How to Use HubSpot's Leads Object for MQL Tracking

When you first heard HubSpot was introducing a "Leads" object, it might have conjured up nightmares of Salesforce's much maligned, identically named feature. Luckily for HubSpot users, this Leads object operates entirely differently—I'll hold my complaints about them picking the same name. 

Here, I'll cover the differences between HubSpot and Salesforce's approaches to Leads, how to use Lead as a Marketing tracking tool, and finish with 3 Lead-based automations that will make your life significantly easier should you decide to use leads to track MQLs. 

In Salesforce, a lead typically functions as a "pre-contact"—a temporary holding area for potential customers who often possess incomplete data, sometimes lacking detailed information like account associations or even proper names. A frequent criticism is that this object often devolves into a "dumping ground" for poor quality data, such as unverified purchased lists or contacts that companies are reluctant to delete. This practice can clutter the CRM, making it difficult for sales teams to concentrate on high-quality leads.   

A significant pain point emerges when integrating Salesforce with marketing systems like HubSpot. If HubSpot contacts are synced to Salesforce as Leads, and these Leads are not converted or are duplicates, it can lead to an accumulation of redundant records and sync errors, often necessitating manual workarounds. Salesforce's traditional best practice often involves maintaining a single lead record per person, which complicates the tracking of re-engagement or multiple interactions from the same individual over time.

HubSpot's Leads object operates on a fundamentally different principle: it functions as a "pre-deal," not a pre-contact. It is always associated with an existing contact or company record. This object serves as a record of a contact's pre-sales journey, such as a demo request, or an internal signal indicating a team's desire to initiate outreach to that individual.