Can I add a lead status in HubSpot?

If you're using HubSpot's CRM platform, there are times when you want or need your leads to be categorized differently. Maybe some of them are ready to buy while others aren't quite yet interested. Or maybe they were just prospects and now they're customers.

Whatever the reason may be, it can sometimes be difficult to figure out how to customize the lead statuses that come with every new contact record. And if you've ever searched Google trying to find an answer before coming here, then you know what we mean. There are dozens of articles written on this topic, all with different takes and none giving you exactly what you're looking for. So let us help you! Here's everything you need to know about changing the lead status field within HubSpot.

Let's get started by defining both terms first...

What is a lead status?

Lead Status refers to whether someone has joined your list of contacts or not. The default value is "Not Interested," so everyone who doesn't fill out their info gets this designation. If you'd like to give people more information than that (such as those who filled out part of their profile), you can assign one of these three values instead: Lead, Contact, Customer. These names refer to how far through the buying process someone currently sits. In other words, which stage of the buyer journey they're at right now.

The easiest way to see which category your existing contacts fall into is via the sidebar. On the left side of your screen under Contacts & Lists, select All Columns from the dropdown menu. Then scroll down until you see Leads - You'll notice two columns labeled Not Interested and Qualified Lead.

When you click on either of these labels, the column will show blue text next to each individual person. It will also display the corresponding label underneath said text. This means anyone whose name appears below the "Not Interested" heading falls into the non-interested category. People whose names appear above "Qualified Lead" are considered sales qualified, meaning they would ideally become future customers. Finally, any contacts listed beneath "Customer" are already paying clients.

So why does it matter where your leads are situated along the path towards becoming a customer? Well, consider this scenario: A prospect fills out only their email address, phone number, and company. They don't provide enough personal data to qualify themselves as a potential client. But after receiving follow up emails over several weeks, they eventually respond back and request additional details. By the time they actually reach out to speak with somebody, however, they no longer fit into the "lead" category because of our definition above. Therefore, you should treat these individuals accordingly.

In most cases, you won't want to send them a generic message saying something like, "Hey, thank you for reaching out!" Instead, take advantage of their input and use it to better serve them going forward. For example, if they provided an email address, start sending periodic newsletters containing useful tips, tricks, and resources related to whatever industry they work in. Just make sure to keep things professional since your goal isn't to turn them off entirely.

What is a sales qualified lead in HubSpot?

Another important distinction is between "qualified leads" versus "ready for action." Think of sales qualified leads as those who are actively searching for solutions or services similar to yours. In contrast, everyone else belongs to the Ready for Action group. When you create a campaign later, HubSpot automatically moves these folks from the Unqualified tab onto the Ready for Action section. However, you can manually move people yourself if necessary.

To access this feature, go to Marketing > Campaign Settings > Actions. Under the Ready for Action header, click Manage Subscribers. Once here, you can sort through your entire subscriber base and choose to move specific individuals across based on certain criteria. For instance, you could decide to move all of your unqualified subscribers to the Ready for Action section regardless of their current lead status. Alternatively, you might choose to move your qualified leads to the Ready for Action area but ignore those who are still considering your products/services.

You can even filter results further if needed. To do this, type a keyword such as "leads" into the search bar located near the top of the page. Clicking on Show Only [Your Company] Results will limit the scope of possible matches to those belonging to your organization alone. Lastly, if you wish to view the full range of leads available, expand the search box and check Show All Matches.

Once you hit Apply Changes, you'll receive a pop-up notification letting you know the changes took place successfully. Note that you can always edit the chosen actions once again by selecting Edit Selected Menu Items.

How do I update lead status?

Now that you understand what each of these fields represent, it's easy to adjust them yourself. Simply go to whichever list you'd like to modify and look for the appropriate option(s) inside its respective panel. From there, you can pick from the following choices: Lead, Contact, Customer, or None. Keep in mind that if you remove the field altogether, HubSpot will simply revert everyone's lead status back to Not Interested.

