Manufacturing companies face a different selling environment than they did even two years ago. With long sales cycles, complex buying processes, and multiple stakeholders involved in every significant purchase, manufacturers need a platform that helps them stay connected to buyers who are doing most of their research before they ever pick up the phone.
HubSpot has established itself as the leading platform for manufacturers looking to streamline their operations and drive predictable growth. Here's why it matters for your business and what the latest research tells us about where manufacturing marketing is headed.
HubSpot is a comprehensive customer relationship management platform that helps companies attract visitors, convert leads, and close customers through integrated tools. For manufacturers, this means Marketing Hub for attracting and engaging prospects, Sales Hub for managing processes and closing deals, Service Hub for delighting customers with exceptional support, CMS Hub for website management, and Operations Hub for data synchronization and automation.
The platform now serves over 279,000 customers across 135+ countries. According to recent data, HubSpot commands 38% of the global marketing automation software market, making it the leader by a significant margin (Hublead). For manufacturing companies that have been burned by disconnected tools and empty promises from marketing vendors, having everything in one place isn't just convenient—it's the foundation for actually measuring what's working.
The way your prospects research and buy has fundamentally shifted. According to 6sense's 2025 B2B Buyer Experience Report, buyers now complete about 60% of their purchasing journey independently before ever contacting a vendor—down from 70% just last year, but still representing the majority of the decision-making process happening without your sales team in the room (6sense). That shift from 70/30 to 60/40 sounds like good news for sellers, but here's the reality: buyers are contacting vendors earlier primarily because they need to validate AI capabilities in solutions they're evaluating. They're not calling sooner because they need your brochure—they're calling sooner because the technology landscape is moving fast.
The vendor contacted first still wins roughly 80% of deals. Ninety-five percent of the time, the winning vendor is already on the buyer's Day One shortlist (6sense). For manufacturers, this means your digital presence and content strategy aren't just "nice to have" marketing projects. They determine whether you make the shortlist at all.
If you're still thinking about selling to "the decision-maker," it's time for a reality check. According to Forrester's 2024 State of Business Buying report, the average B2B purchase now involves 13 stakeholders, and nearly 89% of buying decisions cross multiple departments (Traction Complete). For capital equipment and complex manufacturing solutions, those numbers can run even higher.
Here's what makes this particularly challenging: Millennials and Gen Z now account for 71% of B2B buyers, up from 64% in 2022. And younger decision-makers under 40 involve nearly twice as many stakeholders (6.8) as older executives (3.5) in their buying decisions (Sopro). The buying committees are getting bigger, not smaller, and they expect digital-first experiences throughout the process.
This is exactly why HubSpot matters for manufacturing companies. When you're trying to influence 10+ people across multiple departments, you need a system that tracks every touchpoint, helps you understand where each stakeholder is in their journey, and enables your team to engage the right person with the right message at the right time.
This is the change that most manufacturing companies haven't caught up with yet. According to G2's research, nearly 9 out of 10 B2B software buyers say AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude are changing the way they research. Half of buyers now start their buying journey in an AI chatbot instead of Google Search (G2).
Forrester reports that B2B buyers are adopting AI-powered search at three times the rate of consumers, with 90% of organizations now using generative AI in some aspect of their purchasing process. AI-generated traffic now represents between 2% and 6% of total organic traffic for B2B companies, but it's growing at more than 40% per month. Forrester expects AI-driven traffic to reach 20% or more by the end of 2025 (Digital Commerce 360).
The most striking finding: according to Responsive research, one in four B2B buyers now uses generative AI more often than conventional search when researching suppliers. Two-thirds say they rely on AI chatbots as much or more than Google or Bing when evaluating vendors (Digital Commerce 360).
What does this mean for your manufacturing company? Your content needs to be structured so AI tools can understand and recommend your solutions. This isn't about gaming an algorithm—it's about clearly answering the questions your prospects are asking in formats that both humans and AI can parse effectively.
Let's talk numbers, because that's ultimately what matters. According to Nucleus Research, the average return on investment for CRM is $8.71 for every dollar spent (Nutshell). Manufacturing firms specifically report up to 32% improvement in sales forecast accuracy from CRM implementation.
For HubSpot users specifically, the data is compelling. According to industry research, businesses using HubSpot Marketing Hub report an average 505% ROI over three years and launch marketing campaigns 68% faster than average. Companies using the CRM close 22% more deals on average (Hublead).
