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Case study

Advertising Company Optimizes Sales and Marketing Motions with HubSpot Migration and Advanced Revenue Forecasting

"We recently worked with accelant on a complex migration from Salesforce to HubSpot, and they exceeded every expectation."

Industry
Advertising
Duration
9 weeks
Type
B2B
Solutions
Salesforce Migration, Pardot Migration, Custom Revenue Forecasting

HubSpot products used

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Marketing Hub®

Enterprise

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Sales Hub®

Enterprise

Product_Icon_Only_Operations_Hub
Ops Hub®

Enterprise

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Business Units

Add On

Our client is a media buying company that helps large media organizations and their affiliates execute strategic digital advertising solutions. With a growing sales team spanning new business, account management, and specialized sales functions, they needed a system that could support their diverse workflows and drive efficiency. 

In addition to their sales team, the client operates an in-house marketing agency, as a separate business unit, managing its own marketing assets and pipeline. This added another layer of complexity, as the agency required a solution that could integrate seamlessly without disrupting existing processes. 

To create a more streamlined and scalable operation, accelant partnered the client to migrate their CRM, sales, and marketing operations to from Salesforce to HubSpot— improving cross-team visibility and laying the foundation for automation. 


THE CHALLENGE

A complex sales structure with no native solution     ​

Our client’s business relied on a three-tier account hierarchy to manage relationships between media companies, their affiliates, and advertisers. However, HubSpot does not natively support hierarchical account structures, and the Salesforce integration app does not carry over same-object associations. Without a way to maintain these relationships, our client risked losing critical data connections essential for sales and account management. 

Large sales team in need of training and platform adoption

With a growing sales team working across multiple functions, our client faced the challenge of moving a large number of reps onto a new platform. Their sales team needed to quickly learn how to navigate HubSpot, manage deals, track pipeline activity, and adopt new processes—all while continuing their daily responsibilities.

Tight migration timeline

With their Salesforce contract set to expire, our client had limited time to complete the migration. Any delays in the process risked leaving their team without a functional system, disrupting sales activities and data access. 

Capturing detailed sales data at every stage

To effectively manage their pipeline, our client needed a way to track detailed sales data at every stage of the buying process. This required capturing key deal attributes and sales activity in a structured format while ensuring that all necessary information remained accessible in HubSpot.

 

THE SOLUTION

Optimizing CRM structure for scalability and efficiency with advanced configurations 

  

To address these challenges, accelant designed and executed a migration strategy focused on maintaining data integrity, streamlining sales workflows, and ensuring full adoption of HubSpot across teams. 

Custom account hierarchy and associations

Since HubSpot does not natively support hierarchical accounts, a custom association structure was implemented to maintain relationships between partners, divisions, and customers. This ensured the sales teams could accurately track and manage complex account structures.

Refined sales pipelines and deal stages

The client’s existing sales pipelines were restructured and simplified, eliminating outdated deal stages and aligning workflows with current sales processes. This resulted in five unique pipelines, each with clearly defined stages tailored to specific sales motions, providing clarity for sales teams and improved deal tracking and forecasting accuracy. 

Implemented business unit-specific marketing assets

To support the client’s in-house marketing agency, custom forms, landing pages, and email templates were created to allow the marketing team to operate independently while maintaining brand consistency. 

Rebuilt reporting and performance tracking

Key reports were built from the ground up, including sales performance dashboards, pipeline reports, and revenue forecasting tools. These reports provide real-time visibility into sales activity, enabling leadership to track progress and make data-drive decisions. 

Extensive platform training for sales adoption

To ensure a smooth transition to HubSpot, accelant provided 20 hours of hands-on training, equipping the sales teams with the knowledge they need to manage deals, track pipeline activity, and leverage reporting tools effectively. 

Revenue forecasting for financial visibility

A key component of this project was implementing accelant’s proprietary Revenue Forecasting app, which quickly became a favorite tool among our client’s leadership team. Since many of the client’s sales are for services delivered overtime, traditional sales amount forecasting did not provide a clear picture of when revenue would be recognized. The new forecasting solution spreads projected revenue across each sale’s lifecycle, allowing leadership to make more informed financial decisions and gain deeper insight into business performance. 

“

We recently worked with accelant on a complex migration from Salesforce to HubSpot, and they exceeded every expectation. Their team brought expertise, clear communication, and a collaborative approach that made the entire process seamless. Laura, Chris, Katie, Kieran, and Mike were especially fantastic, ensuring every detail was addressed and that the platform was tailored to our needs. One of the most impressive outcomes was the high user adoption across our teams. Their training and guidance empowered everyone to feel confident using the new system right from the start. Thanks to their support, we hit all our key milestones and built a solid foundation in HubSpot. I’d highly recommend accelant to anyone looking for a knowledgeable and dependable partner for their CRM projects. 

Marketing Automation Specialist


THE RESULTS

A structured system that supports growth and visibility 

After migrating to HubSpot, our client’s sales and marketing teams gained greater control over their workflows, improving efficiency across departments. The new system enabled better alignment across teams, enhanced visibility into operations, and a more streamlined approach to managing sales and marketing efforts. 

Fully enabled on HubSpot in 9 weeks with uninterrupted sales operations

Despite a tight migration timeline, the client's sales team quickly adapted to HubSpot and continued their workflows without disruption. The structured onboarding and training ensured that reps could immediately begin managing deals, tracking outreach, and operating efficiently in their new CRM. 

A clearly defined and standardized sales process

With streamlined pipelines and well-defined deal stages, all sales teams now follow a consistent and structured process, ensuring that deals progress through the right steps in their respective pipelines.

Improved marketing attribution with multi-touch tracking

The client’s marketing team now benefits from more robust attribution capabilities, leveraging multi-touch attribution models to track campaign impact and gain deeper insights into customer journeys. 

Enhanced outreach with the lead object

The Business Development team can now track outreach efforts more effectively, using HubSpot’s lead object to log interactions, monitor engagement, and refine their approach to prospecting. 

Data-driven decision-making with revenue forecasting

With revenue forecasting fully implemented, the client’s leadership team now has real-time visibility into projected revenue. The solution enables them to forecast revenue by sales stage, pipeline, salesperson, and team, giving them a comprehensive view of how each business unit contributes to overall revenue recognition. 

Interested to learn how your organization can benefit from accelant's Streamlined Salesforce and Pardot Migration Services?