HubSpot’s lifecycle stages provide a fundamental framework for tracking the progress of each contact through the buyer’s journey. These stages act as guideposts marking a customer’s progression from initial interest to becoming a loyal advocate.
By using lifecycle stages effectively, marketing and sales teams can communicate with each contact according to their readiness, seamlessly transition contacts between marketing and sales efforts, nurture leads appropriately, and close more deals.
In this blog post, we will explain everything you need to know about using different types of HubSpot’s lifecycle stages in detail, with examples and the most common mistakes you should avoid.
What are HubSpot Lifecycle Stages?
In HubSpot, the lifecycle stage is a property that indicates a contact’s relationship to your company, which phase of the marketing and sales funnel (or buyer journey) they are in.
HubSpot provides eight default lifecycle stages to cover the progression from a new prospect to a long-term promoter.
These stages enable contact segmentation and CRM automation. Therefore, you can filter contacts by stage and trigger appropriate outreach or internal tasks.
Below, we break down each stage and how to use it.
The 8 HubSpot Lifecycle Stages Explained
HubSpot’s default lifecycle stages include Subscriber, Lead, Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL), Sales Qualified Lead (SQL), Opportunity, Customer, Evangelist, and Other.
Subscriber
A Subscriber is a contact who has opted in to hear from you but has not yet shown any further interest beyond consuming your content.
In other words, they’ve signed up for your newsletter, blog updates, or other content subscription. Subscribers are at a very early stage of the buyer’s journey – they may just be learning about your brand. HubSpot automatically assigns new contacts as Subscribers if they convert via a blog subscription form or similar channels.
It usually doesn’t make sense to sell to Subscribers immediately; instead, focus on nurturing them with valuable content and opportunities to engage more deeply.
Automation Strategy Group suggests that even if many subscribers never become customers, they can still be valuable as an audience – some might become brand advocates or refer others if you continue to deliver helpful content.
Lead
A Lead is a contact who has shown some interest in your products or services beyond subscribing. Typically, a Lead has engaged with a top-of-funnel offer or interaction – for example, by downloading an eBook, registering for a webinar, or filling out a general inquiry form.
At this stage, you know the person has a problem or need that you might be able to solve, but you haven’t qualified them further yet (you don’t know if they have the budget, authority, timing, etc.).
In HubSpot, any new contact who submits a non-blog form (landing page form) is marked as a Lead by default. People may remain in the Lead stage for a while – they should stay Leads until they either become disqualified or take actions that signal readiness for deeper engagement (at which point they might become an MQL).
This stage is often where ongoing lead nurturing happens via email campaigns, educational content, etc., until the contact is warm enough to pass to sales.
Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL)
A Marketing Qualified Lead is a type of lead that has been thoroughly investigated and validated by your marketing team and is ready for a sales team to take over the relationship. When the lead reaches the MQL stage, it means they are more likely to be a potential customer than the average lead.
Those criteria can include a high lead score, certain behaviors (e.g., multiple visits to pricing pages, downloading bottom-of-funnel content), or a direct request for contact, such as a demo request.
The exact definition of an MQL varies by company and should be agreed upon by marketing and sales.
For example, a company might declare an MQL once a lead attends a product webinar or fills out a “Contact Sales” form. Another might require that the lead’s profile (job title, company size, etc.) fits their target customer persona and that they engage with specific content.
It is also important to note that MQLs are not guaranteed sales opportunities – it’s a marketing way of saying, “This lead is qualified enough for sales to attempt to connect.” Marketing often uses lead scoring models to consistently determine when a lead becomes an MQL (a key part of lead qualification).
Sales Qualified Lead (SQL)
A Sales Qualified Lead is a contact that the sales team has accepted as a true prospect worth pursuing – in other words, the sales team has confirmed the lead is qualified in terms of need, budget, authority, or other criteria and can potentially become a customer.
Typically, when marketing passes an MQL to sales, a salesperson (such as a Sales Development Rep) will make an initial outreach (often called a discovery or connect call). If the call or research confirms the lead is a good fit and interesting, the rep will update the lifecycle stage to SQL.
Unlike earlier stages, SQL implies that one-on-one interaction has occurred: the lead has been contacted by sales and evaluated. HubSpot leaves the exact definition of SQL to you – so your organization should define clear, concrete triggers for what moves a lead from MQL to SQL.
Common triggers include the prospect agreeing to a meeting, confirming they have a project or need, or meeting certain BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline) criteria.
In HubSpot, the Lead Status property is often used in tandem at this stage to track sub-stages (e.g., Connected, Interested, Unqualified) during the sales qualification process. An SQL is essentially a green light that this contact is now in the sales pipeline.
Opportunity
An Opportunity is a contact (or associated company) who has become directly linked to a sales deal in your pipeline.
In HubSpot, when a ‘Sales Rep’ creates a Deal record and associates a contact with it, the contact’s lifecycle stage automatically updates to Opportunity.
This stage indicates that the person is part of an active sales negotiation or sales process, and a sales opportunity has been identified.