CRM adoption in manufacturing has reached 86%—one of the highest rates across any industry (SLT Creative). The question isn't whether you need a CRM—it's whether you have the right one and whether you're using it effectively.
Manufacturing sales cycles can stretch from months to years for capital equipment purchases. According to research, nearly two-thirds (63%) of B2B leads take at least three months to decide, and a fifth wait over a year before purchasing (Sopro). HubSpot's automation capabilities let you nurture prospects and stay engaged longer and more personally, delivering higher close rates without requiring your sales team to manually track hundreds of touchpoints.
When purchases involve 10-13 stakeholders across multiple departments, understanding how each person engages with your company becomes essential. HubSpot provides complete customer lifecycle visibility—the ability to understand how customers take the buying journey with you so you can stay connected and grow with them at their pace. You can segment contacts by persona and buying stage to focus on your best-fit, highest lifetime value prospects.
Most B2B buyers (71%) still start their research with a Google search (Sopro), but that's shifting rapidly as AI tools become primary research channels. HubSpot's integrated content management system and SEO tools help you improve your visibility in both traditional search and AI-powered discovery. SEO leads have a 14.6% close rate, compared to just 1.7% for outbound leads—being found when buyers are actively looking is one of the highest-ROI activities you can pursue.
Manufacturing companies with tightly aligned sales and marketing operations achieve significantly faster revenue growth. According to research, 73% of marketers actively use their company's CRM system to access sales prospect and lead data (Nutshell), and 78% of sales leaders believe their CRM systems enhance collaboration between sales and marketing teams. When both teams work from the same data and the same system, the handoffs that typically cause leads to fall through the cracks simply don't happen.
In manufacturing, where each deal can represent significant revenue, making informed decisions is essential. HubSpot provides analytics to know what's working, why, and how to improve every part of the customer journey. Sales reporting improves by up to 42% with effective CRM implementation, and lead conversion rates can increase by up to 300% according to Forrester research.
Manufacturing companies choose HubSpot for several reasons that matter when you're running a business with limited marketing resources. The platform approach integrates marketing, sales, and service without requiring you to manage 10-15 different tools with multiple logins and interfaces that don't talk to one another. There's stability with proven uptime and reliable technical support. Ease of use means intuitive interfaces that save time—critical when your marketing "team" might be one person wearing multiple hats. And the active community includes apps, discussions, certifications, and resources for training and learning.
The ROI question is increasingly straightforward. With 81% of organizations predicted to use AI-powered CRM systems by 2026 (SellersCommerce), having a platform that integrates these capabilities isn't optional—it's the cost of staying competitive.
Lantech - Capital Equipment Manufacturing
This capital equipment manufacturer implemented an inbound marketing strategy with HubSpot and achieved a 40%+ increase in RFQs within 18 months, a 16%+ increase in website traffic over the same period, growth to over 4,700 blog subscribers, and development of a global digital marketing strategy that works across markets.
These aren't marketing metrics for vanity's sake. More RFQs means more opportunities for your sales team to get in front of qualified prospects—exactly what manufacturing companies need to grow.
For manufacturers considering HubSpot, the implementation process typically involves evaluating your current marketing, sales, and service processes to identify gaps and opportunities. Then setting up the HubSpot platform to align with your specific business goals and customer journey. Migrating existing data and integrating with current systems comes next, followed by training your team on the platform. From there, it's about developing and implementing inbound marketing strategies that actually generate leads, then continuously optimizing your approach based on what the data tells you.
The key insight from working with manufacturing companies: implementation is less about the technology and more about getting your team aligned around a customer-focused approach. The tools work. The question is whether your organization is ready to use them consistently.
In today's competitive manufacturing landscape, having the right tools can make all the difference. HubSpot provides a unified platform that helps manufacturers generate more leads, connect to and engage with prospects, customers, and partners, and measure everything so the ROI of marketing and sales investments is clear.
The data is unambiguous: buyers are researching independently, they're using AI tools to shortlist vendors, they're making decisions before they talk to sales, and the vendor that shows up first with helpful content wins. Whether you're trying to expand into new markets, fill your sales pipeline, or simply understand what's actually working in your marketing, HubSpot gives you the visibility and tools to compete.
Once our clients start with HubSpot, they never go back. That's not marketing speak—it's what happens when manufacturing companies finally have visibility into their entire customer journey and can make decisions based on data instead of gut feel.
If you're ready to transform your manufacturing marketing, sales, and service operations, the tools exist to make it happen. The question is whether you're ready to use them.