What a CRM migration guarantee should actually cover
How to tell a real guarantee from a marketing line, and the success criteria worth writing into the contract.
The short answer: A real CRM migration guarantee has measurable success criteria in the contract, such as matching record counts, pipeline value, working automations and rep adoption; a defined window after go-live, ideally at least 30 days; and a specific remedy, such as a free fix, a refund or part of the fee held back until the criteria are met.
“Guaranteed” appears on plenty of migration proposals. Read the contract and it often means something smaller: the vendor will fix bugs they agree are bugs, for a period they choose. That’s a support promise, not a guarantee. A real guarantee moves risk from you to the vendor, and it needs three things.
1. Measurable success criteria
“The migration will be completed successfully” can’t be enforced. Criteria you can test look like this:
| Criterion | How it’s measured |
|---|---|
| Record completeness | Counts of contacts, companies, deals and activities in HubSpot match the old CRM, allowing for records deliberately left behind |
| Pipeline accuracy | Open pipeline value by stage and owner matches the old CRM at cutover |
| Automation | Each agreed automation passes its test cases in production |
| Reporting | Named leadership reports reconcile to the old CRM within an agreed variance |
| Adoption | An agreed share of reps log activity in HubSpot each week by day 30 |
| Data protection | No exposure of data attributable to the vendor; access revoked and staging copies destroyed, with proof |
2. A defined window after go-live
Some problems only appear with real use: a routing rule that misfires on an unusual lead, a report that’s wrong at month end, reps quietly drifting back to spreadsheets. Thirty days covers a full monthly cycle and the period when new habits form.
3. A specific remedy
- The vendor acknowledges a claim within a set time.
- The vendor fixes the issue at no extra charge.
- If it can’t be fixed, there’s a defined financial remedy, such as a refund.
Holding back part of the fee until the criteria are met is the strongest remedy of all, because the vendor has to deliver before it’s fully paid.
What a fair guarantee excludes
Reasonable exclusions include changes your team makes after go-live, data that was wrong before migration unless cleaning was in scope, tools outside the agreed scope and outages on the platforms themselves. An adoption guarantee is also fairly conditional on your team attending training and managers using the system. Clear exclusions are a sign of a vendor who has thought it through.
Questions to ask about any guarantee
- What exactly is guaranteed? Can I see the criteria in writing?
- How is each one measured, and by whom?
- How long does it last after go-live?
- What happens if a criterion is missed?
- How much of the fee is due before go-live?
Ours is on the guarantee page. For other questions to put to a prospective partner, see how to choose a HubSpot migration partner.