Some accounts look fine in HubSpot until you zoom in and realise there’s only one contact holding the whole relationship together. Worse, that one person has unsubscribed, hard bounced, or is otherwise unreachable. Quietly brutal.

This hack builds a simple early warning system in HubSpot so sales and customer teams can spot fragile accounts early and rebuild relationships before revenue goes wobbly.

Why is this hack helpful?

This is one of those “marketing knows, sales does not” problems.

Email health signals like hard bounces and unsubscribes often live in marketing activity, but the impact is commercial. If the only contact at a company becomes unreachable, you can end up with:

  • Deals stalling with no clear reason
  • Renewals going dark
  • Accounts appearing “healthy” because the company record has no obvious red flags
  • Teams finding out too late, usually when the forecast is already on fire

This hack makes the risk:

  • Visible (flagged on the company record)
  • Actionable (tasks for the right owner)
  • Tracked over time (via an active list)

What you will build (overview)

You will create:

  1. An active list (or equivalent segment) that identifies companies where:

    • The company has only one associated contact
    • And that contact is unreachable (bounced, unsubscribed, or known email issue)
  2. A company-based workflow that enrols companies from that list and:

    • Creates a note on the company record explaining the risk
    • Escalates if there is an open deal (task to the deal owner)
    • Optionally flags the company or deal with an “at-risk” property for reporting

Steps to Set It Up

Step 1: Build an “At-Risk Account” active list

1) Create the list

    1. Go to Contacts → Lists
    2. Click Create list
    3. Choose Active list
  • Name it something obvious like: At-Risk Accounts | Single Contact Unreachable

2) Define your criteria (conceptually)

Your list needs to capture two ideas:

A. The company has only one associated contact

Depending on your HubSpot setup, you may need to use company properties, association criteria, or list logic that references associated contact counts. The goal is simple:

  • Company has 1 associated contact, not 0, not 2+

B. That one contact is unhealthy (unreachable)

Use contact email health signals you trust in your portal, for example:

  • Hard bounced
  • Unsubscribed
  • A known bounce reason (if you store this)

Keep the first version strict. You can loosen or expand later.

3) Why use a list for this

Because lists give you ongoing visibility:

  • You can track how many accounts are currently at risk
  • You can refine thresholds over time as your business matures
  • You can build dashboards around the list size and movement

Future-friendly adjustments you might add later:

  • Companies above a certain size must have 3+ contacts
  • Customers or strategic accounts use higher thresholds
  • Different criteria by lifecycle stage

Step 2: Trigger a workflow from the list

1) Create the workflow

  1. Go to Automations → Workflows
  2. Click Create workflow
  3. Choose Company-based workflow

2) Set enrolment trigger

Use the active list from Step 1 as the enrolment trigger.

Your workflow should enrol when:

  • Company is a member of At-Risk Accounts | Single Contact Unreachable

This means the workflow runs as soon as a company becomes at-risk.

3) Add a “create note” action for context

Add an action to create a note on the company record so the risk is obvious to anyone who opens it.

Note content example (copy-ready):

  • Why flagged: Company has only one associated contact
  • Risk: That contact is unsubscribed or has hard bounced (unreachable)
  • Next step: Add additional contacts at this company to reduce single-thread risk

Keep it plain and specific. The goal is “someone can act in 10 seconds”.

Step 3: Escalate if there is an open deal (or if this is a customer)

1) Add an if/then branch

Add a branch like:

  • If company has an open deal → escalate
  • If not → just leave the note (or notify a success queue, depending on your process)

2) Create a task for the deal owner

In the “open deal” branch, create a task assigned to the deal owner (or the account owner if that fits your setup better).

Task title ideas:

  • At-risk account: only contact unreachable
  • Deal risk: rebuild contacts at company

Task notes example: This deal is at risk. The only associated contact has unsubscribed or hard bounced. Please review and build relationships with additional contacts at the company.

This makes the risk:

  • Owned by the right person
  • Visible in task queues
  • Tied to the commercial impact, not just marketing activity

3) Customer escalation option

If you also want this for customers, add another branch based on lifecycle stage or account type (whatever you use internally), then:

  • Notify the customer owner
  • Create a renewal risk task
  • Or set an “At-Risk Account” property for reporting

Optional enhancements (worth doing if you want this to scale)

1) Add an “At-Risk Account” property on Company

Create a boolean or dropdown like:

  • At-Risk Account = Yes/No
  • Or Account Risk Level = Low/Medium/High

Then update it in the workflow. This makes it easier to report on risk beyond list membership.

2) Use different thresholds by segment

Examples:

  • SMB: minimum 2 contacts
  • Enterprise: minimum 5 contacts
  • Customers: stricter than prospects

3) Alert levels based on contact count

You can create tiers:

  • Red: 1 contact unreachable
  • Yellow: 2 contacts but both unsubscribed
  • Green: 3+ contacts with at least one reachable

4) Apply across Sales and Service

Same concept works for:

  • Sales deals (pipeline risk)
  • Service accounts (support relationship risk)
  • Renewals (if your process uses deals for renewals)

Wrapping Up

This hack connects the dots between:

  • Marketing signals (bounces, unsubscribes)
  • Commercial reality (single-thread relationships)

It surfaces risk early, prevents deals failing silently, and nudges teams towards multi-threading. Simple, scalable, and very “why did we not do this sooner?”

If an account has one contact and that person is unreachable, you do not have a relationship, you have a single point of failure. This setup helps you catch that early, flag it clearly in HubSpot, and put an owner on fixing it.

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Happy HubSpotting!