salesforce Platform.

While Salesforce is typically thought of as an enterprise-level CRM, Hubspot is generally considered an inbound marketing platform that recently expanded to include CRM functionality. Most customers find its interface to be user-friendly and also assume the price point is more appealing than Salesforce. Users also like the marketing automation, content marketing, and lead generation associated with HubSpot.

A November 2023 article in Forbes reviewed Hubspot vs. Salesforce and provided some interesting Insights

A November 2023 article in Forbes reviewed Hubspot vs. Salesforce and provided some interesting insights for businesses looking for the best CRM tool to move their business forward. The article highlights the power of Salesforce and the ease of use and price point of HubSpot. What the article overlooks are a couple of key features that should be considered as part of the process of identifying the best CRM for a business. In particular, the article doesn’t factor licensing of Salesforce Platform or working with an independent Salesforce partner who can serve as “one stop shop” to help customers identify exactly what they need without all the extras that can make a CRM very costly and reduce their ROI.

In assessing Salesforce vs HubSpot, it’s important for potential users to consider a couple of different factors with each. While both help users manage accounts and contacts, support lead generation and workflow management, and provide marketing automation, it’s also important to examine how each tool measures up in terms of scalability, customization, integration, pricing, and support.

As your business grows, you need a tool that will scale with you and includes sufficient flexibility to be able to add workflows, features, and even customized fields and/or objects as needed. With Salesforce, users find a highly scalable system that can accommodate the needs of small or large organizations with simple or complex requirements. Salesforce is a highly effective CRM for businesses regardless of their size. The ease of customization and the available features set accessible to users make it stand out as a great option. Alternatively, HubSpot is often thought to be a great option for small-mid sized businesses. Even though it has some capacity for scaling, it falls quite short of what’s available in Salesforce.

Another factor that may influence businesses looking for the most ideal CRM is the level of customization available.

Salesforce is well-known for the robust customization capabilities available with it. This level of customization comes with all versions of Salesforce including Salesforce Platform. In all versions of Salesforce users are able to create custom fields, objects, workflows, and add specific automation needed for business processes. This flexibility enables businesses to make Salesforce a powerful tool for their unique business needs. While HubSpot allows for some customization, businesses will not find the same levels as available in Salesforce.

Integration of your CRM with your other business tools is critical to enable seamless workflow and accomplishment of work tasks. Salesforce is well known for how easily it integrates with other applications. Salesforce’s robust API allows for integration of the system with many other tools that are used by businesses that include but are not limited to enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and others. Integration with third party tools is also possible with Hubspot. However, there may be limitations in terms of the number of tools with which HubSpot integrates.

Pricing is a big consideration for businesses when looking for the best CRM.

In a cost comparison of Salesforce vs HubSpot, many people believe that Salesforce is more expensive. While HubSpot is well-known for its tiered pricing model, businesses that opt to go with Salesforce Platform (not Sales Cloud or Service Cloud) and procuring their licenses directly from an independent Salesforce partner like CloudArc will find significant savings. At CloudArc, we offer Salesforce Platform to customers at the cost of $100/user/month which is quite cost-competitive given the amount of functionality you receive “out of the box.” What’s more, support is included with that price.

Finally, when comparing Salesforce vs. Hubspot, potential users should consider the training and support available with each. While HubSpot offers training through their HubSpot Academy on a broad range of topics, Salesforce also offers a free suite of training for users through their free Trailhead system. What adds additional value for Salesforce users when they buy their licenses from independent partners such as CloudArc is that those clients will receive customized training content in video format that is accessible on demand through a training tab in the customer’s Salesforce org. This enables customers to train new staff or refresh existing staff on how to use their Salesforce system at any time needed.

While businesses looking for a CRM may worry that Salesforce is “too complicated” and therefore opt for HubSpot, they should take a closer look when comparing the two.

In particular, using Salesforce Platform and working with an independent Salesforce partner can provide businesses all the functionality they need along with the support and training desired at a very reasonable price.

If you would like to know more about CloudArc’s approach to providing Salesforce users exactly what they need, check out our Resources tab for details to learn more about our “value design” process where we work with you to identify exactly what functionality you need.

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If you would like to learn more about how Salesforce may be a useful addition to your business’s suite of software tools, contact us or join one of our webinars and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

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