Are you using Lifecycle stages for every single task and contact in HubSpot?
Are you using Lifecycle stages for every single task and contact in HubSpot?
You might be misusing them - and ignoring lead statuses in the process. This is a common issue we see in client accounts that has a substantial impact on data reporting.
Here’s the thing: In HubSpot, Lifecycle Stages cannot move backwards. The customer journey is not linear. Customers un-enroll and re-enroll to parts of your marketing funnel all the time. They shop around, then return when they need a solution.
Lifecycle Stages do not account for this natural part of the buying process. That’s why it’s important to use Lifecycle Stages and Lead Stages together to get accurate data so you can have an accurate picture of your business.
Let’s explore this topic in more depth.
Lifecycle Stages vs. Lead Status in HubSpot
When many of our clients first set up their HubSpot, they used Lifecycle Stages for everything. This seems like the right approach in theory - after all, Lifecycle Stages can be an important metric for your business.
However, in HubSpot, Lifestyle Stages tracks linear steps. Where a customer falls in Lifestyle Stages is merely the furthest they’ve gone on their journey, not where they currently are.
Lead Statuses, on the other hand, mark the steps a customer takes while on their customer journey. These can move backwards and forwards as your customer moves closer to purchasing. They account for the non-linear nature of the customer journey.
In other words, to get a true overview of your customer journey and accurate data reporting, you need to have Lifecycle Stages and Lead Statuses working concurrently. These properties complement each other.
Common Issues with Lifecycle Stages in HubSpot
What does this look like in practice? When we look at our client accounts, we notice a few common issues.
The Customer Satisfaction Problem
Let’s imagine you’ve landed a new customer. When they’re marked as a customer, they are supposed to be unenrolled from marketing and sales sequences.
However, this particular customer had a long buyer’s journey and, at one point, ended up marked as disqualified in terms of Lifecycle Stage.
Since Lifecycle Stages can’t move backwards and disqualified is considered the end of the Lifecycle Stage, they never move back to the Customer stage. They’re never unenrolled from marketing and sales emails and the onboarding process is never triggered. Your customer ends up dissatisfied and your revenue is impacted.
The Data Reporting Problem
In some cases, we’ve seen as much as 5% of customer bases were at one point considered unqualified or cold. If you are only using Lifestyle Stages in HubSpot, that 5% is never moved back to the Customer stage. Their data never makes its way to your reports, especially crucial ones like:
- Customer Count
- Channel Attribution
Over time, this impacts your decision making and, eventually, your business’ growth.
The Right and Wrong Way to Use Lifecycle Stages in HubSpot
If you are only using Lifecycle Stages in HubSpot, you’re impacting your customer experience and data reporting. If you set up Lifecycle Stages and Lead Statuses correctly, you’ll have a more accurate picture of your client’s journey.
The Right Way to Use Lifestyle Stages and Lead Statuses in HubSpot
If you are using Lifestyle Stages and Lead Statuses concurrently, your prospect’s designations will look something like the ones described below.
Prospect starts their journey and is added to HubSpot
Lifecycle Stage: Subscriber
Lead Status: New
Prospect becomes disqualified after filling out a form and not meeting criteria
Lifecycle Stage: Lead
Lead Status: Unqualified
See the difference? They became a lead because they filled out a form. By using Lead Status to designate that they are unqualified, you are leaving the door open for them to return at a later date as a qualified prospect.
The Wrong Way to Use Lifestyle Stages and Lead Statuses in HubSpot
If you use Lifestyle Stages incorrectly, your prospects designation looks a little bit different.
Prospect starts their journey and is added to HubSpot
Lifecycle Stage: Subscriber
Lead Status: New
Prospect becomes disqualified after filling out a form and not meeting criteria
Lifecycle Stage: Disqualified
Lead Status: Unqualified or New
If they become a qualified lead at a later date, they cannot move backwards in the Lifecycle Stage. It’s likely this customer falls through the cracks and is not nurtured appropriately.
What To Do Instead
Set up your Lifecycle Stages and Lead Statuses in HubSpot to complement each other.
For example, don’t set up your Lifecycle Stages like this:
- Subscriber
- Lead
- MQL
- SQL
- Opportunity
- Customer
- Other
- Disqualified
- Ghosted
- No-Show
Instead, use Subscriber, Lead, MQL, SQL, Opportunity, Customer and Other as your Lifecycle Stages. Use Disqualified, Ghosted, and No-Show as your Lead Statuses.
What Is Considered a Lead Status?
As a customer moves through the Lifecycle Stages, they will eventually reach MQL or SQL status. This is where the journey becomes less linear and Lead Statuses become more critical.
Think about what happens when a prospect becomes an SQL. At this stage, they might fluctuate between several statuses, like:
- In Progress
- Open Deal
- Unqualified
- Attempted to Contact
- Connecting
- Bad Timing
Your sales rep’s first attempt to contact a prospect might go unanswered, moving their status to “Attempted to Contact”
If your sales rep reached them a week later and thinks the prospect is interested, their status would shift to “In Progress.” If a prospect realizes a few days later they can’t commit to a deal at this time, they might move to “Bad Timing.” A few months later, the sales rep might reach out to the prospect again and learn they are ready to make a deal. This shifts the prospect back to “In Progress” status.
In other words, there’s a lot that can happen during this stage! If you were using Lifecycle Stages in this order instead of Lead Statuses, you would not be able to return to “In Progress” once you marked “Bad Timing.” That’s a problem.
How Setting Up Lifecycle Stages and Lead Statuses in HubSpot Helps Data Reporting
Some prospects may stay in a Lifecycle Stage for a long time and others for just a few days. Lead Statuses help you measure the activity happening while a prospect remains in a particular Lifecycle Stage.
You can measure this activity and use it to make better decisions. You can easily track how long customers remain in certain stages and anticipate your revenue.
For example, let’s imagine you are working with someone to clean up your contact lists. They plan to remove anyone in the SQL stage who hasn’t been active for more than a year from the list.
Thankfully, you’ve been using Lead Statuses and measuring the data. You’ve learned that your best customers stayed in the SQL stage for 18 months. Since you know your customer journey takes longer to close, you decide to only remove the prospects who have been inactive for over 18 months. Without this information, you would’ve purged that list – and lost the opportunity to close those deals. How To Fix Your HubSpot Lifecycle Stages and Add Lead Statuses
If you’ve been using Lifecycle Stages exclusively in HubSpot, don’t worry. Many of our clients have found themselves in this predicament and, with a few changes, were able to run Lifecycle Stages and Lead Statuses concurrently.
The process can take awhile, though. It’s not something you can fix with a mass update, and you can lose data if it’s not fixed correctly.
If you have questions about how to get started, book a strategy to connect directly with Dan, the founder of MergeYourData.com. He’ll answer your questions and walk you through the next steps.
