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HubSpot
Inside this Blog:
- What to keep: the stuffthat’sactually helpingyou
- What to fix: the things that bog everything down
- What to ditch: the bloatthat’sslowing you down
- Heading into Q1 with a faster, cleaner HubSpot
- HubSpotNew Year Reset Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
The New Year always comes with a sense of possibility, but for IT and tech organizations, January isn’t just a fresh start. It’s the moment when revenue targets get real; sales cycles start again, and the pressure to “do more with less” hits every part of the business. Right in the middle of that New Year reality is HubSpot, as the operational backbone that makes your targets realistic, measurable, and adaptable. The quality of your data, processes, and automation in HubSpot determines how realistically you can hit those targets and how quickly you cancourse correct along the way.
When your HubSpot is healthy, everything feels easier: leads flow where they should, reps move faster, reporting is actionable, and your marketing efforts don’t disappear into the void. When it’s messy? You feel it everywhere: slow responses, inconsistent, siloed, or scattered data, glitchy workflows, and stalled ROI.
That’s why a New Year HubSpot Reset is one of the smartest things IT and tech companies can do before Q1. A reset isn’t about reinventing your entire system but about understanding HubSpot as a living system. When you reset, focus onkeeping what works, considering what features you aren’t yet leveraging, fixing what’s holding you back, and ditching the bloat that’s built up over the last year so you can start 2026 fresh.
Let’s walk through it.
What to Keep: The Stuff That’s Actually Helping Your Business
Before you start decluttering, it’s worth highlighting what should absolutely stay.
1. Your Best Workflows and Automations
If you’ve got automations handling lead routing, onboarding, lifecycle changes, or recurring tasks, those are gold. They reduce manual work and keep teams consistent. Don’t touch them (yet). Just double-check that they still reflect how your team is structured going into the new year.
2. Your Trusted Dashboards
Every leadership team has those two or three dashboards they rely on weekly. Pipeline health, Marketing Qualified Lead to Sales Qualified Lead (MQL-to-SQL) conversions, attribution—you know the ones. If the metrics are still meaningful, keep them. Just give them a refresh:
- Update filters
- Remove old lists (now segments) or campaigns
- Make sure you're tracking the right sources as your go-to-market mix evolves
3. Your Key Integrations
Tools like Jira, Zendesk, Teams, or your quoting system are usually deeply embedded. Instead of replacing them, test the connections. Are fields mapping correctly? Are you syncing too much (or too little)? This is the time to tighten everything up.
What to Fix: The Things That Bog Everyone Down
Even well-maintained HubSpot portals get a little chaotic by December. The good news is that most of the issues that frustrate you and your teams are fixable.
1. Messy Contact and Company Data
If you’re like most busy businesses, data hygiene slipped this year. No shame in that. But now’s the perfect moment to clean things up:
- Merge duplicates
- Add validation rules
- Standardize job titles, industries, and personas
- Archive fields no one has used since 2021
Clean data makes your reporting trustworthy and your automations more reliable.
2. Lifecycle Stages That Don’t Reflect Reality
This one’s huge. If marketing and sales don’t agree on what counts as a Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) or Sales Qualified Lead (SQL), you wind up withdropped leads, inconsistent reporting, and frustrated teams.
Take the time to reset:
- How each stage is defined
- What triggers the stage change
- When ownership shifts between teams
For IT and tech companies—where deals take time and involve multiple stakeholders—clarity here is a revenue unlock.
3. Lead Routing That Sends People in to a Black Hole
Territories change. Reps leave. New teams form. Customer journeys change. And suddenly, your lead routing rules no longer match how your sales org actually works.
A quick routing audit to ensure what’s changed in your business is realigned in HubSpot can prevent hundreds of lost or delayed leads in Q1.
4. Reporting Gaps
If leadership can’t get the answers they want—fast—your reporting setup needs attention. Maybe you added new product lines. Maybe you’re investing in new channels. Maybe your attribution rules need an update.
Fixes usually look like:
- Creating new dashboards
- Retiring old ones
- Reworking deal pipelines
- Cleaning up naming conventions
Your future self will thank you.
What to Ditch: The Bloat That’s Slowing You Down
Like a thorough garage or pantry cleanout, this part always feels good.
1. Old Lists, Unused Properties, and Legacy Workflows
If a workflow hasn’t triggered since 2022 and isn’t applicable anymore, don’t let it take up mental or system space. Same with outdated fields, lists, sequences, or assets from campaigns long gone.
Make a note of what could be refreshed and repurposed, then archive them. HubSpot becomes instantly lighter.
2. Overcomplicated Automations
If your workflows look like spaghetti diagrams, it’s probably time to simplify. Over-built automations often break the fastest and cause the weirdest issues, not to mention, actually turn off potential customers.
3. Vanity Dashboards
If no one uses it, no one needs it. Simplify your reporting to align with actual business questions and goals, not every possible metric HubSpot can track.
Heading Into Q1 With a Cleaner, Faster HubSpot
A New Year Reset is a solid operational best practice that gives your business a strategic advantage. When your portal is clean, your data is reliable, and your processes and teams are aligned, everything in Q1 moves faster from the get-go.
You waste less time digging for answers. You miss fewer leads. And you finally get clarity on what’s working (and what’s not).
Consider this: an Adobe study found that top-performers who strategically optimize their CRM and leverage automation are 27 times more likely to exceed ROI targets and 10 times more likely to excel in customer experience and pipeline growth.
If you want help doing this in a structured, low-lift way, we guide IT and tech organizations through HubSpot Audits where our HubSpot certified team shows you what’s working, uncovers what’s blocking growth, and gives you a roadmap to make your system deliver measurable results. As a HubSpot Platinum Partner, we lend our expertise, experience, and performance—along with HubSpot resources and insights into tools, updates, and capabilities—to ensure you’re maximizing its value.
Your Q1 momentum starts with how clean your systems are today. Let HubSpot be an accelerator, not an obstacle.
Want to Learn More About the Importance of HubSpot Optimization?
- Why HubSpot Isn’t a “Set It and Forget It” Platform
- Stop Fighting HubSpot: 5 Fixes to Save Your Sanity (and Your Pipeline)
- Your HubSpot New Year Reset
- Stop Wasting Hours in HubSpot
- HubSpot Optimization Checklist
HubSpot New Year Reset FAQs
Here are some of the most common questions IT and tech leaders and business owners ask when doing their annual portal cleanup.
1. “Do we really need toclean up our HubSpot every year?”
Honestly, yes. IT and tech companies like yours grow quickly, change faster, and accumulate clutter without realizing it. A yearly reset protects your data quality, keeps systems aligned with your current team structure, and prevents you from scaling chaos into the next year.
2. “How do we know what to clean up in HubSpot and what to leave alone?”
Start by identifying what’s tied to revenue or customer experience. If a workflow, field, or report directly supports pipeline, sales efficiency, onboarding, or renewals, it stays. Everything else gets evaluated for relevance.
3. “Should we rebuild our entire HubSpot structure if it feels messy?”
Probably not. Most portals don’t need a full rebuild; they need strategic cleaning and restructuring. You’d be surprised how powerful a few targeted fixes can be when they address the right issues.
4. “How long does a HubSpot reset actually take?”
For most IT and tech organizations, a thorough reset takes anywhere from two to six weeks depending on how complex the tech stack is, how customized the portal is, and how many teams rely on it.