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by Lauren Ryan on February 2023
The HubSpot Salesforce integration offers two ways to control the flow of data between HubSpot and Salesforce. You can implement selective sync in Salesforce to limit data from Salesforce to HubSpot. Or, you can implement an inclusion list to limit data from HubSpot to Salesforce.
What is an Inclusion List?
An inclusion list for the HubSpot Salesforce integration determines which contacts can sync from HubSpot to Salesforce. The inclusion list is the drawbridge between HubSpot and Salesforce. The criteria in the active list used as the inclusion list determines what allows the drawbridge to open.
Am I Using an Inclusion List?
To find out if you’re using an inclusion list with the HubSpot Salesforce integration, navigate to Settings > Connected Apps > Salesforce > Sync Settings > HubSpot to Salesforce.
Under Limiting what syncs, you’ll either see the name of the inclusion list with the option to “View list” or you’ll see “Select an inclusion list”. If you see the name of a list, you’re using an inclusion list!
What Should Be Included in an Inclusion List?
This varies by company. But, a good rule of thumb is to ask your sales team when they’d like to receive leads from marketing. Some sales teams will want to see every new contact that comes into the database while others prefer to only see marketing qualified leads that are sales-ready. If your team wants to see (or report on) every contact, qualified or not, do not use an inclusion list.
If you’d like to only sync sales-ready contacts to Salesforce, create an inclusion list that only syncs contacts that meet your criteria for sales readiness.
How to Create an Inclusion List for the HubSpot Salesforce Integration
An inclusion list is an active list in HubSpot. To create an inclusion list, you’ll start like you would with any other active list. Navigate to Contacts > Lists > Create List. Select Contact-based and Active list. Name the list so it will be easily identified as the inclusion list and click Next.
The basic criteria we recommend including are:
- Lifecycle stage = Marketing Qualified Lead, Sales Qualified Lead, Opportunity, or Customer
- Salesforce contact ID is known
These criteria ensure that only sales-ready leads are synced from HubSpot to Salesforce and that leads or contacts already in Salesforce stay in sync with HubSpot even if the Lifecycle Stage criteria isn’t met.
Once the inclusion list is created, navigate back to the Salesforce integration settings and choose the inclusion list under the Limiting what syncs section.
Learn More About the HubSpot Salesforce Integration
Once you have your inclusion list in place, it’s time to master the full integration. But, technical resources like this one are scarce. That’s why we created our HubSpot Salesforce integration course. The course deep-dives into all aspects of the integration with 8 modules worth of content.
Register for the course and browse our library of video how-tos.