Global Workflow to assign contact owners

[GinaMorris]

Hello Hubspot Community! 

I have adopted an exsisting Hubspot instance and there are 20+ workflows that solely focus on assigning records, creating deals and updating lifecycle stage. 

Are there any best practices around this? Ideally, I would love to have ONE workflow that assigns contacts to an owner so I dont have to maintain/update multiple workflows when I add or remove members/assignment rules from my sales team. 

Thanks!

[joshua-paul · Accepted solution]

Hey Gina, inheriting automation and workflows can take months to untangle, especially if they were haphazardly created and named. I have a few pointers that might help.

My main advice is to re-visit the business requirements behind each automation function.

• Lead routing
• Lead management
• Deal automation
• Data alignment

Then, re-build the workflows in a more streamlined manner using your expertise and your understanding of the requirements (which may have shifted since the workflows were originally built).

You might think that this is extra work since the workflows are running today. However, the knowledge and confidence that this upfront automation affords you will save you dozens of hours and headaches each month going forward. 

This process alone will cut down on the number of workflows that were bolted on over time. Just make sure the requirements and automation are well documents when you re-build them. 

Unfortunately, each business function will probably still need multiple workflows, not a single workflow. However, with the right naming convention, it won't be chaotic to manage.

I recently developed a moderately complex lead routing workflows that started with a "master lead routing controller" workflow and then cycled through 6 additional workflows to check on various lead properties, like existing owner, country, campaign, and problem to assign the lead and set up the next action for the sale rep.

This is a case where the multiple workflows actually made managing the automation rules more simple because each sub-workflow had a specific function. Good luck!

[GinaMorris]

Thanks, Joshua!

I have documented the current workflows which was great so I understand thier purpose. The workflows all have the same function to assign the lead owner, create a task and create a deal. 

Have you combined these 3 requirements into one workflow? Or are they typically kept separately? 

Also, do you have any access to naming convention documentation? 🙂 

Thanks!

Gina

[joshua-paul]

Hey Gina. Nice work!

I'd look to combine all three workflows into a single workflow. Try to simplify them as much as possible by taking advantage of properties that can be dynamically set (like OWNER), instead of needing to hardcode the automation for each sales rep. 

We have an entire cheat sheet for automation naming conventions. PM me or reach out to me on LinkedIn and I'll send it to you.

[Phil_Vallender]

Hi @GinaMorris 

Marketing automation and workflows are still a relatively new thing, so there is no universally accepted best practice yet. That said, I firmly agree that simple is better.  I've worked on systems like the one you descibe and it isn't fun. 

The challenge can be getting the organisation to tolerate either some downtime in the process or changes to nuacned way things work so that you can actually revamp things.

It should be possible to reduce lead assingnment down to one or a couple of workflows and you are right that the fewer places you have to update when people change the better. 

If you have any challenges within those workflows that you need help with, please post again. 

Hope this helps.