How to use Lead Status in your CRM

While Lifecycle Stages show where a contact is in the customer journey, Lead Status shows what’s happening right now between Sales and the prospect.

Think of Lifecycle as the “pipeline before the pipeline” and Lead Status as a snapshot of how you’ve engaged you leads.

When configured correctly, Lead Status becomes one of the most important properties in your CRM. It drives routing, triggers automations, enforces follow-up, and gives visibility into what Sales is actually doing with the leads handed to them.

Most teams either ignore Lead Status, use it as a catch-all for every stage of the funnel, or use it inconsistently. Here’s the clean, modern structure that actually works.

Why Lead Status Matters

Lead Status is more than a label. It impacts:

• Sales prioritization

• Task creation

• Automation triggers

• Lifecycle Stage movement

• Reporting visibility

• Forecasting accuracy

When your sales team uses Lead Status properly, you gain instant clarity into outreach volume, follow-up behavior, and qualification trends.

The 5 Essential Lead Statuses

You don’t need 12 options. You need five simple, universal statuses that map to every B2B sales motion.

1. New

The contact was just created. No outreach yet. This helps SDRs immediately see what needs first touch.

2. Attempted to Contact

Sales has taken action: email, call, or LinkedIn outreach. This is a key automation trigger, often used to move a contact into the Sales Accepted Lead (SAL) Lifecycle Stage.

3. Connected

Sales reached the lead: through a call, email response, or live conversation. This status signals a meaningful interaction and often prompts further qualification.

4. Qualified

Sales has determined the lead meets the criteria to buy. This is typically tied to BANT, CHAMP, or your qualification framework. Setting this status should automatically move the lead to SQL.

5. Disqualified

The lead is not a fit right now or ever. This is Sales’ signal to remove the lead from active outreach.

Best Practice: Add “Disqualified Reason”

Every CRM needs a custom property called Disqualified Reason.

Why it matters:

• Enables cleaner reporting (Why did leads drop off?)

• Helps marketing refine ICP and messaging

• Allows automated recycling, depending on the reason

• Prevents sales from reworking bad-fit leads

• Creates a feedback loop between Marketing and Sales

Common Disqualified Reasons:

• Bad Fit

• Bad Timing

• No Budget

• Using Competitor

• Not a Decision Maker

• No Interest

• Do Not Contact

When a rep sets Lead Status to Disqualified, HubSpot can prompt them to select a reason—giving your GTM team insight that would otherwise be lost.

How Lead Status Drives Automation

Lead Status should feed your Lifecycle Stages automatically. Some examples:

• Attempted to Contact = Set Lifecycle Stage to Sales Accepted Lead (SAL)

• Connected = Create follow-up tasks or reminders

• Qualified = Move to Sales Qualified Lead (SQL)

• Disqualified = Trigger recycle workflows and follow-up tasks

With the right workflows, reps only need to do two things: log activity and update Lead Status. HubSpot handles everything else.

If you want Lead Status, automations, and Lifecycle Stages to work seamlessly together, book a strategy call with Mansfield Strategies.