TL;DR
HubSpot CRM (free tier) is the best starting point for most early-stage B2B startups — it handles contact management, pipeline tracking, email sequences, and basic automation without cost. Upgrade to HubSpot Starter ($50/month) when you need more sequences and custom properties. Migrate to Salesforce when sales complexity, data volume, or enterprise requirements demand it.
CRM selection is consequential — migrating from one CRM to another is painful, time-consuming, and expensive. Choose with the next 2-3 years in mind, not just what you need today.
HubSpot CRM (recommended for seed-to-Series-A) Free tier includes: contact and company database, deal pipeline, email tracking, basic sequences (1 sequence per user), meeting scheduling, and reports. This is genuinely free and genuinely useful — most seed-stage startups need nothing more for the first 12-18 months. HubSpot Starter ($50/month) adds: more sequences, custom deal properties, email marketing, and forms. HubSpot Professional ($800/month) adds: advanced automation, A/B testing, custom reporting. HubSpot scales to $200M+ ARR companies — you probably won't outgrow it before Salesforce makes sense.
Salesforce (for Series B and beyond, or earlier if enterprise sales) Salesforce is the standard for enterprise sales organizations. More powerful customization, deeper integrations with enterprise tools, better for complex sales processes with multiple stakeholders. Starts at $75/user/month. The learning curve and administration overhead are significant — you need a Salesforce admin or a revenue ops person to manage it effectively. Not worth the complexity and cost for most companies under $5M ARR unless your enterprise buyer explicitly requires it.
When to migrate from HubSpot to Salesforce Signals you've outgrown HubSpot: sales process has more than 3 custom pipeline stages that need complex automation, you're managing large enterprise accounts that need territory management, your marketing team needs marketing automation capabilities beyond HubSpot Marketing, or your Salesforce-using integration partners or investors require it.
Alternatives to consider Pipedrive: simpler UI, focused on pipeline management. Better for smaller teams with straightforward sales. Notion CRM: not a real CRM but works for pre-product-market-fit when you're tracking very small numbers. Close.io: excellent for high-velocity SMB sales with strong built-in calling features.
From Cactus: Cactus recommends HubSpot for every client under $10M ARR unless there's a specific enterprise requirement that demands Salesforce — the cost and complexity of Salesforce is simply not justified at early stage, and HubSpot's marketing + sales + CRM integration is genuinely best-in-class.
Cactus Marketing embeds with B2B tech startups to turn strategy into pipeline. We've worked with 60+ companies, supported 12 exits, and contributed to $7B+ in client valuations.
Book a free 30-minute call — we'll give you a concrete plan for your situation.
Book a free strategy call →How do I hire my first SDR?
Hire your first SDR only after you've personally closed 5–10 customers and can articulate exactly what messaging, ICP, and objection handling worked. An SDR hired before the founder has figured out the sales motion will fail — they need a playbook to follow, not to build one from scratch.
What should an SDR quota be?
A typical SDR quota in B2B SaaS is 8–15 qualified meetings booked per month, or $150–300K in pipeline generated per quarter. The right number depends on your ACV, lead source, and market. Set quota based on what's achievable from proven activity metrics, not what would be convenient for the business.
How do I onboard an SDR?
Build a structured 30-60-90 day plan with clear milestones: product mastery in week 1, ICP and messaging training in week 2, supervised calling in week 3, and independent ramping with quota from day 31. Document everything — the SDR should have a playbook on day one, not six weeks later.
What is a good SDR conversion rate?
A good SDR conversion rate is 2–5% of outbound contacts to qualified meeting, and 25–40% of qualified meetings to SQL (sales accepted opportunity). Below these benchmarks suggests targeting, messaging, or qualification issues — not necessarily SDR execution.