If you're a developer looking to grow in a skillset that businesses are looking for - I want to help you decide if becoming a CRM Developer could be the next logical step in your career.
What do CRM Developers do?
CRM Developers play a crucial role in customizing and extending Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems like HubSpot to meet the specific needs of businesses.
A CRM is software that helps businesses manage their interactions and relationships with customers and prospects. It stores valuable customer data, tracks customer interactions, automates and informs marketing, sales, and service team processes, and provides insights to improve customer relationships and drive business growth. In essence, CRM systems streamline customer interactions and help businesses cultivate strong, long-lasting relationships with their customers. For small businesses with a handful of customers, it's easy for companies to give a personalized positive experience, but as companies grow, the only way to deliver that level of customer delight is through the use of a powerful CRM.
CRM Developers create tailored solutions that enhance user and customer experience, boost productivity, and streamline operations within organizations. These solutions often come in the form of code level enhancements to the CRM that the company uses. On HubSpot this is done through UI Extensions and API integrations.
UI Extensions can be thought of as pieces of User Interface (UI) that a developer can directly add right inside of HubSpot. They look and feel as if they're native to HubSpot, enabling users to take advantage of the familiarity with how HubSpot looks and operates. This makes it easy for end-users to learn to use the developer-created extensions.
If you've got a history of seeing friends, family, or coworkers doing something in a really inefficient way and going "Let me show you how you can do this better/faster with technology". The type of problem solving CRM developers do is going to feel right up your alley. Your work as a CRM developer is unique because you might impact nearly every part of a business's operations.
Force multipliers
Imagine you're helping a service team with 10 service reps, your company produces a product, and their job is to provide support for it. You build extensions and customizations so that the team directly from HubSpot can see all of the products the customers they're supporting have, and what versions or tier. They can quickly get to the help resources they need to troubleshoot issues, they can easily take administrative actions for software in the product, all from the same screens they're using to manage their relationship with that customer. Less hopping from application to application, less trying to remember where to find resources, less browser tabs to sift through, less context switching, and more focus on the customer.
Your impact is a multiplier across the work that everyone else does. You might be saving 5 minutes over the course of half an hour, but that's not just 5 minutes for one person for one half hour. You're affecting a whole team repeatedly, endlessly by building one thing. There are 80 half-hours in a 40 hour work week.
5 minutes x 80 half hours x 10 team members = 4,000 minutes per week the team has saved.
That's 66.67 hours saved in one week.
There's about 4.3 weeks per month, 66.7 x 4.3 = 286.81 hours saved per month.
286.81 hours x 12 months = 3,441.72 hours over the course of a year, assuming the number of employees using your customizations didn't change, and that you didn't make more changes that save even more time over the course of that year.
When you're saving the company time that is greater than that of a full time employee, that's a big deal to a company's ROI (return on investment). Not only that, but the team that you're helping is going to love you because you're making their job easier and less tedious. Of course, you can continue to optimize for that same team, but you also have the opportunity to expand to help other teams throughout the company. You could, for example, provide the sales team with tools directly from the CRM to help with doing calls and demos for prospects.
As a CRM developer you can not only save a business time and money, your work can be directly attributed to the revenue generated. You're a very valuable part of your company.
CRM development is a specialized field that can significantly impact the ROI of a business. While it's still evolving, adding CRM development skills to your portfolio can significantly enhance your marketability and potentially lead to increased earning potential as companies value specialized expertise.
Your knowledge and skills transfer
Work with APIs in your current job? Work with React? That will suit you well as a HubSpot CRM developer.
Do you build on HubSpot as a CMS or API Developer? Even better, your knowledge of HubSpot directly transfers. CMS Hub now supports React development. So, learning React will only make you better at both CMS and CRM development.
You can be a CRM, CMS, and API developer at the same time - you'll be like the legally distinct triangle shaped source of power and balance in the HubSpot world.
The skills you'll learn and the experience you'll gain as a CRM developer will open doors for you in your career because you'll intimately know how different parts of a business operate. You'll know React and improve at JavaScript and working with APIs - skills that are transferable to almost any web development role down the road.
What do you need to learn to become a CRM developer?
To excel as a CRM Developer, you should have a strong foundation in full-stack or back-end development, proficiency in working with RESTful APIs, comfort using the command line, and experience with version control systems like Git. Learning modern JavaScript, being comfortable with server-side JavaScript (Node.JS or Deno), and familiarity with JavaScript frameworks and libraries like ReactJS will be advantageous.
Do you feel you lack any of those skills right now? That's okay HubSpot has free training materials to get you started. Find them shared at the end of this post.
What are companies looking for when hiring a CRM Developer?
Companies seeking CRM Developers typically look for candidates with a blend of technical proficiency and soft skills. Additional qualifications such as experience with serverless functions, OAuth, Git collaboration, and familiarity with HubSpot can make you stand out.
How do you set yourself apart from other CRM Developers when applying?
To differentiate yourself from other CRM Developers during the application process, showcase your understanding of the Inbound methodology, highlight your problem-solving skills, and emphasize any previous experience customizing CRM systems. Stay updated on industry trends, continuously improve your skills, and demonstrate your commitment to ongoing learning.
Whether you're considering a career switch or aiming to enhance your existing skill set, CRM Development offers a promising path for developers looking to make an impact.
More resources to explore: