Using Lead Status and Lifecycle Stage in HubSpot | Coastal Consulting

For people new to HubSpot’s CRM or who have undergone a HubSpot Salesforce integration, the lifecycle stage and lead status properties can often be confused or ignored. 

However, monitoring lead status and lifecycle stages is a critical aspect of managing a sales funnel and improving your sales results. 

Failure to leverage these fields also creates unnecessary friction in funnel reporting and content personalization.

This guide will teach you about the difference between HubSpot lead status and lifecycle stages and the recommended values for each property. We’ve also included recommendations to automate stage changes to optimize your sales enablement strategy.

What Are HubSpot Lifecycle Stages?

HubSpot lifecycle stages indicate the progression of a contact or company through your HubSpot sales funnel. 

The most common HubSpot lifecycle setup includes the following properties and stages:

• Subscriber = subscribed to the blog or newsletter
• Lead = a contact that has converted on more than a subscription sign-up (contact form, ebook download, etc)
• Marketing Qualified Lead = HubSpot Score reaches a certain number indicating qualification
• Sales Qualified Lead = sales team member has spoken with the contact and determined they are a good fit
• Opportunity = contact is associated with a deal
• Customer = contact is associated with a deal in the stage Closed Won
• Evangelist = customer that serves as a reference or promoter
• Other = None of the above fits, or we’ve spoken with them and decided they’re unqualified

Program automatic updates to determine where and how a contact or company will advance in your sales funnel. For example, downloading an ebook may push a marketing-qualified lead (MQL) into a sales-qualified lead (SQL) in the early stages of your engagement. 

What Is Lead Status in HubSpot?

In terms of lifecycle stages, lead status is a sub-stage of your MQL and SQL stages. In essence, lead status denotes what interactions a sales rep has had with qualified contacts who have interacted with your marketing or sales team.

Some of the most common properties associated with lead status include:

• New = All form submissions, inbound leads, and imported leads should be set to Lead Status = New
• In Progress = set when the sales team has qualified the lead and is preparing to contact them (Lifecycle Stage = Sales Qualified Lead)
• Attempted to Contact = sales has sent a tracked email or enrolled them in a sequence and they haven’t responded or scheduled a meeting
• Connected = the lead has responded to a tracked email or sales is engaged in an ongoing conversation
• Open Deal = set when a deal has been created and associated with the contact (Lifecycle Stage = Opportunity)
• Unqualified = Sales has made contact and this contact is not currently qualified to continue (set manually)
  • We recommend adding an additional field for “Unqualified Reason”. This field serves a similar purpose to “Lost Reason” on the deal object. When the lead is moved to Lead Status = Unqualified, prompt the sales team to add a reason why in this dropdown field.
    • Can’t Fulfill Their Needs = they need features/services we can’t provide
    • Competitor = they’re a competitor looking for information on our offering
    • Not Interested | they may be a fit, but they don’t want to continue
    • Not a Fit - Never Will Be = they don’t meet our requirements for a strong customer and will never meet that profile
    • Not a Fit - Might Be in the Future = they’re not a good fit but they may be in the future
    • Not Ready = they’re a fit but the timing isn’t right
    • Not a Prospect = industry contacts, marketing inquiry, etc
• Lost = Deal Status = Closed Lost
• Won = Deal Status = Closed Won

For example, a lead that is qualified by your marketing team and reaches the MQL stage may be labeled as “Open” to indicate further follow-up. Once they advance to the last stage of your sales funnel (i.e., lifecycle stages), they will be closed out and labeled as “Lost” or “Won” depending on whether they become a customer or not. 

The Importance of Lead Status in HubSpot

Monitoring contacts strictly using the lifecycle stage property does not give your sales and marketing team enough information to execute a preferred strategy. 

Depending on how they are collected, both hot and cold leads may be qualified, but that doesn’t mean every lead warrants the same follow-up. Without providing a second layer of information to denote how warm a lead is, the sales team cannot distinguish which leads are ripe and which are not. 

In turn, lead status helps streamline communication between your marketing and sales teams and allows the latter to prioritize leads based on which are most likely to convert. 

What’s the Difference Between Lifecycle Stages and Lead Status in HubSpot?

HubSpot lifecycle stages are the overall stages of interaction any contact or company will have with your business. For qualified leads in the SQL stage, the lead status property will denote different interactions the sales team has had with that lead. 

For example, a contact in the SQL stage may be labeled as “Attempted to Contact” if they have received a phone call or email from your sales team and not responded. 

For an easy summary, think of lifecycle stages and lead status as follows:

Lifecycle Stage - determines the overall funnel progression of a contact or company in your CRM.

Lead Status - indicates a qualified lead’s progression from sales-qualified to customer.

There are similar differences between Salesforce lead status and lead stages, which is why it’s essential to understand how to ​​integrate HubSpot lifecycle stages with Salesforce.

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FAQs: HubSpot Lead Status vs. Lifecycle Stages

How can I customize lifecycle stages and lead status properties to fit my business needs?

In HubSpot, you can customize lifecycle stages and lead status properties by navigating to your settings and adjusting the predefined options to align with your specific sales and marketing processes. You can create custom lifecycle stages and lead statuses tailored to your business requirements.

What are some common challenges in managing lifecycle stage and lead status data?

Common challenges include maintaining data accuracy, ensuring consistency in updating lead statuses, and effectively aligning lifecycle stages with lead status definitions. Additionally, managing large volumes of leads and keeping track of their progression through the funnel can pose logistical challenges.

How often should I update lead status in HubSpot?

The frequency of updating lead status depends on your sales and marketing processes and the level of engagement with your leads. It's advisable to update lead status promptly after each significant interaction or milestone in the buyer's journey to ensure accurate tracking and effective follow-up.