HubSpot and Salesforce both contain robust CRM databases, but there are some critical differences in how they operate.
An object is a pre-defined data structure in your CRM. Objects represent specific types of things a business has a process for tracking. Examples of standard HubSpot objects include contacts, companies, and deals.
A record is an individual instance of a HubSpot or Salesforce object. A record contains all the data about a particular person, company, or item in the database. In HubSpot, the individual pieces of a record are called properties. In Salesforce, they're called fields.
HubSpot objects, properties, and campaign structures don’t always match the Salesforce way. Let’s take a closer look, starting with objects.
In HubSpot, a contact object is anybody your company communicates with in doing business. This object includes subscribers, leads, and customers. But it also might consist of partners, competitors, employees, or anyone else your company is in contact with.
In Salesforce, anybody you communicate with can be contact or lead objects. Leads are people who have expressed interest in your product or company but have yet to be qualified by the sales team. The client determines the point at which a lead converts to a contact. This conversion could be when a lead buys or requests a quote. Contacts are engaged customers, partners, or affiliates tied to accounts or opportunities.
Salesforce doesn’t currently have a good way to capture people who aren’t ready to have a conversation with Sales. And HubSpot does not differentiate between Salesforce leads and contacts at the object level. Instead, HubSpot uses the lifecycle stage property to track prospects through the buyer's journey and classify them as leads when they meet specific criteria.
To determine if a HubSpot record is syncing with a Salesforce lead or Salesforce contact, look at the standard properties. If it’s syncing with a Salesforce lead, it will have data in the leadID property. If it’s syncing with a Salesforce contact, it will have data in the contactID property.
There’s also a specific Salesforce object called person accounts.
The name can be confusing because it contains accounts, which map to company objects in HubSpot. But Salesforce person accounts are more like HubSpot contacts. Person accounts store information about individual customers who aren’t associated with a company. B2C companies, like gyms or e-commerce platforms, use person accounts. Learn how to sync person accounts with HubSpot in the resource section FAQ.
In HubSpot, a company object is an organization that you want to track in your database. This object translates to account objects in Salesforce. In Salesforce, an account is an organization, company, or consumer that you want to track.
A person can be an account object in Salesforce, whereas a person can only be a contact object in HubSpot.
It's good to keep this distinction in mind as you help the client map their Salesforce objects to HubSpot objects.
In HubSpot, a deal object is an ongoing transaction that a sales team pursues with a contact or company. It's tracked through pipeline stages until won or lost. Deals map to Salesforce opportunities.
In Salesforce, opportunity objects track individual sales and revenue-generating changes. Opportunities can associate with accounts or contacts.
In HubSpot, tasks are to-do list items with an owner and a due date. Engagements are interactions with individuals about your industry, brand, products, and services.
A task could take the form of "Follow up with deal X by date Y." An engagement could take the form of a call or an email. Tasks are associated with contacts, companies, or deals in HubSpot.
Tasks and engagements translate to Salesforce activities. In Salesforce, an activity is an event, a task, a call you've logged, or an email you've sent. You can relate an activity to other records, such as an account, a lead, or an opportunity.
Let's compare these objects across platforms. Salesforce leads and contacts map to HubSpot contacts. Salesforce accounts map to HubSpot companies, and Salesforce opportunities map to HubSpot deals.
Here's what these objects look like when they sync.
HubSpot deals sync to Salesforce opportunities, and HubSpot companies sync to Salesforce accounts. There can be multiple HubSpot deals associated with a HubSpot company, like different product lines, or services that a client can sell together. This relationship is equivalent to multiple Salesforce opportunities associated with a Salesforce account. HubSpot contacts can sync with either Salesforce leads or contacts, depending on the criteria the client defines. Once a Salesforce lead converts into a contact, it destroys the lead.