Here's another tip that can save you some frustration: Use the Update Multiple List Options tool whenever you encounter multiple lists/companies. Doing so allows you to quickly switch between various accounts without having to open numerous tabs or navigate away from the dashboard itself.

For instance, if you own five businesses under the same umbrella brand, you can enable this function by clicking on More Companies " Other Brands " Select Brand Name. Next, enter the primary domain followed by secondary domains separated by a semicolon character ("[Domain1];[Domain2]" etc.). Afterward, verify that Enable Multi-Company Support is checked. Now, anytime you visit your account settings, you'll see separate panels for each business line.

One final note regarding updating lead status: Make sure you don't accidentally end up creating duplicates. Since HubSpot uses unique ID numbers for each user, you shouldn't mix up old records with newer ones.

Also, remember that you can only alter the lead status of users on your active campaigns. Those in inactive trials cannot be modified unless you delete them and rerun the trial period. Unfortunately, there's no way around this limitation except for deleting users completely.

How do I change lead status in Salesforce?

Changing the lead status field in Sales Cloud is slightly trickier than in HubSpot. Fortunately, there are many ways to manage leads, including automations and workflow rules. The best approach depends upon the exact needs of your team. However, if you wanted to tweak lead statuses in order to categorize leads during point 1 above, this method works well too.

First, log into Sales Cloud. Go to Setup " Workflows " Rules Manager. Scroll down until you spot Set Field Values and paste in the following code: IF(AND([StageName]="Unqualified",ISPICKVAL("Status","N"),OR([StageName]="Qualified",ISPICKVAL("Status","Y")),0)) THEN UPDATE ([Contact]) SET IsInterested = Y WHERE Id= :billing_account. Assuming you're running version 36 or higher, replace billing_account with Account Number. Hit Save, and you're good to go!

Alternatively, you can utilize the automation editor to achieve this task. Head to Automate " Create an Automation " Choose Object Type and insert StageName into Find Criteria. Next, specify Status as the comparison operator and drag it into Filter Rows. Within Filters, locate the Custom Setting called IsInterestedin and double-click it. Change Text Value to Yes, and leave the rest blank. Repeat steps four and five for IsNotInterested. Next, head to Run the Script and copy and paste the script block from the editor window.

Afterwards, go ahead and assign a meaningful name to the newly created rule. Also, ensure that you mark the Rule runs recursively checkbox. With this done, you should see a green tick beside Rule History immediately afterwards. Now you can stop worrying about customizing lead statuses in Sales Cloud. Let your sales reps worry about it!

HubSpot’s Contact Manager allows you to create contacts or leads. Contacts can be changed by clicking on “Change Lead Status.” This article will walk you through how to change your contact into a new lead status.

If you want to learn more about creating contacts, check out our guide here.

We’ll also explain what the differences are between a contact and a lead.

Once you understand these basics of adding a lead status, you'll know exactly how to set up a customized lead profile in HubSpot so it works just right for your business.

First off, if you're wondering why this feature exists at all (other than an annoyance), we have some good news! There's no reason not to give this functionality to users. The only thing holding us back was technical ability. Nowadays, there are plenty of developers who can help with this issue. We hope to see this fixed soon. Until then...we shall continue building!

How do I make a contact lead in HubSpot?

Creating a contact in HubSpot involves four steps:

Adding information such as first name, last name, email address, phone number, company, etc.

Marking them as either contacts or leads. This determines which type they’re automatically categorized under when searching for leads or customers.

Setting their lead status. You may wish to change the existing settings from "Contacted" to "Lead."

Picking whether you would like to auto-followup those people whose emails you receive from the system. If you choose yes, remember to select a date range within which to send followups.

There are two primary methods for making changes to your leads' statuses after creation. First, open your contact manager dashboard and click on each individual lead/contact record you'd like to edit. Hover over their icon and select "Manage Leads," followed by Manage Lead Status. From there, you can switch their current state from "contacted" to "lead" by selecting one of the dropdown menus next to their names.

