Hearth
HubSpot installed and engineered around the business model, stack, and data flows.
Read the case studyThey didn’t just install HubSpot, they engineered it to fit our business model, stack, and data flows.
Misha Tsidulko
HubSpot
HubSpot consulting for B2B SaaS
HubSpot consulting is the work of engineering HubSpot around a company's actual business model instead of installing it out of the box. We do that for B2B SaaS companies from seed through scale-up: lifecycle stages that mean the same thing to everyone, a marketing-to-sales handoff that stops dropping leads, attribution a CFO will sign off on, and the Salesforce seam underneath it all. We build it ourselves, hands on the platform.
The short version
- HubSpot consulting for B2B SaaS, roughly $5M to $100M ARR, frequently PE-backed.
- The problem is almost never the tool. It is that HubSpot was installed with the defaults and the business grew past them.
- We rebuild the lifecycle, the handoff, attribution, and the reporting layer, then make sure the team adopts it.
- Most of our hard work is at the HubSpot-to-Salesforce seam, where both systems think they own the lifecycle stage.
- Founder-led. Engagements run weeks to a few months.
- We do not run your campaigns. We build the system the campaigns run on.
The problem HubSpot consulting actually solves
HubSpot installs beautifully. That is the trap.
The defaults are good enough that a company can run on them for two years without anyone deciding what a Marketing Qualified Lead means at this business. Then the team doubles, a second product ships, an expansion motion appears, and the defaults quietly stop describing reality. The lifecycle stages become labels nobody trusts. Marketing reports a number, sales reports a different number, and both are correct inside their own system.
By the time we get called, the symptom is usually one of these:
- Leads go to sales and come back. Or worse, they do not come back, they just go quiet.
- Marketing can prove it generated demand and cannot prove it generated revenue.
- Lifecycle stages get set by three different workflows that disagree, so a contact bounces between stages.
- HubSpot and Salesforce each hold a version of the truth and the sync is a pile of patches.
- Somebody rebuilt the reporting in a spreadsheet because the in-tool dashboards lost credibility.
None of those are fixed by a better workflow. They are fixed by deciding what the lifecycle actually is at your company, then building HubSpot to enforce that decision.
What we do in HubSpot
Lifecycle stage design. The foundational piece and the one most often skipped. What each stage means, what gets a record into it, what gets it out. Agreed by marketing and sales in the same room, not defined separately and reconciled later.
The marketing-to-sales handoff. Routing, ownership, SLAs, and the return path when sales sends a lead back. This is where most B2B SaaS funnels leak, and it is almost always a definition problem rather than an automation problem.
Attribution and reporting. An attribution model fit to your motion rather than whichever one the tool defaults to. Wired to the real source of truth, so every number has a paper trail and the budget conversation stops being a knife fight.
The Salesforce seam. If you run both, this is likely the largest single piece of work. See below.
Implementation and migration. When HubSpot is being stood up or replacing something else, we do the build, including the data migration and the model decisions that come with it.
Change management. Adoption designed in from the first stage, documentation written for humans, and support until your team runs it without us in the room.
Running HubSpot and Salesforce together
Most of our clients run both. HubSpot owns marketing and the top of the funnel; Salesforce owns pipeline and forecast. It is a sensible setup and it breaks in a completely predictable place.
Both systems think they own the lifecycle stage. So somebody writes a sync rule to resolve it, then another rule to handle the case the first rule broke, and eighteen months later there is a layer of sync logic nobody can fully explain and neither system is trusted.
The fix is not a better connector. It is deciding explicitly, object by object and field by field, which system is the source of truth, and then building the sync to enforce that decision instead of negotiating it every time a record changes. That is architecture work. It is also the single highest-value thing we do for a two-platform company, because it is what makes the reporting on both sides believable again. The Salesforce side of the same problem is on our Salesforce consulting page.
If you only run HubSpot, none of this applies and the engagement is simpler.
