topic Re: Looking for Feedback on DQ Lead Management in Tips, Tricks & Best Practices

Looking for Feedback on DQ Lead Management

Stacks42 — Tue, 23 Sep 2025 14:04:55 GMT

Hey everyone,

MY org has the following Lifecycle Stages in this order:
Undetermined
Lead
Marketing Qualified Lead
Sales Qualified Lead
Opportunity
Other
Customer

We also have Contact Types:
Customer of Product X
Customer of Prodyct Y
Vendor
Partner
Other, etc

We also use the lead record and lead stage to Disqualify leads. I am wondering if I should do something with the Lifecycle Stage and/or contact type when a lead is Disqualified. Does it make sense to move them into "Other" or a different lifecycle stage? What about removing prospect as a Contact Type and labeling them something else?? I am wondering how people are handling this. Could also just keep them where they are at and use the Lead Stage to segement. Maybe it only makes sense to change the Lifecycle and Contact Type if they will never buy?

Just looking for a good solution that makes sense for us.

Thanks!

Re: Looking for Feedback on DQ Lead Management

karstenkoehler — Tue, 23 Sep 2025 14:23:17 GMT

Hi @Stacks42,

There are different opinions on this – I prefer to keep records in the lifecycle stage that they're in currently (and not move them somewhere else when disqualified), for the sake of keeping funnel reports and in general lifecycle stage based reports functional. HubSpot automatically populates date information when a record enters a lifecycle stage and resetting the lifecycle stage does, at least according to tests I did a while ago, not reliably keep the date information.

HubSpot generally does not like records going back in their lifecycle stage. And personally, I think use a bucket like 'Other' does not necessarily yield any value in terms of analytics and reporting. Also, if they do re-qualify, they might have to move back in lifecycle stage – something that HubSpot does not like.

Instead, I prefer to think of the lifecycle stage as how far a contact has generally gotten.

Using disqualification properties (like the ones you mentioned), it's easy enough to (a) identify these contacts and (b) exclude contacts from reports by filtering for those disqualification properties. It would also keep all lifecycle stage reports functional and you wouldn't violate any HubSpot "rules".

Best regards!

Re: Looking for Feedback on DQ Lead Management

Stacks42 — Tue, 23 Sep 2025 14:31:44 GMT

Totally agree on the Lifecycle points that you made. What about the custom property "Contact Type" that we have? Keep as "Prospect", or make a new contact type? Mind you, we have it as a multi select pickist because they could have more than one contact type.

Re: Looking for Feedback on DQ Lead Management

karstenkoehler — Tue, 23 Sep 2025 14:54:35 GMT

@Stacks42 if the contact type is a field meant to document in which general "lane" a contact moves (e.g. direct sales, partner sales) or whether they're outside of these processes entirely (e.g. competitors, employees, journalists), then I would keep the contact type 'Prospect' for disqualified contacts. Unless they're disqualified because they're entirely outside of that process (competitor, journalists, applicants, students), they could still requalify and convert.

Re: Looking for Feedback on DQ Lead Management

owen_crm — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 19:28:32 GMT

This is exactly the pain point I keep seeing, routing logic living inside a giant workflow makes every small change risky. Have you looked at moving the assignment decision outside HubSpot (e.g. external routing layer that returns the owner)? Curious if anyone here has gone that route instead of marketplace apps.

Re: Looking for Feedback on DQ Lead Management

SamTassey — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 20:43:04 GMT

Hello @owen_crm,

Welcome to the Community!

I see that you're looking to solve for the same thing here, but are looking to avoid any automations. With that in mind, I'd like to tag in some of our Top Contributors to see if they have any tips and tricks on this!

Hi @kosalaindrasiri, @SteveHTM, @GRajput -- Do you have any suggestions for @owen_crm on any Marketplace integrations or external processes that could help manage this?

Thank you!

Sam, Community Manager

Re: Looking for Feedback on DQ Lead Management

Stacks42 — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 22:00:09 GMT

Woohoo!