Most organizations don’t make use of the full range of tools HubSpot has to offer, which means their teams work harder than they need to and produce less impressive results.
This article helps you avoid that fate and turn HubSpot into your sales team’s most powerful tool. From saving hours of manual effort to unlocking deeper insight into prospect engagement, you will get detailed guidance to use the platform’s best tools – and allow your sales team to deliver the strongest performance they are capable of.
Expect to learn:
- How one underappreciated tool can save your team hours of manual effort
- How prospect engagement can be monitored with ease
- How you can deliver a more consistent sales approach that closes more deal
Before we begin, it’s important to acknowledge that HubSpot is a tool - not a panacea. The platform is only as effective as the strategy that informs your use of it. This means the first step is to assess exactly what you want to achieve with HubSpot and how it will fit within your existing processes:
- What is currently not working that you want to fix with HubSpot?
- What is currently working that you want to replicate in HubSpot with additional automation?
- How do you want HubSpot to fit within your team’s daily workflows?
- Which KPIs will you use to assess the platform’s impact on your sales performance
These questions should form the basis for everything that your sales department does with HubSpot – from onboarding to daily operations. It will also help you select which of the following tactics should be prioritized.
7 Essential Steps to Generate More Value from HubSpot Sales Hub
1: Create Strong Foundations
A well-structured CRM is the backbone of any sales operation, serving as both a repository of critical data and a foundation for driving the functionality of tools like HubSpot Sales Hub. Since Sales Hub relies on the data in your CRM to power its features—from automated sequences to detailed reporting—it’s essential to build a strong data foundation.
To ensure your HubSpot CRM supports your team’s goals effectively, focus on the following:
- Gather Comprehensive and Accurate Data: Beyond basic contact details, ensure your CRM captures deeper insights such as buying preferences, key decision-makers, and deal histories. This data empowers your team to personalize interactions and build stronger relationships.
- Customize Lifecycle Stages Thoughtfully: Align lifecycle stages—like Lead, MQL, SQL, Opportunity and Customer—with your specific sales funnel. Tailoring these stages ensures seamless tracking of where prospects are and what actions are needed next.
- Incorporate Line Items for Transparency: Use detailed line items in deals to reflect pricing, products, or services being negotiated. This not only aids in clear communication but also strengthens forecasting and reporting accuracy.
Make it a priority to regularly audit and refine your CRM setup. As your business evolves, so should your CRM structure, ensuring it remains a dynamic tool for driving sales success.
2: Leverage Sequences
HubSpot's Sequences tool allows your sales team to automate email follow-ups and reminders, saving valuable time and ensuring consistency. To create and maximize the value of sequences, follow these steps:
- Identify Common Sales Scenarios: Pinpoint tasks or scenarios that benefit from automation, such as follow-ups after a demo or nurturing leads who need more time.
- Design Personalized Templates: Draft email templates for each step in your sequence. Use personalization tokens to make them feel tailored to each prospect.
- Set Up Automated Triggers: Use HubSpot to define when sequences start—for instance, after a specific meeting or based on prospect behavior, such as opening an email.
- Incorporate Timing and Frequency: Determine the optimal intervals between emails to avoid overwhelming prospects while maintaining engagement.
- Monitor and Optimize: Use HubSpot’s reporting tools to track sequence performance. Adjust timing, content, or templates based on open rates, click-through rates, replies and meetings booked.
By automating these repetitive tasks thoughtfully, your team can maintain a personal touch while focusing their energy on closing deals.
3: Email Templates
Sales teams often face tight schedules and limited time, making it impractical to craft every email from scratch. HubSpot’s email templates address this challenge by enabling teams to create reusable messages for common scenarios. These templates can be used within sequences or independently.
Instances where email templates can be used include:
- Proposal Emails: Include a pre-written structure with placeholders for client names, project details, and pricing. For example, "Hi [Client Name], based on our discussion, I’ve outlined the proposal for [Project Name]. Please review the attached document for a detailed breakdown."
- Welcome Messages for New Leads: Draft a friendly and informative email welcoming leads to your services or products. For instance, "Hi [First Name], welcome to [Your Company Name]! We’re thrilled to have you here. Here’s a quick guide to help you get started [link]."
