Moving to a new CRM often feels like a bigger project than it needs to be. With the right preparation you can move contacts, companies, deals and history to HubSpot without losing anything important, and get a cleaner CRM in the process. Here is how.
In short: Plan which data to bring, export from your current system, clean out duplicates and old data, set up properties and pipeline in HubSpot and import in the right order: companies, contacts, deals and finally activities. Test with a sample first and never run two systems in parallel longer than necessary.
Pretty much everything that is structured:
What is harder to move is automation, reports and custom logic. Those need to be rebuilt in HubSpot, and that is often an advantage.
Not all data needs to move. Contacts who have not been active for years, deals lost long ago and fields that are never used only make the new system messier. Set a cutoff, for example active customers plus contacts with activity in the last two or three years. Also think about GDPR: if you have no basis for keeping a contact, the move is a good opportunity to clean up.
Before you import, the structure needs to be in place: custom properties, dropdown values, a pipeline with stages, users and teams. Map every column in the export file to a property in HubSpot. Do not create new properties for everything. Think about what you will actually use.
Always test with 50 to 100 records first. Check that properties, associations and owners are correct before you run the full import.
If you are coming from Excel, most of the work is getting the columns in order. Make sure each row is one contact or company, that email addresses are correct and that you have separate columns for first name, last name, company and phone. HubSpot's import tool handles the rest.
For several common CRMs there are ready made migration tools and integrations that move data including associations and history. For larger migrations, or when you want activity history and custom objects, a partner or a migration tool usually saves a lot of time. Also read our comparisons HubSpot vs Pipedrive and HubSpot vs Salesforce.
Go through a number of records manually, compare totals between the systems and let a few reps test their own customers. Then set a date when the old system becomes read only. Running two systems in parallel for months is the surest way to get a half finished migration.
A simple move from Excel can be done in a few days. A migration from another CRM with history, activities and integrations usually takes two to six weeks including planning and testing.
Yes. HubSpot imports both CSV and Excel files. Each column is mapped to a property, and you can import several objects in the same file if they belong together.
It depends on the source system and method. Notes, activities and logged emails can often be migrated. If you also connect your inboxes to HubSpot, new communication is logged automatically from day one.
Use email address as the unique key for contacts and domain for companies. HubSpot then updates existing records instead of creating new ones. Also run HubSpot's duplicate management after the import.
Workflows, rules and reports do not move automatically and need to be rebuilt in HubSpot. See it as an opportunity to simplify and only build what is actually used.
A successful move to HubSpot comes down to preparation: decide what to bring, clean thoroughly, import in the right order and test before you shut down the old system. Then you get a CRM that is cleaner than the one you left.
Want help with the migration? Get in touch with LeadLabs and we will plan the move together.