The Opportunity stage corresponds to the formal proposal or evaluation phase in the buyer journey (for example, the prospect might be on a trial, receiving a quote, or in negotiations).
A contact remains an Opportunity throughout the open deal cycle until a final decision (won or lost) is made. It’s good practice to define for your team what criteria move someone from SQL to Opportunity for consistency.
For example, the prospect has completed a demo or expressed intent to buy, and the sales rep has enough info to create a quote or proposal (a Deal is opened).
Customer
A Customer lifecycle stage is used once a contact has closed a deal and has purchased your product or service.
In HubSpot, when a deal is marked “Closed Won” and associated with a contact, the contact’s stage automatically qualifies as Customer. Customers are at the bottom of the funnel, but the journey doesn’t necessarily end here.
After conversion, the focus shifts to delivering your product or service, customer success, and possibly upselling or cross-selling later.
Note that in HubSpot, a contact will remain in the Customer stage even if they have multiple deals (i.e., if they buy again or if another agreement is lost, the lifecycle stage stays Customer since they did purchase at least once).
Customers are crucial contacts to treat well – many companies will have specific marketing for customers (onboarding sequences, loyalty programs, etc.).
Also, keep in mind that if a customer discontinues service or churns, HubSpot doesn’t automatically change their stage. Some businesses choose to leave them as customers, while others might move such contacts to a custom “Former Customer” stage (more on customization later).
Evangelist
An Evangelist is a customer who is advocating for your organization – essentially, a delighted customer who spreads the word and helps promote your brand. Not every customer needs to become an Evangelist. This stage is for those who actively refer to new business, provide testimonials, reviews, or otherwise champion your product.
Setting someone as an Evangelist is often a manual or process-driven step your team takes when you identify a customer as a true promoter.
For example, a customer who has given you a public positive review, or who regularly sends referrals, might be tagged as an Evangelist. This lifecycle stage is useful for businesses with referrals and word-of-mouth.
By identifying Evangelists in HubSpot, you can implement targeted campaigns to thank them, seek referrals, or invite them to case studies, etc. (If your business doesn’t formally track advocacy, using Evangelist is optional – not every company will utilize this stage in HubSpot. But it aligns with the “Delight” phase of the inbound methodology, highlighting post-purchase engagement.)
Other
Other is a wildcard stage for contacts who do not fit into the above categories. HubSpot includes “Other” essentially as a catch-all.
You might use this for partners, vendors, job applicants, internal team contacts in your database, or any contact who isn’t a lead or customer. It’s wise to classify contacts marked as Other, so you have clarity on who they are.
For instance, one best practice is to use a custom field (e.g., “Other Type”) to label whether an “Other” contact is a vendor, competitor, former employee, etc. This way, you maintain segmentation without adding new lifecycle stages for every scenario.
Generally, you won’t have many marketing and sales automations tied to “Other,” since these are outside your sales funnel, but keeping them identified helps keep your database clean.
Automation Strategy Group suggests you should not use “Other” as a dumping ground for unqualified leads – it’s better to leave truly unqualified people as Leads or use a separate status, rather than hiding them in Other, where they might be overlooked.
How Do You Align Lifecycle Stages with the Buyer’s Journey
Each lifecycle stage corresponds to phases in the buyer’s journey (or sales funnel). At a high level, Subscribers and early-stage Leads are in the Awareness phase (top of funnel) – they’re aware of your content but not necessarily of your product.
- MQLs and SQLs align with the Consideration or Evaluation phase – they have identified a need and are evaluating solutions (your marketing is nurturing them, and sales is starting conversations).
- Opportunities represent the Decision phase – the prospect is actively considering your product/service and engaging in the sales process.
- Customers and Evangelists are in the Retention or Advocacy phase – focusing on satisfaction and leveraging loyalty post-purchase.
By mapping stages to the buyer journey, your team can ensure content and outreach are contextually relevant.
For example, a Subscriber in the awareness stage should receive educational content, not a direct sales pitch, whereas an SQL in the decision stage might get a personalized sales call or a proposal.
Using lifecycle stages as a common language between marketing and sales provides visibility into where every prospect is in their journey, which in turn makes it easier to identify funnel bottlenecks and measure conversion rates from one stage to the next.
Common Mistakes to Avoid with Lifecycle Stages
While using lifecycle stages in HubSpot is powerful, there are some frequent pitfalls to watch out for. Avoiding these mistakes will help keep your funnel data clean and your teams aligned:
Treating Lifecycle Stages as Optional
One mistake (often by new HubSpot users) is ignoring the lifecycle stage property or failing to set it consistently. Lifecycle stages should be an essential part of your lead management strategy.
If you don’t use stages, you end up with a blob of contacts with no context of progression, making it difficult to tailor marketing or measure funnel health.
You should define each stage and ensure inbound leads are assigned to the correct stage, either via workflow or process. Enforce that no contact remains at the “Unknown” stage. Even if you have leads from before, do a one-time cleanup to categorize them.
