Vexco
What is a HubSpot Diamond Partner and how to choose a partner
How the tiers of HubSpot’s partner programme work, what each one really measures and which questions to ask before choosing who will implement your CRM.
A HubSpot Diamond Partner is an agency or consultancy in the third of the four tiers of HubSpot's official partner programme: Gold, Platinum, Diamond and Elite. The tier is earned mainly through business volume with HubSpot customers and, at the higher tiers, also through retention of those customers.
Put another way: the tier tells you how much activity a partner has within the ecosystem, but not whether it is the right one for your project. For that you need to look at other things, and we cover them here as honestly as we can, knowing that we are a partner too.
How HubSpot partner tiers work
- 01Gold
- 02Platinum
- 03Diamond
- 04Elite
HubSpot assigns tiers using a points system tied to the recurring revenue of the HubSpot customers each partner works with. According to the official explanation of how tiers work, there are three types of points:
- Sourced: for customers the partner brings to HubSpot and closes.
- Assisted: for helping to close sales that HubSpot started.
- Managed: for serving customers who already use HubSpot.
Each tier requires a minimum of sourced points and total points. Diamond and Elite also require a minimum average revenue retention across their customers, and Elite adds team certification requirements and an invitation from HubSpot. The thresholds are reviewed periodically: a partner can move up a tier in any month, while downgrades are reviewed twice a year. To stay in the programme, at least one person on the team must hold a current Solutions Partner certification.
The exact thresholds change between periods. If you need the current figures, always check HubSpot's official page rather than relying on third-party articles.
So what does being Diamond mean?
It means the partner has reached a high, sustained volume of HubSpot customers and that those customers stay: only Elite sits above it. It also opens specific doors: according to HubSpot, a partner has to be at least Platinum to apply for its accreditations (the most demanding company-level credentials in the programme).
What the tier does not directly measure is the quality of each implementation, experience in your industry or the technical ability to integrate HubSpot with your ERP. A very large partner can hold a high tier through volume and have nobody who builds integrations; another may specialise in exactly what you need. That is why the tier is an initial filter, not the decision.
Certifications and accreditations are not the same thing
Certifications are individual: each person earns them in HubSpot Academy by passing an exam, and the partner shows on its listing which ones its team holds. They indicate training, not necessarily experience.
Accreditations belong to the company and are considerably more demanding. HubSpot grants them after reviewing real projects, documentation and customer references, in areas such as data migration, CRM implementation, Service Hub implementation, architecture design, onboarding or custom integrations. You can see the programme on the official accreditations page. If your project depends on one of those areas, ask the partner whether it holds it or is working towards it.
How to choose a HubSpot partner: what really matters
- Programme tier
- Verified reviews
- Certifications and accreditations
- Projects like yours
- Who will do the work
- Method and documentation
- Support after go-live
1. Verified reviews, read one by one
HubSpot's official directory shows verified customer reviews. Do not stop at the average: read the text and look for projects similar to yours, mentions of timelines, communication and what happened after go-live.
2. Projects similar to yours
Ask for concrete examples: a migration from your current CRM, an integration with your ERP or a project in your industry. If the partner cannot describe how it solved a similar case, with technical details and the problems it ran into, it probably has not done one.
3. Who will do the work
Ask whether the team selling you the project is the one delivering it and whether development is subcontracted. When consultancy and development sit in different companies, every change of scope goes through an intermediary and what was understood in the meeting does not always make it into the code.
4. Method, testing and documentation
A good partner shows you how it works before you sign: phases, deliverables, testing with real data and documentation of what it builds. If you do not receive a document covering the data model, automations and integrations at the end of the project, you will depend on that partner forever.
5. What happens after go-live
A CRM evolves with the company. Ask what support is offered, how integration incidents are handled and what response commitment they make.
Warning signs
- A quote with no prior audit for a project involving migration or integrations. If nobody has looked at your data or your systems, the price is a gamble and the extras will come later.
- Promises of very short timelines without knowing your process. Configuring HubSpot is quick; designing it well and getting the team to adopt it, less so.
- Everything is solved with marketplace apps. Sometimes that is true, but if the partner cannot build anything bespoke, it will tend to bend your process to what the app allows.
- Nobody mentions training or adoption. A well-configured CRM the team does not use is money wasted.
- Pushing you to upgrade before understanding what you will use. A good partner helps you avoid paying for features you do not need.
Questions for the first meeting
- Which project similar to ours have you delivered, and what went worse than expected?
- Who on your team will work on the project and what experience do they have?
- How do you test a migration or an integration before switching it on?
- What documentation do you hand over at the end?
- Is HubSpot's mandatory onboarding included in your quote?
If you want to understand which line items that quote should include, we explain it in how much it costs to implement HubSpot.
Our own case, so you can judge for yourself
Vexco is a HubSpot Diamond Solutions Partner with a 4.9/5 rating in HubSpot's official directory and 9 certifications across the team. We are an in-house team of 19 people, 15 in Barcelona and 4 in Dubai, with no subcontractors, and consultancy and integration development are done by the same people. You can read the reviews and see the certifications on our listing in the official partner directory, and meet the team on our about us page.
We will also tell you when we are not the best option: if you need to roll HubSpot out in many countries at once with a large team dedicated for months, a bigger partner will probably suit you better. If you are looking for a senior team that understands your business and writes the code, take a look at how we work in a typical project, such as our 8-week implementation plan, and decide based on the facts.
