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What’s the best way to use HubSpot Deals? Whether you’re a small business owner or part of a large company’s sales team, everyone has their own HubSpot journey. Many embark on this journey with a mix of excitement and apprehension, especially when diving into a new system. Others have used HubSpot for a while but find it messy because everyone uses it differently. In either of these cases, knowing the best ways to use HubSpot Deals is beneficial for all salespeople alike.
With experience onboarding over 300 HubSpot clients, we’ve developed best practices when working with HubSpot Deals, and in this article you’ll find out exactly what these are.
- Best Practice #1: Customer Journey Mapping
- Best Practice #2: Understanding the Difference Between Lifecycle Stages, Lead Status and Deal Stages
- Best Practice #3: Customising Deal properties
- Best Practice #4: Customising deal create form and deal view
- Best Practice #5: Deal Reporting: You’ve done the hard work now you need to report on it
Best Practice #1: Customer Journey Mapping
Imagine you’re going on a trip. Before you start, you’d probably want a map to guide you, right?
In the world of sales, this map is called a ‘Customer Journey Map’. It’s a plan that shows the steps a customer takes from the moment they learn about your product/service to when they decide to buy it (and beyond).
A Customer Journey Map is a visual representation of the entire customer journey after the point that the prospect becomes a lead, right up until and after they become a customer.
Here’s an example of what a customer journey map might look like:
To view this image in full size see here.
Why is this map important?
The Customer Journey Map is the single biggest sales enablement piece that a business can have. By mapping out the entire sales journey, you can:
- Scale your sales process: With all sales reps following a streamlined, consistent process, you can monitor performance and make changes at scale
- Automate parts of your sales process to save your sales reps time so that they spend less time on admin tasks and more time on closing deals
- Identify pain points and areas where you can improve your sales enablement strategy
- Improve collaboration and communication: Creating a customer journey map requires input and collaboration from multiple teams, including marketing, sales, and customer service. This process ultimately leads to a more cohesive approach to serving customers and ultimately driving sales.
- Ultimately, the goal of a Customer Journey Map is to create a seamless and satisfying sales process, which can lead to increased sales close rates, a shorter sales lifecycle, and happier sales reps.
How to create your map
To create your Customer Journey Map, you can follow our comprehensive guide on how to create a Customer Journey Map here.
Best Practice #2: Understanding the Difference Between Lifecycle Stages, Lead Status and Deal Stages
HubSpot is like a toolbox. It’s packed with tools, but to get the best results, you need to know which tool to use and when. Three tools that often get mixed up are Lifecycle Stages, Lead Status, and Deal Stages.
Let’s break them down:
1. Lifecycle Stages:
At its core, Lifecycle Stage represents the various stages a contact or potential customer moves through in your marketing and sales funnel.
Think of it as a timeline that traces your customer’s journey from the moment they first hear about your brand to the moment they become your most loyal promoters.
It helps you see where a person is in their journey. Are they just looking around? Are they thinking of buying? Have they already bought something?
You can customise and update your Lifecycle Stages by following the guide here.
2. Lead Status:
While the Lifecycle Stage paints the broader picture of a contact’s journey, the Lead Status zeroes in on the details, particularly during the sales process.
It’s like a magnifying glass that provides more granularity, allowing your sales team to precisely categorise leads based on their readiness and interaction level.
Imagine this: The Lifecycle Stage tells you that someone is an SQL (Sales Qualified Lead), but what’s their exact status? Are they new? Has there been an attempt to contact them? Have they been deemed unqualified for some reason? That’s where Lead Status comes into play.
It offers actionable insights so that the sales team can tailor their approach accordingly.
Think of it this way: Lifecycle Stage is the broad strokes of a painting, while Lead Status adds the intricate details that bring the masterpiece to life.
Both are essential in their own right, providing clarity and direction in different stages of the customer journey.
Check out this guide on how you can customise Lead Statuses.
3. Deal Stages:
Deal Stages are integral in understanding the progression of an opportunity as it moves through your sales funnel within HubSpot. While “Lifecycle Stage” categorises a contact’s broader journey with your company and “Lead Status” details the status of a potential lead, “Deal Stages” focus explicitly on the various phases a sale undergoes before it’s finalised.
In the context of HubSpot, a “deal” represents a potential revenue-generating event. As this deal moves forward, from initial interest to the closing handshake, it will pass through different stages, each signifying a crucial checkpoint in the sales process.
For instance, stages might range from “Appointment Scheduled” to “Negotiation” to “Closed Won” or “Closed Lost.” Each stage is designed to provide your sales team with clarity on where a potential sale stands, helping to prioritise efforts and resources.
Here’s a guide on how you can customise Deal Stages in your HubSpot Portal.
It’s essential not just to customise your deal stages, but also your Lifecycle Stages and Lead Statuses to get the most out of your HubSpot Portal.