If the client has a property in HubSpot that doesn’t exist as a field in Salesforce, it’s possible to create a custom field. For example, the HubSpot property Lead Status doesn’t have a corresponding Salesforce field. But by creating a custom Lead Status field in Salesforce and mapping that field to the existing Lead Status property in HubSpot, you can move that data across systems.
Remember: Creating a new property or field doesn’t mean it will sync. You need to create it in both systems and map it in HubSpot. Once the API detects a change to that property, it will trigger a sync.
During the planning phase, the client must define the properties in their existing systems. Some HubSpot properties have dedicated Salesforce fields, while others don’t.
When correctly mapped, a sync will work great. When improperly mapped, sync errors can occur. To avoid any surprises, ensure there's a dedicated match for every piece of data. If you’ve skipped a button while buttoning a shirt, you get the idea: one misaligned button throws the whole thing off.
Mapping isn't just saying which field in HubSpot equals what field in Salesforce. You also need to determine which system’s data gets priority during a sync. To prevent sync errors and inconsistent data, systematic property mapping is critical.
In the “Manage Mappings” section, you will need to set which system’s value will take precedence for each property. Mapping dictates how the API syncs data between HubSpot and Salesforce.
If you select prefer Salesforce unless blank, HubSpot will only pass a value to Salesforce if there is no value in Salesforce. If a value exists in Salesforce, this value will always overwrite the existing value in HubSpot. If you delete the value in Salesforce, it will also be deleted in HubSpot. For example, let’s say an email property in a contact record has been updated on the Salesforce side but hasn’t been updated on the HubSpot side. If the most up-to-the-minute input for this field is happening in Salesforce, “prefer Salesforce unless blank” is the best sync rule to keep both systems current.
If you select always use Salesforce, HubSpot will never pass data to Salesforce, even if there is no value in Salesforce. If there is a value in Salesforce, the value will always overwrite the existing value in HubSpot. If you delete the value in Salesforce, it will also be deleted in HubSpot. For example, if a client has a custom configured Salesforce instance, “always use Salesforce” is the best choice. Otherwise, complex automation that formats data could break.
If you select two-way, the most recent value will always overwrite any existing values. If the value is deleted in HubSpot, it will also be deleted in Salesforce and vice versa. You want to select “two-way” if you know the sales and marketing teams will be regularly updating the same records on different platforms. If Marketing updates a contact’s email today in HubSpot, and tomorrow Sales updates that same email address in Salesforce, two-way sync rules will share data between both platforms.
If you select don’t sync, data will never pass between HubSpot and Salesforce. If the value is deleted in HubSpot, it will not be deleted in Salesforce, and vice versa. If the data is not going to do a job in HubSpot, don’t waste the API call; choose “don’t sync” as the sync rule.
All these rules can be specified for individual properties and fields, giving the client a more granular level of control over what data syncs and how it syncs.
Lastly, let's talk about campaigns. Both HubSpot and Salesforce have campaigns. Despite having the same name, they work quite differently in HubSpot and Salesforce.
In HubSpot, campaigns are a group of related marketing assets and content under a certain marketing effort, like a brand activation or an ad campaign.
HubSpot campaigns enable users to design, launch, and track marketing efforts. Tracking a marketing effort in a HubSpot campaign allows you to measure its impact. It’s possible to create a HubSpot campaign entirely of marketing assets and no contacts.
In Salesforce, campaigns show a list of recipients of an outbound campaign and their status, or how they’ve engaged with a campaign. This list is then used to generate leads that are passed on to Sales to become opportunities. HubSpot campaigns cannot sync to Salesforce, because there isn't a dedicated place where those assets can live.
For example, a campaign can help salespeople understand which leads and contacts have responded to marketing communications so they can tailor their outreach.
Salesforce campaigns don’t actually deliver the marketing campaign; they only track who experienced it. Salesforce campaigns most closely resemble HubSpot Lists and can sync limited data to HubSpot.
There’s a lot to know about Salesforce, so take your time to digest it. Get in the tools, explore, and learn how HubSpot and Salesforce can collaborate together.