Hubspot is a powerful platform that offers great functionality with its default configuration. It is even more powerful when you customize it for your needs.
To have Hubspot be fully functional, you will have to make changes to it's default configuration. You can consider these changes across four groups
- Account Settings
- User Settings
- Data Model
- Tools and Pipelines
- Automations
Account Settings include setting up the right product and pricing plan, connecting apps such as Google workspace to integrate email, Quickbooks for accounting, and setting up and verifying your domain, subdomian, and tracking links for external websites.
User Settings are defined for each user where you will be giving them access to Hubspot tools and to user-specific permissions to access CRM data and other settings.
The Data Model is probably the most difficult part. Here you will define custom properties for each of the object types inside of Hubspot and the way they can be associated with each other.
Tools and Pipelines are used to create the full customer's lifecycle across their interactions with your company starting from marketing to lead creation, managing sales activities, delivering your product and service, providing customer service, and getting feedback. While this process can be universal to all companies, the specific details and activities that are carried out are highly specific not just by industry, but for each and every company.
Automations can be brought in once all of the above are sufficiently defined to reduce and even eliminate a significant amount of administrative overhead, data entry, and clerical tasks.