HubSpot Sales Workflow & Database Cleanup — 2026-04-05
Overview
Working session with Citrus America finalizing the HubSpot sales lifecycle automation and approving a multi-phase contact database cleanup. The sales workflow is nearly complete; the primary remaining work is field mapping corrections and the database hygiene initiative, which is expected to significantly reduce CAI's ~$20k/year HubSpot spend.
Attendees:
- Miriam Framson, Brian Framson (Citrus America)
- Mark Hope, Karly Oykhman, Melissa Cusumano, Avokerie Onorimuo (Asymmetric)
Key Decisions
- BANT scoring simplified for rollout. Budget, Authority, and Need must all be rated "3". Timing may be "3" or "4". A point-based system may be introduced later once the team is comfortable.
- Two-way deal/contact sync confirmed. Creating a deal advances a contact to "Opportunity" stage; setting a contact to "Opportunity" creates a deal. Confirmed via Miriam's live test with contact "Jasmine."
- Newsletter targeting narrowed to engaged contacts only. Sending to unengaged contacts ("gray matter") was hurting deliverability and skewing open rates. Going forward, newsletters target engaged contacts only.
- Multi-phase database cleanup approved. Karly will lead the hygiene run; Miriam will review output and provide direction on reclassification and deletion.
- AWS SES external email strategy tabled for future review. Miriam will review the approach; no immediate action.
- Melissa owns sales rep updates in both systems. All future rep additions/removals go through Melissa for both the sales portal and HubSpot, eliminating data drift.
Action Items
| Owner | Action | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Karly | Fix MQL → SQL automation trigger | Relink from You juicing currently? to Are you already juicing?; map existing data before hiding old field |
| Karly | Consolidate lead source fields | Map all data from Inbound Lead into Lead Source / Lead Source Detail; hide Inbound Lead field; update create-contact form and website form to use correct field |
| Karly | Run bulk email hygiene | Identify undeliverable emails; delete email addresses (not contacts); prepare list of unengaged contacts for Miriam's review |
| Melissa | Remove inactive reps | Remove Total Source reps and William Flannery from HubSpot and the sales portal immediately |
| Melissa | Send blog style guide to Miriam | Was being finalized at time of call |
| Miriam | Provide final content for X-Pro website placeholder | Low urgency; can come after homepage/product page work |
| Miriam | Confirm juicer model for K-12 success story | Likely 8,000 SBTS; needs to verify through dealer records |
| Miriam | Review contact cleanup list from Karly | Provide direction on which contacts to reclassify as non-marketing vs. delete |
| Miriam | Send Fishbowl integration info to Mark | Invoice/API details for the HubSpot–Fishbowl connector |
| Mark | Verify two-way lifecycle/deal sync | Confirm the automation that moved "Jasmine" to Opportunity is working as designed |
HubSpot Sales Workflow — Status & Details
Contact Card Cleanup
Karly cleaned the contact overview card, hiding (not deleting) unused fields to improve usability:
- Hidden: Serial Number, Payment Links, Invoices, Subscriptions
- Kept: Associated Companies, Deals, Contacts, Attachments, Segment Memberships, Playbooks (bottom), Tickets (future use)
- Layout: Personal/contact info at top; marketing fields (lead source, lifecycle stage) toward bottom
Lead Source Field Consolidation
Three fields currently exist where two should:
- Keep: Lead Source (high-level: List Upload, Sales Rep, Trade Show, Website, Other) and Lead Source Detail (specific trade show abbreviation + year, specific rep, etc.)
- Hide: Inbound Lead (redundant; data must be mapped to the two fields above first)
- Trade show naming convention standardized to [ABBREVIATION] [YEAR]
MQL → SQL Automation Bug
The automation triggering the MQL → SQL lifecycle transition was linked to the wrong field (You juicing currently?) instead of the correct one (Are you already juicing?). Fix requires:
1. Relinking the workflow trigger to the correct field
2. Mapping any existing data from the old field to the new one before hiding it
BANT Framework
Simplified scoring for initial rollout:
| Dimension | Required Score |
|---|---|
| Budget | 3 |
| Authority | 3 |
| Need | 3 |
| Timing | 3 or 4 |
A weighted point-system may be introduced in a future iteration.
Two-Way Lifecycle ↔ Deal Sync
- Setting lifecycle stage → Opportunity automatically creates a Deal
- Creating a Deal directly automatically sets lifecycle stage → Opportunity
- Confirmed by Miriam's test; Mark to verify the underlying workflow is correctly configured
Contact Database Cleanup — Plan
Current State
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Total contacts | ~10,700 |
| Marketing contacts | ~8,200 |
| Non-marketing contacts | ~2,500 |
| HubSpot subscription tier | 12,000 marketing contacts |
| Annual cost | ~$20,000 |
Cleanup Phases
Phase 1 — Email Hygiene Run
- Pull all contacts via API
- Run bulk deliverability check on all email addresses
- Delete undeliverable email addresses (leave contact record; remove the email field value)
- Output: list of contacts with no valid email for Miriam's review
Phase 2 — AI-Assisted Segmentation
- Use AI to analyze contact data (engagement history, domain/industry signals)
- Categorize contacts: active pipeline, engaged non-pipeline, unengaged, unknown
- Use Hunter or similar for selective enrichment on high-priority contacts
Phase 3 — Reclassification
- Miriam reviews output and approves reclassification decisions
- Unengaged / no-email contacts → set as non-marketing (reduces subscription cost)
- Truly dead contacts → delete
Target outcome: Reduce marketing contact count significantly; potential to drop to a lower subscription tier and cut annual costs by ~50%.
External Email Strategy (AWS SES) — Under Review
Mark proposed using AWS SES for bulk outreach to non-pipeline contacts, with activity logged back to HubSpot via API. This would allow CAI to:
- Keep contacts in HubSpot as non-marketing (no per-contact fee)
- Still send nurturing emails and track opens/clicks
- Use HubSpot email only for active pipeline contacts
Miriam is reviewing this approach. No decision made; revisit after database cleanup is complete.
Marketing & Website Updates
X-Pro Juicer — April Newsletter Success Story
- First X-Pro unit shipped; strong interest at AFS show and from a Disney resort
- Story targeted for April newsletter
- Hero image decision: Use a generic K-12-themed image (pens, apples, notebooks aesthetic) to avoid the lengthy client approval process that delayed the story previously
- Miriam to confirm exact juicer model (likely 8,000 SBTS) for product visuals
Newsletter Strategy
Going forward, newsletters will be sent to engaged contacts only to protect sender reputation and deliverability metrics.
X-Pro Website Placeholder
Miriam to provide final copy. Low urgency — can follow homepage and product page work.
Future Work (Noted, Not Scheduled)
- Fishbowl ↔ HubSpot integration: Miriam pays for a Fishbowl connector (~$600 on Fishbowl side). Goal is to push won deals from HubSpot into Fishbowl automatically. Fishbowl is already connected to QuickBooks. Mark needs Fishbowl API/login access to scope.
- HubSpot Service module / ticketing: Miriam's service team is eager to implement. Planned after sales setup is complete.
- BANT scoring refinement: Point-based threshold system to replace current all-or-nothing scoring, once team adoption is established.
Related
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