--- title: HubSpot Sales Workflow & Database Cleanup — 2026-04-05 type: article created: '2026-04-05' updated: '2026-04-05' source_docs: - raw/2026-03-19-cai-hubspot-connect-131231738.md tags: - meeting - hubspot - crm - citrus-america - sales-ops - database-hygiene - bant - mql - sql - lifecycle-stages - email-marketing - aws-ses - fishbowl layer: 2 client_source: Citrus America industry_context: food-beverage transferable: false --- # 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 1. **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. 2. **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." 3. **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. 4. **Multi-phase database cleanup approved.** Karly will lead the hygiene run; Miriam will review output and provide direction on reclassification and deletion. 5. **AWS SES external email strategy tabled for future review.** Miriam will review the approach; no immediate action. 6. **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 - [[clients/current/citrus-america/_index]] - [[clients/current/citrus-america/hubspot-setup-log]]