HubSpot workflows that move leads, quotes and handoffs along on their own
A workflow is a set of rules HubSpot follows by itself. When a new inquiry comes in, a deal is won or a customer goes quiet, the person who should act gets a task. We set them up around how your team already sells.
Free, 30 minutes, and you'll leave with at least one clear next step.
- Hub
- Marketing, Sales, Service, Data Hub, Smart CRM or Revenue Hub
- Plan needed
- Professional or Enterprise
- Status
- Generally available
Custom code steps need Data Hub Professional or Enterprise
Where does work get stuck today?
In most teams we meet, work sits between people because the next person was never told it was their turn.
New inquiries sit in a shared inbox
A request lands in the shared inbox on a Friday. Two people each think the other has it. By Tuesday the buyer has gone with someone else.
Quotes go out with no follow-up
A rep sends a quote, gets busy, and forgets to check back. The deal sits in "Quote sent" for a month and slowly dies.
Won deals stall at the handoff
Sales closes the deal, but the team that delivers the work hears about it days later in a hallway.
Good customers go quiet
A customer that bought every month hasn't bought in ten weeks. It goes unnoticed until the year-end review.
What does a HubSpot workflow do?
A workflow watches for something to happen in HubSpot, then takes steps for you. The trigger might be a form fill, a deal moving to a new stage, a date passing or a field changing. The steps might be assigning an owner, creating a task, alerting someone on your team, updating a field, sending an email, or waiting a few days and checking again.
You can describe a workflow in plain words too. Breeze Assistant, HubSpot's built-in AI helper, can build a first draft from a prompt like "When a deal reaches Quote sent, then create a follow-up task for the owner in three days." That saves time. Someone still has to decide what the rules should be, and that's most of our job.
Workflows can act on contacts, companies, deals, tickets and other records. Workflows built on quotes or contracts need specific HubSpot subscriptions, so we check your plan before we design around them.
Workflows we set up most often
New inquiry routing
A request comes in by form, chat or email. HubSpot creates the deal, assigns it to the right rep by region or offer, and alerts the manager if it sits untouched past a set time.
Quote and proposal follow-up
When a quote or proposal goes out, HubSpot creates a call task a few days later, then another if the deal hasn't moved. Reps stop relying on sticky notes.
CPQ and quotesWon-deal handoff
When a deal is won, the person who delivers the work gets the details, the sales notes and a kickoff task in one go.
Repeat purchase reminders
When a repeat customer passes their usual buying window, HubSpot sends a reminder or flags them for their account owner.
Lead handoff from marketing to sales
When a lead hits your score threshold, HubSpot assigns an owner and creates a first-call task. See our lead scoring page.
Lead scoringData cleanup on the way in
Workflows fix formatting, fill in missing fields and mark where each contact stands, from lead to customer, so your reports stay accurate without a quarterly cleanup.
Data HubAre you ready for workflows?
Ready now
- You're on a Professional or Enterprise plan of a hub that includes workflows
- Your team agrees on deal stages and who owns what
- The same handoff or follow-up happens many times a week
- Things slip because people forget, not because the rules are unclear
- You want managers to see stuck deals without asking
Fix something else first
- You're on a free or Starter plan, which doesn't include workflows
- Each rep runs deals their own way and stages mean different things
- Key fields like territory or product line are often blank
- Your CRM is full of duplicates and old deals
- HubSpot has no owner after launch, so broken rules would go unnoticed
We write the rules in plain words before we build
- Week 1
Follow recent deals through your process
We pick a handful of recent deals and trace who touched each one and where it waited. You provide access to HubSpot and an hour with your sales and delivery leads.
- Week 1 to 2
Agree the rules in plain words
We write each workflow as a sentence your team can read, such as "When a deal is won, the account lead gets a kickoff task the same day." Your team signs off before we build.
- Week 2
Clean the fields the rules depend on
Workflows only work when the fields they read are filled in. We fix territory, owner, product line and stage data, and make the key ones required.
- Week 2 to 3
Build and test on sample records
We build each workflow, then run it on test records and a small live group before turning it on for everyone.
- Week 3 to 4
Train the team and hand over
You get a short guide listing every workflow, what it does and who owns it, plus training for the people it affects.
What limits should you know about?
A record can't re-enter a workflow it's still in. It has to finish before it can start the same workflow again. We plan around that so a second quote from the same customer doesn't get missed.
History doesn't last forever. HubSpot keeps a log of each step for 90 days, and a record of what entered each workflow for 6 months. Older entry data is kept for 2 years or more. If you need a long audit trail, we write key events to fields on the record.
How many workflows you get depends on your plan. HubSpot sets the count by subscription, so we check your limit before building a long list.
Custom code needs Data Hub. Steps that run your own code, such as calling another system, need Data Hub Professional or Enterprise. Each run has a 20-second limit. Undo and redo cover 30 days of edits, but not custom code steps.
What can't a workflow do?
Workflows follow rules, and they work best when the data is already clean and in HubSpot. They can't read a PDF request, pull details out of an email or tell when a customer is due to buy again from history in another system. For that, we build custom AI workflows that do the reading and sorting, then hand clean data back to your HubSpot workflows.
Follow-up that runs on its own
At a commercial oven manufacturer, leads that had sat untouched went back to reps, and every new ventilation design or service request is now tracked from the first contact.
Workflows questions
Which HubSpot plans include workflows?
Workflows need a Professional or Enterprise plan of Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, Service Hub, Data Hub, Smart CRM or Revenue Hub. Free and Starter plans don't include them. Some workflow features also use HubSpot credits or need assigned seats.
Can HubSpot's AI build workflows for us?
Breeze Assistant can draft a workflow from a plain prompt and suggest triggers and actions. It's a good head start. You still need someone to decide the right rules, check the fields they depend on and test them on a few of your records.
How many workflows can we have?
It depends on your subscription. HubSpot lists the limits in its Products and Services Catalog. Most teams we work with need far fewer workflows than they expect once the rules are clear.
Can a workflow update our other systems?
With Data Hub Professional or Enterprise, a workflow can send data to another system or run custom code that calls it. For full order and invoice sync, a proper integration is usually better. See our NetSuite integration page.
What happens if a workflow breaks?
HubSpot logs each action for 90 days, so you can see what ran and where it failed. We set up alerts for common failures and name an owner on your team who checks them.
Do workflows replace sequences?
No. A sequence is a series of personal emails a rep sends to one contact. Workflows run in the background on rules. Many teams use a workflow to put the right contacts into the right sequence when they're ready.
Can workflows use AI steps?
Yes. HubSpot offers Data Agent steps that research a record and fill in a field with the answer, and those use credits. See our Data Agent page. For reading documents or using your own data, we build custom steps.
Related
Find the handoff that costs you the most
Tell us where deals wait in your process. We'll show you which workflow would fix it and whether your plan supports it.