In a world where sales efficiency has become a strategic imperative, sales teams are constantly looking to optimize their time and processes. If you use HubSpot as your CRM, you've probably already explored some of its native functionalities. But are you familiar with the potential of custom App Cards to radically transform your sales team's experience?
🔍 What is a HubSpot App Card and why should you care?
App Cards are custom extensions that integrate directly into the HubSpot interface. Unlike simple API integrations, they offer a seamless user experience by allowing interaction with external data or functionalities without ever leaving the HubSpot environment.
Recently liberalized by HubSpot through licensing changes, these App Cards were previously reserved for the largest companies. Today, they're becoming accessible to a wider range of users, opening the door to advanced customization of the CRM interface.
🚀 4 concrete use cases that revolutionize the daily work of sales teams
📅 1. The Calendar App Card: integrating time management into your HubSpot objects
One of the recurring challenges for salespeople is managing services and time in the CRM. Traditionally, this requires the use of third-party software, multiplying interfaces and fragmenting information.
A Calendar App Card integrated directly into HubSpot objects (Deals, Contacts, or Companies) allows salespeople to:
- ➡️ Visualize and plan services related to product lines
- ➡️ Enter time spent directly in the HubSpot interface
- ➡️ Synchronize this information with other CRM data
Concrete result: A 5-minute saving per entry for each salesperson, not to mention the savings on third-party software licenses and improved data quality.
🛒 2. The Product Selector App Card: the first step towards an efficient CPQ system
Selecting products in a quote is often a source of errors and wasted time, especially when the catalog is vast or complex.
The Product Selector App Card transforms this experience by:
- ➡️ Organizing products in an intuitive tree structure
- ➡️ Speeding up the search and selection of the right products
- ➡️ Reducing the risk of configuration errors
Concrete result: 5 minutes saved per Deal created, with a significant reduction in input errors that can cost much more in subsequent corrections.
📎 3. The Attachments App Card: centralizing all your critical documents
In an ideal world, all documentation related to a deal should be centralized in the CRM. However, many companies struggle to properly integrate documents generated by external systems.
This App Card solves this problem by allowing you to:
- ➡️ Directly attach PDFs (purchase orders, contracts) to HubSpot objects
- ➡️ View these documents without leaving the interface
- ➡️ Maintain a complete and accessible document history
Concrete result: 5 minutes saved per file managed, and more importantly, a centralization of information that eliminates the risks of document loss.
🔄 4. The Duplicate Deal App Card: customizing the duplication of complex deals
Creating alternative proposals or duplicating similar deals is a time-consuming process when everything has to be re-entered manually.
The Deal Duplication App Card offers:
- ➡️ Fine control over which elements to duplicate (associated objects, properties)
- ➡️ The ability to modify certain properties during duplication
- ➡️ Complete customization of the duplication workflow
Concrete result: An average gain of 10 minutes per duplicated Deal, potentially much more for complex deals with numerous product lines.
💻 The technical challenges behind these innovations
Developing HubSpot App Cards is not simply a matter of configuration. It's a real development effort that requires:
- ➡️ Mastery of React and TypeScript/JavaScript for App Card development
- ➡️ A deep understanding of the nuances between private/public App Cards and the different possible architectures
- ➡️ Back-end development skills (with technologies like Nuxt) for public App Cards
- ➡️ Expertise in HubSpot APIs to ensure seamless integration with the CRM
This technical complexity explains why, despite their potential, custom App Cards remain underutilized by the majority of HubSpot users.
🔄 Why CRM-side technical integration is fundamentally different
Unlike classic web development on HubSpot (themes for the CMS), optimizing the CRM via App Cards requires specific expertise:
- ➡️ A CRM orientation rather than Web: It's not simply about creating a beautiful interface, but understanding the sales processes and underlying business logic.
- ➡️ An ability to integrate with the existing ecosystem: App Cards often need to interface with other company information systems (ERP, specific software, internal databases).
- ➡️ An approach centered on operational efficiency: The primary goal is not aesthetics but time savings and error reduction for sales teams.
This specificity explains why many companies struggle to find skilled developers in this area, as most are more oriented towards traditional web development.
🚧 Organizational obstacles to overcome
Beyond the technical challenges, implementing custom App Cards often faces internal resistance:
- ➡️ Reluctance from IT teams who don't always perceive the importance of optimizing sales tools
- ➡️ Lack of dedicated resources to develop custom solutions
- ➡️ Absence of a global vision on the impact of operational inefficiencies on sales performance
However, the numbers speak for themselves: if we consider that a salesperson saves an average of 20-25 minutes per day thanks to these optimizations, that represents over 80 hours per year per salesperson. For a team of 10 people, that's the equivalent of more than two months of full-time work recovered to focus on selling rather than administrative tasks.
🔮 The future of App Cards in the HubSpot ecosystem
Recent licensing changes by HubSpot mark a decisive turning point. By making Enterprise licenses more accessible, HubSpot is paving the way for the democratization of custom App Cards.
This evolution is part of a broader trend of advanced CRM customization to perfectly adapt to each company's specific processes, rather than forcing teams to adapt to the rigidities of the software.
In the coming years, we will likely witness the emergence of a true App Card ecosystem, some generic and others highly specialized for specific sectors or use cases.
🏆 Conclusion: towards a truly customized CRM
App Cards represent much more than a simple technical improvement to HubSpot: they embody a philosophy where the CRM adapts perfectly to the specific needs of the company rather than the other way around.
For organizations looking to maximize the return on investment of their HubSpot deployment, they constitute a major optimization opportunity, provided they have the necessary technical expertise to develop and harmoniously integrate them.
At a time when sales performance is becoming a strategic issue, companies that know how to exploit this customization potential will gain a competitive edge, equipping their salespeople with tools perfectly adapted to their specific needs.