What Not to Look For in a HubSpot Partner

Most HubSpot partners are, in reality, software partners.

They open with a question that sounds sensible enough:

“What do you want HubSpot to do?”

And from that moment on, everything revolves around hubs, features, workflows, and configuration.

That’s execution. Not strategy.

If you’re choosing a HubSpot partner, here are a few things I’d actively avoid.

1. Partners who start with HubSpot instead of your growth problem

HubSpot is not the strategy. It’s the operating system that runs one.

If the first conversation is about which hubs you need, what automation to build, or how quickly they can “spin up a portal”, you’re already in the wrong conversation.

The better starting question is much simpler, and much harder:

What growth problem are you actually trying to solve?

• Pipeline quality?

• Forecast accuracy?

• Sales velocity?

• Go-to-market complexity?

• Handoffs between teams?

If those things aren’t clear, no amount of HubSpot configuration will save you. You’ll just end up with a very tidy system that faithfully reports the wrong outcomes.

2. Partners who measure success in activity, not impact

A lot of partners celebrate delivery.

Portals shipped, workflows built, fields created. On paper, it looks like progress.

In reality, none of that matters unless it changes behaviour and outcomes.

The only things worth measuring are:

• Lead quality
• Pipeline health
• Conversion rates
• Forecast confidence
• Decision-making speed

If your HubSpot partner can’t clearly articulate how their work will move revenue, adoption, or confidence - it’s just noise, no matter how “clean” the portal looks.

3. Partners who optimise silos instead of systems

Marketing here. Sales there. Service somewhere else.

Individually, each hub might be well configured. Collectively, the business still creaks.

This is one of the most common failure modes we see.

• Teams trip over handovers.

• Lifecycle stages don’t line up.

• Reporting tells multiple versions of the truth.

• The issue isn’t HubSpot capability - it’s architectural thinking.

Real value comes from designing end-to-end revenue systems:

• Lifecycle stages that actually reflect reality
• Lead management that supports decision-making
• A data model that scales with complexity
• Reporting logic that leadership can trust

The magic isn’t in the hubs themselves. It’s in how they connect - and what they enable you to see and do.

4. Partners obsessed with “best practice”

Templates.  Generic playbooks. One-size-fits-all portals. They deploy quickly. They age badly.

What works for a PLG SaaS almost never works for a services business or an enterprise-led sale. Buying complexity, sales motion, deal size, and internal maturity matter far more than most partners admit.

If a partner can’t explain why something is being designed a certain way — and how it maps to your ICP and growth model - you’re not getting best practice.

You’re getting convenience.

5. Partners who treat HubSpot as a project, not a system

HubSpot is never “done”.

Yet many partners deliver the project, hand over the portal, and disappear.

No governance.
No operating rhythm.
No backlog.
No evolution.

The reality is simple:

A revenue system either evolves - or it decays.

If your partner isn’t thinking about how decisions get made, how change is managed, and how the system adapts as the business grows, you’ll be back to square one within six months.

The real difference isn’t technical

It’s mindset.

You’re not buying “HubSpot help”. You’re buying judgement.

And if your HubSpot partner talks more about features than revenue, you don’t have a HubSpot partner.

You have a software implementer.

That’s the line we draw.