topic Re: Creating multiple leads for the same company/contact in Tips, Tricks & Best Practices

Creating multiple leads for the same company/contact

THailstone — Wed, 20 Apr 2022 08:00:49 GMT

Hello,

I have a challenge on the current HubSpot Integration with Salesforce set up for how leads are treated.

In our business, we have a Web-to-Lead form on our website that captures any prospect/customers interest when they want a new/additional solution. Essentially this captures details for new prospects and existing customers that want a new service. What i'm finding is, if it's a new prospect submits their details then this goes into Salesforce CRM fine as a lead > but when an existing customer submits their details (i.e. they arlready exist in Salesforce CRM), then their details are updated, but no new lead is entered,

This is a challenge for us because:

a) we have e-mail notifications, reporting and workflows built around the lead being created

b) we tag the lead with a marketing campaign, which we track for ROI purposes

Is there any way that a new lead can be added for contacts that already live in our database?

Re: Creating multiple leads for the same company/contact

CAnderson716 — Wed, 20 Apr 2022 12:26:41 GMT

Hi @THailstone,

Instead of creating a new lead, because then there would be duplicates in the system, I would probably set up automation on the Salesforce side to update the existing contact's status or lifecycle stage, depending on how your processes are built out.

In Salesforce, you can create a Flow that evaluates if the lead already exists upon the form submission to then update a field on their record whether it be their status or their lifecycle stage. You can sync this field with HubSpot and then create a workflow in HubSpot to trigger your marketing campaigns based on when existing contacts have that particular property updated to the desired value.

Re: Creating multiple leads for the same company/contact

THailstone — Wed, 20 Apr 2022 12:58:26 GMT

Hello @CAnderson716 - thanks for the quick response. The challenge we have with that approach is:

(1) the leads are submitted with a description as to what they are after (e.g. Month 1 - they could be after product A ... a few months later they could be after product B. These would be seperate contact us requests on our website). Updating the same record means data might be overriden. We can create this demand by outbound marketing with different campaign tags, so ideally want to understand how many lead responses have been generated per campaign.

(2) we have daily lead conversion reports that specifically look at whether the lead has been actioned, and as part of our marketing KPIs we look at Lead to Opportunity Converion rate

(3) We'd want any immediate opportunity tagged with the Salesforce campaign ID to track revenue and ROI - which is native to standard lead functionality upon conversion.

Thanks

Tom

Re: Creating multiple leads for the same company/contact

CAnderson716 — Thu, 21 Apr 2022 13:47:08 GMT

@THailstone, understood. Thank you for sharing more about how your process works. I would add product fields to the form that are checkboxes. One for each product and not have them be required. Your internal team can then check the product of interest for the existing contact which can be tracked on their contact record and have campaigns trigger from the field update. Meanwhile, no product field data would be overwritten. You can then track which products are frequently being purchased one right after the other to identify cross-sell opportunities.

Then I would probably create time stamp fields for however many products that you have, that are automatically filled in when the form is submitted. For example, first submission to the form, second submission to the form, latest submission to the form, etc. I would also advise on creating time stamp fields for your lifecycle stages, so you can track how fast existing customers are converting from leads to opportunities as they go back through the funnel.

Re: Creating multiple leads for the same company/contact

LaurenRyan — Sun, 24 Apr 2022 14:19:20 GMT

Hi @THailstone! Because HubSpot only allows one contact per email (which is a best practice!) - creating duplicate leads isn't an option.

Here's how we usually handle this:

For a new form submission, HubSpot records the form submission & logs it to Salesforce via the Task sync for Form Submissions
A Flow is created in Salesforce to evaluate the form submission (& associated fields - you can put a hidden "product interest" field on a form for a product-specific landing page or use a field like @CAnderson716 suggested)
The Flow then evaluates if this is an existing Contact or a net-new Lead. For a Lead, the standard task protocol is followed. For a Contact, a new opportunity is created and assigned to the Contact or Account owner.
The Flow can then create tasks associated with the Opportunity (or whatever you prefer happens next!)
The Flow can also look for associated Campaigns to then append a Campaign ID to the opportunity.
In HubSpot, you can create a Workflow once the form is submitted to add a Contact/Lead to a Salesforce Campaign using the "Add to Salesforce Campaign" workflow action.

Hope this helps!

Re: Creating multiple leads for the same company/contact

THailstone — Tue, 03 May 2022 11:00:16 GMT

Thanks very much - i'll go back to our salesforce developer with the above in mind and see what we can do. Thanks, Tom

Re: Creating multiple leads for the same company/contact

HVera — Sat, 08 Apr 2023 10:01:12 GMT

@LaurenRyan Can you share the process and flows in more detail associated with your post, as I am unclear on the order and detail of the steps? It would also be helpful to see the flow detail on the SFCE side.

This is a critical issue with my salesforce-HubSpot customers and this approach would help. Appreciate your help!

Re: Creating multiple leads for the same company/contact

VAmari — Sat, 10 Aug 2024 11:35:34 GMT

For anyone that's been in sales for many years, a lead is an enquiry from either a new or existing contact. For existing customers it's normally to enquire about another product or service they don't buy from you already.

Yes it's true that some would consider this an opprotunity, but that doesn't take into account the main principles that you also abide by, that an Opportunity comes after a Lead/Enquiry has been qualified.

Duplicate Contacts are not created, because at least in systems I've used, the conversion process checks if company name or Contact email address already exists. If it does, it give you the choice to confirm it's the same Contact and allows you to continue by creating a related Lead/Enquiry record for that Contact.

Re: Creating multiple leads for the same company/contact

XavierK — Tue, 15 Jul 2025 02:43:09 GMT

Hi Tom, have you worked out a practical solution? I have the same issue.

1) repeated enquiries are treated as new enquiries

2) we offer various services, and enquiries for different services will go to different pipelines and sales teams.

3) Some form completions, if the client selects multiple services, will create two leads, so both sales team get the information to manage it.

Re: Creating multiple leads for the same company/contact

Jaycee_Lewis — Tue, 22 Jul 2025 18:26:32 GMT

Hey, @XavierK 👋 You may want to make a new post for this. Sometimes old posts don't get as many views. — Jaycee

Re: Creating multiple leads for the same company/contact

XavierK — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 01:42:20 GMT

Hi @VAmari have you fund a solution to this issue? I am facing the same problems. Thanks, Kathlyn

Re: Creating multiple leads for the same company/contact

XavierK — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 01:43:42 GMT

@THailstone have you found a solution to this problem?

Re: Creating multiple leads for the same company/contact

Victor_Becerra — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 14:40:33 GMT

Hey @XavierK
Thanks for the great question!
My recommendation is to create a new post for this. This gives your post the best shot at getting seen by as many of our amazing community members as possible. Feel free to tag me in the post and I'm happy to get you started
Best,
Victor