To change lead status in HubSpot, you’ll usually head straight to a contact’s record, find the “Lead Status” property, and pick a new option from the dropdown menu. It sounds simple, right? And it totally is for quick, one-off updates! But really mastering your lead statuses in HubSpot means understanding why they’re there, how they differ from other stages, and even how to customize them to perfectly fit your business. If you don’t manage these statuses well, you could be losing out big time. in fact, some data suggests that a staggering 79% of marketing leads never turn into sales simply because of poor lead status management. That’s a huge number, and it really highlights why getting this right is so critical for boosting your conversion rates and keeping your sales pipeline humming along.

Think of it this way: your HubSpot CRM becomes a powerful tool when you’ve got a clear, consistent system for tracking your leads. Without it, you end up with chaotic sales processes, incomplete reports, and a disjointed experience for your potential customers. We’re going to walk through everything you need to know, from the basics of tweaking a single contact’s status to setting up custom statuses and even automating the whole process. By the end, you’ll have a clear roadmap to make your lead management in HubSpot not just organized, but genuinely effective.

Table of Contents

Understanding Lead Status in HubSpot: Why It’s a Game-Changer

Alright, let’s get down to basics. What exactly is Lead Status in HubSpot? At its core, it’s a dropdown field you’ll find on a contact’s record, and its whole job is to tell you precisely where a prospect is within your current sales process. It’s like a little progress report, showing you the nitty-gritty details of how your sales team is engaging with a lead. You might see statuses like “New,” “Open,” “In Progress,” or “Attempted to Contact.”

Now, why should you even care about this seemingly small detail? Well, it’s a total game-changer for a few big reasons:

Organization is Key: Imagine trying to keep track of dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of leads without a clear system. It’d be pure chaos! Lead Status helps you categorize and organize leads so no one falls through the cracks.
Prioritization Power: When your sales team logs in, they don’t want to spend an hour figuring out who to call first. A well-maintained lead status quickly tells them who’s “New” and needs immediate outreach, who’s “Connected” and needs nurturing, or who’s “Unqualified” and can be archived. This makes their day-to-day work much more efficient.
Tracking Progress: It’s not just about knowing what happened, but where things stand. Are we waiting on a reply? Did they engage in a conversation? Is a deal open? Lead Status gives you a live look at where each lead is in their journey with your sales team.
Better Team Alignment: This is a big one. When everyone on your sales, marketing, and even service teams uses the same lead status definitions, communication becomes so much smoother. Everyone knows what “In Progress” means, ensuring consistent follow-ups and a seamless experience for your prospects.
Actionable Insights: When you track lead statuses accurately, you can build reports that show you bottlenecks in your sales process. Are too many leads getting stuck at “Attempted to Contact”? Maybe your outreach strategy needs a tweak. This data helps you optimize and improve.

Ultimately, a clear lead status system makes your entire lead management process more efficient, helps your teams work together, and directly contributes to closing more deals. It’s not just a field in HubSpot. it’s a strategic tool.

Lead Status vs. Lifecycle Stage: Clearing Up the Confusion

if you’re new to HubSpot, or even if you’ve been using it for a while, one of the most common head-scratchers is the difference between “Lead Status” and “Lifecycle Stage.” They sound similar, right? But trust me, they serve very distinct purposes. Let’s break it down.

Lifecycle Stages: Think of Lifecycle Stages as the big, overarching chapters in a contact’s entire journey with your business. These stages describe how a contact or company generally moves from being a complete stranger to a loyal customer and sometimes even an advocate!. HubSpot comes with some default lifecycle stages, and they typically look something like this:

Subscriber: Someone who’s opted into your blog or newsletter.
Lead: A contact who’s shown more interest e.g., downloaded an ebook or filled out a form but isn’t quite ready for a sales conversation.
Marketing Qualified Lead MQL: Your marketing team has qualified this contact as ready for more nurturing, perhaps because they hit a certain lead score or engaged deeply with your content.
Sales Qualified Lead SQL: This is where things get serious! Your sales team has vetted this contact and determined they are a potential customer. They’re ready for direct sales engagement.
Opportunity: The contact is now associated with an active deal in your sales pipeline.
Customer: They’ve bought something from you – closed-won deal!
Evangelist: A happy customer who advocates for your brand.
Other: For contacts that don’t fit the main categories.

These lifecycle stages are usually managed by both marketing and sales, and a contact typically moves forward through them. You generally don’t go back from “Customer” to “Lead,” for example.

