I work at a marketing agency and we keep running into the same problem. Our clients get confused about which HubSpot modules make sense for their business. Our sales team struggles with this too.
The main issue is that HubSpot has so many different options. You’ve got Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, Service Hub, Operations Hub, and Content Hub. But when you look at HubSpot’s website, they focus on features instead of real business scenarios.
I want to build some kind of simple tool or guide that matches business situations to the right HubSpot modules. Different companies have different sales processes, different tools they already use, and different ways they want to grow.
For example, most people don’t really get what Operations Hub does. HubSpot explains it okay, but when do you actually need it? How does it work with the other modules?
I’m thinking about creating an interactive guide. People could select their business type and growth strategy (like inbound marketing, outbound sales, product-led growth, account-based marketing). Then it would recommend which HubSpot modules they need.
My idea is to use specific business triggers. Like if your company has messy data or needs better customer segmentation, you probably need Operations Hub for data cleanup and enrichment.
Does this approach make sense? Has anyone built something similar or found a better way to explain HubSpot modules to clients?
What works for me is starting with their current manual processes and showing exactly where time gets wasted. I map out their typical week - how many hours chasing leads, updating spreadsheets, or answering the same customer questions over and over. Then I show how each hub kills those specific manual tasks. Here’s what I learned after screwing this up for years: clients need to see immediate time savings, not some long-term strategic vision. When someone realizes Marketing Hub means they’ll never manually send follow-up emails to 200+ prospects again, it clicks instantly. For Operations Hub, I wait until they’re complaining about spending entire afternoons on reports or cleaning duplicate data. That’s the magic moment. Your interactive guide sounds smart, but make sure it calculates actual hours saved per week for each module. Clients buy their time back way more than they buy features.
I focus on business maturity stages instead of features when selling hubs. Marketing Hub? Perfect when they’re ready to move past word-of-mouth and basic ads. Sales Hub? Wait until they’ve got so many leads that spreadsheets aren’t cutting it anymore. Service Hub? Only push this when keeping customers becomes about revenue, not just putting out fires. Operations Hub’s the trickiest - it’s all about data cleanup. I don’t even mention it unless they’re juggling multiple systems and drowning in manual work. Here’s what changed everything for me: I show clients exactly where they’ll hit walls without each module. A SaaS startup hits different walls than a local plumber. Your guide sounds great, but build it around these growth stages instead of business types. People get ‘we’re at this stage’ way better than ‘we’re this type of business.’
The disconnect happens because clients think they need everything upfront - they don’t. I skip the feature explanations and focus on their actual problems first. When leads aren’t converting, I show Sales Hub. Drowning in support tickets? Service Hub makes sense. Game changer for me was using before/after scenarios. Show them exactly how their workday changes with each module. One client finally got Operations Hub when I showed how their weekly manual exports would become automated reports. They saw the real time savings. Your interactive guide sounds good, but include cost progression. Clients need to know they can grow into modules gradually instead of buying everything at once. Start with one hub that fixes their biggest pain point, then expand from there.
I’ve had great luck mapping client workflows to what HubSpot actually does instead of just rattling off features. When prospects tell me they’re manually tracking email opens or burning hours on lead qualification, I show them exactly how that’d work in HubSpot. The lightbulb moment hits when they realize all their scattered tools can live in one place. I built a quick audit worksheet that grabs their current tech stack, biggest time drains, and revenue roadblocks. Then I connect those pain points to the right hubs. Operations Hub sells itself when I show execs how their team exports data from three systems just to build one report. Your interactive guide sounds solid, but throw in a timeline piece. Clients always underestimate how long implementation takes and freak out thinking they need to launch everything at once.
The biggest mistake? Agencies overthink everything. Clients don’t give a damn about hub names or bells and whistles - they want results. I ask what’s killing their business right now, then show how HubSpot solves it. Losing deals? Missing follow-ups? Pissed off customers? There’s always one clear pain point to start with. That interactive guide sounds good on paper, but clients won’t read it. Turn it into a quick 5-minute conversation tool instead.