Trying to get a clear picture of your potential customers in HubSpot? To really get a handle on your leads, you should first understand that HubSpot thinks a little differently than some other CRMs. Instead of juggling separate “lead” and “contact” records and constantly converting them, HubSpot uses a unified “contact” record for everyone. This simplifies things a lot because all the information about a person—from their first website visit to becoming a loyal customer—lives in one place. But don’t worry, that doesn’t mean you can’t identify and focus on your hot prospects. HubSpot gives you powerful tools, including custom views, lists, lead scoring, and even a dedicated “Lead Object” in some editions, to make sure you’re always on top of your sales game. We’ll walk you through how to effortlessly find, track, qualify, and manage those crucial leads so your team can focus on what matters most: connecting with people and closing deals.
Understanding What a “Lead” Means in HubSpot
When you first jump into HubSpot, one of the things that might feel a little different if you’re coming from another CRM is how it handles “leads.” In many systems, a “lead” is a completely separate entity from a “contact,” and you’d typically “convert” a lead into a contact once they’re qualified. That’s often where data can get lost or tangled up, right?
HubSpot takes a different approach. For HubSpot, everyone in your CRM is fundamentally a contact. Think of your contacts as your main address book. This makes so much sense because every interaction, every email, every form submission, every website visit for that person is all under one roof. No more digging around trying to piece together a fragmented history!
So, where do “leads” fit in?
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The Traditional “Lead” Concept: Lifecycle Stages
For a long time, the primary way to identify a “lead” in HubSpot was through the Lifecycle Stage property on a contact record. This is a super important default property that tracks where a person is in their journey with your business. It usually looks something like this:
- Subscriber: Someone who’s opted into your blog or newsletter.
- Lead: An unqualified prospect who has shown some interest e.g., filled out a form, downloaded content.
- Marketing Qualified Lead MQL: Someone marketing has deemed ready for sales.
- Sales Qualified Lead SQL: A lead sales has accepted as worth pursuing.
- Opportunity: A potential deal is in play.
- Customer: They’ve made a purchase!
- Evangelist/Other: Someone who promotes your brand or other specific statuses.
When someone fills out a form on your website, HubSpot automatically creates a contact record for them and typically sets their Lifecycle Stage to “Lead.” This gives you a clear way to filter your entire database to see just those individuals who are currently in the “Lead” stage. The Ultimate Guide to HubSpot UI Extensions and GitHub Integration
HubSpot Leads vs Contacts: The Subtle but Important Difference
Now, here’s where it gets a little more nuanced, especially if you’re using Sales Hub Professional or Enterprise. HubSpot recently introduced a dedicated “Lead Object.” This isn’t meant to replace the contact record, but rather to act as an add-on to contacts or companies.
Think of the Lead Object as a specialized workspace for your sales team, designed specifically for the qualification stage – that crucial “pre-deal” period where you’re actively trying to engage with a prospect and determine if they’re a good fit before creating a full-blown deal. It gives your sales reps a streamlined, focused view of active prospects they’re working to qualify.
The key takeaway here is:
- Contacts are all the people in your database.
- Leads whether identified by Lifecycle Stage or using the new Lead Object are specific contacts that your sales or marketing team is actively working to qualify and potentially convert into customers.
This dual approach means you have flexibility. You can manage “leads” primarily through the Lifecycle Stage on contact records, or you can leverage the dedicated Lead Object for a more structured sales prospecting process, especially if your sales cycle is complex. Most of the fundamental tracking and filtering still happens at the contact level, which we’ll explore next.
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The Core: Accessing Your Leads Contacts in HubSpot
Alright, let’s get down to business. Finding your leads in HubSpot isn’t rocket science, but knowing where to look and how to use the tools effectively makes a huge difference.
Step-by-Step: Navigating to Contacts Your Main Lead Hub
Since every lead is fundamentally a contact, your first stop for viewing leads will always be the Contacts section.
- Log in to your HubSpot account.
- In the top navigation bar, simply click on “Contacts” and then select “Contacts” from the dropdown menu.
- You’ll land on your main Contacts index page, which shows a table of all the people in your database.
From here, it might look like a lot of names, but this is where HubSpot’s powerful filtering comes into play.
Using Filters to Find Your “Leads”
This is your bread and butter for segmenting and viewing specific groups of contacts.
- On the Contacts index page, look for the “All filters” button or sometimes you’ll see a few common filters already displayed at the top of the table.
