How to Build a Unified Customer View (That Actually Works)

Most companies agree that having a “unified customer view” is a great idea—but few can describe what it actually means, let alone achieve it. In this episode of Value First Measurement, Chris and Danielle unpack what it really takes to bridge legacy systems, break data silos, and create a connected, human-centered CRM strategy.

They walk through real examples inside HubSpot, discuss how to track co-created content as part of the customer journey, and explore how teams can use data models, lifecycle stages, and events to bring a 360° relationship view to life.

What You’ll Learn

• Why a unified customer view is the ultimate goal—and what it really means.

• How to capture relationship data across sales, marketing, and co-created content.

• The difference between lifecycle stages, deal stages, and lead objects in HubSpot.

• How to track adoption, advocacy, and evangelism—not just transactions.

• How to design CRM data models that reflect real human relationships.

• Why context and culture matter more than dashboards when transforming data.

In This Episode, We Cover

• 00:00 — Setting the stage: Why unified customer views matter.

• 02:45 — Defining “complete picture” and “across all touchpoints.”

• 06:00 — Using co-created content as a key relationship signal.

• 10:15 — Mapping new lifecycle and adoption stages in HubSpot.

• 15:00 — Visualizing the data model: leads, deals, and company objects.

• 20:00 — Using HubSpot views and workspaces for better alignment.

• 27:00 — The power of scoring, custom events, and behavioral signals.

• 33:00 — Building trust, measuring relationships, and flipping attribution.

• 38:00 — Why culture—not tools—is the hardest part of transformation.

Tools and Ideas Referenced

• HubSpot CRM — for lifecycle stages, data modeling, and workspace customization.

• Miro — for mapping buyer journeys and visualizing connected systems.

• AI-driven scoring tools — for tracking champion and co-creation signals.

• Custom events and objects — for capturing nontraditional relationship data.

• Value Path framework — Chris’s approach to mapping the value-first journey.

Key Takeaways

• A unified view isn’t a dashboard—it’s a mindset shift toward relationships over records.

• Co-created content, community engagement, and adoption signals all reveal value creation.

• HubSpot’s flexibility allows for modeling nearly any type of collaboration—if you design it intentionally.

• Alignment comes from plain language, not complex attribution.

• Culture change is the real unlock: systems follow when humans align.

Transcript

Chris:
Good morning and good afternoon, LinkedIn friends, Value First Nation. Welcome to another episode of Value First Measurement with Danielle Urban. Happy Monday, Danielle.

Danielle:
Happy Monday. Indeed, I'm excited to start to get into how we implement the world that we have been talking about. And we are going to dive right in today because we know that this stuff resonates with a lot of people, but it's very, very difficult to see existing systems and understand how in the world we can transition, transform, bridge, whatever you want to call it. And I'm going to show a little bit about what the end game, I think, could and should look like.

Chris:
And then we're going to do some mapping, maybe a little role playing with Danielle to think about how this might transpire against all the old ways. Let's just say that we can get people on board with the fact that having a unified customer view is a good idea. That's an understanding and a goal that I like to align on first because it's usually an easy win as far as we're all saying yes, we're all aligned. But also it happens to be one of the best goals I think a business could achieve.

But what does unified customer view even mean to most businesses? What does complete picture mean? What does across all touchpoints mean? This is a little bit about what we're going to get into and what we've been talking about for a while. It's creating the space to actually understand the entire picture all the way down to…

So let's say I was coming to Danielle for help and say, hey, I see this—either I see this new tool available or I've been playing with live coding and it looks like AI can help us just see all this stuff now. So I want to do that for my business. And you see the entire journey here from May to October, going from audience champion, all the value path stages in there.

And this is where it gets interesting—relationship timeline. What do we actually care about as a business? If you know me, I'm very interested in co-creation of content with other people to build relationships. So this is a new learning environment I've been working on in the last 24 hours. And the goal is just to help envision what success could look like and why you might want it, right?

So all the key insights and signals that we've been talking about—like imagine a world which could exist in HubSpot where you can see the content that you're creating with your relationships with your contacts right next to their relationship with you as a business. We have case studies here; we can do case studies down in HubSpot alongside the usual calls and meetings.

Right, so I tell you I want to track all of that. What do you tell me?

Danielle:
Anything's possible. That's always the answer. It depends. We can, but it depends. But I think this is a really interesting representation to think about because it's very parallel to the sort of bow tie that everybody's all excited about, where you have the buyer's funnel and then the land-and-expand side of it.

