Conturs vs HubSpot Native Lead Scoring: Which One Actually Works?

The Problem With HubSpot Native Lead Scoring

HubSpot is an incredible CRM. But its native lead scoring has a fundamental limitation: it is entirely rule-based. You manually define conditions like "Job title contains VP = +10 points" or "Company size 50-200 = +15 points" and hope the rules capture your ICP accurately.

For teams that have outgrown manual scoring, this creates real problems. Rules are fragile, subjective, and impossible to maintain as your ICP evolves. This article breaks down exactly where HubSpot scoring falls short and how Conturs fills the gap.

How HubSpot Lead Scoring Works

HubSpot offers two scoring approaches:

Manual Scoring (All Plans)

You create rules based on contact properties, company properties, and behavioral events. Each rule adds or subtracts points. The total becomes the HubSpot Score.

• Job title contains "VP" or "Director" = +10

• Industry is "SaaS" or "Technology" = +8

• Company size 50-500 = +12

• Visited pricing page = +15

• Unsubscribed from emails = -20

Predictive Lead Scoring (Enterprise Only)

HubSpot Enterprise includes a machine learning model that analyzes historical data to predict conversion likelihood. It outputs a score from 0-100 with a "Very High / High / Medium / Low" tier label.

Where HubSpot Scoring Falls Short

1. Manual Rules Are Arbitrary

Why is a VP worth 10 points and not 15? Why is SaaS industry +8 instead of +12? These numbers come from gut feeling, not data. Two RevOps managers building the same scoring model will produce completely different scores.

2. Rules Don't Scale

As your customer base grows, your ICP becomes more nuanced. Maybe your best customers are Series B SaaS companies with 100-300 employees who use Slack and are hiring SDRs. Try encoding that into HubSpot rules. You end up with 30+ conditions that nobody understands or maintains.

3. Predictive Scoring Is a Black Box

HubSpot's predictive score tells you "this lead is High priority" but not why. Your sales rep sees a score of 74 and has no idea what drove it. Without reasoning, reps default to their own judgment and ignore the score entirely.

4. No Similarity Context

HubSpot scoring never tells you "this lead looks like Customer X." Similarity context is what makes scores actionable. A rep who knows a lead resembles their best closed deal can personalize outreach immediately.

5. Requires Constant Maintenance

Manual scoring rules need quarterly reviews. As your product evolves, your market shifts, and your customer base changes, yesterday's scoring rules become today's false signals.

How Conturs Scoring Works

Conturs takes a fundamentally different approach. Instead of manually defining what makes a good lead, it analyzes your actual closed-won customers and scores new leads by how similar they are to your best accounts.

Similarity-Based, Not Rule-Based

Conturs looks at hundreds of attributes across your customer base — company size, industry, tech stack, funding stage, growth signals, hiring patterns — and identifies the patterns that define your ideal customer. New leads are scored by how closely they match these patterns.

Fully Transparent

Every score comes with a complete explanation: which customers the lead is similar to, which attributes match, and how each factor contributes to the overall score. A rep sees: "87% match — similar to Acme Corp: both Series B SaaS, 150 employees, HubSpot user, hiring SDRs."

Self-Updating

As you close new deals, the model automatically incorporates the new data. No quarterly rule reviews. No manual recalibration. Your scoring evolves with your business.

Side-by-Side Comparison

Scoring Method

HubSpot: Manual if-then rules or black-box predictive AI. Conturs: Similarity matching against your actual customers.

Explainability

HubSpot: Manual rules are transparent but subjective. Predictive is opaque. Conturs: Full breakdown with similar customers, matching attributes, and factor-by-factor scoring.

Maintenance

HubSpot: Quarterly rule reviews required. Conturs: Self-updating as you close new deals.

Setup Time

HubSpot: Hours to days for manual rules. Weeks for predictive (needs historical data). Conturs: Minutes. Connect CRM, scores appear automatically.

Pricing

HubSpot: Manual scoring on Professional ($800/mo+). Predictive on Enterprise ($3,600/mo+). Conturs: Starts at $49/mo. Works with any HubSpot plan.

Data Required

HubSpot: Predictive needs significant closed-won history. Conturs: Works with as few as 20 customers.

When to Use HubSpot Native Scoring

HubSpot's built-in scoring still makes sense in specific scenarios:

• Simple ICP: If your ideal customer is defined by 3-5 clear attributes, manual rules work fine

• Behavioral triggers: For scoring based on website activity, email engagement, or form submissions, HubSpot's behavioral scoring is excellent

• Enterprise budget: If you already pay for HubSpot Enterprise and want a quick predictive score without additional tools

When to Add Conturs

Conturs becomes essential when:

• Your ICP is nuanced: Multiple segments, evolving criteria, pattern-based rather than rule-based

• Reps ignore scores: If sales doesn't trust or use the current scoring, transparency is the fix

• Rules keep breaking: If you rebuild scoring rules every quarter, automated similarity matching saves time

• You need similarity context: "This lead looks like your best customer" is more powerful than "Score: 74"

• Budget-conscious: Conturs at $49/mo vs HubSpot Enterprise at $3,600/mo for predictive

How They Work Together

Conturs is not a replacement for HubSpot — it is a scoring layer that plugs directly into your existing HubSpot setup:

• Conturs score syncs as a custom property on every contact

• Use HubSpot workflows to route leads based on Conturs score tiers

• Combine behavioral scoring (HubSpot) with fit scoring (Conturs) for the complete picture

• View similarity explanations directly in HubSpot contact records

The most effective setup uses both: HubSpot for behavioral engagement tracking, Conturs for ICP fit scoring. Together they answer both "Is this lead interested?" and "Is this lead a good fit?"

The Bottom Line

HubSpot is a world-class CRM. But lead scoring is not its strength. If your team has outgrown manual rules and needs transparent, data-driven scoring that sales actually trusts, Conturs fills exactly that gap — without replacing anything in your stack.