topic Lead Status Questions, Recommendations, and Best Practices in HubSpot in Tips, Tricks & Best Practices

Lead Status Questions, Recommendations, and Best Practices in HubSpot

LSunstrum — Tue, 21 Oct 2025 19:38:23 GMT

Hi there,

So on HubSpot it says lead status is a subset of SQL. However, why are the default lead statuses things like open deal? Wouldn't open deal mean the contact is an opportunity not an SQL? Am I wrong in thinking that open deal shouldn't be a default lead status?

What are the types of lead statuses you all use and what have been some best practises using them?

[Moderator Note: this post was reviewed for relevancy and optimized for clarity on October 21, 2025. Thank you for your contributions to the HubSpot Community!]

Re: Lead Status Questions & Recommendations

Jnix284 — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 00:09:36 GMT

Hi @LSunstrum I think the "Open Deal" status is there to show that the lead has moved out of the other statuses and is now being worked on the deal side. If it weren't there, you would need pretty complex filters to remove these from your working lead views.

@jolle any thoughts on how you recommend using the Open Deal lead status?

Re: Lead Status Questions & Recommendations

jolle — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 18:42:31 GMT

Hey @LSunstrum, good question! And thanks for the tag, @Jnix284 😄

Keep in mind that the default values from HubSpot won't match every use case. It's up to you define the contact types, lead statuses, and the like that best represent your business processes.

Also keep in mind that HubSpot has its own set of definitions, processes, and relationships that may be different than what you have in your business. Looking at the HubSpot Knowledge Base article that speaks to the "sub-stages" you mentioned, I agree that it's a little reduntant to have "Open Deal" as a status option for the "SQL" lifecycle stage since an open deal would mean that person is now an opportunity by HubSpot's definition ("a contact or company that is associated with a deal (e.g., they're involved in a potential deal with your organization).").

That said, don't get too caught up in the HubSpot defaults. You don't need to use the default properties or their default values if they don't work for you. You do have some limited options for changing the "Lifecycle sstage" and "Lead status" options, but you can also create your own custom properties that speak specifically to your business.

I usually recommend that clients set up the following custom properties:

Contact Type — dropdown property with "Prospect," "Current Client," "Former Client," "Vendor," etc. as values. This property lets you easily categorize contacts at a high level so that you know their exact business relationship to you
Contact Status — dropdown property (separate from "Lead status") with "New," "Contacting," "Unqualified," "Not Interested," "Bad Timing," and "Do Not Contact," etc. as values. This proeprty lets you track the prospect > MQL > SQL process leading up to when sales would create a deal for the contact
1. New = the lead has never been contacted
2. Contacting = sales rep outreach is in progress, but they haven't had a direct conversion yet
3. Unqualified = sales rep connected with the lead and determined that they're not fit to do business with (there's a bunch that you can build upon here, like "Unqualified reason" and automated value updates)
4. Not Interested = sales rep connected with the lead and determined that they're a decent fit, but the lead expressed that they aren't interested. They can be benched in HubSpot for a while if you feel it makes sense to follow up again in the future
5. Bad Timing = sales rep connected with the lead and determined that they're a decent fit, but the lead expressed that now is not the right time to do business. Having this category allows you to identify contacts that should receive ongoing nurturing (and your rep should also create a task to follow up within an appropriate timeframe)
6. Do Not Contact = sales rep connected with the lead and determined that they're a decent fit, but the lead explicitly requested not to be contacted again. These contacts should be unsubcsribed from all email and added to your opt-out list

Your mileage will vary of course, and you may have different internal names/definitions, more or less values, or entirely different properties that make the most sense to your business. Honestly, it's all pretty arbitrary — you just need to make sure that you're consistent and everyone on your team is following the same process.

These are just my thoughts, though! You may have a really good reason to use "Lifecycle stage" or may have other specific reporting needs that require you to track other updates, but the above framework works pretty well for my small/mid-size B2B and B2C clients.

Hope this helps!!

Re: Lead Status Questions & Recommendations

Jnix284 — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 19:14:59 GMT

amazing @jolle , thanks for sharing your expertise! It's been a long time since I've worked on a sales process for leads/deals, so this was really helpful to get caught up on the changes and best practices!

Re: Lead Status Questions & Recommendations

franksteiner79 — Thu, 26 Jan 2023 09:04:57 GMT

Hi @LSunstrum

I tried to illustrate the relationship between Lead Status, Lifecycle Stage and Deal Stages in this Community AMA. I would agree with @Jnix284 that "open deal" is a sort final stage of the lead status, and normally something that would turn the contact's lifecycle stage from an SQL into an Opportunity.

Depending on your sales process and what you are selling, "open deal" could be set by a workflow for asscoiated contacts as soon as a deal is created. Then the next question is, would want to this happen for all future deals / repeat deals?

I would also 100% agree with @jolle's point about the need for consistency. Both the lead status property in particular and how it relates to or feeds off other default and custom properies is very customisable. As long as you have a defined process, and the necessary enablement for sales reps, you can do whatever you want, i.e. drop "open deal" completely if you think it's of no use to your process.

Re: Lead Status Questions & Recommendations

Jnix284 — Thu, 26 Jan 2023 14:20:48 GMT

good call on the automation for status changes @franksteiner79 , definitely want to remove as much friction with manual updates as possible, regardless how you customize the property values. 🙌

Re: Lead Status Questions & Recommendations

DVu3 — Thu, 18 Jan 2024 09:38:36 GMT

Hi my Dears,

I find your question quite intriguing. I'm also eager to incorporate more Life Cycle Phases and Lead Statuses into my sales process, but I often find myself confused about the correct way to utilize them. I was hoping you could provide some guidance on the following questions:

When should I use Life Cycle Phases, and when should I use Lead Statuses?
As far as I understand, Lead Status falls under the SQL phase, which means I should use Lead Status when my contact reaches the SQL stage, is that correct?
Should I apply the Life Cycle Phase to my contacts or my companies? I sell products to companies, but it's the individuals within those companies who make the purchase.

I appreciate your insights and thank you in advance for your responses.

PS: I think creating a HubSpot group on LinkedIn could be a great idea! It would provide a platform for HubSpot users and enthusiasts to connect, share insights, ask questions, and learn from each other. So why not ??

Re: Lead Status Questions & Recommendations

RubenBurdin — Fri, 05 Sep 2025 04:22:10 GMT

Hi @LSunstrum

In 2025 the conversation about “Open Deal” as a default lead status feels a bit outdated because HubSpot has pushed more flexibility into how lifecycle and lead status interact.

The defaults are still there, but teams today usually treat them as placeholders rather than gospel. Many orgs now rely on custom lead status values tied directly to their lifecycle stages, with automation moving contacts between them.

That way “Open Deal” doesn’t blur the line between SQL and Opportunity it simply becomes a workflow trigger when a deal is created, not a human-facing status.

Another shift in 2025 is that most sales ops teams build parallel “Contact Status” or “Engagement Status” properties. These properties are often better for SDR activity tracking, leaving Lead Status reserved for reporting at the SQL/opportunity handoff. It avoids the classic confusion of lumping prospecting actions and deal actions into the same dropdown.

So if “Open Deal” feels redundant in your process, you’re not wrong. In 2025 best practice is to redefine the field set so your reps see only the statuses that match your funnel stages. Automation handles the rest, and you keep reporting clean without forcing reps to manage overlap manually. Hope this helps to frame it in today’s context.