The Leads Trap began with a seemingly simple database design decision: separating potential customers (“Leads”) from established relationships (“Contacts”). This wasn’t just a technical choice—it encoded industrial-age thinking about human relationships directly into the digital infrastructure of modern business.
The Core Problem
As George B. Thomas, the HubSpot Helper, captures it: “Calling humans leads is like calling your spouse a roommate. In some cases, that might be technically accurate, maybe, but it’s emotionally…not even good.”
How It Creates Friction
This artificial separation creates mounting friction:
Data Fragmentation:
- Same person exists in multiple system states
- Relationship history gets lost in “conversion”
- Constant reconciliation required
- Growing data quality issues
Process Dysfunction:
- Natural relationships forced into mechanical stages
- Artificial “conversion” process required
- Handoffs creating friction and loss
- People must adapt to system, not vice versa
Dehumanization:
- People reduced to database records
- Relationships treated as transactions
- Human complexity ignored
- Trust eroded through processing
Systemic Impact
The model has been replicated across the B2B technology landscape, embedding its limitations into marketing automation, sales enablement, and customer success platforms. The result is an entire ecosystem of tools and processes built around managing artificial complexity rather than enabling natural relationship development.
Growing Costs
As organizations scale:
- Data quality issues requiring constant cleaning
- Growing frustration from people in multiple system states
- Rising technical debt from workarounds
- Mounting administrative overhead
- Increasing complexity in reporting
Hidden Costs
Beyond technical challenges:
- Loss of relationship context during “conversion”
- Artificial barriers to natural development
- Growing skepticism from people tired of being processed
- Rising costs of complex systems
- Decreasing effectiveness of relationship-building
The Alternative: Value-First Humans
Rather than optimizing lead management:
- Enable natural relationship development without artificial stages
- Create unified views of people that evolve with relationship
- Build systems that support rather than restrict connection
- Measure relationship development instead of conversion metrics
- Allow value to flow freely between willing participants
Breaking Free
The path forward requires:
- Recognizing how systems fight against natural relationship patterns
- Identifying where artificial separation creates friction
- Reimagining technology to enable natural connection
- Building systems that support relationship development
- Creating conditions for authentic value flow
We use “Signal” when referring to indicators of interest or need, reserving “Lead” solely for technical discussions of the HubSpot object type.