What Is the Time to Value of Nutshell vs. Salesforce vs. HubSpot?

What is the time to value of Nutshell vs. Salesforce vs. HubSpot? The TTV of Nutshell is usually around 2 months, the TTV of Salesforce is 8–12 months, and the TTV of HubSpot is also around 8–12 months.

When you get a new customer relationship management (CRM) platform, you might expect to start using it immediately. After all, when you get a new car, you can start driving it right away. But CRMs don’t work like that. It takes time to set them up and begin using them.

That might leave you with some questions about the time to value (TTV) of different CRM options — that is, how long it takes to get helpful results from each CRM. In particular, you might be wondering about three of the best CRMs on the market: Nutshell, Salesforce, and HubSpot.

So, what is the time to value of Nutshell vs. Salesforce vs. HubSpot? That’s just the question we’re here to answer. In this blog post, we’ll cover:

• What is time to value?
• Why does time to value matter?
• What is the time to value of Nutshell vs. Salesforce vs. HubSpot?
• What factors affect time to value?
• 3 ways you can improve your TTV

Keep reading to learn more about CRM time to value. Then subscribe to our newsletter, Revenue Weekly, for more helpful marketing info!

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What is time to value?

Time to value, or TTV, is a measurement of how long it takes to get value from a tool — in this case, a CRM — after you first buy it.

It’s up to you exactly how you define the word “value,” but it’s often used to indicate any kind of results that help you earn revenue. So, revenue itself would be an indicator of value — but so would leads, sales, or email list subscribers.

Why does time to value matter?

The most important thing about TTV is that it tends to be several months long. Many businesses think they’ll be able to get results from their CRM the second they purchase it — and that’s simply not true! Don’t buy a CRM with the expectation of driving immediate results with it.

The truth is, it takes a long time to get CRMs fully up and running. Often, you even have to get help from professional experts or developers. Sure, you could try to rush through it as quickly as possible so you can drive results more quickly, but if you do, the results themselves won’t be very good.

If you actually want your CRM to be effective at helping you drive revenue, you’ll usually need to spend months setting it up. Make sure you understand that before you buy a new CRM, or you’ll end up frustrated and disappointed by how long it takes to get value from it.

What is the time to value of Nutshell vs. Salesforce vs. HubSpot?

Now that we’ve explained what time to value is and why it matters, let’s get back to the main question of this blog post — what’s the time to value of Nutshell vs. Salesforce vs. HubSpot?

Before we answer that question, it’s worth noting that there’s no exact answer. For one thing, it depends on factors like which plan you choose, which we’ll explore more in the next section. For another, it depends on what pace you choose. Some companies will rush through faster, but it could cause their results to be worse.

Having said all of that, we can provide some rough estimates for each tool, which is what we’ll do below.

TTV of Nutshell

Generally speaking, the TTV of Nutshell is around two months. As stated above, this number can vary depending on different factors. However, two months — three for a more advanced setup — is a pretty good estimate.

The reason Nutshell’s TTV is so short is largely because it’s so user-friendly. It doesn’t take a long time to learn the ins and outs of the platform, because it’s built to be intuitive.

Furthermore, you don’t have to spend time seeking out experts to help you manage it, which shaves off even more time. And when you do need outside help, you’ll have free access to a top-tier customer service team at Nutshell itself.

TTV of Salesforce

Salesforce has one of the longest TTVs of any CRM. To be more specific, the TTV of Salesforce is roughly 8–12 months. The reason for this is that Salesforce is an incredibly complex tool. It offers a huge number of different plans, and each of those plans comes with a range of advanced features.

If you want to get good results from Salesforce, you’ll also need to hire some specialists to help you use it — either in-house experts or a Salesforce agency. That will add even more time to the process.

Because of this, Salesforce is usually better for large enterprises, not small businesses.