Lead Status: Now, Lead Status is much more granular. It actually lives within the Sales Qualified Lead SQL lifecycle stage. It’s specifically about the interactions your sales team has had with that qualified lead. While the lifecycle stage tells you where a contact is in their overall journey with your company, the lead status tells you what’s happening right now in their sales-specific interactions.

Think of it like this:

Lifecycle Stage: You’re on a long road trip, and you’ve just entered a new state e.g., “Sales Qualified Lead”.
Lead Status: Within that state, are you at a gas station? Eating at a diner? Driving on the highway? These are the sub-steps of your sales journey.

The key difference is that while lifecycle stages tend to move one way, lead statuses can be more fluid. A lead might go from “Attempted to Contact” to “Connected,” and if that connection goes cold, they might even revert to “Attempted to Contact” again before being marked “Unqualified” or “Bad Timing.”

Understanding this distinction is super important because it helps you build more accurate reports, create targeted workflows, and ensure your sales and marketing teams aren’t stepping on each other’s toes.

HubSpot’s Default Lead Statuses: Your Starting Point

When you first jump into HubSpot, it doesn’t leave you completely in the dark. It comes pre-loaded with a set of default lead statuses that are designed to fit common sales workflows. These are excellent starting points, and you might find that many of them work perfectly for your team.

Here are the standard default lead status options you’ll typically find, along with what they generally mean:

New: This is for recently added leads that haven’t been contacted by your sales team yet. It’s like a fresh batch of cookies waiting to be enjoyed! This status is perfect for tracking untouched prospects who are awaiting their initial outreach.
Open: This usually means the lead has been assigned to a sales rep, but no direct activity has happened yet. They’re ready for action, but no one’s made the first move. It helps monitor leads ready for sales engagement but not yet actively contacted.
In Progress: The sales team has qualified this lead and is actively preparing to contact them or is in the early stages of engagement. It’s a sign that the lead is being worked on.
Attempted to Contact: Your sales team has tried to reach out e.g., sent an email, made a call but hasn’t received a response or connected yet. This one’s critical for knowing who needs a follow-up.
Connected: This is a great status! It means the lead has responded and you’ve had a meaningful conversation. You’ve got their attention, and now the real work begins.
Open Deal: A deal has been created and associated with this contact. This typically indicates they’ve moved beyond initial conversations and are actively in a sales pipeline as an opportunity.
Unqualified: This lead isn’t a good fit for your product or service right now. Maybe their budget isn’t right, or their needs don’t align. It’s important to mark these so your team doesn’t waste time. Many teams also add an “Unqualified Reason” property to understand why they were disqualified.
Bad Timing: This lead might be a good fit, but the timing just isn’t right for them to buy. Maybe they’re just starting their research, or they need to wait a few months. You might want to nurture these leads for future consideration.

These default options give you a solid framework, but remember, the beauty of HubSpot is that you can totally customize these to match your specific sales process. Don’t be afraid to tweak them if they don’t quite align with how your team operates!

How to Change Lead Status in HubSpot: Your Step-by-Step Guide

Alright, let’s get into the practical side of things. Actually changing a lead’s status in HubSpot is pretty straightforward, whether you’re doing it for one person or a whole bunch.

Changing an Individual Lead’s Status

This is the most common way to update a lead’s status, especially when you’re actively working on their record.

Go to your Contacts section in HubSpot: From your main HubSpot dashboard, just navigate to “CRM” then “Contacts” in the top menu.
Find and open the lead record you want to update: You can use the search bar or filters to quickly locate the specific contact you’re looking for. Click on their name to open their contact record.
Locate the “Lead Status” property: Once you’re on the contact’s record, you’ll usually find the “Lead Status” property in the “About” section on the left-hand sidebar.
Click the current status value: See the current status written there? Just click on it. This will open up a dropdown menu showing all your available lead status options.
Select the new status: Pick the option that best reflects where this lead is right now in your sales process.
The change saves automatically: That’s it! HubSpot automatically saves your selection, so there’s no extra “Save” button to click for individual updates.

This method works perfectly for those one-off changes as you’re progressing with a lead.

Bulk Updating Lead Statuses for Multiple Contacts

What if you’ve got a whole list of leads that need the same status update? Manually going through each one would be a total pain. Luckily, HubSpot lets you update multiple contacts at once.