- Click “All filters.” A sidebar will pop out on the left.
- Here’s how you can find different types of “leads”:
* Filter by Lifecycle Stage: This is the most common way. Search for the property “Lifecycle Stage.” Then, select “is any of” and choose “Lead,” “Marketing Qualified Lead,” or “Sales Qualified Lead” depending on what you’re looking for.
* Filter by Lead Status: If your team uses the “Lead Status” property which refines the ‘Sales Qualified Lead’ lifecycle stage even further, with options like “New,” “Open,” “In Progress,” “Unqualified,” “Attempted to Contact,” “Connected,” “Bad Timing”, you can filter by this as well.
* Filter by Original Source: Want to see all leads that came from a specific channel like “Organic Search” or “Paid Social”? Search for “Original Source” and pick your desired source.
* Filter by Engagement: You can get really granular! Filter by “Last activity date,” “Last email open date,” “Number of page views,” or “Form submissions” to find contacts who are actively engaging with your content.
Once you’ve applied your desired filters, the table will instantly update to show only the contacts that match your criteria – essentially, your “leads”! HubSpot Use Messages: Your Complete Guide to Engaging Customers
Creating Custom Views for Leads HubSpot Views
Constantly applying the same filters gets old, right? That’s where Saved Views often referred to as “HubSpot Views” come in handy. These let you save a specific set of filters and column arrangements so you can access your segmented lead lists with a single click.
Here’s how to create one:
- Apply your filters as described above to get the list of leads you want to save. For example, “Lifecycle Stage is any of Lead, MQL, SQL.”
- Above the contact table, you’ll see a dropdown that likely says “All contacts” or “Recently updated.” Click the “+ Add view” button next to your existing tabs.
- Select “Create new view.”
- Give your view a clear name e.g., “New Inquiries,” “Hot Leads – This Month,” “My Assigned Leads”.
- Set the visibility: You can keep it “Private” just for you, share it with “My team,” or make it available to “Everyone” in your HubSpot account.
- Click “Create view.”
Now, you’ll see your new view appear as a tab at the top of your Contacts page. You can even drag these tabs to reorder them or pin them to make them your default view. This way, when you log in, your “Hot Leads” view could be the first thing you see.
The Leads Object: A Dedicated Sales Workspace If Applicable
If you’re using Sales Hub Professional or Enterprise, you might have access to the dedicated Lead Object. This is a powerful feature that provides a centralized space for your sales team to manage prospects.
- Navigate to Sales > Sales Workspace in your HubSpot account.
- Click on the “Prospecting” tab or sometimes directly “Leads” if it’s already configured.
- On the left sidebar, click “Leads.”
Here, you’ll see your leads presented in a table or board view, often segmented by “Lead Pipeline Stage” e.g., New, Attempting, Connected, Bad Timing, Disqualified, Qualified. You can create new leads, manage their stages, and see associated activities directly from this view. You can also create and edit custom saved views specifically for the Lead Object, similar to how you do it for contacts. Mastering Email Marketing with HubSpot: Your Ultimate Guide
Tracking Your Leads: Beyond Just Viewing
Seeing your leads is one thing. truly tracking their journey, understanding their behavior, and knowing where they came from is another. HubSpot is excellent at giving you a 360-degree view of your prospects.
How to Track Lead Source in HubSpot
Knowing how your leads found you is critical for optimizing your marketing efforts and proving ROI. HubSpot automates a lot of this for you, which is fantastic.
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Original Source Property: Every contact in HubSpot has an “Original Source” property. This field is automatically set by HubSpot when a contact is created e.g., through a form submission, email click, or ad interaction and cannot be manually modified by default. It categorizes the very first touchpoint, such as:
- Organic Search
- Paid Search
- Social Media
- Email Marketing
- Referrals
- Direct Traffic
- Offline Sources
- Other
To view a contact’s original source, just go to their contact record, scroll down the left panel to the “About” section, and click “View all properties” if it’s not visible. Then, search for “Original Source.” Using HubSpot for Project Management: Your Guide to Smarter Workflows
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Campaigns and UTM Parameters: For more granular tracking, especially from specific marketing efforts, you’ll want to use UTM parameters. When you set these up on your campaign links e.g., for Google Ads, social media posts, email blasts, HubSpot automatically captures this information and populates properties like “First Touch Conversion,” “Last Touch Conversion,” and “Recent Conversion.” This allows you to track specific campaigns that generate leads.