Because when you actually get to that evangelist stage—as HubSpot has always had parked in their lifecycle stages that no one uses effectively—that co-creation of content is evangelizing. That is the ultimate point that you want to get to.

And the system that you're running out of the box with HubSpot is not really designed to support that. We've got a lot of tools in there, but the actual tracking of that is a little bit more challenging, especially when that could potentially come before a sale.

So like, if you and I are working together—we’re producing this every week—but we haven’t exchanged dollars ever, but someday we could. So figuring out how to track all that in one place? Totally possible. Let’s figure it out.

Chris:
Yes. I’m going to show one more example as you pull up your Miro and me.

Danielle:
I've got it up. I'm so ready for this.

Chris:
Start to dig in. Because this is one of those benefits of selling marketing and transformation to other people who are doing it. I'm having some fun with this new Value First team website, which came together over the last 24 hours.

So Value Path is my interpretation of a very buyer-centric, customer-centric, human-centric way of looking at the journey. And the breakout of these stages often challenges convention.

The way we’ve always looked at it in HubSpot is: you’ve had “value creators” replacing the customer stage, and then it goes right to evangelists or champions. In most portals now.

Had a good chat with Tony this morning about “adopter.” Since we don’t break that out, we assume “they’re using it, so clearly adoption has happened.” But maybe they don’t like “adopter.” We’re breaking that out because when they realize value, that’s different behavior than just logging in and clicking activities.

So now what we’re talking about in terms of strategy plus HubSpot data model—and what’s possible—is building out the website where readiness determines the kind of service or offering or relationship you’ll have.

Imagine a page that helps people find industry speaking opportunities or co-create Value First content. Maybe they want to do their own show. And with HubSpot’s new scoring tools, AI can look at engagement data and flag “champion” signals.

Danielle:
That’s very cool. I’m not very good at role-playing. I’m sorry. I’ve got to teach.

Chris:
That’s okay. We each have our strengths.

Danielle:
So I’ve got two tabs up. This conversation came from how I typically work in scoping calls—when we’re trying to move people toward this unified customer view.

I use a Miro map that’s public—anyone can copy it. It shows how lifecycle stages, deal stages, and lead stages connect inside HubSpot. It helps clients see how their system represents their business.

Because most people don’t know how it’s connected or what happens behind the scenes. I also show the data model—because HubSpot has more than contacts, companies, and deals. Newsflash! There’s courses, projects, listings, services—you can connect them all.

That’s how you accurately represent your business in a digital way—with all the pieces interconnected.

So when you think about the value-first model and having true relationships, how do you document that in a way that makes sense?

Chris:
Exactly.

Danielle:
The structure of record views, customizing layouts, creating workspaces—HubSpot gives you that flexibility if you have the data.

Even events: people want to manage those better. Because sales teams can hold context in their heads, but that doesn’t scale. We need to externalize it.

The only way to understand that unified view shouldn’t be “talk to the rep.”

Chris:
Yeah, not where we want to be.

Danielle:
There’s so much flexibility now. Let’s use your co-creation example—you’d track that separately from a buyer’s journey. Leads and deals for sales, lifecycle stages for relationships, and maybe a “content” or “webinar” object to track collaboration.

So if you and I co-create content, then I become a lead later, you already have all that context in your CRM.

Without that, the sales team loses all the tribal knowledge when handoffs happen.

Chris:
Exactly.

Danielle:
With context, a salesperson can see everything: all the topics, links, and projects. Then the sales cycle shortens dramatically. “Hey, Danielle, you’ve talked about these issues for a year—let’s fix them.”

Chris:
Yes. That’s the power of human context at scale.

Danielle:
And HubSpot lets you build this—you just have to design the objects and signals. Even custom events. Like, when someone tries a feature in Marketing Hub, that could trigger a lead or nurture flow for Content Hub.

That’s when selling becomes consultative, not quota-driven.

Chris:
Exactly.

Danielle:
It’s prescriptive, empathetic, and data-informed. But it takes work—pattern matching, signal design, and cultural alignment.

Chris:
Culture’s the hard part.

Danielle:
Always.

Chris:
That’s what we’ll keep building—plain language alignment that replaces attribution wars with shared value creation.

Danielle:
Yes.

Chris:
We’ll continue this journey next week. Thanks, Danielle.

Danielle:
Thanks, Chris.