In March, HubSpot introduced a new pricing model to help customers optimize their spend.

The new pricing model eliminated the minimum number of seats for service and sales hubs and introduced core and view-only seat options.

Core Seats allow users to edit data within the purchased Hubs, grant access to cross-Hub AI capabilities, and connect teams through HubSpot’s Smart CRM.

View-only seats, on the other hand, do what they promise: they provide visibility across hubs. For many CRM users, that’s all they need. They don’t need the ability to manipulate data and use the AI ​​features available to “core users.”

By offering unlimited view-only seats for free, HubSpot customers can assign “core” and “view-only” seats based on roles and responsibilities to save costs, and ultimately eliminate the need to pay to assign a seat to each user.

Another benefit is that more business users can access HubSpot for free, meaning the company can democratize CRM insights.

Still, when they returned to the pricing model, some questioned the move. After all, wouldn’t it reduce customers’ spending?

This appears to have proven to be true, as average subscription revenue per customer has fallen by two percent compared to the previous year.

However, the change in pricing model ultimately made it easier to buy and grow HubSpot.

Therefore, HubSpot continues to believe that the move is worth the short-term loss of subscriptions, as the CRM giant will make up for it in the long run by gaining additional customers.

In fact, during the last earnings call earlier this month, the company said: Kate Bueker, CFO of HubSpotreaffirmed her confidence in the pricing plan and then stated:

For the second half of the year, I expect net new customer growth of 9,000 to 10,000 per quarter.

In financial terms, net customer addition refers to the number of customers a company adds to its customer base over a 12-month period – and 10,000 is an impressive number.

If HubSpot can achieve this, it could further increase its revenue growth. The CRM giant already reported a 21 percent increase in profits last quarter compared to the previous year.

Still, Yamini Rangan, CEO of HubSpot, kept the price discussion customer-oriented. She said:

Overall, we remain firmly convinced that the pricing change is the right decision for our customers and therefore also for HubSpot.

If HubSpot can successfully build on its thriving base of 228,000 customers worldwide, it will – hopefully – inspire many of its CRM competitors to make similar pricing changes.

Of course, everyone is in the business of making money and might see this as a risky strategy, but changing prices seems to be a positive way for CX providers to demonstrate their commitment to their own customer experiences.

Elsewhere at HubSpot… Multi-Hub Gains Momentum

During HubSpot’s recent quarterly earnings call, Rangan also emphasized HubSpot’s long-term strategy to become a complete customer platform for growing companies.

“When we developed this strategy, we said we were going to build a world-class engagement center,” the CEO explained.

“But most importantly, we’re building a platform that unifies the data insights from all of these hubs. And if I were to point out one thing you’re seeing over the last few quarters, it’s the momentum of multi-hub activity.”

An example of this dynamic: 45 percent of HubSpot’s new business in the Pro+ tiers last quarter came from customers using three or more hubs.

Meanwhile, Rangan also highlighted that an increase in multi-hub deals with upscale customers – looking to consolidate their technology stack – enabled “greater success in the second quarter.”

This drive for consolidation comes from the fact that companies have historically purchased multiple point solutions to link their CRM strategies, but have struggled to integrate data and control costs with these solutions.

That’s why HubSpot, like Salesforce with Einstein 1, aims to create an ecosystem in which its CRM hubs can interact and thrive.

Rangan concludes: “HubSpot’s strength is not just in one specific hub. It’s in the insights we deliver across multiple hubs on the platform.”