HubSpot Operations // Functionality Question

[ZKrys]

Hi there,

I am inquiring about functionality within the HubSpot Console to add 'Partners' or 'Vendors' rather than contacts? It would be nice to be able to add a contact that I don't necesarily plan on selling to, but I have a relationship with. 

Is this feature something that already exists and I just haven't learned about it yet? Or is this something to add to a roadmap?

Thanks!

[karstenkoehler · Accepted solution]

Hi @ZKrys,

There are different ways to approach this.

For a low-calorie solution, you would create a persona for partners and vendors. By doing so, you can filter all of your contacts by this property value. (Of course, you could also define additional custom properties, e.g. Partner with values "True" and "False". Whatever works best for you.) The obvious advantage of this solution is that it is easy to implement and maintain. You can send marketing emails to these contacts and they can be associated with companies, deals and tickets. You can't however associate contacts with contacts – you wouldn't be able to associate a regular contact with a partner.

For a more integrated solution, you could look into custom objects. Using custom objects, you can define an additional record type in HubSpot, next to the standard objects (contacts, companies, deals and tickets). Once defined, you can create properties and customize the associations between custom objects and other objects. Here's a great beginner-friendly tutorial. This approach would give you more flexibility when it comes to associations. (Keep in mind that the only object that can be used in marketing email recipient lists is a contact.) The HubSpot product team itself advises against using custom objects for relationships and that custom objects are better suited for 'the "nouns" of your business (think inventory, shipments, appointments, real estate)'. It would be an option, however.

Lastly, there is currently a beta to associate multiple companies with a contact. This would give you additional tools to map relationships between the different types of contacts and companies that you have in the system. You'd have to wait for this one or talk to your customer success manager to be included in the beta.

Hope this helps!