From Spreadsheets to Systems That Scale

Background

North American Thrombosis Forum (NATF) is a nonprofit medical education and advocacy organization dedicated to preventing and treating blood clotting disorders. NATF supports patients, educates healthcare providers, hosts clinician-led webinars and support groups, manages pharmaceutical sponsorship relationships, and runs outreach programs across North America.

Problem

NATF had been using HubSpot for some time, but the system had grown without the structure, governance, or automation needed to support its expanding programs, outreach, and funding activity.

• CRM data lacked consistency and governance. Contact records were missing standardized required fields, and the account had accumulated too many poorly organized custom properties that were not clearly documented or consistently used.
• Funding activity lacked pipeline visibility. Pharmaceutical sponsorship outreach and grant submissions were still being tracked in spreadsheets, while hundreds of HubSpot deal records sat untouched, improperly named, or disconnected from a clear process.
• Patient, event, and team workflows were too manual. Webinar registrations, support group communications, patient nurture, call tracking, follow-up tasks, and team training all depended too heavily on informal processes and individual knowledge.

Without a stronger HubSpot framework, NATF risked missed follow-ups, inconsistent patient communication, unclear sponsorship tracking, and growing operational strain as the organization expanded.

Solution

We rebuilt NATF’s HubSpot environment into a cleaner, more documented, and more automated system for CRM management, event registration, patient nurture, sponsorship tracking, and team enablement.

Part 1: CRM Structure, Data Governance, and Pipeline Visibility

• Standardized contact intake. Built a unified HubSpot contact intake form for conferences, calls, referrals, and other new contacts, with clearly defined required fields such as name, email, and audience type.
• Rebuilt the sponsorship and grant pipeline. Created a cleaner pipeline structure with consistent naming conventions, documented deal stages, and workflow triggers so NATF could track multiple sponsorship and grant opportunities more accurately.
• Improved call tracking and reporting. Built a dedicated call logging form for the outreach team, allowing call data to flow into structured HubSpot properties instead of disappearing into free-text notes.
• Imported historical outreach data. Migrated existing call records into HubSpot, including timestamps, proactive call flags, and multi-participant call details, giving leadership a more complete view of outreach history.

Part 2: Sales Accountability, Follow-Up Automation, and Referral Management

• Built unengaged contact lists by owner. Created filtered lists showing contacts with no logged call in the last 30, 60, or 120 days, giving each rep a simple way to identify who needed follow-up.
• Automated follow-up task creation. Configured workflows so that when a rep added a deal note, HubSpot prompted them to create and assign a follow-up task that surfaced in the rep’s Sales Workspace.
• Created pre-deal lead workflows. Built automation for contacts who had not yet entered a formal deal pipeline, including post-form-submission triggers and lead nurture sequences.
• Reduced missed handoffs. Added structure around early-stage lead activity so newly engaged contacts could be tracked, nurtured, and followed up with more consistently.

Part 3: Event Automation, Patient Nurture, and Team Enablement

• Automated recurring event registration. Built workflows for NATF’s monthly Blood Clot Support Group, bimonthly CTEF Group, quarterly Ask the Expert webinar series, and Spanish-language support group.
• Moved registration into HubSpot. Replaced Zoom-native registration with HubSpot forms, using date-selection dropdowns to enroll contacts into the correct confirmation, reminder, and follow-up workflows.
• Launched the Newly Diagnosed Patient drip campaign. Activated and documented a multi-email nurture sequence for newly diagnosed patients, with timing and full email content preserved for review and future optimization.
• Delivered a HubSpot operating manual. Created a living reference document covering custom properties, workflows, pipeline stages, deal-stage automations, forms, confirmation pages, and team training resources.

Results

1. A cleaner, more usable HubSpot system. NATF moved from an undocumented and inconsistently maintained account to a structured CRM with clearer fields, cleaner processes, and a documented operating framework.
2. Reliable sponsorship and grant visibility. Leadership can now track pharmaceutical sponsor outreach, grant opportunities, deal stages, and funding activity through a more organized HubSpot pipeline.
3. Fully automated event registration and follow-up. Recurring webinars and support groups now have automated confirmations, reminders, start-time notifications, and post-event resource emails triggered from HubSpot forms. This covers 4 active programs supported by 12 workflow emails, and manual email outreach for event logistics has been eliminated.
4. Stronger outreach accountability. Reps can now see which contacts need follow-up, log calls in a structured format, and create assigned tasks directly from deal activity. Automated lists flag any prospect who has not been contacted in 30, 60, or 120 days, giving leadership a clear view of where outreach stands across the team.
5. Structured patient nurture from first contact. Newly diagnosed patients now enter an automated multi-touch drip sequence, ensuring that people who reach out to NATF receive timely follow-up. Touchpoints are built in at 60 days and 180 days so no patient falls through the cracks after that first contact.
6. Scalable infrastructure for a growing organization. With documented workflows, reusable templates, and a team training roadmap in place, NATF can onboard team members, launch new programs, and expand outreach without rebuilding from scratch.