Navigate to Contacts in your HubSpot account: Again, head to “CRM” then “Contacts.”
Use filters to create a view of leads that need status changes: This is a crucial step. Use HubSpot’s powerful filtering options to narrow down your list. For example, you might filter by “Date created,” “Owner,” “Lifecycle Stage SQL,” or any other property that helps you identify the group of leads you want to update.
Select all relevant contacts: Once your filtered list is showing, click the checkbox at the top of the list to select all contacts in that view. HubSpot typically allows you to select up to 100 contacts at once for this native bulk edit. If you have more than 100, you’ll need to do it in batches, or consider third-party integrations for larger sets.
Click “More” or “Edit” and select “Edit properties”: After selecting the contacts, you’ll see a bar appear at the top of the table. Click on “More” or sometimes just “Edit” directly and then choose “Edit properties” from the dropdown.
Find the “Lead Status” field and choose the new status: In the bulk edit window that pops up, scroll until you find the “Lead Status” property. Click its dropdown and select the new status you want to apply to all the selected contacts.
Click “Apply” or “Save”: Hit the “Apply” or “Save” button, and HubSpot will process the updates. Depending on how many contacts you selected, it might take a moment, but you’ll see the changes reflected in your contact list once it’s done.

For truly massive bulk updates that exceed HubSpot’s 100-contact limit, tools like Coefficient or Superjoin can connect your HubSpot data to a spreadsheet, allowing you to make unlimited changes there and then sync them back to HubSpot. This is how many RevOps professionals handle very large datasets!

Customizing Your Lead Statuses: Making HubSpot Truly Yours

While HubSpot’s default lead statuses are a great starting point, every business is unique. Your sales process probably has specific steps, nuances, and terminology that HubSpot’s generic options just don’t cover perfectly. Good news: you can totally customize your lead statuses! This means adding new ones, editing existing labels, or even removing options you don’t use.

Customizing lead statuses is powerful because it allows your CRM to truly mirror your unique workflows, making it easier for your teams to track progress, segment leads, and collaborate effectively.

Accessing Lead Status Settings

Before you can start tweaking, you need to find where these settings live in HubSpot.

Log in to your HubSpot account: Start by heading to your main HubSpot dashboard.
Click on the settings icon gear in the top right corner: This little gear icon is your gateway to most of HubSpot’s administrative settings.
In the left sidebar menu, click on “Properties”: Under the “Data Management” section or sometimes directly listed under “Settings”, you’ll find “Properties.” This is where all your CRM properties, including Lead Status, are managed.
Use the search bar to find “Lead Status”: There are tons of properties in HubSpot, so the quickest way to find “Lead Status” is to type it into the search bar. Make sure you select the “Contact” object if it asks, as Lead Status is a contact property.
Click on “Lead Status” to open the settings page: Once you find it, click on “Lead Status” to open up its specific settings where you can modify its options.

Important Note: Only users with the right permissions can access and modify these settings. If you can’t find them, you might need to ask your HubSpot administrator for help.

Adding New Lead Status Options

Got a specific stage in your sales process that isn’t covered? Let’s add it!

In the “Lead Status” settings, scroll down to the “Options” section: This is where all your current dropdown choices are listed.
Click on “Add option” or “+ Add option” button: You’ll see a button that lets you create a brand new status.
Enter a label for the lead status: This is what your sales team will see in the dropdown menu e.g., “Demo Scheduled,” “Proposal Sent,” “Follow-Up Required”.
Optionally, provide an internal value and description: HubSpot will often auto-populate an “internal value” which is good for reporting. You can also add a brief description to clarify the purpose of this new status, which is super helpful for team training.
Adjust the sort order optional: If you want your statuses to appear in a specific order in the dropdown, you can often drag and drop them or assign a numerical sort order.
Click “Save”: Don’t forget this step! Once you’ve added your new status, hit “Save” to make your changes live across your HubSpot portal.

Editing Existing Lead Status Options

Maybe you just want to rename one of HubSpot’s default statuses to better suit your team’s lingo e.g., changing “New” to “Uncontacted”.

In the “Lead Status” settings, go to the “Options” section: Find the status you want to change.
Click on the label of the existing status: This will usually allow you to directly edit the text.
Modify the label: Type in your new, preferred name for that status.
Click “Save”: Again, save your changes to apply them.

Deleting Unused Lead Status Options

If you have statuses you simply don’t use or that are redundant, you can remove them to keep your list clean and avoid confusion.