Alternatively, you can view all your records via My Content > All Items. Then simply hover over any individual item and again, select "Manage Leads." Once you've clicked through the menu options, you should see all the available lead states listed beneath their respective icons.

The second method is to go directly to your content editor and navigate to the specific page where you plan to display your list of leads. Click on the pencil icon beside the row containing said items and select "Edit Record." Afterward, find the section labeled "Status" and change whatever option suits your needs best.

In addition to changing the lead status, you can also customize other details associated with that particular lead. For instance, instead of viewing all my Leads, you could filter by State, Industry, or even Age Group.

To complete the process, save your updates and publish your page. That’s it! Your data has been updated.

Now let’s talk about how you actually turn someone into a lead using HubSpot’s built-in tools.

How does a contact become a lead in HubSpot?

You might wonder how a person becomes an actual lead once they’ve already submitted their info. Well, we made sure to take care of that too! When you create a contact, HubSpot assigns them to a certain category based upon the information provided. It then categorizes leads accordingly. For example, if a user enters their personal email address along with their work email address, that means they were likely trying to sign up for something -- hence, they're now classified as a lead.

So basically, anyone who submits information to HubSpot gets assigned to a particular group depending on what they filled out. Therefore, it makes sense that HubSpot automatically labels them as leads. However, you'll still need to manually assign their profiles before publishing your webpages.

But wait, doesn’t everyone get sent an automatic followup message afterwards? Yes, but only if you enabled that setting during step 4 above. Otherwise, you must manually send messages to those newly marked leads yourself.

How do I Create a custom lead status in HubSpot?

Customizing your lead status is pretty simple. In fact, many companies use the same basic lead management features found in HubSpot without realizing it. To begin, go ahead and pull up your leads list. Next, scroll down until you reach the bottom of the screen. You’ll notice three links: Follow Up, Send Email, and View Details. These are essentially different ways to handle following up with individuals.

Follow Up lets you schedule automated followups. Alternatively, you can manually pick dates and times to send followup emails.

Send Email gives you several options including sending a standard text message, email, or both.

View Details provides access to additional information regarding the lead. It includes things such as their title, department, role, location, mobile numbers, social media accounts, website URL, and previous job positions.

After choosing whichever tool you prefer to use, you’ll see a pop-up window appear. Select Customize the Lead Status field and hit Save Changes.

Next time you visit your leads list, you'll see a button specifically labelled "Customized Lead Status." Simply click onto it and select "More Options." Here, you can adjust the fields that show up on your webpage. Remember, don't forget to include any relevant titles.

For instance, if you own a small business, you might consider displaying your company logo alongside your lead profile. Or maybe you want to highlight your services or specialties. Whatever you decide, keep in mind that you cannot delete or remove any preloaded fields. Instead, you’d need to return to your customization panel and rework those elements individually.

Also, if you'd rather not have certain fields visible on your webpage, you can hide those sections altogether. Just toggle the boxes next to those rows to grey out the corresponding buttons.

Finally, you’ll probably want to change the overall appearance of your lead cards. Unfortunately, you can’t completely alter their design. But you can play around with colors and fonts. Try experimenting with various shades of blue versus green, for instance.

As mentioned earlier, you can always tweak these settings later. So feel free to try lots of combinations until you figure out what looks best for your brand.

What is the difference between a contact and a lead?

It’s important to note that while HubSpot calls its leads 'customers,' there isn't really much separating them from regular contacts. Sure, each lead comes with a few extra perks. They’re given priority support and assistance, for starters. On top of that, they also get featured prominently in search results. Plus, they typically get personalized marketing campaigns.

However, most businesses won’t necessarily require their entire database of leads. And since they tend to cost money, you shouldn't bother turning every single person on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, etc., into a customer unless your niche demands it of you.

At least, that seems to be the case for smaller enterprises. As far as larger corporations go, there really isn't much of a distinction between a lead and a normal contact. Most big brands opt to hire dedicated account managers to manage their leads. Those teams often spend less time interacting with consumers online and more time converting interested parties into sales reps.

