17 Things We Wish We Knew Sooner About HubSpot & Salesforce Integration

This section focuses on the functionalities that we think people can get more use out of, as well as some things you should watch out for during HubSpot-Salesforce integration.

  1. HubSpot campaigns are much better for tracking inbound efforts, and Salesforce campaigns are equipped with features that work well for outbound tactics. By using both tools, you can also use both kinds of campaigns.
  2. SFDC has historically allowed more objects. With custom objects, HubSpot has changed this and now operates similarly to SFDC in this manner.
  3. Work with the system as it is built in Salesforce, not against.
  4. Avoid creating more work for sales reps by knowing your sales process inside and out. Make sure your HubSpot/marketing team is only sending over leads that are qualified and ready to be in front of sales and in Salesforce.
  5. Minimize syncing data points by turning off some of the custom field mappings.
  6. Note info that the sales team is going to use for attribution and understand exactly when that transfer or hand-off from marketing in HubSpot to sales in Salesforce should occur.
  7. Contacts in selective sync can cause issues with opportunity sync. You can limit which contacts sync with Salesforce using HubSpot’s active lists tool (the inclusion list for your integration). Any contact that isn’t on this list will not sync with Salesforce.
  8. When creating a new integration, you have to map the properties of your contacts to sync with fields in Salesforce. Sync errors can happen when properties are deleted in either platform or if the HubSpot property and Salesforce field types are incompatible.
  9. When creating property mappings during your integration setup, define when and how these mappings will update in both platforms using any of the four options: Prefer Salesforce Unless Blank, Always Use Salesforce, Two-way (taking the most recent value), and Don’t Sync.
  10. When it comes to field type matching, ensure you don't mix field types, and the values in the picklist match exactly.
  11. In HubSpot, there is one record for leads and contacts. In Salesforce, leads are completely new records that your sales team hasn’t reached out to. Even if associated organizations or records are present in Salesforce, leads won’t be tied to them until a sales rep converts them into contact. However, those leads will still sync with their corresponding contact record in HubSpot.
  12. Assign contacts to particular Salesforce campaigns based on specific marketing activity and engagement. You can accurately measure campaign success and overall ROI using HubSpot's workflows tool or by designating the appropriate campaign in the Landing Page builder.
  13. Inactive Pipeline Stages in Salesforce lead to Deal syncing errors.
  14. Property value errors are much more common. If the options for a given property vary over time, these errors can occur more frequently. You can use the error type column in HubSpot’s integration menu to detect affected records, resolve any errors, and resync your contacts.
  15. By accessing HubSpot intelligence from Salesforce, you can see the at-a-glance timeline of the contact’s activity and engagement with various marketing initiatives. This provides the context required to start the conversation at the right point in the initial outreach.
  16. Using the HubSpot workflow tool, you can create and assign tasks to SFDC users based on various triggers. For example, a follow-up task could be assigned to the contact owner after a lead has visited the pricing page more than thrice within a week.
  17. HubSpot not only automatically syncs contact fields with Salesforce, but you can also sync data between the Companies (Accounts in Salesforce) and Deals (Opportunities in Salesforce) objects to make even more data accessible and actionable for your marketing use in HubSpot.