Lesson 2 of 6 • 10 min read • Beginner

Contacts & People

Your relationships are everything. Learn how contacts migrate and why preserving their connections matters.

Your Most Important Asset

Companies are the foundation, but contacts are your relationships. Every email, call, meeting, and deal ties back to individual people. When you transfer HubSpot contacts to Salesforce, you're not just moving names and emails—you're preserving your entire relationship history.

What Contact Data Transfers?

Basic Information
First name, last name, email, phone, job title, department
Contact Owner
Who on your team owns this relationship
Lifecycle Stage
Subscriber, Lead, MQL, SQL, Opportunity, Customer, Evangelist
Company Association
Which account (company) they work for
Communication Preferences
Email opt-out status, subscription preferences, GDPR consent
Custom Properties
Every custom contact field you've created
Social Profiles
LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social media links
Lead Source
How they originally found you

Contact-Account Relationships

The Key Difference

In HubSpot

A contact can be associated with multiple companies. John might work at Acme Corp but also be associated with Partner Co.

In Salesforce

Each contact has one primary account (their main company). Additional relationships use "Account Contact Relationships."

How We Handle It

  • →The contact's primary company in HubSpot becomes their primary account in Salesforce
  • →Additional associated companies become Account Contact Relationships
  • →All relationships are preserved—nothing is lost

Email Opt-Out & Compliance

Critical for Compliance

This is non-negotiable. We preserve every communication preference to keep you compliant with:

  • Email opt-out status – If someone unsubscribed in HubSpot, they stay unsubscribed in Salesforce
  • Subscription preferences – Which email types they've opted into or out of
  • GDPR consent records – Legal basis for processing their data
  • Do-not-call flags – Phone communication preferences

Lifecycle Stage Mapping

HubSpot's lifecycle stages map to Salesforce lead and contact statuses. Here's how:

HubSpot StageSalesforce Mapping
SubscriberContact (Status: Subscriber)
LeadLead or Contact
Marketing Qualified LeadLead (Status: MQL)
Sales Qualified LeadLead (Status: SQL)
OpportunityContact (with Opportunity)
CustomerContact (Status: Customer)
EvangelistContact (Status: Advocate)

Key Takeaways

  • Contacts migrate after accounts (they need a company to link to)
  • All contact data transfers: basic info, custom fields, lifecycle stage, everything
  • Multiple company associations are preserved using Account Contact Relationships
  • Email opt-out and compliance data is critical and fully preserved