Effective lead management can make or break a sales team’s success. HubSpot’s Lead Object offers a structured way to streamline sales prospecting, collect more actionable sales data, and optimize sales processes. This guide will walk you through the basics of the HubSpot Lead Object, how it enhances your sales prospecting efforts, and why it's a useful tool for managing leads effectively.
What is the HubSpot lead object?
The Lead Object in HubSpot is designed to help sales teams better manage and segment leads through the qualification process. Think of the Leads Object as an evolution of the Lead Status property that lives on the Contact or Company record but is now built specifically for sales prospecting. The Lead Object opens up HubSpot’s Sales Workspace, allowing teams to access a dedicated space for prospecting.
Unlike Contacts or Deals, the Lead Object provides a structured way to capture early sales signals, giving teams insights into which leads are progressing through the funnel and what sales motions are most effective. While a Contact represents an individual and a Deal represents a sales opportunity, a Lead represents the process of prospecting an interested Contact with the intent to turn them into a Deal. This additional CRM object is very useful for tracking prospects and collecting sales analytics, particularly for companies with more complex or lengthier sales processes.
When is the HubSpot lead object a good fit?
While the HubSpot Lead Object is a useful tool, it adds extra complexity to your CRM which may not be a good fit for all organizations. The HubSpot Lead Object is ideal for sophisticated sales teams that have a well-defined lead management process but struggle with accountability following said processes. It’s also particularly beneficial for teams working with longer buyer journeys or those who require more detailed lead tracking and segmentation.
However, the Lead Object is not recommended for teams using external platforms like Salesforce or those operating within shorter sales cycles where a lighter touch is sufficient. It is also not recommended to use the Lead Object if you do not have clearly defined Lifecycle Stages within your CRM as these are often triggers for lead creation. Understanding your sales process and weighing the benefits against any challenges the added complexity may cause is key when deciding whether the Lead Object will sufficiently enhance your processes.
Signs HubSpot Lead Object is right for you:
- Your team struggles with follow-through in prospecting efforts.
- You need data on which signals and behaviors lead to closed deals.
- Your sales management process is solid, but your team needs better tools for accountability and tracking.
Setting up the lead object
The Lead Object is not something that is enabled within your HubSpot account by default and must be first configured before your sales team can start managing leads within the Sales Workspace. Here’s a step-by-step guide for getting the Lead Object set up in HubSpot:
- Turn on Leads: Navigate to your settings and enable leads under Objects > Leads.
- Configure Lead Ownership: Configure whether lead owners and activities should be synced with their associated contact or company owners.
- Customize the Lead Creation Form: Customize the form that will be filled out when a lead is manually created. Set important fields as required when necessary to your sales process.
- Configure Lead Stages: Set up lead stages to track their progress through the funnel. Customize these to correspond with the different stages of your qualification process.
- Set Qualification and Disqualification Criteria: Define what actions must take place when a lead is marked as qualified or disqualified.
- Configure Automation Settings: Automate the creation of a lead record when a contact or company reaches a certain lifecycle stage.
Lead object customization
While the default settings offer lots of great options, the Lead Object can be further customized to fit your organization’s unique sales process. Additional custom properties can be added to give you more control over what information you’re storing on a lead record. Lead tags can also be used to categorize leads, making it easier to prioritize your outreach efforts. For example, categorizing leads by temperature with tags for "Hot," "Warm," or "Cold". Pipeline rules can also be added to help automate different actions when a lead reaches specific stages in the lead pipeline.
Best practices for lead creation and management
What Triggers Lead Creation in HubSpot?
In HubSpot, the primary trigger for lead creation is typically a lifecycle stage change. Having clearly defined lifecycle stages ensures that you avoid duplicating leads or creating unqualified ones. A prerequisite to properly using the Lead Object is to have clearly defined lifecycle stages.
Segmenting Leads by Buying Stage
Segmenting leads based on their position in the customer journey is crucial. By using lead type properties such as “New” or “Expansion,” you can better tailor your sales approach and nurture leads based on their stage in the buying cycle.
Allowing Multiple Leads per Contact
By default, a contact can only have one associated lead, but you can customize this setting to track contacts that move in and out of your funnel multiple times. Allowing for multiple lead records per contact can also let you better represent multiple opportunity types that may have different sales teams working on them simultaneously.
Using the HubSpot Sales workspace
The Lead Object is a key component for using the HubSpot Sales Workspace. Formally known as the prospecting dashboard, the Sales Workspace is an area within HubSpot where sales reps can efficiently track goals, manage tasks, access sales prospecting tools, and plan out lead management. Here are a few of the key tools that the Sales Workspace offers:
- Tasks: An overview of your sales tasks that are due or overdue. Enter the queue dashboard to help you efficiently complete tasks and move on to the next.
- Guided Actions: HubSpot AI will suggest the next steps for the lead based on recent activity.
- Leads: A list of all leads assigned to you with easy-to-use filtering features to help you prioritize follow-up.
- Deals: An overview of all of your open deals with an AI-generated close likelihood score to help you determine the best next steps to close.
- Schedule: Easily plan follow-up calls by connecting your calendar.
- Feed: An easy-to-access feed of all recent sales activity notifications for your CRM contacts.
Full funnel reporting and signal-based selling
Full Funnel Reporting
Once the Lead Object is enabled, this allows for the possibility of full-funnel reporting, offering additional visibility into how leads progress through each stage of the qualification process. With the right settings, HubSpot leads even allow you to track leads that enter and exit the funnel multiple times, helping you identify patterns and re-engagement opportunities. With full-funnel reporting, Sales Managers can see where leads drop off and where to optimize the sales process.
Signal-Based Selling
Signal-based selling tracks specific lead behaviors (like demo requests or email engagement) that indicate interest and intent. By using the HubSpot Lead Object, you can monitor close rates associated with these specific signals, helping your sales team determine which leads are high-value based on certain behaviors and prioritize accordingly. Knowing which signals lead to successful deals enables a more focused and efficient sales process.
Case Study: SaaS company leveraging the HubSpot lead object
A SaaS company specializing in personalized video outreach struggled to manage an expanding pool of prospects. Their sales team lacked a clear process for managing leads, leading to inefficiencies and missed opportunities.
By implementing HubSpot’s Lead Object, Process Pro Consulting helped give their sales team a dedicated space for managing leads. Custom lead statuses like “Hot” (for hand-raiser leads) and “Warm” (for passively generated leads) were introduced. This information was fed back into the contact record, enabling signal-based selling and streamlining follow-up processes.
The SaaS company saw significant improvements in close rates for “Hot” leads and better insights into which signals led to conversions. Lifecycle stages and lead segmentation provided greater sales performance and accountability.
The HubSpot Lead Object can transform your sales prospecting efforts by streamlining lead management and offering valuable insights into lead behavior. Its customizable and segmented approach helps sales teams with complex processes stay organized and accountable.
Ready to take control of your leads? Process Pro Consulting can help you implement HubSpot’s Lead Object and design a custom lead management process that works for your sales team.
