Benetics AI: Salesforce to HubSpot in 4 Weeks
"“At Salesforce, we had our handful of Sales Cloud licenses—the core CRM license. That cost us as much per year as the complete HubSpot suite: Sales, Marketing, and Service. That gives you a sense of the difference.”"
Antonio Thurnher, Head of Sales, Benetics
How Benetics, an AI construction software company from Zurich with 400 customers and around 200% annual growth, migrated without disrupting operations—led by a former Salesforce employee.
Migration timeline from kick-off to adoption: 4 weeks · Data source: Interview with Antonio Thurnher, Head of Sales, Benetics AI, August 27, 2026 · Industry: AI software for 400 construction companies across the DACH region
Benetics equips construction and trade companies with an AI stack: a voice assistant on the construction site and an agent in the office supporting the project manager. Head of Sales Antonio Thurnher came from Salesforce and built the go-to-market setup using the system he knew. One year later, functionality was not the problem—the time every adjustment required was.
“At Salesforce, we had our handful of Sales Cloud licenses—the core CRM license. That cost us as much per year as the complete HubSpot suite: Sales, Marketing, and Service. That gives you a sense of the difference.”
— Antonio Thurnher, Head of Sales, Benetics
The Results
- Migration and implementation of Sales, Marketing, and Service in 4 weeks, with more than 400 existing customers
- The complete HubSpot suite for the annual budget of the previous Salesforce Sales Cloud licenses
- At least 6 hours of Head of Sales capacity recovered every week, around 270 hours per year
- No RevOps hire and no ongoing implementation partner required
- Cross-object reports instead of project work: three prompts using Claude and the HubSpot MCP
- Marketing, Sales, and Service in one system instead of flying blind before the first conversation and after closing
The Starting Point: A Salesforce Veteran Builds on Salesforce
Antonio had sold Salesforce himself from Dublin to Swiss startups and mid-market companies. So the first step at Benetics seemed obvious.
“As a former Salesforce employee, my first step was naturally to implement Salesforce. It was great at first because I knew the system inside out. I knew all the tips and tricks.”
— Antonio Thurnher, Head of Sales, Benetics
As the team grew, so did the workload. Benetics was budget-constrained and could not afford a large implementation partner, so responsibility for the org setup remained with the Head of Sales.
“The more people we had in Sales, the more complex our processes became, and the more customers we had, the more work it created. At the end of the day, it all depended on me.”
— Antonio Thurnher, Head of Sales, Benetics
“By the end, it was definitely at least six hours per week. Not just pure admin work, but also thinking about how we could improve and simplify our processes.”
— Antonio Thurnher, Head of Sales, Benetics
Six hours per week is around 15% of a revenue leader’s working time—while leading a five-person team through a year of 200% growth and closing deals personally.
The Breaking Point: Cycle Time
Benetics sells speed. Its own revenue stack did not deliver it.
“This was a fundamental theme in our company: How can we reduce cycle time? If we introduce a new referral or partner-management process, we need to implement it quickly and with as few resources as possible.”
— Antonio Thurnher, Head of Sales, Benetics
The comparison became tangible when HubSpot Marketing was introduced. Then there was the price. At the enterprise level, Benetics paid as much for the core CRM as it later paid for Sales, Marketing, and Service combined.
“When we implemented HubSpot’s Marketing Hub, we saw how manageable it was and how easily the solution could be adapted to our needs. That led us to ask: How can we move our Sales team to HubSpot as well?”
— Antonio Thurnher, Head of Sales, Benetics
“If we had added the marketing modules in Salesforce, the cost would have been many times higher—and that would not even have included the implementation.”
— Antonio Thurnher, Head of Sales, Benetics
Four Weeks Because the Process Came First
Benetics had previously worked with a remote partner to introduce Marketing Hub. The expertise was strong, but the pace was wrong.
“That is when we realized the feedback loops were slow. What we needed was someone who understood our situation, was available, and could execute quickly.”
— Antonio Thurnher, Head of Sales, Benetics
Before the migration, the processes were not simply ported—they were simplified.
“Kudos to Erik on your side. He really challenged us and asked the right questions: Do we need this step at all? Then you realize it has simply grown over time and is not actually necessary. How can we make this simpler?”
— Antonio Thurnher, Head of Sales, Benetics
“The hard part is not implementing a process in HubSpot according to a standard template. The hard part is reviewing a process and using experience from other SaaS customers to say: I learned this from another company, and it could be useful here.”
— Antonio Thurnher, Head of Sales, Benetics
“We entered the discussions with a fairly tight timeline, but you made it possible. Within four weeks, you migrated and implemented our entire HubSpot setup.”
— Antonio Thurnher, Head of Sales, Benetics
Adoption Matters More Than the Logo
With a deal cycle of around 20 days, a Benetics rep closes at least 25 deals per month—more than one per working day. Every point of friction in the system directly reduces closing capacity.
“I do not really care which system we use—HubSpot, Salesforce, or anything else. It simply has to be fast, work well for our reps, and make it easy for us to get the data out.”
— Antonio Thurnher, Head of Sales, Benetics
“If nobody uses it, you might as well stop the exercise immediately. The process cannot become the center of attention; the focus has to remain on the customer.”
— Antonio Thurnher, Head of Sales, Benetics
The Unexpected Effect: AI Access to Revenue Data
One benefit had not been on the decision checklist.
“It was fascinating to see how a colleague can now use Claude and the HubSpot MCP to extract data. Building reports—such as cross-object conversions—used to take hours. You could forget about it. Now it takes three simple prompts, and you have an artifact. That was not clear to us beforehand, but in hindsight it is incredibly valuable.”
— Antonio Thurnher, Head of Sales, Benetics
What Comes Next
The decision reflected Benetics’ current stage—it was not a verdict on Salesforce.
“I think Salesforce is a great system. I really enjoyed selling it and would recommend it to anyone asking how to build a scalable CRM. For the stage we were in, it simply was not the right fit. That does not mean we will never return to it in the future.”
— Antonio Thurnher, Head of Sales, Benetics
“As a company, we know that buying software is harder than selling software. That is a crucial insight most people do not fully understand.”
— Antonio Thurnher, Head of Sales, Benetics
Benetics is actively hiring. The team is looking for top Account Executives across several European territories and someone to build the BizDev function hands-on across inbound, outbound, and pipeline generation. Contact Antonio Thurnher directly via LinkedIn or at [email protected].