If you’re a business owner in Perth or anywhere in Australia looking to grow your sales and marketing efforts, losing track of leads can be a major setback. A disorganised system means missed opportunities, delayed responses, and potentially lost sales. That’s where HubSpot CRM comes into play. This powerful tool not only helps you organise leads but also enables you to automate follow-ups, segment contacts, and ultimately close more deals.
In this guide, we’re diving deep into practical strategies that will elevate your lead management process using HubSpot CRM. From setting up pipelines and segmentation to automating follow-ups and measuring success, weâve got actionable steps to help you never lose a lead again.
Step 1: Set Up Your Lead Pipeline the Right Way
When it comes to managing leads effectively, the first thing you need to do is set up a clear, logical sales pipeline. Think of it as the road map for your leadsâfrom the moment they first interact with your brand until they become paying customers.
1. Define Custom Sales Stages
Every business has a unique sales process, and HubSpot CRM lets you tailor your pipeline to reflect that. While HubSpot offers default stages like âLeadâ, âQualified Leadâ, and âClosed-Wonâ, you can customise them to match your specific workflow.
For example, if youâre in the B2B space, your stages might include:
- Contacted: Youâve reached out to the lead, but they havenât responded yet.
- Engaged: Theyâve shown interest by downloading your resource or attending a webinar.
- Proposal Sent: Youâve presented an offer and are waiting for feedback.
- Negotiation/Review: The lead is seriously considering your proposal, but thereâs room for negotiation.
- Contract Sent: The lead has accepted the terms and youâre waiting for signatures.
đ„ Pro Tip: Customising these stages ensures that you track leads more accurately and know exactly where they are in the funnel. You can do this by navigating to HubSpot > Settings > Deals > Pipelines.
2. Assign Owners and Responsibility
Once youâve defined your sales stages, the next step is to assign owners to each lead in the CRM. This is essential for tracking follow-ups and preventing leads from falling through the cracks.
HubSpotâs automatic lead assignment tools allow you to assign owners based on:
- Region (for multi-location teams)
- Industry (if you have different teams for specific sectors)
- Team Capacity (to ensure leads are evenly distributed)
You can even set reminders for follow-ups to keep your team on track. In addition, activity tracking within HubSpot means you can see every interaction with your leadsâcalls, emails, and notesâso nothing slips through.
đ Learn More: HubSpot Sales Pipeline Setup
Step 2: Segment Your Contacts for Smarter Outreach
Not all leads are created equal, and one-size-fits-all marketing doesnât work anymore. Effective segmentation helps you deliver personalised marketing and follow-up strategies tailored to the unique needs and behaviours of your leads.
Ways to Segment Your Leads in HubSpot:
- By Lifecycle Stage: This is the most basic segmentation. You can create lists based on whether a lead is a subscriber, a marketing qualified lead (MQL), a sales qualified lead (SQL), or an actual customer.
- By Behaviour: This includes tracking lead activity, such as:
- Website visits
- Content downloads
- Email interactions
- Webinar participation
By using this data, you can target leads who are actively engaged with your brand and are more likely to convert.
- By Source: Where did the lead come from? Did they find you through paid ads, organic search, referrals, or social media? Understanding the source allows you to tailor follow-ups accordingly.
- By Industry and Demographics: Use HubSpotâs properties to segment based on company size, industry, or even specific job titles. For example, if youâre targeting real estate businesses in Perth, you can create a list of prospects in this sector and tailor your pitch accordingly.
đ„ Pro Tip: HubSpot allows you to create âSmart Listsââdynamic lists that automatically update based on your criteria. This ensures that your lead segmentation is always up-to-date and relevant.
đ Read More: How to Use Smart Lists in HubSpot
Step 3: Automate Follow-Ups and Nurture Leads on Autopilot
The worst thing you can do is manually follow up with leadsâespecially when you have a growing list of prospects. Automation helps you stay consistent and responsive, ensuring that no lead is left behind.
Hereâs How You Can Automate Your Follow-Ups in HubSpot:
- Email Sequences:
HubSpotâs Sequences tool lets you send a series of pre-scheduled, personalised emails to leads based on their actions. For instance:
- If a lead downloads your eBook, send a follow-up email a day later asking if they found it useful.
- If a lead attends your webinar, automatically send them a thank you email with a special offer.
- Task Automation:
You can automate tasks for your sales team based on the leadâs actions. For example:
- Automatically assign a follow-up call to a rep if a lead clicks on a specific email link.
- Set reminders for meetings or calls based on a leadâs pipeline stage.
- Lead Scoring:
HubSpotâs lead scoring system assigns scores to leads based on their behaviour. This allows your sales team to prioritise high-value leads over those who are still in the research phase. - AI Chatbots and Lead Qualification:
HubSpotâs AI-powered chatbots can qualify leads 24/7 on your website. These bots ask questions like, âWhat can I help you with today?â and direct high-intent leads to your sales team for further follow-up.
đ„ Pro Tip: Automate non-urgent tasks so your sales team can focus on building relationships with hot leads. HubSpot allows you to set up if-then actions to create highly personalised workflows.
đ Learn More: How to Automate Lead Nurturing with HubSpot
Step 4: Measure, Optimise, and Evolve
Organising your leads doesnât stop at setting up pipelines and automating workflows. To make your efforts successful, you need to continuously measure the effectiveness of your lead management process and make adjustments where needed.
Key Metrics to Track in HubSpot:
- Lead Conversion Rate:
The percentage of leads who turn into paying customers. This helps you evaluate how well your pipeline and nurturing efforts are performing. - Response Time:
Track how quickly your sales team responds to new leads. According to research, responding within 5 minutes increases your chances of conversion by 900%. (Source: Hatch) - Pipeline Velocity:
This measures how quickly leads move from one stage to the next in your pipeline. A slow-moving pipeline indicates you might need to adjust your strategies or boost follow-up efforts. - Lost Deal Reasons:
Understanding why you lost a deal is key to improving your processes. HubSpot allows you to track and analyse lost deal reasons, so you can pinpoint areas for improvement.
đ„ Pro Tip: Set up dashboards in HubSpot to track these metrics in real-time. Use them for weekly or monthly reviews to identify bottlenecks and improve the process.
đ Learn More: HubSpot CRM Optimisation
Final Thoughts: Stay Organised, Close More Deals
Organising your leads in HubSpot CRM isn’t just about keeping your contacts in orderâit’s about optimising your entire sales process. By implementing a well-structured pipeline, smart segmentation, and automation workflows, youâre setting yourself up for success. With HubSpot’s reporting and analytics, you can continuously measure and improve your system to drive better results.
đĄ Want to take your CRM setup to the next level? Gaia Marketing Lab specialises in HubSpot CRM strategy and automation for businesses across Australia. Get in touch with us today, and letâs streamline your sales process for maximum growth.