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Manual Updates and Custom Properties: While “Original Source” is automatic, you might have specific scenarios where you want to manually log or enrich a lead’s source. You can create custom contact properties e.g., “Specific Referral Partner,” “Trade Show Attended” to capture additional source details that are unique to your business.
Understanding Lead Activity and Engagement
Once a lead is in your system, you want to know what they’re doing. Are they opening your emails? Visiting your pricing page? Downloading your content? HubSpot’s Activity Timeline on each contact record is your best friend here.
- Timeline Overview: When you open a contact record, you’ll immediately see a chronological feed of all interactions:
- Email Opens and Clicks: See exactly which marketing emails they’ve opened and what links they clicked.
- Website Visits: Track which pages they’ve viewed on your website and when. You can even set up notifications for when “hot” leads revisit your site.
- Form Submissions: Every form they’ve filled out, from newsletter sign-ups to demo requests.
- Sales Activities: Any calls logged, emails sent via HubSpot, or meetings scheduled by your sales team.
- Deal Activity: If they’re associated with a deal, you’ll see updates on its progress.
This holistic view helps your sales team understand a lead’s interests and level of engagement before reaching out, making their conversations much more relevant and effective. In fact, HubSpot CRM dashboards provide real-time insights into sales activities, conversion rates, and team performance, helping you make smarter, faster decisions. For instance, a “Leads by Source” dashboard can show you which channels drive the highest quality leads, helping you allocate resources more effectively.
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Mastering Lead Scoring in HubSpot
Not all leads are created equal, right? Some are just casually browsing, while others are actively researching and ready to buy. Lead scoring is your secret weapon to identify and prioritize those high-potential prospects, making sure your sales team spends their valuable time on the leads most likely to convert.
What is Lead Scoring and Why It Matters
Lead scoring is basically a numerical ranking system where you assign points to your leads based on their demographic information who they are and their behavioral actions what they do.
- Identifying Sales-Ready Leads: The main goal is to quantify a lead’s quality and sales-readiness. A high score means a “hot” lead who’s likely ready for a direct sales conversation.
- Prioritization for Sales Teams: Imagine your sales reps getting a notification that a lead just hit a score of 100. They’ll know instantly that this lead is highly engaged and should be followed up with immediately, rather than sifting through a long list of cold prospects. This helps sales teams focus their energy, increase win rates, and shorten sales cycles.
- Aligning Sales and Marketing: Lead scoring ensures both marketing and sales are on the same page about what constitutes a “qualified” lead, reducing friction and improving handover processes.
HubSpot Lead Scoring Examples and Best Practices
HubSpot uses a default property called “HubSpot Score” to store this numerical value. You can customize this property with your own scoring rules. HubSpot allows you to create up to 25 different scoring models to evaluate and rank your leads.
Here are some common criteria and best practices you might use:
Positive Scoring Criteria Add Points: Mastering Your Events with HubSpot: A Comprehensive Guide
- Demographic Data:
- Job Title: +10 points for “Director,” “+20 for “VP,” “+30 for “C-Level.”
- Company Size Firmographic: +15 points for companies with 50-200 employees, +25 for 200+.
- Industry: +10 points for specific target industries.
- Behavioral Data:
- Visited Pricing Page: +50 points huge buying signal!.
- Downloaded an Ebook/Guide: +10 points.
- Viewed Specific Product/Service Pages: +5-15 points per page.
- Clicked on a CTA: +10 points.
- Submitted a “Request a Demo” Form: +100 points definitely hot!.
- Opened Marketing Emails: +5 points per open.
- Number of Website Sessions: +5 points for 3+ sessions in 30 days.
- Email Engagement Rate: Leads actively clicking links in your emails.
Negative Scoring Criteria Deduct Points:
- Job Title: -10 points for “Student,” “-5 for “Intern.”
- Company Type: -20 points for “Competitor” based on email domain.
- Inactivity: -5 points if no website activity in 30 days score decay.
- Email Bounce/Unsubscribe: -10 points.
- Invalid Information: -20 points for fake email addresses or missing critical fields.
Best Practices:
- Align with Sales: Talk to your sales team! They know what a “good” lead looks like and what actions signal buying intent.
- Start Simple, Then Refine: Don’t try to create the perfect model on day one. Start with a few key criteria, then test and adjust.
- Consider Score Decay: Leads can go “cold.” Implement rules that deduct points for inactivity over time to keep your scores relevant.