- Follow-Ups After Events or Meetings: Prepare templates like, "Hi [First Name], it was great connecting at [Event Name]. I wanted to follow up and share [specific resource or offer discussed]. Let me know if you have any questions!"
Encourage your team to personalize these templates before sending them by adding specific details from recent interactions. This approach saves time while maintaining authenticity and building stronger connections.
4: Snippets
HubSpot's Snippets tool is an underappreciated tool that saves sales time and makes individual salespeople's lives far easier. It allows you to create a simple code (a hashtag) for sentences and information that is frequently used - and instantly plug them into a piece of writing without typing the whole thing out.
These snippets can be leveraged to:
- Answer Common Questions: Create a snippet like "#faqpricing" to instantly insert a detailed response about pricing structures. You can spend extra time crafting the perfect explanation once - and then instantly replicate it in the future. As a result, you'll save time overall while improving the quality of your communications.
- Sharing Pricing Details: Use snippets to insert customized pricing models for different services or tiers, such as "#basicplan" or "#premiumplan.”
- Include Standard Disclaimers or Next Steps: Simplify legal disclaimers or follow-up instructions with snippets like "#disclaimer" or "#nextsteps," ensuring accuracy and consistency.
5: Documents
Sales teams often have limited insight into how prospects engage with their materials: did they actually look at the eBook you sent over? And how long did they spend reading it?
Uploading key sales documents to HubSpot “Documents” (not “Files!”) solves this problem by providing detailed tracking features to gain actionable insights into engagement. For example:
- Sharing Custom Links: Generate unique links for each document, allowing you to tailor outreach based on the recipient’s interactions.
- Tracking Viewer Engagement: HubSpot provides detailed insights, such as who viewed the document, how long they spent on each page and their overall level of engagement.
- Identifying High-Interest Pages: Use the data to determine which sections of your document resonate most with prospects, helping you fine-tune your follow-up conversations.
For instance, if a prospect spends considerable time on the pricing section of your brochure you shared, prioritize discussing that during your next call. This targeted approach helps your team focus on the most engaged leads and address their specific needs effectively.
6: Meeting Scheduler
Scheduling meetings can often become a frustrating back-and-forth process, eating into valuable time that could be spent on selling. HubSpot’s Meeting Scheduler solves this issue by allowing your prospects to book appointments directly based on your availability.
Here’s how you can use it effectively:
- Connect Your Business Calendar: Connect your work calendar to HubSpot to automatically sync your availability. That way, you only have to manage your calendar from one place.
- Create Links for Various Meeting Types: Offer flexibility by setting up separate links for different meeting durations, such as:
- 15-minute introductory calls.
- 30-minute product demos.
- 60-minute deep-dive discussions.
- Embed Links Everywhere: Integrate these scheduling links into your email templates, email signatures, and even your website to streamline the booking process.
- Customize Availability: Adjust your availability for each meeting type to ensure prospects only book during your preferred times.
- Automate Reminders: Use HubSpot’s automation tools to send reminders and reduce no-shows.
By eliminating manual scheduling and making it easy for prospects to book meetings, you free up time for more meaningful sales interactions.
7: Playbooks
Sales meetings often lack structure, leading to missed opportunities to gather critical information or follow a consistent process. HubSpot’s Playbooks feature addresses this problem by acting as a dynamic digital guide for sales reps, ensuring that every conversation is purposeful and productive. Use it to:
- Ensure Consistent Questioning: Create playbooks that outline critical questions tailored to different types of prospects or stages in the sales funnel. For example, a playbook for discovery calls might include questions like, "What are your top three challenges this year?"
- Capture Answers in Real-Time: Input responses directly into the CRM during the meeting. This eliminates the need for post-meeting data entry and ensures accurate, up-to-date records.
- Update CRM Properties for Better Reporting: Link answers to specific contact or deal properties within the CRM. For instance, a prospect’s budget can be captured as a deal property, making forecasting and reporting more precise.
By leveraging Playbooks, sales reps not only streamline conversations but also gain actionable insights to refine strategies and close deals more effectively.
Get 15 Minutes with a Sales Hub Expert – No Strings Attached
ProperExpression has helped over 50 B2B companies use HubSpot to transform their sales operations and generate measurable improvements to their bottom line. In just 15 minutes, our experts can assess your existing sales processes and offer a handful of actionable tips to deliver better results.
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