If your CRM feels cluttered, hard to navigate, or inconsistent across teams—there’s a good chance your object records aren’t fully optimized. In this guide, we break down how to strategically customize your HubSpot CRM object records (contacts, companies, deals, and tickets) so your team sees exactly what they need—when and where they need it.
When configured properly, object record views reduce friction, increase internal adoption, and support long-term CRM success.
Why Customizing Object Records Matters
Your CRM is only as effective as your team’s willingness to use it. Poorly structured record views lead to user frustration, low data quality, and underutilized features. HubSpot gives you powerful customization tools to personalize records by lifecycle stage, team, or use case—making your CRM more intuitive and easier to navigate.
With just a few changes, you can:
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Eliminate unnecessary clutter from the record view
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Reduce time spent searching for information
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Tailor views to each team’s workflows and priorities
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Improve data accuracy and consistency across your organization
What You Can Customize in HubSpot CRM
Here are the core components you can tailor on object records within HubSpot:
1. Sidebar Sections (With Conditional Logic)
Use the left-hand sidebar to surface the most important properties—like lifecycle stage, service details, or primary contacts. HubSpot allows you to make these sections conditional based on any property (e.g., only show “Client Details” if lifecycle stage = client).
Use Case:
For prospects, show sales-focused fields (e.g., pain points, current provider). For clients, show onboarding data, contract dates, or account health metrics.
2. Overview Tab
The Overview tab is the first thing users see. Make it count. You can add:
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Data highlights (e.g., lifecycle stage, last activity)
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Association tables (contacts, tickets, deals)
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Custom activity feeds
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Pinned notes or summaries
Pro Tip: Add a “Master Note” field to the Overview tab for quick, manual insights that can be updated over time.
3. Custom Tabs
With HubSpot Enterprise, you can create new tabs for specific use cases. For example:
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Client Information Tab: Contracts, renewal dates, support contacts
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Sales Enablement Tab: Objection handling, purchase criteria, demo preferences
Think of tabs as ways to group detailed data without cluttering your Overview.
4. Right Sidebar: Associated Records
Trim down the list of associated records like tickets, playbooks, files, and lead scoring to show only what matters most. A cleaner sidebar = faster navigation.
CJ’s recommendation: Keep sidebar sections to 3–8 items max.
5. Team-Based Views
HubSpot allows you to assign different default views per team. That means customer service, marketing, and sales can each see what’s most relevant to their workflows—without stepping on each other’s toes.
The Impact of CRM Personalization
When you remove friction from daily CRM usage, two things happen:
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Adoption increases – your team actually wants to use the system.
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Data quality improves – reps engage more, update more, and rely on the CRM to do their job.
Ultimately, CRM customization isn’t about aesthetics—it’s about creating a better user experience, improving operational clarity, and building a system that scales with your growth.
Use Case: Lifecycle-Based Record Views
In the tutorial, CJ walks through two sample companies—one in the prospect stage and another in the client stage. Each has a totally different layout, emphasizing sales data for prospects and support data for clients.
This flexible approach ensures your team is always seeing the most relevant information at the right time—without digging or guessing.
Final Thoughts
Customizing object records in HubSpot is one of the most impactful (and often overlooked) ways to boost your CRM’s effectiveness. By tailoring record views to team roles and customer stages, you reduce friction, increase data visibility, and create a CRM that actually supports your people—not frustrates them.
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