Handling a New Buyer Inquiry in HubSpot

Step 1

Find new inquiries quickly

Go to More → CRM → Contacts — or CRM → Contacts if More is not shown — and use Advanced filters to find contacts with no Contact owner, limited to a recent Create date, sorted newest first. Save it with + add view so it is there every morning.

This is a recommended working view, not a HubSpot default and not an Risewell Homes rule. Saving views needs the Create CRM views permission, and reps whose access is limited to their own or their team's records need the Unassigned permission checkbox enabled to see unassigned contacts at all.

New contacts reach HubSpot in several ways: a form submission creates or updates a record, a spreadsheet import creates or updates contacts, and a rep can add one manually from the contacts table view with Add → Create new. A form submission is not automatically a new buyer — it may update someone already in the CRM.

Step 2

Confirm who owns the contact

Open the contact and check the Contact owner property. To set it, use Actions → View all properties in the left sidebar, search for owner, and pick the owner from the dropdown; the change saves automatically.

Automatic ownership is conditional, so do not assume someone else has it. Creating a record manually assigns it to the creator unless another owner is chosen, and the account setting that assigns unowned contacts to the email sender can pick one up when a logged one-to-one email is sent or received.

Two gaps to know about: a form notification configured to notify only the contact owner sends nothing when the contact has no owner, and ownership assigned through an import does not generate an assignment notification. An unowned contact can sit unnoticed unless someone is watching a view like the one above.

No owner does not mean someone else was told. Confirm the owner before you move on.

Step 3

Read what the buyer actually asked

Open the contact and read the properties in the left sidebar plus the associated companies and deals in the record layout. Layouts differ between accounts, so the exact cards you see depend on Risewell Homes' setup.

Check how the record arrived. Record Source is the tool or process that created the CRM record, while Original and Latest Traffic Source describe web visits, and Record Source Detail 1–3 can name the specific form or user. These answer different questions; do not treat a traffic source as proof of where the inquiry came from.

Open the Activities tab and read All activities plus the Notes, Emails, Calls, Tasks and Meetings tabs before replying. The Activity dropdown and the All time filter can hide relevant history, so reset them if the timeline looks empty. If you need the answers the buyer typed into a form, the documented route is Marketing → Forms → Actions → View submissions → Submissions → View submission, which needs the View forms permission.

Step 4

Respond personally, in the right channel

Reply one-to-one from your own connected Risewell Homes mailbox using the Outlook and HubSpot Sales add-in routine in the Outlook email guide, or call if the buyer left a number and the inquiry warrants it. Personalize the message to what they actually asked about.

A sequence is timed one-to-one sales follow-up sent through your connected personal inbox, not a marketing blast. It needs a connected inbox, access to that sequence, the Sequences and Communicate permissions, and a Sales or Service seat on Professional or Enterprise; a contact can be in only one sequence at a time.

Do not treat a new inquiry as permission for bulk marketing. HubSpot requires verifiable permission for marketing emails, while its documentation does allow a one-to-one introductory email without marketing opt-in. If Risewell Homes requires consent before any follow-up, that is an Risewell Homes safeguard on top of HubSpot's rules — check consent, subscription restrictions and applicable privacy requirements before enrolling anyone in a campaign.

Step 5

Log what actually happened

Record the conversation on the contact with the matching activity: Note for what you learned, Log call for a call you made outside HubSpot, Log email or Log meeting where those apply. Log call records a finished conversation; the call icon is the one that places a new call.

Keep it factual — what was discussed, what the buyer is interested in, what you agreed next. If the call came from a shared number or a colleague, say who handled it rather than logging it as your own.

Step 6

Set the next action

Click Task on the record and set a Title, Type, Due date and Assigned to, with a Reminder if a nudge helps. Make sure the contact is associated, or the task will not appear on the timeline.

Click Meeting to book the next appointment. With an integrated Google Calendar or Office 365 calendar, HubSpot sends the calendar invitations to attendees; without a connected calendar the scheduling page runs in offline mode and requests are not added to a calendar automatically.

Step 7

Show where the buyer stands

Lifecycle stage describes where someone sits in the relationship — the documented defaults include Lead, Marketing Qualified Lead, Sales Qualified Lead, Opportunity and Customer. HubSpot defines Sales Qualified Lead as qualified by sales as a potential customer, and Opportunity as associated with a deal.

Lead Status is used for substages within Sales Qualified Lead. Use only the options actually configured in Risewell Homes' portal — the reviewed official documentation does not publish a current default option list, so nothing here should be read as Risewell Homes' own set.

Deal stages are a different thing: they track an opportunity through a deal pipeline, not the contact's overall relationship. A contact can be a Sales Qualified Lead with no deal at all. Do not move a deal stage to signal that you have simply spoken to someone.

Lifecycle stage and Lead Status describe the person. Deal stage describes an opportunity. Keep them separate.

Step 8

Create a deal only once the buyer is genuinely qualified

When the buyer is a real opportunity, go to More → CRM → Deals (or CRM → Deals), use the table view's Add → Create new, enter the required values and associate the buyer. Use Risewell Homes' approved pipeline and stage rather than inventing one.

Treat “qualified” as an Risewell Homes judgement, not a HubSpot rule — HubSpot will let you create a deal at any point. If you are unsure whether someone has reached it, keep the contact as a lead with a follow-up task and ask your manager.

Step 9

Know which notifications you can rely on

Set your own alerts under Settings → Notifications → Email & Desktop: find Form submissions, choose the notification types you want and Save. General user notifications also cover events such as record assignment.

On the form itself, the current editor path is Marketing → Forms → Edit → settings icon → Submission settings → Real-time submission notifications, where you can Notify contact owner and Add users to notify, then Review and update. Naming specific people or a team matters: owner-only notification misses every contact that has no owner. Editing form recipients needs the Edit forms permission, and a page-level form module can override the form's own recipients.

A notification is not proof that ownership or routing is configured correctly — the saved view is still your safety net.