The 5 Most Common HubSpot Mistakes Costing You Leads (And How to Fix Them)

Written By Samantha Flannery
 
 

If you’re using HubSpot but not seeing the pipeline you expected… you’re not alone. Most fast-growing companies and B2B SaaS teams jump into HubSpot fast but never slow down long enough to make sure the foundation is solid and integrations are set up and humming the way you want.

And that’s where the leaks start.

After years of working with teams scaling from chaos → clarity, here are the five mistakes I see over and over again… and exactly how to fix them.

1. A Messy, Outdated Database

If your CRM is cluttered with duplicates, unengaged contacts, and old junk from past imports, HubSpot can’t work the way it should.

Why it hurts:

  • Your reports are inaccurate

  • Your lead scoring doesn’t mean anything

  • You’re emailing people who will never convert

How to fix it:

  • Deduplicate contacts using HubSpot’s dedupe tool

  • Set up a monthly database cleaning workflow

  • Define what makes a contact “marketing eligible” so your lists stay clean

  • Remove (or quarantine) unengaged contacts

A healthy database = better deliverability + better reporting + better decisions.

2. No Defined Lifecycle Stages (or Stages That Aren’t Updating Automatically)

This is the silent killer of good marketing.

If your lifecycle stages aren’t mapped to real behaviors or aren’t automated, you can’t see where leads are dropping off — or which campaigns are actually working.

Why it hurts:

  • Sales and marketing don’t agree on lead quality

  • Your MQL → SQL conversion rate is a mystery

  • You’re guessing instead of optimizing

How to fix it:

  • Define each lifecycle stage with clear criteria

  • Build automation to update stages based on actions

  • Align with sales on what triggers an MQL, SQL, and handoff

  • Set guardrails so lifecycle stages NEVER move backwards

When lifecycle stages work, your entire funnel becomes visible.

3. Broken or Overcomplicated Workflows

Workflows are supposed to save time — not cause chaos.

But most teams have dozens of old workflows running in the background causing:

  • leads to skip nurture sequences

  • emails to fire twice

  • reps to get notified at the wrong time

How to fix it:

  • Audit workflows every quarter

  • Turn off anything not directly tied to revenue or productivity

  • Consolidate duplicate workflows

  • Add naming conventions so anyone on your team can find what they need

Cleaner workflows = fewer fires.

4. Poor Email Deliverability

You can have the best campaigns in the world — but if your emails don’t land in the inbox, you’re invisible.

Common deliverability issues:

  • Sending to cold or stale lists

  • No sunrise warmups

  • Not using authenticated domains

  • Sending too frequently because “automation will fix it”

How to fix it:

  • Set up DKIM + SPF

  • Run a 90-day warmup plan

  • Segment out unengaged contacts

  • Improve copy + personalization to raise open and click rates

Fix deliverability first — it impacts everything else.

5. No Reporting That Actually Drives Decisions

Most companies only look at vanity metrics: open rates, clicks, traffic, etc.
Nice to see… but not useful.

What you ACTUALLY need:

  • MQL → SQL conversion

  • SQL → Opportunity conversion

  • Channel/sources driving revenue

  • Lead routing performance

  • Time-to-first-touch from sales

How to fix it:

  • Build a simple RevOps dashboard

  • Include 5–7 metrics max

  • Review weekly with sales + marketing

  • Tie every metric to a business decision

When reporting is simple and aligned, your team becomes unstoppable.

Final Thoughts

HubSpot is an incredibly powerful revenue engine but only if the foundation is clean, automated, and aligned.

Most companies don’t need “more tools” or “more campaigns.” They need clarity, consistency, and cleanup.

If you read this and realized your HubSpot could use some love…
I’ve helped dozens of companies do exactly that.

 
Samantha Flannery