In the “Lead Status” settings, locate the status you want to delete.
Click the “Delete” icon often a trash can symbol next to the status: HubSpot will usually give you a warning here.
Be cautious! Deleting a status can impact existing leads that currently have that status and may affect your historical reporting. Before deleting, consider if you need to bulk update any contacts from that status to a different one.
Confirm the deletion: If you’re sure, confirm the deletion.
Click “Save”: Finalize the changes.

Customizing your lead statuses is a fantastic way to make HubSpot truly work for your unique business, ensuring your sales pipeline reflects your actual processes.

Best Practices for Effective Lead Status Management

Just having lead statuses isn’t enough. you need to use them effectively. Here are some pro tips to make sure your lead status management is top-notch:

Keep Lead Statuses Simple and Clear: Don’t overcomplicate it! Too many statuses can lead to confusion and inconsistency. Aim for a manageable number that truly reflects distinct stages in your sales process. Each status should have a clear, unambiguous meaning.
Define Each Status with Actions: This is probably the most crucial step. For every lead status, define what it means and, more importantly, what actions should be taken when a lead is in that status. For example:
- New: “Assign to rep within 24 hours, initial email/call within 48 hours.”
- Attempted to Contact: “Follow-up email scheduled for 2 days, call scheduled for 4 days.”
- Connected: “Schedule discovery call within 24 hours, update notes with key takeaways.”
  This ensures everyone on the team understands their responsibilities.
Align with Your Unique Sales Process: Your lead statuses should perfectly mirror your actual sales funnel. If you have a specific step like “Needs Assessment” or “Product Demo Scheduled,” create a status for it!
Regularly Review and Update Statuses: Your sales process isn’t static, and neither should your lead statuses be. Periodically review your statuses with your sales team. Are they still relevant? Are there new stages? Remove outdated ones and add new ones as needed.
Train Your Team Thoroughly: Even the best system fails if people don’t know how to use it. Conduct regular training sessions for your sales team on what each lead status means, when to use it, and what actions it triggers. Emphasize consistency.
Leverage Automation with Workflows: This is where HubSpot really shines. Use workflows to automatically update lead statuses based on specific triggers. For example, if a contact fills out a “Request a Demo” form, their status could automatically change to “Demo Requested.”
Use Lead Status for Reporting and Segmentation: Don’t just track them. use them! Build custom reports in HubSpot to see how many leads are in each status, how long they stay there, and which statuses lead to the most conversions. Use lead statuses to create targeted lists for specific marketing campaigns or sales outreach sequences.

By following these best practices, you won’t just be changing lead statuses. you’ll be actively managing your pipeline to drive better results.

Automating Lead Status Updates with Workflows

Automating tasks is one of the biggest time-savers in HubSpot, and lead status updates are no exception. Think about it: instead of a sales rep manually changing a status every time a lead takes an action, a workflow can do it instantly and consistently. This frees up your team to focus on selling, not administrative tasks.

Here’s a basic idea of how you can set up a workflow to automatically update lead status:

Navigate to Workflows: In HubSpot, go to “Automation” and then “Workflows.”
Create a New Workflow: Click “Create workflow” and choose to start from scratch or pick a template. Most lead status updates will be “Contact-based.”
Define Enrollment Triggers: This is the “if” part of your automation. What action should cause the lead status to change? Some common examples include:
- Form Submission: If a contact fills out a specific “Request a Quote” form, enroll them.
- Email Engagement: If a contact opens a specific sales email or clicks a link in it.
- Property Change: If another property, like “Lifecycle Stage,” changes to “Sales Qualified Lead.”
- Activity: If a sales rep logs a specific call outcome e.g., “Demo Scheduled”.
Add an Action to Update Lead Status: Once you’ve defined your trigger, add an action step. Choose “Set a contact property value.”
Select “Lead Status” as the property to set: Then, choose the new lead status you want to assign based on your trigger e.g., “Demo Scheduled,” “Attempted to Contact”.
Activate the Workflow: Review your workflow, give it a clear name, and then turn it on!

Example Scenario:
Let’s say you have a status called “Demo Scheduled.” You can create a workflow that says:

IF a contact submits the “Schedule a Demo” form
THEN set their “Lead Status” to “Demo Scheduled”
AND create a task for the assigned sales rep to prepare for the demo.