- Test, Test, Test: Regularly review your lead scores against actual conversion rates. Are your highest-scoring leads truly converting more often? Get feedback from sales teams and run A/B tests on different models.
- Segment Beyond Just Score: While score is great, combine it with other filters e.g., industry, company size to create even more targeted lists for sales and marketing.
HubSpot Lead Scoring Setup: A Quick Run-through
Setting up your lead scoring in HubSpot is done within the properties settings.
- Navigate to Settings the gear icon in the top right.
- In the left sidebar, go to “Properties.”
- Search for the “HubSpot Score” property and click on it. If you can’t find it, you might need to search for “Lead Scoring” in the main settings search bar.
- You’ll see a section where you can add positive and negative attributes.
- Click “Add new set” under “Positive attributes” or “Negative attributes.”
- Define your criteria using various contact properties e.g., “Page Views is greater than 3,” “Lifecycle Stage is any of MQL”.
- Assign the points for each criterion.
- Save your changes.
You can create multiple sets of rules for both positive and negative scoring, allowing for a highly customized and dynamic scoring model that truly reflects your business’s definition of a “hot” lead.
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Managing Your Leads Effectively in HubSpot
you can see your leads and you know which ones are “hot” thanks to lead scoring. Now, how do you actively manage them to guide them through their journey and convert them into customers? This is where HubSpot’s lead management tools shine.
Creating and Using Lists for Lead Segmentation
Lists are incredibly powerful for organizing your leads into actionable segments. Unlike views, which are dynamic filters of your main database, lists can be used for specific actions like sending targeted emails or enrolling contacts in workflows.
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Static vs. Active Lists:
- Active Lists: These lists update automatically as contacts meet or stop meeting the criteria. For example, an active list for “New MQLs This Week” will always show the latest batch. This is perfect for ongoing nurturing and sales follow-up.
- Static Lists: These are fixed lists that don’t change once created unless you manually add or remove contacts. You might use these for one-time email blasts for a specific event or for historical reporting.
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Segmenting by Source, Score, Activity: You can create lists based on almost any contact property, making your segmentation possibilities endless:
- “Leads from Google Ads with HubSpot Score > 75.”
- “Contacts who downloaded but haven’t visited the pricing page.”
- “Leads assigned to Sales Rep X who haven’t been contacted in 3 days.”
To create a list, go to Contacts > Lists, then click “Create list.” You’ll choose “Contact-based list” and then select “Active list” or “Static list.” From there, you’ll add your filters just like you would for a saved view. Master Your Communication: A Deep Dive into HubSpot Messaging and Beyond
Using Deals to Track Lead Progression
Once a lead is qualified and ready for a sales conversation, you’ll typically create a deal for them. Deals are separate objects in HubSpot that track the potential revenue and progression through your sales pipeline.
- Connecting Contacts to Deals: When you create a deal, you’ll associate it with the relevant contacts and company. This ensures that all activities related to that deal are linked back to the lead’s main contact record.
- Pipeline Management: Deals move through your sales pipeline stages e.g., Appointment Scheduled, Qualified to Buy, Proposal Presented, Closed Won/Lost. This provides a clear visual representation of your sales opportunities and helps forecast revenue. Using deal pipelines is a common way to track the progression of your leads and opportunities.
Assigning and Ownership of Leads
Making sure the right sales rep is working the right leads is crucial for efficiency.
- Automatic Assignment Rules: You can set up workflows to automatically assign new leads or MQLs/SQLs to specific sales reps based on criteria like:
- Round-robin assignment.
- Geography.
- Company size.
- The form they filled out.
- Manual Assignment: Sales managers or reps can also manually assign contact owners directly on the contact record.
- Notifications: Ensure sales reps receive notifications when a new lead is assigned to them or when a high-scoring lead takes a critical action like visiting the pricing page again.
Dealing with Duplicate Leads and Merging
Duplicates are a headache in any CRM. While HubSpot has mechanisms to prevent exact duplicates e.g., using the same email address, you might still encounter contacts that represent the same person but have slightly different information or were entered separately.
- Identifying Duplicates: HubSpot can suggest potential duplicates based on similar names or company information.
- Merging Records: If you find two contact records that are actually the same person, you can merge them. This combines all their activity, properties, and associations into a single, clean record, ensuring you have a complete history for that lead. HubSpot generally doesn’t allow true duplicates, so merging is often about cleaning up slightly varied entries.
