Upcoming: Customized lifecycle stages for contacts and companies

[Dadams]

Beginning on March 31, 2022, users will be able to customize the lifecycle stages for their contacts and companies.

What's changing?

The lifecycle stage (lifecyclestage) property currently uses a set of options that cannot be modified by the users, meaning that the same 8 options are used for the property across all HubSpot accounts.

After this change, the same 8 options will be the default for the property, but users will be able to add new custom stages, or remove any of the default stages.

If your integration uses preset values for the lifecyclestage property, you will need to update your integration to use the CRM Properties API to get the details of the property.

When is this happening?

This change will be live for all customers beginning on March 31, 2022.

Please see the beta documentation for more details on customizing the lifecycle stage.

Please let us know if you have any questions by replying below.

[CJames5]

Hello!

I had posted an inquiry on this on another string early last week before you posted this and have been informed for the current week by platinum client @lissa_Bagnall that this is presently availble to her. I don't think she implied by means of beta. I'm not seeing it yet. Might you at any point let me know how I can gain admittance? Much thanks to you.

My string is situated here: https://community.hubspot.com/t5/CRM/Customized-LifeCycle/m-p/613663 

[proptinomanager]

Hello People group, here's a fundamental update from the group on custom lifecycle stages.

We stopped the rollout of this update to figure out a couple of issues. We desire to continue the rollout in the following couple of days. Much obliged to you for your mind blowing persistence.

[AllenHelms]

This is one of the most exciting new features that has been made available for HubSpot users in a long time. We always got so many questions about how to properly define the Lifecycle Stages for each unique customer journey and the default naming was always confusing for non-marketing users (like Sales or SDRs). There was also a lot of confusion around when to use LC stage and when to use Lead Status - especially if you were integrating HubSpot with Salesforce or actively used a Sales Development (SDR/BDR) team in HubSpot.

Here's a few insights you might want to consider if you are looking to customize the default Lifecycle Stages for your own HubSpot portal.

1. Start with renaming/relabeling existing LC stages vs creating all new stages. This will allow you to get comfortable with the impacts and avoid losing historical data.
2. Decide what your default contact creation stage should be. In HubSpot it used to be "Lead" but we now often relabel this as "New Lead" for added clarity.
3. Consider combining Lifecycle Stages and Lead Status if your sales process is simple enough. This prevents users from having to keep up with two separate picklists that easily get out of alignment.
4. Remember that Lifecycle Stages still will not go backwards (without a deliberate workflow or manual intervention) so the order you use will be important for reporting.
5. Add a "Delete" or "Disqualified" LC Stage to help keep your CRM clean. Not all leads/contacts are good leads/contacts and this is an easy way for any user to mark them and clean them out regularly.

6. Similarly, you may want to add a "Lost" or "Recycle" LC Stage for contacts that have been through some part of your sales process, but haven't yet resulted in a Closed Won Deal (i.e. you don't want to send them back to the top of the funnel and lose their LC Stage history).

7. Keep in mind any important integrations that may be affected - especially if you are using the HubSpot-to-Salesforce integration. LC Stages can now be a powerful way to sync BOTH Salesforce Leads and Contacts using the same picklist values.
8. If you are using non-english language settings in HubSpot, there may be some additional impacts to consider so tread carefully.

If you want to dive in even deeper, this article provides all of the background details to the above suggestions and what our recommendations are.

Hope this helps everyone a little bit and please post any innovative ways you have designed custom LC stages in HubSpot now that we have this power!

Alllen Helms

HubSpot and Salesforce CRM Consultant

Organic Endeavors

[digDataSD]

Is there any way to see the lifecycle stage order in the API? In otherwords, the order they are placed in the funnel in configuration. 

[RevivalTechRepr]

I too am curious if I can get access in beta! Just went to add a lifecycle stage for onboarding, and can't find the editor in the outdated documentation... So bit confused, but if I understand correctly this is that feature coming back enhanced or something? 

Update: Aaahhhh, I came across the beta documentation apparently lol. NOT oudated, future dated? 🤔

[FrancoGaribotti]

Hi! Is there any update about continuing the rollout for this BETA? Thanks in advance!

[ARivera06]

Any news about this? We can see the custom option for some HubSpot customers but not all of them. 

[dougfairbro]

Hi there,

Understand this is on pause, when can we expect an update?

Thanks!

[LindseyMcCabe]

Following this post... I'd like to a lifecycle stage as 'Partner'

[ybaptiste]

Hey Community, here's a necessary update from the team on custom lifecycle stages. 

We paused the rollout of this update to sort out a few issues. We hope to resume the rollout in the next few days.  Thank you all for your incredible patience. 

[CGoodwinOlsen]

Hi! It's been a few months now - is there an update on when the rollout will be resumed?  We were able to implement some customized lifecycle stages in our production account, but the same functionality is not available in our Sandbox account, leaving us therefore unable to perform testing of some aspects of a custom integration we have developed.  I assume the pause in the rollout is why the functionality isn't available?  Hope to see this soon.

[KSwift]

Has this been rolled out? I can't seem to edit them. Like @AllenHelms, I would also like to know if lifecycle stages will be able to be moved backwards?

[brik_dm]

Yes also waiting for this... until then we cannot start integrating sales hub

[MaikSeyring]

Do not expect too much from it.

Lifecycle Stage can be synced while it has the fixed values. But when the new "adjustable" version is deployed, then this field can't be synced e.g. to Dynamics.

Update (2022-07-07): 

Now this customizable field can be synced. But only unidirectional like all drop down fields.

[AllenHelms]

How will this beta/update affect the current HubSpot restriction of not being able to move a lifecycle backwards? In other words, if we set up and use custom lifecycle stages, will we be able to set them to go backwards using forms, integrations/sync with other systems like Salesforce, workflow actions etc?

Allen Helms

HubSpot + Salesforce CRM Consultant

www.OrganicEndeavors.com

[IDoe]

Looks like I cannot get customised stages using the API. Is it correct behaviour? 

{
"name": "lifecyclestage",
"label": "Lifecycle Stage",
"options": [],

[ybaptiste]

Hey HubSpot community, 

We've paused the rollout of lifecycle customization to work out a few things. The new target date is now April 28th, but we're working to get this update in the hands of all customers sooner. 

The good news is that the team is planning to support stage date properties for custom stages (e.g. became a [insert custom stage] date) in the near term (3-6 months).

Thank you all for your comments, questions, and feedback. Keep 'em coming. 

[JWeston7]

Please give us an update on when this will be available.  Especially for portals like ours which are not complicated by the issues causing you delays.  Either that or open up for additional Beta users.  Thank you.

[SKnurr]

Is the plan still to go live with this tomorrow?

[JWeston7]

@ybaptiste - I had posted a question on this on another thread early last week before you posted this and have been told this week by platinum user @Olivia_Bagnall that this is now availble to her.  I don't think she meant via beta.  I am not seeing it yet.  Can you tell me how I can get access?  Thank you.

My thread is located here: https://community.hubspot.com/t5/CRM/Customized-LifeCycle/m-p/613663