>>“… a reverted lead … cluttering up the SQL stage of our funnel …”
Wow. Interesting perspective.
Certainly a valid concern if one defines SQLs as only those who are ‘ready to buy’. (as mentioned above, “not our model”)
Much of the difficulty we encounter with Lifecycle Stage as an indicator of sales readiness is that many clients mistakenly view this property in isolation. We don’t view it that way.
Lifecycle Stage alone mearly indicates WHERE a contact or company is in our marketing/sales funnel. Not their STATUS as a lead.
We always consider the Lead Status (with customizations) when viewing a contact in ANY stage.
- see What is the difference between Lifecycle Stage and Lead Status?
(see image)
When combined with Lifecycle Stage, Lead Status can be used to trigger very specific behavior. One example customization might include custom Lead Statuses like ‘Future Outreach’ and ‘Re-Engage NOW’, and custom Deal and Contact properties -- e.g., Closed Lost Reason, Re-engage, and Re-Engage Date.
We often use the Closed Lost Deal stage to trigger auto-creation of follow-up tasks when a Deal is closed lost with a Reason of ‘Re-Engage Later’.
- see How to copy HubSpot Deal Properties to Contacts & Companies …
Finally, while there are many scenarios the HubSpot CRM simply wasn’t built to accomodate out the box, HubSpot best practices combined with one of over 200 non-native integrations &/or cloud-based integration tools like Zapier and Automate.io can push HubSpot further than its default capabilities.