If your HubSpot portal feels messy, inconsistent, or hard to report on, the issue usually isn’t automation.
It’s structure.
In this FAQ breakdown, we answer five foundational CRM setup questions that determine whether your portal scales - or spirals.
Start with this question:
When you say “customer,” do you mean a person or a business?
For most B2B companies, the answer is: the company.
If a data point is true for everyone at the organization, track it on the company record.
Examples:
Contact records should store:
Deals represent a moment in time - a specific sales process - and should store:
If you structure it correctly at the company level first, everything else becomes cleaner.
As many as you need - as few as possible.
Too many life cycle stages dilute reporting.
Too few prevent meaningful segmentation.
Most B2B companies benefit from:
The “Archived” stage is critical. It keeps inactive records from cluttering reporting without deleting historical data.
The key isn’t just defining stages - it’s automating transitions between them using workflows.
There are two major places to enforce required properties:
At a minimum, most teams should require:
If it’s mission-critical for reporting or automation, make it required.
If it’s “nice to have,” leave it optional.
You can require certain properties before allowing a rep to move a deal forward.
For example:
Before moving to “Needs Analysis Complete,” require:
This enforces internal standards and ensures data quality.
Simple answer: Make fields required.
If commission depends on a closed deal, and a deal cannot close without the required data, reps will fill it out.
The harder problem is junk notes.
That’s not a CRM problem - that’s a management issue.
If data isn’t being used for:
Then reps won’t value entering it.
Tie required fields directly to outcomes and explain why they matter.
The best strategy is prevention.
Common causes:
Use HubSpot’s duplicate management tool to review and merge records carefully.
Avoid bulk auto-merging unless you fully understand the logic.
Prevent first. Merge second.
CRM success isn’t about complexity.
It’s about clarity.
If you:
Your automation, reporting, and sales process will work exponentially better.
If you have a CRM setup question you’d like answered in our next FAQ video, send it our way.
Need help implementing or optimizing HubSpot Service Hub? The Gist Inbound provides training, audits, and consulting exclusively inside HubSpot.