Reporting on meetings with not yet created contacts

[Koala28]

We primarily use the Outlook/Office 365 add ins for scheduling meetings. We want to be able to track meetings with contacts that have not yet been built in HubSpot. By default, I know that the Calendar Sync function will only attach meetings sent from Outlook to a known contact. As a result, these meetings are not being tracked appropriately. Our goal is just to compile a list of upcoming meetings so that we can strategize in advance of the calls as a team, but these meetings are being excluded.

Salesforce has default functionality where meetings that do not have known contacts are recorded as an "unresolved" item, where a user can then go back and manually make the connection to the correct contact once it is built. This would be a fine option as well. Obviously the ideal use case is to have a contact built in advance of scheduling the meeting so that this nuance is avoided entirely, but since there is opportunity for that to not occur, and since HubSpot will only pull in meetings that had an existing contact on the invite at the time of scheduling, meetings are still being excluded even if the contact is later built in the system.

Any ideas on how to get around this? 

[franksteiner79 · Accepted solution]

Hi @Koala28 

What is the reasoning or thinking behind not having these people as contacts in HubSpot?

My view would be that if I am in contact with you and in the process of setting up a meeting, you will need to be created in HubSpot. Meetings are an activity that can't exist without being tied to an object (be that a contact, company, or deal).

My suggestion would be to ensure creation of contacts as early as possible - HubSpot's GMail plugin for example allows for the creation of contacts as soon as I send my first email. That way I can start tracking emails and interactions from day one.

Hope that helps.

Frank