Most sales teams fail due to bad timing.
You have the perfect product. Your pitch is flawless. But you reach out a week too late, or a month too early.
The prospect isn’t ready, or worse, they just signed a contract with your competitor.
Imagine knowing exactly when a target account hires a new executive or secures funding. That is the moment they are ready to buy.
HubSpot just released two massive updates that solve this problem: Company News Signals and Snooze Tickets.
These aren’t just “nice-to-have” features. They are fundamental shifts in how you optimise your sales revenue and streamline your support processes.
Let’s break down how these tools can improve your margins and save your team hours of wasted effort.
Key Takeaways
- Timing beats talent: Reaching out immediately after a “trigger event” (like funding or a merger) significantly increases your conversion rate.
- Consolidation saves margin: HubSpot’s new signals replace expensive third-party sales intelligence tools, lowering your tech stack costs.
- Focus drives retention: The new “Snooze Tickets” feature stops support agents from drowning in clutter, leading to faster resolutions and happier customers.
- Actionable intel: You can now automate outreach based on news signals directly within your CRM, removing manual research.
The Problem: Flying Blind in Sales and Support
We have all been there.
Your sales team is making hundreds of calls. They are sending thousands of emails. But response rates are low.
Why? Because they are guessing. They are reaching out based on a static list, not dynamic behaviour.
On the support side, the chaos is different but equally damaging. High-volume periods bury critical issues. Agents lose track of tickets because their inbox is a mess of “waiting on customer” and “urgent” tasks.
HubSpot’s latest update tackles both problems head-on.
Feature 1: Company News Signals for Buyer Intent
This is the big one for revenue teams.
HubSpot has introduced Company News Signals within its Buyer Intent tools.
Previously, you might have relied on external tools like ZoomInfo or Google Alerts to track what your prospects were doing. You would see a news alert, copy it, go to your CRM, find the contact, and then draft an email.
That friction kills speed. And in sales, speed is life.
With this update, HubSpot automatically flags critical “trigger events” directly on the company record timeline.
What Signals Does It Track?
- Leadership Changes: A new CMO or CTO often means a new budget and a mandate to buy new tools.
- Funding Rounds: If a startup just raised Series B, they have cash to spend.
- Mergers and Acquisitions: M&A activity creates chaos, and chaos requires solutions (like yours).
- Product Launches: New products mean new marketing and operational needs.
How This Optimises Your Revenue
Think about the margin impact here.
If your sales rep spends two hours researching a company only to find out they have a hiring freeze, that is wasted money.
With News Signals, the research is automatic. Your reps only engage when there is a high probability of conversion.
If you sell marketing services and a target account hires a new VP of Marketing, that is a signal. Your rep gets flagged. They send a personalised note congratulating the new hire.
That isn’t cold outreach. That is warm, contextual engagement.
By targeting prospects who are actively changing or growing, you shorten sales cycles. Shorter sales cycles mean lower acquisition costs and higher margins.
Feature 2: Snooze Tickets in Help Desk
Sales bring the revenue, but support keeps it.
If your churn rate is high, your sales team is just filling a leaky bucket.
HubSpot’s new Snooze Tickets feature might sound simple, but for a busy support team, it is a game-changer for process optimisation.
The Problem with “Open” Tickets
In a standard help desk, a ticket sits in the “open” queue until it is resolved.
But what if you are waiting for a customer to reply? What if you need to wait for a bug fix that ships next Tuesday?
The ticket sits there. It clutters the view. It stresses out the agent.
When agents are overwhelmed by visual clutter, they make mistakes. They miss the urgent tickets because they are staring at 50 tickets stuck in limbo.
How Snooze Optimises Process
With Snooze Tickets, an agent can temporarily hide a ticket from their view until a specific condition is met.
- Snooze until reply: The ticket disappears until the customer replies.
- Snooze until date: The ticket will reappear on Monday morning, when the dev team is back online.
This allows your team to practise Inbox Zero principles.
They only see what they can act on right now.
This focus results in faster First Response Times (FRT) for active issues. Faster responses lead to higher Net Promoter Scores (NPS). High NPS correlates directly with customer retention.
You are optimising your support labour costs by removing the cognitive load of managing a messy inbox.
How to Implement This Today
You do not need a complex consulting engagement to enable these. You just need a process.
For Sales Leaders:
- Audit your target accounts: In HubSpot, ensure your key accounts are set to ‘Track’.
- Build lists: Create dynamic lists based on News Signals. For example, “Target Accounts with Recent Funding”.
- Train your reps: Tell them to stop cold-calling generic lists. Have them start their day by checking the News Signals feed. The first hour of their day should be spent contacting companies with active triggers.
For Support Leaders:
- Define “Snooze” rules: Don’t let agents snooze difficult tickets just to avoid them. Set clear guidelines. Only snooze if you are waiting on a third party.
- Monitor the Snoozed folder: Ensure tickets aren’t dying there. Set automations to reopen tickets if they have been snoozed for too long.
Integrating Sales and Support Data
The real power of HubSpot is that these two features live in the same ecosystem.
If a support agent sees a News Signal that a customer has just been acquired, they can flag it for the account manager. That support ticket isn’t just a technical issue anymore; it’s an upsell opportunity.
When you break down the silos between these teams, you stop leaking revenue.
FAQs
1. Which HubSpot edition do I need?
Company News Signals are generally included in the Sales Hub and Marketing Hub tiers, which support Buyer Intent data (Breeze Intelligence). Snooze Tickets are available in the Help Desk workspace and typically require Service Hub seats.
2. Can I automate emails based on News Signals?
Yes. You can use these signals as triggers in workflows. However, I recommend a manual review for high-value targets. An automated “Congrats on the funding” email often looks automated. A personal video or note works better.
3. Does Snooze affect my SLA reporting?
Generally, SLAs track response times. Snoozing is an internal view setting. Be careful not to snooze a ticket without a first response, as that could still breach your SLA. Ideally, reply first, then snooze.
Conclusion
Business optimisation isn’t always about massive restructuring.
Often, it’s about removing friction.
HubSpot’s ‘News Signals’ eliminates the friction of research for your sales team. ‘Snooze Tickets’ reduces clutter and friction for your support team.
When you remove friction, you move faster. And in today’s fast-paced environment, speed is everything.
Use these tools to stop guessing and start engaging when it matters most.
