Lead Status Questions & Recommendations

[LSunstrum]

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?

[Jnix284 · Accepted solution]

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?

[jolle · Accepted solution]

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:

1. 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
2. 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!!

[franksteiner79 · Accepted solution]

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.

[Jnix284]

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. 🙌

[jolle · Accepted solution]

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:

1. 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
2. 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!!

[Jnix284]

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!

[Jnix284 · Accepted solution]

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?