Customizing Your HubSpot Views for Better Lead Management
To really make HubSpot work for your team, you’ll want to customize your views. This isn’t just about saving filters. it’s about tailoring the information you see to match your workflow and priorities. Automate Tasks in HubSpot: Your Ultimate Guide
Building Custom Views HubSpot Views
We touched on this earlier, but let’s dive a bit deeper. Custom views let you decide exactly which columns appear in your contact, company, or deal tables.
- Navigating to Records: Go to Contacts, Companies, or Deals.
- Selecting Columns: On the table view, look for the “Edit columns” option often a gear icon or “Table actions” dropdown.
- Choosing Properties: A sidebar will appear, allowing you to search for and select the contact properties you want to see. For lead management, you might want columns like:
- Lifecycle Stage
- Lead Status
- HubSpot Score
- Original Source
- Last Activity Date
- Number of Page Views
- Contact Owner
- Associated Company
- Reordering Columns: You can drag and drop columns to arrange them in the most logical order for your team.
- Filtering and Sorting: Combine your column choices with the filters we discussed earlier. You can also click on column headers to sort your data e.g., sort by HubSpot Score, highest to lowest.
- Saving and Sharing Views: Once your columns and filters are set, make sure to save it as a new view or update an existing one. Remember, you can set the visibility to “Private,” “My team,” or “Everyone.” You can even pin frequently used views as tabs for quick access.
This level of customization ensures that when your sales team looks at their “Hot Leads” view, they’re seeing the most relevant information at a glance, without distractions.
HubSpot Default Views and How to Optimize Them
HubSpot comes with several default views, like “All contacts,” “My contacts,” “New contacts,” etc. While these are a good starting point, they might not always show the exact data your team needs.
- Review Defaults: Take some time to look at the default views for contacts, companies, and deals.
- Customize Columns: Even for default views, you can often adjust the displayed columns to show more pertinent lead data.
- Create Custom Overlays: If a default view is almost right but misses a few key details, consider creating a custom view that builds upon those filters but adds the specific columns or additional filters your team requires.
The goal is to streamline your team’s workflow. If they’re constantly clicking “All filters” and adding properties, it’s a sign you need a new custom view!
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Frequently Asked Questions
What’s the difference between a “lead” and a “contact” in HubSpot?
In HubSpot, every individual in your CRM is a “contact.” A “lead” is simply a contact who is in a specific stage of their buying journey, usually in the early stages of showing interest and hasn’t yet been fully qualified. Some HubSpot editions also offer a dedicated “Lead Object,” which is a specialized tool within the CRM for managing prospects during the active sales qualification process, working alongside the main contact record.
How do I see who owns a lead in HubSpot?
You can see who owns a lead contact by looking at the “Contact Owner” property on their contact record. You can also filter your contact views by “Contact Owner” to see all leads assigned to a specific person. If you’re using the Leads Object, the lead record itself will also have an owner property, which can be synced with the associated contact/company owner.
Can I import a list of leads into HubSpot?
Yes, you can absolutely import a list of leads into HubSpot. When you import, HubSpot will create new contact records for each individual or update existing ones if they match by email address. You can specify properties like “Lifecycle Stage” during the import to categorize them as “Leads” immediately.
How can I track my lead’s website activity?
HubSpot automatically tracks a lead’s website activity page views, session information as long as your HubSpot tracking code is installed on your website. You can view this detailed activity on the “Activity Timeline” of each contact record. You can also set up notifications for specific website visits. How to Make Sure Your HubSpot Tracking Code Is Working Perfectly
What are some good HubSpot lead scoring examples for B2B?
For B2B, strong lead scoring examples include: assigning high points for visiting a pricing page or requesting a demo, medium points for downloading a case study or attending a webinar, and lower points for general blog post views. Demographics like “C-level” job titles or companies in target industries would also receive higher scores. Conversely, disqualify points for roles like “Student” or for high bounce rates.
How do I merge duplicate leads in HubSpot?
HubSpot automatically tries to prevent exact duplicates by email address. If you find two records for the same person, navigate to one of the contact records, click “Actions,” and then “Merge.” HubSpot will guide you through selecting the duplicate record and combining all data, activities, and associations into a single, comprehensive contact record.
Can I get an email notification when a new lead comes in?
Yes, you can! You can set up workflows in HubSpot to automatically send email notifications to sales reps or specific team members when a contact meets certain criteria, such as becoming a new “Lead” based on Lifecycle Stage or hitting a specific “HubSpot Score.” You can also configure notifications for website visits or form submissions.
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