TTV of HubSpot

The TTV of HubSpot is essentially the same as that of Salesforce — 8–12 months. That said, HubSpot is significantly less complex than Salesforce, especially if you opt for a simpler plan. So, while Salesforce’s TTV tends more toward 12 months, HubSpot’s tends closer to 8 months.

HubSpot advertises its CRM as being quick to get started with, and that’s true, but bear in mind that there’s a difference between time to use and time to value. Even if you can start using the tool quickly, it still takes time to set up all of the preferences and configurations within the tool to help your business drive results and revenue with it.

What factors affect time to value?

We’ve mentioned a couple of times now that your CRM’s TTV can vary significantly based on different factors. So, what are those factors?

Let’s look at a few of the biggest ones.

Which tool you use

Firstly and most obviously, your TTV will depend on which CRM you choose. Just looking at the above three options, you can see that there’s quite a bit of variability in how quickly they can deliver results. You’ll see value much faster with Nutshell than you will with Salesforce, particularly if you’re not a large enterprise.

For that reason, when you’re deciding between different CRMs, be sure to consider TTV as a factor. Ultimately, it matters just as much as other factors like total cost and features.

Which plan you choose

Even once you know which CRM you intend to use, your TTV can still vary depending on which plan you choose. Many CRMs offer different plans, with the more expensive options containing far more advanced features and capabilities.

Needless to say, a plan with more features will also take longer to set up, which will extend your overall time to value. So, if your top priority is having a short TTV, you may want to consider at least starting out with a plan that contains fewer features. Of course, you can always upgrade to a better plan later.

What kind of expertise you get

Finally, your TTV depends on the degree of expertise you have available to you. As we’ve mentioned, Nutshell doesn’t require too much expertise to begin with, and to the extent that it does, it comes with its own customer support team included with the tool itself.

On the other hand, Salesforce is so advanced that there are entire agencies out there dedicated solely to helping businesses set it up. So, for a tool like that, a lot is riding on the kind of experts you get on your team. Maybe you opt to hire an external agency, or maybe you simply hire some experts in-house.

Whatever approach you take, having the right specialists on the job can make a huge difference.

3 ways you can improve your TTV

Before we go, let’s talk about a few ways you can speed up your TTV and get value from your CRM in less time.

Provide good data

CRMs are all about data. Managing data is what they exist to do — gathering it, storing it, organizing it, and analyzing it. But if you’re importing low-quality data, your CRM won’t be able to perform those tasks very well. For that reason, one of the best ways to improve your TTV is to ensure you’re importing good data.

To do that, consider implementing data cleaning and validation processes. That means combing through all your data to remove inaccuracies, inconsistencies, and duplicates. Only after putting your data through that process should you move it into your CRM. That will allow you to start driving results sooner.

Test throughout the development process

The last thing you want is to spend months setting up your CRM, and finally finish up, only to start using it and have everything crash and burn because of a mistake you made way back in the first month. Suddenly you have to spend even longer fixing the problem before you can get any value from the platform.

To avoid that, be sure to run tests consistently throughout the whole setup process. As you’re setting up preferences, configurations, and automations, stop every so often to test the changes you’ve made and ensure they work correctly. This can save you tons of time and effort down the road.

Get help from the experts

Finally, we’ll once more bring up the importance of getting help from CRM specialists. If you use a user-friendly CRM like Nutshell, that could just mean taking advantage of their customer support options. But if you use HubSpot or Salesforce, you’ll definitely want to get some outside help.

Often, that means seeking out support from a professional agency. Many marketing and sales agencies offer help setting up and optimizing CRMs like Salesforce for all your company’s needs.

WebFX can help you accelerate your time to value

If you need help getting the best results from your CRM, WebFX can help. For Salesforce, we offer top-of-the-line consulting services, built on our more than 28 years of experience with digital marketing and advertising. Or, you can simply choose Nutshell, which comes with its very own support team.

If you’re interested in partnering with WebFX, just call 888-601-5359 or contact us online today!