HubSpot Onboarding Accreditation
Preparation Guide
Updated for the March 2024 accreditation cycle
January 30, 2025
Changes to Application Process
Onboarding
About This Preparation Guide
This guide is designed to provide clear insights and criteria for the HubSpot Onboarding accreditation process, detailing the prerequisites and expectations for interested solutions partners, and offering strategies for developing a strong and relevant application.
This guide is updated for each accreditation application window to reflect any changes to the process or requirements.
Please carefully review this document to ensure your eligibility for this accreditation, and that your submission includes all referenced requirements.
For details on HubSpot accreditations and the accreditation process for solutions partners, click here.
Onboarding
Navigating This Preparation Guide
Jump to:
Onboarding Accreditation
About the Accreditation
Obtaining the HubSpot Onboarding accreditation demonstrates that your solutions partner organization has first-hand experience in successfully onboarding new HubSpot customers onto the platform. In addition to applying the necessary product-specific knowledge, you have leveraged HubSpot’s onboarding methodology, “Objectives-Based Onboarding”, for your customers.
If you have not completed onboarding projects for customers with Marketing Hub Pro or Enterprise AND Sales Hub Pro or Enterprise, nor applied objective-based onboarding methodology, we recommend that you consider pursuing one of the other accreditation options.
Onboarding Accreditation
Organization Eligibility Requirements
Onboarding Accreditation
Before submitting your application, please confirm that it fully meets the following criteria.
If a submission document does not meet these criteria, your application will be declined.
Pre-submission Requirements
Onboarding Accreditation
Prerequisite Certifications
Onboarding Accreditation
Solutions partners need to have completed all required certifications and maintain their validity before the accreditation can be awarded. Expired certifications at the time of application will disqualify the entry.
These certifications validate the baseline knowledge and foundational skills solutions partners need to own in order to be qualified candidates for the accreditation process.
Solutions partners should ensure that full time employees in your agency collectively hold all required certifications in active status. This means that within your company, there should be at least three active Marketing Hub Implementation certifications, three active Salesforce Integration certifications, three active HubSpot Reporting Certifications, among others listed in the prerequisites.
Important note: These employees must have your partner domain email address in order to qualify.
List of Required Certifications
Onboarding Accreditation
Certifications (3x each)
Both versions are accepted
You can find the complete list of required certifications for each accreditation in the Accreditations Prerequisite Learning Path.
As several prerequisite certifications include practical exercises and/or practicum submissions, it is recommended to complete these certifications well in advance of the application deadline.
Grading for practical exercises includes a 1-day SLA.
Grading for practicum submissions includes a 7-day SLA.
Application Guide
The Onboarding Accreditation application consists of one round with five items to complete. Review the following information carefully to understand what these items require.
Onboarding Accreditation
Items to Complete
Onboarding Accreditation
Application Guide | Overview
Onboarding Accreditation
When possible, you should submit documents you’ve used in actual customer engagements. Your focus should be on depth and clarity rather than volume as if you were communicating with customer stakeholders. You do not need to include details regarding the customer or your organization outside of what is required. Your submission should contain information from one to three customer engagements. You may use a single engagement for all the items should you wish, but it is not a requirement.
Overview of Items to Complete
Application Guide | Overview
When considering which onboarding engagements are the best fit, use the following guidelines to inform your selection:
Determining Best Fit
Onboarding Accreditation
Application Guide | Item One
Upload a project plan and HubSpot Portal ID for a customer that you successfully onboarded using the Objectives-Based Onboarding methodology. The best submissions will demonstrate that the customer can meet their goals incrementally and realize value within 90 days of kickoff (“Phase 1”), rather than waiting for the conclusion onboarding to understand the impact and return on their investment in HubSpot.
Note: You will use this customer engagement for item four, so please select the engagement that best represents your approach to HubSpot onboarding.
Item One: Objectives-Based Onboarding Project Plan
Onboarding Accreditation
Application Guide | Item One
Your plan should include the following information:
The customer selected for this engagement must have both Marketing Hub and Sales Hub at the Professional level or higher. Engagements referencing a Starter plan will not be considered.