Of course, it goes without saying that you can easily convert your contacts into leads. Whether you need to automate the process or not depends entirely on your industry and goals. Either way, HubSpot offers powerful automation capabilities to assist with managing leads.

Ultimately, though, your decision lies solely in your hands. Only you know who your ideal clients are going to be. Some industries demand more manual labor, while others require little interaction beyond providing feedback and answering questions.

Regardless of your approach, however, HubSpot is an excellent platform for helping you grow your team. Not only does it provide detailed analytics, but it also helps streamline processes across multiple departments. Thus, it's great for freelancers, startups, and established organizations alike.

And now that you’ve learned everything there is to know about creating leads, you're ready to start taking advantage of HubSpot's robust CRM suite. Keep reading to discover how easy it is to organize your entire client base.

Using HubSpot to track your prospects is helpful because it keeps you in control throughout the whole lifecycle. If you’re considering automating tasks, HubSpot provides comprehensive reporting abilities. With this tool, you’ll never struggle to determine which products generate the most revenue.

I'm new to HubSpot and want to know how can I customize my own lead workflow. In our current system, it's only possible to assign leads to one of three stages - warm, qualified or lost.

This is what happens when someone subscribes to your newsletter (warm) then they need to be invited by an admin to join (qualified). If not, their email will automatically get sent back to spam after 30 days unless there’s another step during this period (lost). This seems pretty basic so why doesn’t HubSpot let us choose which stage we want them to start at? Does anyone else use customizing lead statuses like this? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

You can also go into Lead Status under Settings & Campaign Management " Leads " Manage Leads from Stage 1-3 dropdown menu. You should see all 3 stages listed here with checkboxes next to each option. Click Save Changes once done.

However, if you're using the Email Marketing tab, selecting Customize Lead Process, there is no such field available.

Also, some people seem to think/say that you cannot customize to the level of granularity you desire. That may be true for those who believe that way too much customization could cause performance issues. But there are many reasons why doing things differently than the standard method is useful. For example, you might be trying to make better sense out of data, track certain activities etc.

In addition, you can create multiple processes for individual campaigns. So long as you don't have more than 500 leads per campaign, you shouldn't run into any problems.

Here's a list of questions regarding the topic mentioned above:

1.) Can we change the lead process?

No, because it has been tested extensively over time and works well for most users. It's easy enough for most marketers to understand and implement without having to worry about unexpected behaviors due to overly complicated features.

2.) How do I customize Lifecycle Stage Hubspot?

If you select Customize Lead Process, click Change Lifecycles. Then you'll see these two choices: Warm/Lost/Qualified. Select whichever fits best for your situation. Once selected, hit save changes.

As far as changing the stage directly, yes you can. Go to Settings & Campaign Management " Leads " Manage Leads from Stage 1-3 dropdown menu. Or simply type /edit_lead_status=YOURNUMBER into the address bar of your browser.

The reason behind this limitation is probably related to security concerns. Changing the stage would allow hackers to target specific individuals who were already subscribed to your newsletter. However, since HubSpot does provide a feature where admins can send invites via email to people who have yet to subscribe, I feel safe saying that the risk isn't quite as high as other alternatives.

To answer the question posed, you'd have to contact support directly through live chat or submit tickets to HubSpot customer service. They won't be very helpful though. The tech support team that supports HubSpot employees tends to be fairly strict with policies. Unfortunately, there aren't really any resources online that explain exactly how to accomplish what was asked. There are instructions provided by HubSpot below.

Hi All,

Thank you for contacting Support. We appreciate your business and can certainly assist you further. To begin, please take note of the following points:

We recommend that you first test the functionality of upgrading your subscribers' accounts before actually making updates within the database itself.

There are cases where changes made to subscriber records within the database result in corrupted data, rendering your entire marketing effort useless. Therefore, testing is highly recommended prior to implementing any changes.

Please refer to the attached document titled "Upgrading Subscribers" located at https://kb.hubspot.com/docs/DOC-6073

HubSpot offers several different types of leads depending upon whether they meet criteria associated with various categories. Please review the table below outlining the lead types and respective attributes:

Lead Type | Attributes

Warm Leads | Prospective customers interested in receiving information from you. These leads often sign up for newsletters or other promotional emails.