This kind of automation ensures that your lead data is always up-to-date, reduces manual errors, and provides real-time visibility into your sales pipeline for everyone involved.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Even with the best intentions, it’s easy to fall into some common traps when managing lead statuses. Steering clear of these can save you a lot of headaches down the line.

Overcomplicating Your Statuses: This is a big one. Having too many lead statuses think 15-20+ options can make your dropdown menu unwieldy and confusing for your sales team. When there are too many choices, reps might pick the wrong one, or just avoid updating it altogether. Stick to the essential stages that genuinely help you track progress and trigger specific actions.
Lack of Clear Definitions: If “In Progress” means one thing to Sarah and another to Omar, you’ve got a problem. Without clear, documented definitions for each lead status, consistency goes out the window. This leads to dirty data, inaccurate reporting, and poor communication. Make sure everyone knows exactly what each status signifies and what actions are expected.
Inconsistent Usage by the Team: Even with clear definitions, if your team isn’t actually using the lead statuses consistently, the whole system breaks down. Regular training, reinforcement, and spot-checks can help ensure everyone is on the same page and actively updating statuses.
Confusing Lead Status with Lifecycle Stage: We talked about this earlier, but it’s worth reiterating. These are distinct properties! Lead Status is granular and sales-focused, while Lifecycle Stage is broad and tracks the entire customer journey. Misusing them will mess up your reporting and your understanding of your pipeline.
Not Using Automation Where Possible: Relying solely on manual updates for every single lead status change is inefficient and prone to human error. If a trigger can be automated like a form submission or a deal stage change, set up a workflow to handle it. This ensures accuracy and frees up your team’s valuable time.
Failing to Review and Adapt: Your business evolves, and so should your sales process. If you set up your lead statuses once and never revisit them, they’ll quickly become outdated. Schedule a quarterly or bi-annual review with your sales leadership and reps to ensure your statuses are still relevant and effective.

By being mindful of these pitfalls, you can build a more robust and reliable lead status system in HubSpot that genuinely supports your sales and marketing efforts.

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the main difference between Lead Status and Lifecycle Stage in HubSpot?

The main difference is scope. Lifecycle Stage tracks a contact’s overall journey with your company, from a visitor to a customer and beyond e.g., Lead, MQL, SQL, Customer. Lead Status, on the other hand, is a more granular property that describes the specific interactions and progress a sales rep has made with a lead, usually within the Sales Qualified Lead SQL lifecycle stage. Think of Lifecycle as the “big picture” and Lead Status as the “current sales activity” detail.

Can I customize the default Lead Status options in HubSpot?

Yes, absolutely! Unlike some Lifecycle Stages that are harder to change, HubSpot’s “Lead Status” property is fully customizable. You can add new statuses, edit the labels of existing ones, delete options you don’t use, and even rearrange their order to perfectly match your unique sales process.

How do I change the Lead Status for more than 100 contacts at once?

HubSpot’s native bulk editing feature allows you to update up to 100 contacts at a time from the contacts view. If you need to change the status for more than 100 contacts, you’ll either have to do it in batches of 100, or you can use third-party integrations like Coefficient or Superjoin. These tools let you sync your HubSpot data to a spreadsheet, make extensive bulk changes there, and then push those changes back to HubSpot.

Where can I find the Lead Status property in HubSpot?

You can find the “Lead Status” property on an individual contact’s record, typically in the “About” section on the left-hand sidebar. To customize the available options for “Lead Status,” you’ll need to go to your HubSpot Settings gear icon > Properties under Data Management > Search for “Lead Status” and then click to edit the property. How to Easily Log In to Your HubSpot CRM (and Why You Absolutely Should!)

Why is it important to have clear definitions for each Lead Status?

Clear definitions are vital for consistency and effectiveness. Without them, different sales reps might interpret a status differently, leading to inconsistent data, inaccurate reporting, and confused workflows. When each status has a precise meaning and associated actions, your team knows exactly what to do at each stage, leading to better lead management, smoother communication, and improved conversion rates.

Can I automate Lead Status updates in HubSpot?

Yes, you definitely can! You can use HubSpot workflows to automatically update a contact’s “Lead Status” based on specific triggers. For example, a workflow can change a lead’s status to “Demo Scheduled” if they submit a “Request a Demo” form, or to “Attempted to Contact” if a sales rep logs a specific call outcome. This saves time, ensures accuracy, and keeps your pipeline data up-to-date without manual effort.

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