Lack of Marketing and Sales Alignment
The most common issue is a disagreement on stage definitions by the marketing and sales teams, such as what qualifies as an MQL or SQL. This misalignment causes marketing to pass along poor-quality MQLs or sales to ignore MQLs altogether. Consequently, effort is wasted, and leads are dropped. You should collaboratively set clear criteria for each stage—especially MQL and SQL—and document them. Both teams need to understand and agree on the lifecycle model. Regular meetings can help refine the definitions.
Improperly Skipping Stages
Sometimes users manually move a contact to a later stage without updating previous stages—for example, marking someone as Customer without ever marking them as Opportunity, or creating a deal for a Lead but not updating to SQL. This can happen out of convenience or neglect, but it breaks data continuity.
You should emphasize process discipline, ensuring contacts progress through each stage sequentially. If a stage must be skipped, such as moving a hot lead directly to Opportunity, implement workflows to automatically set the intermediate stages for record-keeping. HubSpot can sometimes auto-set missing earlier stages when a later stage is assigned.
Also, train your team that the lifecycle stage is not the same as the deal stage—creating a deal doesn’t automatically mean the contact was set to SQL first unless you automate it. Include lifecycle updates as part of your sales playbook steps.
Confusing Lifecycle Stage with Lead Status or Deal Stage
HubSpot tracks a prospect’s state with multiple properties like Lifecycle Stage, Lead Status, and Deal Stage. A common mistake is using one in place of another incorrectly. For example, setting Lead Status values like “New” or “Connected” as if they were lifecycle stages—there are cases where someone marked a contact as Subscriber but then gave them a Lead Status of “New,” which is contradictory—or treating Deal stages, which pertain to deals in the pipeline, as lifecycle stages for contacts.
Avoid this by using each property for its intended purpose. Lifecycle Stage refers to the broad relationship stage of the contact within the marketing/sales funnel. Lead Status is a sub-category used to track sales qualification steps, such as attempting contact, being connected, or unqualified reasons.
Deal Stage indicates the status of an open deal, such as Opportunities. Ensure your team understands these differences. HubSpot’s definitions highlight that lifecycle stages are high-level (“lead’s relationship with your company”), while lead status offers detailed qualification info. When used properly together, they provide a comprehensive view; if misused, they create confusion.
Overlapping or Redundant Workflows
Having multiple workflows or integrations that set lifecycle stages can lead to conflicts. For instance, one workflow might set a contact to MQL if they fill out Form X, while another sets the contact to Lead if Property Y is filled.
Both triggers might fire simultaneously, causing the contact to bounce between stages or be set incorrectly.
Avoid this by auditing workflows to maintain a unified system for managing stage transitions. Create a central Lifecycle Management workflow or a small set that handles all stage updates consistently.
Use enrollment and unenrollment rules to prevent conflicts, like removing contacts from earlier-step workflows once they reach a later stage. If you’re integrating with other tools such as Salesforce, ensure your sync rules don’t overwrite stages with outdated data.
Excessive Customization of Stages
Adding too many custom stages or heavily editing defaults can backfire. Removing default stages like MQL or SQL because “we don’t use those terms” can lead to losing valuable data and built-in functionality. It also complicates support and referencing HubSpot documentation.
Use the default set of stages whenever possible. If additional stages are needed, such as “Former Customer,” add them carefully and understand the trade-offs.
Avoid creating dozens of new stages for every minor step—use lead status or deal stages for finer details instead. Keep lifecycle stages clear and meaningful.
Not Updating Stages to Customer
A common oversight is failing to update contacts to Customer after purchase, especially if the purchase occurs outside the standard pipeline—for example, on an e-commerce site not connected to HubSpot. This causes people to remain in Opportunity or Lead stages even when they are customers, skewing funnel metrics.
Ensure processes or integrations automatically update the lifecycle stage to Customer once a sale happens. For online transactions, leverage HubSpot workflows or APIs to mark these users as Customers.
For sales deals, ensure Closed Won deals are linked to contacts so HubSpot updates their status automatically. Periodically review contacts with Closed Won deals who are not marked as Customers and correct this.
Accurate customer counts are crucial for reporting and for moving customers into appropriate onboarding or upsell campaigns, instead of continuing to target them as prospects.
The Bottom Line
HubSpot lifecycle stages are critical for optimizing your marketing and sales processes. They transform the abstract buyer’s journey into actionable data points within your CRM.
By clearly defining stages like Subscriber, Lead, MQL, and SQL, your teams can focus on the right leads at the right time. These stages guarantee that your content is relevant, sales follow-ups are timely, and reporting accurately reflects the status of every opportunity.
To maximize the effectiveness of lifecycle stages, enforce data discipline and promote cross-team alignment. Invest in thorough training for your team and automate updates to streamline processes. Regularly analyze metrics to uncover insights that directly inform strategy and improvements.
As a certified HubSpot partner, Automation Strategy Group can help you focus on your ideal customer journey, ensuring that your marketing efforts align seamlessly with each stage of the lifecycle.
Let us help you optimize your processes and drive meaningful engagement that converts leads into loyal customers. Schedule a free consultation call with one of our HubSpot experts today!
