HubSpot

We use HubSpot to track and manage all of our customer interactions. It enables the creation of customer contacts, and then logging of emails/notes associated to that customer.

Creating Contacts

Given that we have multiple client-facing roles within FlowForge, it's important to document those that we talk to to ensure no crossover in sales and conversations.

Lifecycle Stage

When defining a new contact in HubSpot, an option exists to define the "Lifecycle Stage", this section details your options here, and when to use the respective value:

Lifecycle Stage Description
Subscriber Contact has signed up to hear more information, when it is available, about FlowForge, e.g. newsletter subscriber
Lead Contact that has converted on our website, or through some other interaction, with our organisation beyond a subscription sign up, e.g. installed FlowForge locally, or signed up for a free trial
Marketing Qualified Lead Contact that the Marketing Team has qualified as being ready for a Sales Engagement.
Sales Qualified Lead Contact that the Sales team has qualified as a potential customer. This stage is then further qualified in the Lead Status property
Opportunity Contact with which a member of FlowForge is actively negotiating a deal.
Customer An active, paying, user of FlowForge.
Evangelist Someone that speaks on behalf of FlowForge, or advocates for its usage in their respective contacts ecosystems.
Other Does not fit into any of the other descriptions, likely someone we are talking to about FlowForge, but will never be a paying customer, .e.g. Partners

Lead Status

When defining a new contact in HubSpot, an option exists to define the "Lead Status", this section details your options here, and when to use the respective value:

Lead Status Description
None -
Attempted to Contact A member of FlowForge has reached out to this contact, but is yet to receive a response.
Connected Two-way conversation has undertaken, but not yet qualified as a Lead. A lead with this status may still be waiting on a booked meeting with a decision-maker on their team or may still be working to establish a budget.
Open Deal Contact has expressed interest in buying FlowForge, and negotiations are actively open.
Unqualified Contact is no longer interested in FlowForge.

We have several extension applications for HubSpot, these are a few that can be beneficial if you're interacting with customers:

  • G-Mail Extension (link) - Automatically creates contacts when you e-mail them for the first time, and logs e-mail activity against that contact in HubSpot.