When negotiating a renewal for your favorite SaaS tools (like HubSpot), you want to make sure you’re getting the best deal possible. But it can be hard to know what’s even realistic and what contract terms you can expect to walk away with. 

That’s where Sastrify’s new blog series can help. In each post, we’ll be sharing our top tips for optimizing your contract during the renewal process – each time for a different SaaS tool. Our tips are based on years of negotiating and procurement experience across our team of experts, so you know they’ll be effective.

(If you’d rather hand the negotiating over to a team of experts so you can focus on what matters in your business, Sastrify is ready to help.)

In the coming weeks, we’ll bring you exclusive renewal tips for tools like Salesforce, Segment, Mixpanel, Datadog, Zendesk, and much more.

But first, let’s talk about HubSpot.

Top tips for HubSpot renewals

HubSpot is an integrated CRM platform containing software for marketing, sales, service, operations, and website-building. More than 150,000 customers across 120+ countries use the platform. Alternatives to HubSpot include Salesforce, Pipedrive, and Zendesk.

When it’s time to renew your HubSpot contract (or when you’re starting off with the tool), these are our top 6 tips to get the best deal.

1. Get the best HubSpot discounts at fiscal year end or end of quarter

Like many companies, HubSpot reps tend to give more discounts as they near the end of their fiscal year (31st December) or the end of each quarter. At these times, they are trying to hit quotas, so you’re more likely to get the best discounts on contracts signed close to these dates.

2. Request a larger HubSpot discount if you buy bundled or multiple products

Sales reps at HubSpot are incentivized to sell you bundled products (e.g., CRM Suite Bundle) or upsell you volume growth of new and/or existing products (e.g., additional contacts). If you are adding any of these at the time of renewal, be sure to request a larger discount, too!

3. Change to yearly billing for discounts & higher contact limits

Sales reps are also incentivized to get agreement for multi-year contracts or upfront payment – when you change from monthly to yearly billing. If you’re agreeing to either of these, ask for a larger discount.

Additionally, keep in mind that choosing annual payment will allow you to benefit from higher contact limits without excess charges throughout the contract term. With annual payment, HubSpot reviews the account at the time of renewal and not retrospectively, whereas with monthly payment there’s a monthly true-up on contact limits.

4. Easily turn off auto-renewal

This one is especially uncommon compared to other SaaS tools. Within the HubSpot customer portal, there’s a tick box to turn auto-renewal on and off. You can actually disable auto-renewal anytime up to one day before the renewal date. HubSpot customers won’t usually have a lengthy auto-renewal clause in their contract, so they have a lot of flexibility to deactivate that setting – this is very atypical for SaaS, so take advantage of it if you don’t want to auto-renew.

5. If you like your discount, keep it! 

With Hubspot, you can keep the same discount in your next contract term. In other words, if you’re happy with your contract, haven’t negotiated any changes, and proceed with auto-renewal, your pricing (and discounts) will remain the same. (The only exception being for the HubSpot for Startups Program or if Hubspot informs you in advance that this is not the case due to pricing changes etc.)

6. If you are a startup, consider the HubSpot for Startups Program

If you are a startup, check your eligibility for the HubSpot for Startups Program and get up to 90% off in year 1. 

There are three different levels of discounts in the program:

• 90% – If you’ve raised funding up to $2 million and are associated with an approved VC, Incubator, or Accelerator partner
• 50% – If you’ve raised funding over $2 million but not Series B or beyond; must be associated with approved partner organization
• 30% – If you’re associated with an approved entrepreneurial organization

After the first year, your discount will gradually decrease, but the program can still make the tool much more affordable for early stage companies.

Get the best HubSpot contract with Sastrify

All these tips come from the procurement and negotiation experts at Sastrify, who can help you get the best prices on the market for your SaaS licenses. Achieving the best outcome for your SaaS contracts can be a combination of these tips with the right timing and preparation. Sastrify knows best how to approach HubSpot in negotiations to ensure you end up with the best deal terms possible.

Find out how much you can save with our free SaaS savings calculator, and be sure to check back for the rest of our series on things you didn’t know about renewals for popular tools.

More renewal management guides:

• Salesforce
• Auth0
• Zendesk
• Tableau
• Docusign
• Datadog
• Segment