Maximising your HubSpot investment: Are you actually using the right features?

11 Apr

You’ve signed up for HubSpot, your team is (sort of) using it, and you’re pretty sure it’s adding value… but is it really? Many businesses jump in, excited by the possibilities, only to end up using about 10% of what they’re actually paying for. It’s like buying a Ferrari and only driving it to the corner shop – technically useful, but massively underwhelming.

So, let’s get real. If you’re spending money on HubSpot, you want to squeeze every last drop of value out of it. Here’s how to check if you’re making the most of your subscription – and what to do if you’re not.

1. Are you actually using what you’re paying for?

First things first: how much of HubSpot are you actually using? If your sales team still prefers spreadsheets and your marketing team’s idea of automation is copy-pasting emails, then you’ve got a problem.

Questions to ask yourself:

Are we automating follow-ups, or is it all manual chaos?
Are sales reps logging calls and emails, or are they mysteriously “too busy”?
Are we making decisions based on data, or just hoping for the best?

Example business: A B2B tech startup

A SaaS company upgraded to HubSpot Sales Professional but only used it as a glorified contact list. They had access to lead scoring, pipeline automation, and workflow automation – but didn’t set any of it up. A quick audit would reveal that by just turning on automated email sequences would save their sales team hours each week.

Action step: Take an honest look at your HubSpot usage and identify the dusty, unused features that could actually help your business.

2. Automation: Are you making life harder than it needs to be?

If you’re still doing repetitive tasks manually, it’s time for an intervention. HubSpot’s automation tools are here to save your sanity, but only if you actually use them.

What you should automate (like, yesterday):

Lead nurturing – Because manually chasing lukewarm leads is nobody’s idea of fun.
Deal stages – So your pipeline doesn’t turn into a disorganised mess.
Task assignments – Because “I didn’t know I was supposed to follow up” isn’t a valid excuse.
Customer service tickets – Get them to the right person without endless email chains.

Example business: A recruitment agency

A fast-growing recruitment firm drowning in admin. Every candidate application has to be manually logged, assigned, and followed up. Once they set up workflows to handle this automatically, they’ll cut admin time massively – and nobody has to drown in spreadsheets again.

Action step: Pick three mind-numbing tasks and automate them in the next month. Future you will be grateful.

3. Is your sales pipeline working for you – or against you?

Your CRM isn’t just a fancy address book – it’s meant to help you close deals faster. If your pipeline is a graveyard of forgotten leads and your sales reps don’t know what to focus on, something’s off.

Key things to check:

Custom deal pipelines – Do they reflect your actual sales process, or just what looked nice in the demo?
Lead scoring – Are your hottest leads getting priority treatment?
Meeting scheduling – Are reps wasting time on back-and-forth emails instead of closing deals?

Example business: A legal consultancy

A small legal firm with a chaotic sales process – leads come in, get lost, and occasionally resurface months later. By implementing lead scoring and automating follow-ups, they will increase their conversion rate significantly without working any harder.

Action step: Audit your pipeline and fix any bottlenecks slowing down deals.

4. Marketing: Are you just sending emails, or actually nurturing leads?

HubSpot’s marketing tools can do a lot more than just send emails – if you use them right.

Essential marketing features to check:

A/B testing – If you’re not testing subject lines and CTAs, you’re leaving money on the table.
Smart content – Personalisation isn’t just for Netflix recommendations.
Attribution reporting – Do you know which campaigns are actually making you money?

Example business: An e-commerce brand

A retail company blasting the same generic emails to their entire database. By using HubSpot’s segmentation tools, they can start personalising their messaging and increase engagement overnight.

Action step: Implement at least one new personalisation feature in your next campaign.

5. Reporting: Are you actually making data-driven decisions?

If you’re not using HubSpot’s reporting features properly, you’re probably making decisions based on gut instinct – and that’s rarely a good idea.

Key reports to review:

Funnel analysis – Where are leads dropping off, and why?
Marketing attribution – Which campaigns actually bring in revenue?
Customer lifetime value – Are you tracking what each customer is really worth?

Example business: A B2B consultancy

A consulting firm relying on surface-level reports that tell them very little. Once they build a proper dashboard with multi-touch attribution, they can see where they are over-investing in one channel and underinvesting in another – fixing this will boost ROI

Action step: Set up a dashboard that actually helps you make smarter decisions.

What’s next?

So, how much of HubSpot are you actually using? Are you making your sales team’s life easier, or just giving them another tool to ignore? Are your marketing campaigns actually nurturing leads, or just adding to inbox clutter?

Take a moment to review your setup, identify three features you're underusing, and put them to work. Need help figuring out where to start? Let’s chat. HubSpot is an incredible tool, but only if you actually use it properly. Otherwise, it’s just an expensive way to store contact details.

Start by auditing what you’re using, automating the painful tasks, refining your sales pipeline, optimising your marketing, and getting your reporting in order. Small changes can have a huge impact on your results – and on your sanity.