8 Step HubSpot Pre-Onboarding Checklist

If you’re starting HubSpot onboarding, your success depends on what you do before day one. 

HubSpot onboarding is designed to help you configure the platform, align teams, and get value quickly. But here’s what many companies overlook: the work that happens before onboarding starts. 

This pre-onboarding is the difference between a smooth rollout and weeks of wasted effort. 

At BlueOshan, a HubSpot Diamond Partner, we’ve supported hundreds of businesses through onboarding. The teams that invest in pre-onboarding consistently see:

• Faster Adoption
• Cleaner data migration
• Earlier wins for sales and marketing 
  
  

What is Pre-Onboarding for HubSpot?

Pre-onboarding refers to everything you do before the formal HubSpot onboarding process begins. 

That includes setting goals, preparing your data, and aligning your people. Done well, it:

• Speeds up your onboarding timeline
• Avoids data and integration errors
• Gets your team working in HubSpot faster

Pre-onboarding Checklist 

Here’s the recommended process we guide clients through:

1. Define your business goals.

What outcomes matter most? Examples we see often:

• Increase MQL → SQL conversion rates.
• Improve sales pipeline visibility.
• Standardise reporting across teams.

Having clear KPIs avoids endless debates during setup. 

2. Assemble your onboarding team.

You’ll need a small, accountable group:

• HubSpot Champion / Admin - owns the platform
• Sales, Marketing, Service Leads - shape features to their workflows

3. Audit and prepare your data

This is where most delays happen. Before migration:

• Deduplicate contacts and companies
• Standardise fields (email, phone number, job titles)
• Flag records that are incompetent or irrelevant 

Doing this now saves weeks later on. 

4. Prioritise feature adoption

HubSpot is powerful, but don’t switch everything at once. Start with the hub or feature that solves your most urgent pain point. For example:

• Sales Hub pipeline setup
• Marketing Hub email automation
• Service Hub Ticket management

5. Align with business strategy.

Your HubSpot setup should map directly to your business priorities.

• If leadership wants reporting, build dashboards early.
• If your focus is account-based marketing, set up custom properties and workflows first.

6. Prepare integrations and infrastructure

• Verify your email-sending domain.
• Connect calendars and inboxes.
• List integrations that need attention (ERP, analytics, WhatsApp, etc.)

7. Plan training and communication

• Decide who needs HubSpot access (and what level)
• Schedule training sessions by role
• Prepare internal updates about the rollout

8. Run an onboarding kickoff

• Bring everyone together
• Confirm goals and KPIs
• Share the timeline and responsibilities
• Align expectations across teams

Why Pre-Onboarding Matters

We’ve seen the same pattern repeat across industries:

Case Example 1: 

A SaaS company delayed data cleanup until migration. They spent six weeks cleaning records that could have been fixed in advance.

Case Example 2: 

A manufacturing client defined KPIs before onboarding. Two weeks in, leadership was reviewing live dashboards instead of waiting months.

Skipping pre-onboarding leads to delays and rework. Doing it right accelerates value. That’s why every engagement with a HubSpot Solutions Partner starts here.

Pre-onboarding is the foundation of a successful HubSpot launch.

Use this checklist to prepare your team and data, then start onboarding with confidence.

At BlueOshan, we bring 10+ years of HubSpot experience to ensure every client gets this step right. As a Diamond Partner, we’ve seen what works - and we’ll help you avoid what doesn’t.