Hubspot: initial configuration for search (for CRM newbies)

Hi fellow Searchfunders, I’ve been setting up HubSpot for my search over the past couple of weeks and realised there isn’t much practical guidance out there for people who haven’t used a CRM before (which was definitely me). Sharing what I’ve learned so far and inviting thoughts/additions/changes for best practice please. The goal is simplicity and having a system that you’ll keep using consistently. Hubspot has too many functions for a searcher imo! 1. Only keep three parts of HubSpot and ignore the rest - Contacts: people you interact with - Deals: businesses you’re evaluating (i.e. not "companies") - Reports/Dashboards: to keep score IGNORE Companies, Lead Status, etc 2. Contacts are PEOPLE, obv not deals I added two custom fields that make this usable (and then strip back a lot of the other default ones): “Relationship Type” (e.g. broker, owner, investor, advisor, fellow searcher, introducer) “Lifecycle Stage” Plain English works best. Mine look like: - New: someone I’ve just connected with - Engaged: we’ve exchanged a few messages or a call - Active: actively helping me with opportunities - Champion: someone who opens doors or introduces me to sellers (this is where the in-crowd talks about SQL, MQL, Evangelist, etc) 3. Deals track OPPORTUNITIES, i.e, each business you look at = a deal. I’ve added fields like: - Deal stage (note different to Lifecycle stage, here I would have 10 dropdown options from “not contacted” to “IM received” to “DD” to “deal closed”) - EBITDA and revenue - Headline valuation/asking price - How it came to me (broker / prop) – note you can add a “contact” in the deal, make that the broker or whoever brought you the deal - Reason I passed (short dropdown - don’t overthink it) My deal stages run from first contact through to evaluation and (if necessary) closing the file. Yours will depend on how you like to work, but having a standard sequence makes it much easier to compare opportunities. 4. In both Contacts and Deals adjust the “key information” sheet on the bottom left to the metrics you want to track. 5. The Dashboard (& reports) I’m tracking things like: - how many new opportunities I’ve added recently - brokers I’ve contacted - calls held with owners - NDAs signed - LOIs sent out - deals currently somewhere in the funnel - active ones moving towards an offer Interested to hear your feedback and thoughts on how where I can improve before I get stuck in. thank you and hope this discussion helps someone avoid the same learning curve.