Associate multiple companies each other

[matteomont]

Hi there, 

I guess that I would need a kind of feature similar to this one: 

"Associate one contact to multiple companies"

https://community.hubspot.com/t5/HubSpot-Ideas/Associate-one-contact-to-multiple-companies/idi-p/192... 

I want to better explain my need: we work in a very specific industry on wchich we have to cooperate with our target company and their suppliers. And we want to get all the suppliers displayed on the company page. And since we also record the suppliers, we'd like to have a clickable link from the company page to the supplier page (an association similar to company and contacts or deals and company/contacts)

I tried with Parent/Child company feature but it doesn't work because 1 company has more than 1 supplier,  while suppliers serve more than 1 company.

For expample:

Supplier 1 is associated with Company A and Company B 

Supplier 2 is associated with Company A, Company B  and Company C

Supplier 3 is associated with Company B  and Company C

Supplier 4 is associated with Company A,  and Company D 

Any solution for this?

Thanks in advance

[karstenkoehler · Accepted solution]

Hi @matteomont,

At this very moment, the only solution for this would be custom objects – not available in the Starter subscription, unfortunately, only in Enterprise. Your suppliers could be such a custom object. (By default, HubSpot isn't very good at managing relationships that incorporate multiple companies or indirect sales.)

As far as easy (albeit insufficient) workarounds go, you can pin notes to the top of any record and include links to its related records. For example, on the company record of supplier 1, you pin a note including the links to the records of company A and B. This relationship will not reflect in any tool (list, workflow etc.) but it helps you at least navigate.

Aside from that, I would recommend that you share your post also in the HubSpot Ideas section. The product team can then review the request.

Best regards!

[GrantCarlile · Accepted solution]

You've seen the new association update I am guessing. Great to have the ability to associate as you requested. Even in workflows now you can filter properties by associations.

[karstenkoehler · Accepted solution]

Hi @matteomont and everyone,

Great news, it's now possible to associate records of the same type and to label these associations, see this public beta:

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Tickets | Custom Objects | Contacts | Deals | Companies

[Public Beta] Associate Records of the Same Object Type

Oct 18, 2023

What is it?

Same object associations give customers the ability to associate a CRM record to another record of the same object type e.g. a contact to a contact or a deal to a deal. These new associations are available for contacts, companies, deals, tickets and custom objects and can be leveraged across core HubSpot tools. Watch a short video on how this works.

Why does it matter?

Customers want HubSpot to reflect the reality of their business; this often includes a web of contacts or a collection of related companies. Without the ability to connect contacts to contacts, companies to companies and other objects to their same type, customers have been missing key relationships in HubSpot.

How does it work?

Users can now create associations between records of the same type for contacts, companies, deals, tickets and custom objects. On each record, you’ll see a new section in the right sidebar which reflects the type of record you’re on e.g. you’ll see a contacts section while on a contact record.

Customers with at least one Pro or Enterprise subscription can also create either a single label which is the same in both directions e.g. two contacts have the label colleague or a pair of labels representing two sides of a specific relationship e.g. student and teacher. When applying labels, you’re able to preview the application of the labels to ensure it’s correct before creating a new associations.

Same object associations can be leveraged in the following features:

• Calculated properties
• Custom Report Builder
• Import
• Index Pages
• Lists
• Records
• Workflows

Who gets it?

All hubs and tiers can create associations between records of the same object type (with custom objects being available to enterprise tiers only). Labels are only available to Pro+ customers as well as in custom report builder and workflow support.

---

You can find this beta here:

Have a great day everyone!

[MrBean]

Love this post. Your industry is not as unique as you think, we face a similar issue involving advertising networks and publishers. I imagine there are others who also face this issue. 

What we've done initially is use a custom field (Dropdown select) to denote who the ad networks are, which unfortunately wouldn't give you a link to their record in hubspot. . . but may or may not be a huge issue.

What @karstenkoehler is suggesting you do here with custom objects is one way to get those companies listed on the record page. I think this is a really great idea. 

However if you're not using enterprise saleshub you will need a work around. In that case, I think 

1) Using a custom field to track suppliers (maybe even by types) and 

2) using multiple associations to the deal (With custom association labels) will help you store data on those relationships. 

Best not abuse Parent-Child relationship. . . if suppliers aren't neccesarily parents don't record them as such

[matteomont]

hi MrBean, thanks for following up with this thread. 

Of course the best solution would be custom object but: 

• it is an enterprise-only feature 
• it would mean a kind of duplication since I should create the same companies I already have on the company object into the custom object just to make a clickable link from the company page to the supplier copany page

At this point, I think the best workaround would be to make an association with the contact associated  the supplier. 

I try to better explain... 

I recall the example I have done on the first post of this thread 

• Supplier 1 is associated with Company A and Company B 
• Supplier 2 is associated with Company A, Company B  and Company C
• Supplier 3 is associated with Company B  and Company C
• Supplier 4 is associated with Company A,  and Company D 

Since the above is not possible, I can try to associate the relevant contact person in the supplier company with all the Companies they serve. Usually the job title of the contact person at the supplier company would be sales related and eventually we can use a specific job title to easily filter out all these contact associated. 

so instead of having:

Supplier 1 is associated with Company A and Company B 

Supplier 2 is associated with Company A, Company B  and Company C 

we'll have 

Mr Brown supplier sales at Supplier 1which is associated with Company A and Company B 

Mr Whitesupplier sales at Supplier 2 which is associated with Company A, Company B  and Company C 

By doing so

• if I want to find out all suppliers of company A I just need to filter: Associated contacts of company A with job title "supplier sales" 
• I if I want to find out all companies served by the supplier 1: I will filter all job title "supplier sales" with the primary associated company Supplier 1 and look at all the secondary companies associated. 

The above workflow will:

• ensure a clickable association on the company page going through the contact page 
• avoid creating custom company properties that need to be continuously updated

[kvlschaefer]

Thank you for sharing this insight, @MrBean! 

[GrantCarlile · Accepted solution]

You've seen the new association update I am guessing. Great to have the ability to associate as you requested. Even in workflows now you can filter properties by associations.

[webdew]

Hi @matteomont ,

Hello, i have a very good news for you. It was not possible earlier but as per the june updates it is possible to connect a single contact to multiple companies. 
Not only that you can also add custom labels in order to describe the nature of the association. For example board member, an agent, etc.
I am here providing a knowledge base article that tells how to perform that in your hubspot account
I hope it helps !
https://knowledge.hubspot.com/crm-setup/associate-multiple-companies-with-a-contact

NOTE : this feature is currently in private BETA, please reach out to your CC if you wish to unlock it for your portal or your customers.

Hope this helps!

If we were able to answer your query, kindly help the community by marking it as a solution.

Thanks and Regards.

[karstenkoehler · Accepted solution]

Hi @matteomont,

At this very moment, the only solution for this would be custom objects – not available in the Starter subscription, unfortunately, only in Enterprise. Your suppliers could be such a custom object. (By default, HubSpot isn't very good at managing relationships that incorporate multiple companies or indirect sales.)

As far as easy (albeit insufficient) workarounds go, you can pin notes to the top of any record and include links to its related records. For example, on the company record of supplier 1, you pin a note including the links to the records of company A and B. This relationship will not reflect in any tool (list, workflow etc.) but it helps you at least navigate.

Aside from that, I would recommend that you share your post also in the HubSpot Ideas section. The product team can then review the request.

Best regards!