What’s the difference between lifecycle stage and lead status in HubSpot?

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1. What is the difference between lifecycle stage and lead status in HubSpot?
2. Which property should SDRs/BDRs update during sales handoff from marketing to sales.
3. What are the best practices for updating these contact properties?
Hi,

Can anyone please help me understand in an easy way the difference between the lifecycle stage and the lead status stage? What property usually does SDR/BDR update when lead/contact is hand-off to the sales team from the marketing team?

And what are the best practices to update both properties in the contact record?

Thanks in advance!

Moderator Note: this post was reviewed for relevancy and optimized for clarity on October 14, 2025. Thank you for your contributions to the HubSpot Community!

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Hi @KaKaRoT,

@franksteiner79 published a post here, explaining the difference and how to use each field: AMA - “Demystifying HubSpot’s lifecyle stages, deal stages and lead status”

You can also find a shorter explanation in the HubSpot knowledge base: “Use lifecycle stages”

In short, “The Lead Status property describes the sub-stages within a Sales Qualified Lead lifecycle stage. The default Lead Status options are.”

Hope this helps!