Use lifecycle stages

Categorize your contacts based on the lifecycle stage they are at in your marketing and sales processes. Updating the Lifecycle stage property consistently allows your team to determine where a specific contact is in your processes, and understand better how leads are handed off between marketing and sales.

What are the lifecycle stages?

The default Lifecycle Stage property contains the following stages as options, and their definitions:

• Subscriber: a contact who has opted in to hear more from you by signing up for your blog or newsletter.
• Lead: a contact who has converted on your website or through some other interaction with your organization beyond a subscription sign up.
• Marketing Qualified Lead: a contact that your marketing team has qualified as ready for the sales team.
• Sales Qualified Lead: a contact that your sales team has qualified as a potential customer.
• Opportunity: a contact who is associated with a deal (e.g., they're involved in a potential deal with your organization).
• Customer: a contact with at least one closed deal.
• Evangelist: a customer who has advocated for your organization.
• Other: a wildcard stage that can be used when a contact does not fit any of the above stages.

The lifecycle stage of a contact or company can be changed by automatic syncing and therefore cannot be edited. The default stage for a new contact is determined by how they were created.

If your contacts have a different lifecycle, learn how to create a custom lifecycle stage property.

How do I update the Lifecycle stage property?

To keep the Lifecycle stage property updated, you can do the following:

• Manually update the Lifecycle stage property for your contact
• Import to update the Lifecycle stage property for a list of contacts
• Use Set a property value action in a workflow (Professional or Enterprise accounts only)
• Use a hidden form field (Marketing Hub Professional or Enterprise only)

Other tools may also automatically update the Lifecycle stage property, including when contacts are enrolled in a sequence and when contacts are set to sync with their associated company's lifecycle stage. You can see the source of the change in the Lifecycle stage property history.

Please note: lifecycle stages are only meant to progress forward and down the funnel. Imports, workflows, and form fields can only set the default Lifecycle Stage property for contacts and companies to a lifecycle stage down the funnel, with Other being the furthest down the funnel. You can only set a lifecycle stage backwards manually, or in a workflow by clearing the Lifecycle stage property prior to setting the new value.

What is the difference between the Lifecycle Stage and Lead Status properties?

• New
• Open
• In Progress
• Open Deal
• Unqualified
• Attempted to Contact
• Connected
• Bad Timing