By understanding and using these stages, you can keep things organised. You’ll know where each lead or deal stands, and you can plan your next move accordingly, making sure every lead and deal gets the attention it deserves.
Best Practice #3: Customising Deal Properties
When you’re setting up HubSpot, think of it like a blank canvas. It’s ready for you to paint your business processes on it.
And one of the best ways to do this is by customising Deal properties.
1. What are Deal Properties?
Deal properties are like labels or tags. They give you information about a deal. For example, what product a customer is interested in, where they’re located, or how much they’re willing to spend.
They help you keep track of important details. This way, you can make informed decisions and offer a personalised experience to your customers. Here’s a list of all the default deal properties that HubSpot tracks.
2. Choosing and Customising Deal Properties
Look at the information you already collect on your prospects. Perhaps you have an Excel sheet or another CRM. What details do you track there?
If you don’t have an excel sheet or another CRM somewhere, then think about what information you’re usually asking for from prospects. That information should form the basis for your deal properties. For example, if you always ask prospects what their average company annual revenue is, this would be one of the deal properties you would use.
Then, you should also think about your sales process. What information would help your sales team close deals faster? Maybe it’s knowing a lead’s budget or their main concerns? Add properties that capture this information.
Once you’ve chosen what your deal properties are going to be, it’s time to customise them. You can customise your HubSpot Deal Properties by following this HubSpot Guide.
Best Practice #4: Customising deal create form and deal view
When you’re diving into HubSpot, it’s not just about collecting the right information. It’s also about how you view and access that information. That’s where customising your deal create form and deal view comes into play.
What is Deal Create Form and Deal View?
Deal Create Form: This is the form you fill out when adding a new deal. It’s your first step in tracking a potential sale.
Deal View: Once a deal is created, this is how you see its details. It’s your dashboard for each individual sale.
Benefits of Customising
- Efficiency: When your form captures the right details from the start, and your view highlights them, you spend less time searching and more time selling
- Accuracy: Tailoring your form means you’re less likely to miss crucial details. And that can mean the difference between closing a deal and losing it
- Consistency: When everyone on your team uses the same customised form and view, you all work from the same playbook. That means fewer misunderstandings and more teamwork
How to Customise Deal Create Form and Deal View
You can customise your deal create form and deal view by following this guide.
Your business will change over time. So should your form and view. Regularly review and adjust them to make sure they’re still serving you well.
Best Practice #5: Deal Reporting
After putting in the effort to streamline your HubSpot Deals, it’s time to see the fruits of your labour. Reporting isn’t just a chore; it’s the compass that guides your sales strategy. It’s no use collecting valuable data and then not reporting on it.
Here’s why you should use deal reporting:
- By analysing deal data, you can see which strategies are working and which aren’t
- It’ll help you predict future sales and revenue based on current and past deal data
- It’ll help you keep sales reps accountable
- It’ll show you where your sales team are succeeding and where they’re falling short, bringing clarity to the improvements you need to make
How to Get Started with Deal Reporting
Here’s a guide on the main HubSpot Reports you should use for your business. Keep in mind that some of the reports shown in the article are more relevant for the marketing department than the sales department.
Here are some of the key reports you want to be using:
1. Contact Analysis Report
This report is fantastic at showing you how your leads are progressing through your customer journey and sales process.
On top of this, the report shows you where your leads are coming from, so that you can allocate resources more effectively to relevant channels.
Here’s a guide from HubSpot on how to access and use this report.
2. Contact Lifecycle Funnel Report
This report illustrates how contacts move through different lifecycle stages, from visitors to leads, and leads to customers.
By identifying bottlenecks or stages with high drop-offs, you can implement targeted strategies to smoothen the journey for potential customers.
For example, in the above image, you can see that the conversion rate between ‘Lead’ and ‘Opportunity’ stages is low. So, it makes sense to focus efforts on these two stages to improve the rate of conversion to the next step. In this example, if more leads become opportunities, then the bottom line will improve.
In this way, you can find bottlenecks in your marketing and sales process through this report.
For this report to work well, create a Customer Journey Map and set up Lifecycle Stages in HubSpot first.
3. Other reports
There’s also a range of other sales-based reports that you can make with HubSpot, which you can check out in this guide.
Mastering HubSpot Deals for Success
HubSpot is a powerful tool, but like any tool, its effectiveness depends on how you use it. By understanding and implementing the best practices for HubSpot Deals, you’re setting your business up for success. From mapping out the customer journey to diving deep into deal reporting, each step is crucial in ensuring you get the most out of your HubSpot experience.
Remember, it’s not just about using the platform; it’s about using it wisely. With over 300 HubSpot clients under our belt, we’ve seen the transformative power of these best practices firsthand. Whether you’re a newcomer eager to start on the right foot or a seasoned user looking to refine your approach, these guidelines will serve you well.
Want to learn more about best practices for HubSpot Marketing, CRM, and Sales? Check out our guide here.
