To sync Company Lifecycle stage to associated contacts or not?

[SteveMatlick]

Hi,

This is more of a 30,000 ft view question:  I know HubSpot has the built-in Lifecycle stage sync from company to associated contacts that can be turned on and off.  My question is - when would you want to do this?

Example:  Company A has 4 associated contacts.  One MQL's because they hit a lead scoring threshold.  We have a workflow built to update the company's lifecycle stage to MQL at that point.  Would you want the other 3 contacts to update as well or stay at lead?

I know there's no right or wrong answer here - looking for feedback and different perspectives on this.  Side Note:  we are a B2B company.

Thanks in advance!

[MFrankJohnson]

Certainly, "there's no right or wrong answer [technically]". However, there are very stong 'right' and 'wrong' opinions on the subject! haha 🙂

Bottom line? Set sync 'ON' and make sure everyone knows about it (before you do it) -- i.e., Marketing AND Sales.

++

Seriously, the decision to change the default state (OFF) of the 'Lifecycle Stage Sync' switch depends on how you market to your contacts. In most B2B environments we've worked, this setting being 'ON' is EXPECTED.

The rationale is typically, "we do business with companies". Personally, we don't agree with that statement. However, we do get the point -- the lifecycle stage of all contacts at a target company should be clearly identified and consistent with the parent COMPANY Lifecycle Stage.

This leaves very little room for error &/or miscommunication. Remember, it's the Lifecycle Stage that indentifies CUSTOMERS in the CRM. If this setting is left off (the default), it's entirely possible for us to regularly send awareness stage marketing content to CUSTOMERS -- typically a 'no-no' because it makes us look like we don't know who our customers are.

- see Manage lifecycle stages sync settings

Note: There is no setting that will sync the contact lifecycle stage if those contacts are UNASSOCIATED with their company. This wider issue has even greater ramifications if/as we introduce external/integrated systems to the conversation -- think Salesforce.

[SteveMatlick]

Thanks for the reply Frank!

Just wanted to follow up on one point you made - what is your rationale for disagreeing with the 'we do business with companies' stance?  

Thanks,

Steve

[MFrankJohnson]

Hey Steve. Guess it's more of an old-school, personal perspective.

Even though 100% of our business is B2B and 100% is virtual, we typically do business one-on-one with PEOPLE. No matter how large or successful the company, honestly can't ever remember having a 'company' on a call or in a meeting. Or ever receiving an unsolicited referral from a 'company'. For some reason we always end up working with people. 🙂

[SteveMatlick]

That makes sense and I can see both sides.  And nothing old-school about that way of thinking 🙂

Thanks again, as usual! 

[Josh]

I strongly agree with @MFrankJohnson. Even though we may be B2B, we build relationships, close deals, get referrals, etc. from other humans.  

[SteveMatlick]

@Josh  I agree with all of that as well - relationship-building is critical to success.  I also see that in B2B the end goal is making another company your customer.

What are your thoughts on the sync?

[Josh]

@SteveMatlick 

I also agree with @MFrankJohnson on the sync topic 99% of the time.

We did have one instance where we had to turn the system sync off and use workflows to sync. The situation was that tasks were assigned when someone became an MQL. Whenever new contacts were added to the system and were associated with a company, the sync changed the new contacts to MQLs and several new tasks were assigned to the new MQLs, but they weren't accurate. In this case, we did a sync using workflows and adjusted the workflow task creation for MQLs.

Aside from that, we haven't run into issues with lifecycle sync. 

Josh

[SteveMatlick]

@Josh  Gotcha.  So even though it 'feels' incorrect to have all contacts tagged as MQL's when the company MQL's it's generally agreed that it's more important to keep all associated records in sync so there's no confusion or misunderstandings. 

And from a reporting perspective B2B companies usually report on the # of MQL's at a company level so there's little to no risk as to reporting out an inflated MQL count/trends.