How we work
| Phase | What happens | Typical length |
|---|---|---|
| System Audit | A full read of your HubSpot portal, data model, and funnel as it really runs, with the gaps ranked by dollar impact. | 2 to 4 weeks |
| Funnel Redesign | Lifecycle stages, handoff, and conversion criteria rebuilt around your real motion. | 4 to 8 weeks |
| Attribution & Reporting | Attribution model and reporting layer wired to the source of truth. | 3 to 6 weeks |
| Growth Stack Optimization | HubSpot, Salesforce, and the supporting stack made into one operating layer. | Varies with the stack |
| Change Management | Enablement, documentation, rollout sequencing, post-launch support. | Runs alongside, not after |
The five phases in full are on our services page.
How this differs from a typical HubSpot agency
| Typical HubSpot agency | The Sales Nerd | |
|---|---|---|
| Core offer | Marketing execution: content, campaigns, email, design, plus HubSpot admin | The revenue system itself: lifecycle, data model, attribution, reporting |
| Where they start | Campaigns and the top of the funnel | Whether the lifecycle definitions are right at all |
| Salesforce | Usually out of scope or handed to a partner | Where a lot of the work is |
| Model | Ongoing monthly retainer | Scoped engagement with an end |
| Who does the work | An account team | The founders, hands on the platform |
| Best fit | You need demand generated | You need the system that demand lands in to work |
We do not run your campaigns. If that is what you need, a good marketing agency will serve you better and we will happily say so. Call us when the campaigns are fine and the system underneath them is the problem.
Proof
Beqom
A thorough marketing funnel and system audit, then the funnel aligned across marketing and sales.
Read the case study(The Sales Nerd) team conducted a thorough Marketing Funnel and System Audit, which offered clear insights and practical recommendations to optimize our HubSpot.
Stanley Chang
Consensus
The expansion strategy turned into a scalable system rather than something that happened when someone noticed.
Read the case studyThe Sales Nerd team brought strategy, execution, and clarity. We didn’t just get cleaner data, we got a system that drives expansion and makes sense to every GTM team.
Rex Galbraith
Criteria
Sales and marketing unified with a lifecycle-driven funnel.
Read the case studyBefore The Sales Nerd, we couldn’t tell if our efforts were working. Now, we have a funnel we trust, and a strategy everyone understands.
Frequently asked questions
What does a HubSpot consultant do?
A HubSpot consultant designs how your business runs inside HubSpot: lifecycle stages, the data model, workflows, the sales handoff, and the reporting on top. That is different from a HubSpot admin, who keeps the portal running day to day, and different from a marketing agency, which uses HubSpot to execute campaigns. The consultant’s job is deciding what the system should be before anyone configures it.
Do I need a HubSpot partner agency or a HubSpot consultant?
If you need demand generated, campaigns run, and content produced, you want a marketing agency. If your campaigns are fine but the funnel they feed is untrustworthy, you want a consultant. Plenty of companies eventually need both, in that order: fix the system, then pour demand into it.
How much does HubSpot consulting cost?
It depends on how much of the system needs rebuilding. We scope to the actual problem rather than selling a fixed package. An audit and a full lifecycle rebuild are very different numbers, and we will not quote before we understand which one you need.
How long does a HubSpot engagement take?
Weeks to a few months. Hearth was 3 months end to end. Beqom, which included a full funnel realignment across two teams, ran 9 months. An audit alone is measured in weeks.
Can you fix our HubSpot and Salesforce sync?
That is one of the most common reasons companies call us. The fix is usually not a better connector. It is deciding which system owns each object and field, then building the sync to enforce that rather than letting two systems negotiate the lifecycle stage between them.
We already have HubSpot. Do we need to migrate anything?
Usually not. Most of our work is rebuilding what is already there rather than moving you somewhere else. When migration is genuinely the right call, we will say so, and it is a decision we make with you rather than a default recommendation.
Do you work with PE-backed companies?
Constantly. Sponsor-owned companies tend to have aggressive growth targets sitting on a revenue system nobody has had time to fix, which is the exact situation we are built for.
Will our team actually use what you build?
That is the whole point of the change-management work, and it is the part most builds skip. Adoption is designed in from the first stage, documentation is written for humans rather than for an audit, and we support the rollout until your team runs it without us.
Wondering where your funnel leaks?
Take the funnel check and find out in about two minutes. Or book a call and we'll show you in the first conversation.