Picture this: You're building a workflow in HubSpot CRM. You need to branch based on postcodes, countries, or maybe job titles. Sounds simple enough, right?
Wrong.
You quickly realize you need to manually type in every. Single. Value. One by one. Click, type, click, type, repeat until your fingers cramp and your soul leaves your body. If you're dealing with hundreds of postcodes or a lengthy list of countries, you might as well clear your calendar for the next three hours.
We've all been there. The tedium is real. The existential dread? Even more real.
But here's the thing: there's a better way. A loophole, if you will. A delightfully simple workaround that'll have you wondering why HubSpot doesn't just plaster this trick on billboards.
Here's the game plan in three gloriously simple steps:
Create a new spreadsheet and get all those values you need: postcodes, countries, job titles, trigger words, you name it - listed out in separate cells down a single column.
For example, if you're working with postcodes:
Cell A1: SW1A 1AA
Cell A2: M1 1AE
Cell A3: B1 1BA
Cell A4: EH1 1YZ
Easy peasy. Just list them vertically, one after another. This is the foundation of our little hack, so take your time getting all your values organised here.
Here's where the magic happens. In the column right next to your list (let's call it Column B), add a semicolon (;) in each corresponding cell.
So your spreadsheet should now look like this:
Cell A1: SW1A 1AA | Cell B1: ;
Cell A2: M1 1AE | Cell B2: ;
Cell A3: B1 1BA | Cell B3: ;
Cell A4: EH1 1YZ | Cell B4: ;
That tiny punctuation mark is your golden ticket. It's what tells HubSpot, "Hey, these are separate values, treat them as such." Simple, but absolutely crucial.
Now comes the satisfying part. Select both columns - all your values AND all those semicolons and copy them. Head over to your HubSpot workflow, navigate to your if/then branch, and paste the whole thing directly into the field where you'd normally be typing values one at a time.
Boom. đŸ’¥
HubSpot will automatically recognise each value as separate, creating individual branch options without you having to manually enter a single one. It's like having a personal assistant, except you don't have to share your coffee with them.
Still not convinced? Let me paint you a picture of how this workflow wizardry can transform your HubSpot game:
Got sales reps covering different territories? Route MQLs (Marketing Qualified Leads) to the right person based on postcode or region instantly. No more "Sorry, wrong rep" shuffle. No more leads going cold because they sat in limbo. Just smooth, efficient routing that makes your sales team look like the well-oiled machine they are.
Use this hack to bulk-add every postcode in each rep's territory. Done in seconds instead of hours.
If you're using a free-text field for job titles (we see you, we get it), you know how chaotic that data can get. "CEO," "Chief Executive Officer," "Managing Director," "Head Honcho", they're all the same thing, but your CRM doesn't know that.
Use this hack to create branches for all possible job title variations and map them to the correct buyer persona. Your marketing team will love you. Your reporting will actually make sense. It's a win-win.
Someone fills out your enquiry form and mentions they're in "hospitality"? That's your cue to send them industry-specific nurture emails. But what if they said "hotel management," "restaurant business," or "food service" instead?
Bulk-paste all those synonyms and trigger words into a workflow branch, and boom, you've got intelligent nurture campaigns that adapt to what your prospects actually care about. No more one-size-fits-all emails that fall flat.
Look, we could all use more hours in the day. But beyond just saving time, this hack lets you:
Build more sophisticated workflows without the barrier of tedious manual entry
Reduce human error (because let's face it, typos happen when you're entering your 47th postcode)
Iterate faster on your CRM strategy
Actually enjoy building workflows instead of dreading them
It's the difference between spending your afternoon copying and pasting (the good kind) versus clicking and typing until your eyes glaze over (the bad kind).
Is this the most glamorous hack you'll learn today? Probably not. Will it save you countless hours and make your workflow builds infinitely more manageable? Absolutely.
So go forth, spreadsheet warrior. Copy, paste, and conquer those multi-value fields like the CRM champion you were born to be.
Pro tip: Bookmark this page. Trust us, you'll want to reference this the next time you're staring down a workflow build that involves more than a handful of values. And when your colleague asks how you built that complex workflow so fast? Feel free to drop this knowledge bomb on them.
Sharing is caring, after all. đŸ˜‰