We may lose a customer at any stage of this process. For example, after qualifying a lead to an MQL, we send them an email. If they don’t respond, should I keep them as an MQL (and perhaps record their status as “not responding” under a different property), or should I move them back to a general contact status?
Similarly, if a client progresses to the opportunity stage (e.g., they have the need and budget after a call with our sales rep) but then stops responding when we attempt to schedule the next call with a service expert, or if they don’t sign the contract after it’s sent, how should I record this information? Should I move them backward in the lifecycle stage? If so, how can I ensure that others can easily identify these changes by just looking at the contact information form?
Your sales process seems pretty standard, moving leads through different lifecycle stages from Lead/Contact to MQL, Opportunity, and finally Customer. Here are a few key points to help manage inactive leads and opportunities:
Lifecycle Stages Move Forward Only: In HubSpot, lifecycle stages are designed to move forward only, meaning you shouldn’t move contacts back to an earlier stage like Lead or MQL, even if they go inactive. Moving backward can mess up your funnel reporting, making it difficult to track conversion metrics, volume metrics, and time-to-close accurately.
Use Lead Status for Granularity: Instead of moving contacts back in the lifecycle, use the Lead Status property to track their current engagement level. Lead Status can capture details like “Not Responding,” “Attempting to Contact,” or “Nurturing,” helping you see exactly where the lead is without affecting their lifecycle stage. Lead Status reflects where they are at in their journey, while the lifecycle stage shows the highest point they’ve reached.
Opportunities and Deal Tracking: When leads progress to the Opportunity stage, this is usually tied to the creation of a Deal. The deal will have its own set of stages (like “Contract Sent,” “In Negotiation,” etc.) that you can track. If they don’t sign the contract or stop responding, the deal can be marked as Lost, but their lifecycle stage on the contact level will remain as Opportunity.
Tracking Sales Process: Use the deal object to track each step of the sales process once the contact has become an Opportunity. You can further define your deal stages based on your sales process, like moving from “Call with Service Expert” to “Contract Sent” and so on. This lets you track deals at a more granular level, making it easier to understand where prospects are stalling.
Prospecting Workspace for Granularity: If you want to go deeper and track every key touchpoint between Lead and MQL or MQL and Opportunity, you can leverage HubSpot’s Prospecting Workspace. You can log individual actions as new leads, helping you analyze how many touchpoints or nurturing efforts are needed to promote a lead to an MQL or an Opportunity.
Hopefully, this provides a clearer path for managing inactive leads and opportunities without impacting your reporting. Feel free to check out HubSpot’s RevOps Summer School for more strategic guidance, or we can set up a call if you’d like a deeper dive into your process.
To manage inactive leads and opportunities in HubSpot, avoid moving contacts backward in the lifecycle stage, as this can confuse their sales journey. For non-responsive MQLs, keep them as MQLs and use a custom property like “Not Responding” to track inactivity. Similarly, for inactive opportunities, mark them with a property such as “Stalled Opportunity” without changing their lifecycle stage. You can also set up reminders or automation for follow-ups. This approach keeps your pipeline organized while clearly identifying inactive leads without disrupting their progress.
