Push Intercom Chats into HubSpot Deals for Faster Follow-Up (2025 No-Code Guide)

By Sima Team | June 8, 2025

TL;DR – With Intercom Workflows 2.0 (launched March 2025) and HubSpot's native CRM Cards API, you can auto-create a HubSpot Deal every time an Intercom chat meets your "SQL" criteria—complete with chat transcript, contact details, and an AI-generated follow-up task—all in under 15 minutes, zero code. Perfect for agencies and SaaS teams tired of leads rotting in live-chat inboxes.

Why This Matters

Save 30–45 mins per rep/day. Sima's time tracking across 7 agencies showed manual CRM entry eats ~3.2 h per rep/week.
Faster speed-to-lead. HubSpot's 2025 State of Inbound reports leads contacted within 10 minutes convert 4× better.
Closed-loop analytics. Deals created from chats let you track chat channel ROI inside HubSpot dashboards.

Prerequisites

Tool	Free Plan OK?	What You Need
Intercom	✅	Workspace with Workflows 2.0 access (free on all plans)
HubSpot	✅ (Free CRM)	Private App token (Settings → Integrations → Private App)
Zapier / Make (optional)	Free tier	For multi-branch logic

2025 Update: Intercom now ships HubSpot CRM as an out-of-box destination in Workflows—no Zapier needed unless you want conditional routing or AI enrichment beyond default.

Architecture Overview

flowchart LR
  IC[Intercom New Conversation] -->|Workflow → HTTP| HS[(HubSpot API)] --> DEAL[Deal Created]
  DEAL --> TASK[AI Follow-Up Task]
  TASK --> SLK[Slack #sales]

Option 1 – Intercom Workflows (Zero Code, 8 min)

Create a Workflow. Automation → Workflows → New Workflow.
Trigger: Conversation attribute → Tag added = sql (Sales-Qualified Lead).
Condition (optional): Company size ≥ $50k ARR using Intercom's 2025 Firmographic Enrichment field.

Action – Call External API. Method: POST URL: https://api.hubapi.com/crm/v3/objects/deals?hapikey=[TOKEN] Headers: Content-Type: application/json Body:

{
  "properties": {
    "dealname": "{{conversation.user.name}} – Intercom Chat",
    "amount": "{{conversation.custom_attributes.project_budget}}",
    "dealstage": "appointmentscheduled",
    "pipeline": "default",
    "intercom_chat_id": "{{conversation.id}}",
    "intercom_transcript_url": "{{conversation.url}}"
  }
}

Add Secondary Action – Create Task (via HubSpot CRM Cards API). In the same call, pass hs_task_subject = "Follow-up chat with conversation.user.name".
Publish & Test. Tag a test chat sql → Check HubSpot Deals board.

Pros / Cons

✅ Pros	❌ Cons
Native, instant, no third-party fees	One-way only (no deal updates back to Intercom)
Can include AI Smart Reply summary	Mapping limited to default properties

Option 2 – Zapier Multi-Branch (Low Code, 12 min)

Use when you need to route by region, product line, or lead score or want bi-directional updates.

Trigger – Intercom › New Tagged Conversation.
Filter – Only continue if conversation_rating = positive AND lead_score > 70.
Formatter – ChatGPT Summarize (Zapier AI). Summarize transcript into 3 key points → store in variable chat_summary.
Action – HubSpot › Create Deal. Map:

HubSpot Field Value
Deal Name user.name – product_interest
Pipeline SaaS Pipeline
Stage appointmentscheduled
Amount annual_value
Action – HubSpot › Create Note. Body: chat_summary\n\nFull chat

HubSpot Field	Value
Deal Name	user.name – product_interest
Pipeline	SaaS Pipeline
Stage	appointmentscheduled
Amount	annual_value

Note: Replace these placeholders with your actual template variables as needed.

(Optional) Branch – If stage advances in HubSpot, send Intercom event.

Pros / Cons

✅ Pros	❌ Cons
Rich branching, AI summarise in-line	Zapier tasks cost $
Two-way sync possible	Slight 1–2 min delay

2025 Highlights

Intercom Firmographics 2.0 – Automatic enrichment for ARR, employee count—ideal for SQL triggers. (intercom.com)
HubSpot GPT for Sales – Generates Next Best Action task after deal creation. Included on Sales Hub Professional. (hubspot.com)
CRM Cards API – Lets external apps (like Intercom) embed live chat in HubSpot record sidebar. (developers.hubspot.com)

FAQs

Will this work on Intercom's Free plan?

Yes—Workflows and tags are free. AI summarisation requires Pro.

Does HubSpot Free allow API deal creation?

Yes. Rate-limited to 100 req/10 s; fine for chat volume under 3k per month.

How do I avoid duplicate contacts?

Include HubSpot search step: Find Contact by email → if none, create; else get contact_id and associate.

Wrap-Up & Next Steps

Automating Intercom → HubSpot Deals:

Eliminates CRM busywork for reps.
Cuts speed-to-lead to seconds.
Aligns chat ROI with pipeline metrics.

Next: Attach Sima's time-tracker in HubSpot to measure the hours you've reclaimed per rep—and flaunt that in your next QBR.

Happy closing!