Cold Leads | Customers who have purchased products or services from you but did not opt into your primary mailing list.

Sentinel Leads | Customer contacts who opted into a third party vendor's mailing list.

Customer Contacted Leads | Contacts generated from previous campaigns.

Unsubscribed Leads | Unsubscribe requests received from customers after completing a purchase transaction.

Lost Leads | Leads that have been inactive for 90 days. After 90 days, these leads expire and receive automatic unsubscribes.

Quit Leads | Leads that have abandoned the application process. These leads become Lost Leads after 90 days.

Once you've identified the lead class that applies to your case, follow these steps to update the lead status:

Select Updating Leads from the navigation menu on the left side of the screen.

Click Edit Leads

Next, enter the appropriate lead ID number in the search box. Your lead IDs will look similar to this screenshot.

Then, scroll down until you find the record corresponding to the lead ID entered.  Next, select Update Record. A pop-up window will appear asking you to confirm that you intend to edit the row.

Enter required fields. Remember to always fill in proper names, addresses, phone numbers, dates, etc. Be sure to include all necessary details. Also, remember to include valid postal codes. Otherwise, your efforts will likely be wasted.

Save the updated file(s), then return to the main page by clicking Back.

On the main page, you'll now notice the Updated column displaying the date you just adjusted the lead status. When finished, click Done.

Now you can perform additional actions, such as sending an invitation to the lead, assigning roles, adding notes, etc., by navigating to your desired action within the Actions section.

Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any additional questions. Thanks again for reaching out.

Thanks for the detailed response. Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that I couldn't change the stage manually. My real point was that I wanted to know whether the ability to customize the flow of events existed anywhere inside HubSpot. Since I had never heard of anything like that existing, I figured I must not exist...so thanks for confirming that it does indeed exists! :)

I am going to try setting everything up myself instead of waiting for hubspot to fix it since its their product. Hopefully I can give feedback back in say 6 months or something telling them what worked and what didnt work as i hope to eventually convert everyone over to hubspot.

It seems to me that you're still missing the point of the problem. First off, you said that you want to be able to remove yourself from the 'default' process. What you want is to move to whatever stage YOU wish to be moved to. Second, you want to be able to control HOW you reach THAT stage. And finally, you want the flexibility to decide WHICH stage you want to be placed into AT ANY POINT IN TIME. None of those are offered by HubSpot.

For instance, right now, if someone signs up to your newsletter, they immediately get forwarded to Qualified. No choice whatsoever. Now imagine the scenario where someone signed up yesterday and wants access to the beta version of your app. Do you forward him straight away to the App Beta program? Who decides that? Is it based on age, gender etc.? That decision would fall outside the realm of HubSpot.

And finally, if you want to place someone into a particular stage, you need to wait for them to finish reading your content, logging in, downloading documents, requesting training, etc. Then send them an invite. At the moment, you can't force someone to be somewhere. Even worse, you can't tell someone to skip a stage.

My advice would be to try converting your website visitors into prospects. From there you can offer them a free trial, upgrade package, or even buy them outright. By doing so you can guarantee your conversion rate and keep them coming back whenever they have questions. Plus, you can manage everything from tracking statistics to managing payments. Best part is you don't have to pay HubSpot a monthly fee. Most of the tools are included in your subscription plan.

Hello,

Sorry for taking so long to reply to your post. Thank you for writing in. Here's what I can share with you regarding your issue:

Currently, HubSpot allows administrators to modify lead processes in terms of lead classification. As previously stated, you can modify lead processes by creating separate flows for unique scenarios. Below are examples of how you can achieve this feat:

A prospect registers for your newsletter:

When a prospect submits form, HubSpot assigns them to the Warm category.

Your admin sends an email inviting the prospect to complete registration:

At this point, you want to switch the lead process to Quaifredation.

Send the lead to Training:

Switch the lead process back to Warm.