Item Requirements
Onboarding Accreditation
Application Guide | Item One
Submissions are reviewed for the following:
Review Criteria
Onboarding Accreditation
Application Guide | Item Two
An essential component of onboarding is to help customers center HubSpot within their tech stack, which often requires integrations with the existing platforms or systems in use at the customer organization. We are looking for partners who understand integration fundamentals and can use the app integration ecosystem to address customers’ integration needs.
Upload a document that describes how you solved a customer’s integration challenges through the Salesforce Integration (UK and US-requirement only) or a multi-object migration or integration (all other regions), and one additional use case employing either a marketplace integration or an iPaaS solution. Your use case should not include a scenario in which you simply had to turn on an integration.
This document does not need to communicate developer-level understanding of integrations, but should cogently address the points outlined in the next slide. The customer selected for this engagement must have both Marketing Hub and Sales Hub at the Professional level or higher. Engagements referencing a Starter subscription will not be considered.
Item Two: Integration Documentation
Onboarding Accreditation
Application Guide | Item Two
You must provide following information in your documentation:
Onboarding Accreditation
Item Requirements
Application Guide | Item Two
Submissions are reviewed for the following:
Note: This upload should contain two separate integration use cases. Uploads missing one of these elements will not be considered.
Onboarding Accreditation
Review Criteria
Application Guide | Item Three
Please provide reference information for a stakeholder contact from a customer specified in your application.
Once contact information has been provided, the system will send a brief form to complete that will solicit feedback from the individuals on the following domains:
It is your responsibility to ensure that your selected reference contact complete the form by June 1. Applications without a submitted reference will not be considered for the accreditation.
Onboarding Accreditation
Item Three: Customer Reference Info
Application Guide | Item Four
For this case study, please create and submit a 15-minute (maximum) video elaborating on the onboarding engagement that corresponds to the project plan you provided for the Project Plan in Item One.
Please note that even though you discussed this customer’s onboarding in the first item, you should not assume the reviewer has any prior exposure to your work with this customer. Please proceed as if this is the first time profiling this customer engagement.
The customer selected for this engagement must have both Marketing Hub and Sales Hub at the Professional level or higher. Engagements referencing a Starter plan will not be considered.
Onboarding Accreditation
Item Four: Video Case Study
Application Guide | Item Four
This video should focus on specific aspects of the engagement that are crucial to your customer’s success but might not easily be articulated through documentation alone. In your submission, you should address the following scenarios:
Onboarding Accreditation
Video Case Study Requirements
Application Guide | Item Four
6. Scope: Describe how you handled scope creep in terms of:
If you are not able to identify a single customer engagement that covers all of the recommended scenarios, start with a customer that allows you to address the majority of the requirements and then use additional customer examples for outstanding items. Use your time wisely, as you are limited to the single video.
Onboarding Accreditation
Video Case Study Requirements (continued)
Application Guide | Item Four
Submissions are reviewed for the following:
Onboarding Accreditation
Review Criteria
Application Guide | Item Five
Inbound Company Overview
Inbound Company, a SaaS organization with 200 employees, has purchased HubSpot's Marketing Hub Pro and Sales Hub Pro to align their Marketing and Sales teams. This strategic move aims to streamline operations and enhance team collaboration. However, a recent change in leadership with the introduction of a new Vice President (VP) of Sales, who has a preference for an alternative CRM, has posed challenges to the onboarding process.
During the initial onboarding, your team conducted three scheduled calls with Inbound Company over a three-week period. These interactions aimed to facilitate a smooth transition to HubSpot’s platform. Despite these efforts, it became evident that the relationship between your organization and Inbound Company was weakening, culminating in the client's complete disengagement after the third call.
Two weeks following the customers last communication, you received this email directly from the CEO.
Onboarding Accreditation
Item Five: Practical Exercise
Application Guide | Item Five
Imagine you are presenting a plan to your internal stakeholder team. Provide an overview of the escalation and an action plan that addresses the following areas:
Onboarding Accreditation
Practical Exercise Instructions
Application Guide | Item Five
The format of this response should be a PDF or PowerPoint presentation. Please remember, while this is a fictional exercise, real scenarios like this happen every day. Your task is to provide enough context to help our judges feel confident in your organization's ability to manage escalations.
Onboarding Accreditation
Practical Exercise Instructions (continued)