When sales team uses Salesforce and marketing team HubSpot

The scenario: the company’s sales team uses Salesforce, and the marketing team uses HubSpot. The two groups may use different tools for historical reasons — or perhaps because the Sales team needs Salesforce to perform complex actions that other solutions can’t handle.

In any case, at some stage, these questions typically arise: “How do we align the teams?” and “How do we increase efficiency between the two teams and two systems?”

HubSpot-Salesforce integration is one option to solve this issue and effectively align sales and marketing teams.

Proper Salesforce and Hubspot integration works like a charm for various companies, regardless of the products or services they sell. This guide explains how to get started with the integration process and make it as streamlined as possible.

Understanding the processes and need for data

Before jumping into the actual process of integrating Salesforce and HubSpot, there are some essential things to consider, including the following three important things.

1. How do the teams collaborate

The first step is to understand how marketing and sales teams collaborate.

• For example, do the two teams have clear goals?

• How are they measured?

• Do they have set service level agreements (or SLAs) for each other?

• Do they review leads together?

Ineffective alignment between sales and marketing leads to wasted resources. The marketing team might generate potential leads, but the sales team can’t capitalize on them because they have different priorities. That's why collaboration needs to be strong and smooth.

2. Who is the buyer?

Another vital factor to consider is the buyer. Who are they? What are their needs and problems? Sales and marketing teams must agree on whom they want to reach and sell to.

Sales and marketing professionals should also agree on how they define critical terms like “lead,” “qualified marketing lead,” “sales qualified lead,” and “opportunity”. Both teams should share the same definition for these and other essential terms.

3. Shared goals

It’s also vital that sales and marketing professionals set shared goals.

Sales and marketing teams tend to operate with different key performance indicators (or KPIs), and most goals are separate. For example, the sales team may be focused on monthly revenue, while marketing may be focused on website traffic.

At the same time, marketing and sales goals can still overlap. Both teams should meet together and share their KPIs. That way, they can identify shared goals and set KPIs that both teams can measure and influence.

4. How do the teams use data?

When aligning sales and marketing teams, it’s also important to understand the information marketing uses and how it differs from sales (and vice versa).

What information does the sales team need to be more personalized in the outreach process? What information can help them contact potential buyers sooner and with a compelling message?

As for the marketing team, how do they use information and feedback from sales? Could they utilize more data to improve efficiency?

Salesforce provides salespeople with contextual HubSpot contact data, like email activities and form submissions. Sales teams can then use HubSpot marketing leads and lead scores to focus their outreach and save time.

Marketing teams can also use Salesforce to access contact or account details and personalize marketing emails.

5. Join efforts for content creation

Finally, sales and marketing teams should work together to brainstorm content.

Joint content ideation meetings ensure that the sales team is invested in the content creation process. Their investment, in turn, allows them to know what’s coming out. Then, they can more efficiently utilize the content in the sales process.

Understanding the differences between HubSpot’s and Salesforce’s key concepts

Regardless of the reason why the sales team uses Salesforce and the marketing team uses HubSpot, it’s helpful to understand the differences between the two platforms.

HubSpot and Salesforce both contain robust customer relationship management (or CRM) databases. However, there are some critical distinctions in how they operate.

For smooth collaboration between Marketing and Sales teams operating with different systems, it’s crucial to be aware of what makes each one unique. A few examples are highlighted below:

Contacts in HubSpot, Leads & Contacts in Salesforce

In the HubSpot platform, a contact is anybody with whom your company communicates. The following are some examples of a contact in HubSpot:

• Subscribers

• Leads

• Customers

• Partners

• Competitors

• Employees

• Anyone else with whom your company is in contact

Instead of referring to everyone as contacts, in Salesforce, people are described as either a lead or a contact.

Salesforce defines leads as people who have expressed interest in your product or company but have yet to be qualified by the sales team. A contact, on the other hand, is an engaged customer, partner, or affiliate who is tied to specific accounts or opportunities.

In Salesforce, contacts could also be labeled as Person Accounts. Person Accounts are individual customers who aren’t associated with a company.

Company in HubSpot, Account in Salesforce

In HubSpot, a company is an organization that you want to track in your database.

In Salesforce, a similar objective is known as an Account. There is one significant difference, though: A contact is a contact in HubSpot. However, in Salesforce, a contact can also be an account.

A campaign in HubSpot, a Campaign (but a totally different kind) in Salesforce

In HubSpot, campaigns are groups of marketing assets and content. Campaigns in HubSpot are used to design, launch and track marketing efforts and then measure the impact.

A campaign in Salesforce is something totally different. These two can’t sync.

Campaigns in Salesforce show a list of recipients of an outbound campaign. A campaign can show how the recipient engaged with this outbound effort. In HubSpot, the closest equivalent would be a list.

A Deal in HubSpot, Opportunity in Salesforce

In HubSpot, a deal refers to an ongoing transaction with a contact or company pursued by the sales team. They track deals through various pipeline stages until they’re won or lost.

Deals in HubSpot map to Salesforce opportunities.

In Salesforce, opportunities may be associated with accounts or contacts. Opportunity objects are used to track individual sales and changes in revenue generation.

Bonus Tips for Integrating Sales and Marketing Teams

If your sales and marketing teams use different tools (Salesforce and HubSpot, respectively), integrating the two solutions is the first step to aligning the teams.

However, it takes more than technology integration to ensure sales and marketing teams collaborate effectively. Here are some additional tips that can help bring them together:

Consistently transfer leads

At some point during the buying journey, the prospect will transfer from the marketing team to the sales team. Marketing focuses on filling up the funnel, and sales specializes in converting and upselling those prospects.

The difficulty comes in knowing when to transfer prospects. Transferring at the right time makes it easier for the sales team to close more leads.

Here are some examples of situations in which it’s appropriate to transfer leads from marketing to sales:

• A prospect wants to speak to a physical person before purchasing

• A prospect wants additional information the marketing team can’t provide

• A prospect has a unique situation that the marketing team solve

Implementing clear, consistent processes for transferring leads will move more people through the funnel and produce better results for both teams.

Create shared buyer personas

Although sales and marketing teams have different measurements for success, they must both be customer-centric.

Marketers have a strong understanding of the consumer, but they rarely speak directly with prospects. As a result, they might not fully understand prospects’ challenges and fears.

The sales team, however, does understand these insights. When sales and marketing teams work together, they can create more detailed buyer personas and get to understand their target audience better.

With more clarity, both sides can do their jobs better and produce more impressive results.

Leverage customer feedback

Sales and marketing teams should both leverage customer feedback to refine their processes and generate better outcomes.

By collecting and reviewing customer feedback, marketers can discover specific phrases and terms that will help them describe common problems and fine-tune the way they promote products or services.

Sales teams can also use this information to adjust their approach and change the way they communicate with prospects. With more insight into customers, they can explain the value of the company’s products or services more effectively.

Conclusion

Integrating HubSpot and Salesforce ensures that the sales and marketing teams continue to have access to the tools and features they need to perform their jobs.

HubSpot-Salesforce integration provides many benefits to businesses that, for any reason, need the two systems to carry out their unique business needs. However, for this integration to work, you need to fully understand what is going on with each tool.

There’s so much more to consider, and the integration should only be conducted by a HubSpot Academy-certified person or company, such as Prami Growth Agency. Contact us today to request a quote for integrating Salesforce and HubSpot at your company.