Lifecycle Stages & Contact Qualification

HubSpot's lifecycle stage field is a standard, non-editable system field that drives the contact qualification waterfall. Each stage has explicit criteria; contacts are automatically promoted (or demoted) as data is added or corrected. The framework below was finalized during a working session with ^[1] and reflects general best practice for B2B sales orgs using HubSpot.

Stage Definitions

Prospect

The default entry stage. Any contact that does not yet meet Lead criteria lands here. Automations should explicitly set all contacts to Prospect if they have not already reached a higher stage, excluding non-sales record types (vendors, media, etc.).

Criteria: One or more required Lead fields are missing or unknown.

Lead

The contact is a real, reachable person in a relevant geography.

Criteria (all required):
- First name known
- Last name known
- Email known
- Phone number known
- State/region is US or Canada (including Alaska, Hawaii)
- Category / market segment known

Note: If any of these fields are later cleared or invalidated (e.g., a phone number is found to be bogus), the contact drops back to Prospect automatically.

Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL)

The contact is associated with a company that has expressed interest in the product category and has enough operational context to be worth nurturing.

Criteria (all Lead criteria, plus):
- Associated with a company record
- Number of locations is known (> 0)
- Juicing interest field = "No, but seem interested" or higher

Key design decision: Fields about the place (locations, juicing status, volume) live on the Company object, not the Contact object. This preserves data when contacts change roles or leave. See ^[2].

Sales Qualified Lead (SQL)

The contact's associated company has confirmed enough operational detail to justify active sales pursuit. SQL qualification requires company-level data to be populated.

Criteria (all MQL criteria, plus):
- Juicing status = "Yes, currently juicing" or "No, but interested"
- Company qualification fields completed (or marked "Unknown"):
- Current juicing volume / anticipated volume
- Service model preference (self-service, managed, etc.)
- Other company-level fields per the qualification spreadsheet

"Unknown" option: Each company qualification field includes an Unknown option so that sales reps can advance a contact without blocking on incomplete customer data. The presence of the field forces the question to be asked; Unknown is a valid answer. Fields are required for SQL qualification but are not required to create a company record.

Automation status: SQL workflow was in progress as of the source session; Mark Hope to complete.

Opportunity

A contact at this stage represents a real, active sales opportunity. Deal creation is automated when a contact's lifecycle stage changes to Opportunity.

Criteria: Manually promoted from SQL when the sales team determines a concrete opportunity exists.

Automation: On lifecycle stage → Opportunity, HubSpot creates an associated Deal record linked to both the Contact and the Company. The initial deal stage carries a low win probability, reflecting early-stage uncertainty rather than a forecast-ready number. See ^[3].

Customer

The contact's associated deal has been closed-won. Stage is set upon deal closure.

Qualification Waterfall Logic

Automations run as a cascade. A contact is evaluated against the highest applicable criteria set and lands at the highest stage it qualifies for. If data changes, the contact recalculates and may move down as well as up.

Prospect → Lead → MQL → SQL → Opportunity → Customer

This means:
- Contacts do not need to be manually staged in most cases.
- Data quality directly drives pipeline visibility.
- Sales reps working the MQL funnel focus on contacts; reps working active deals focus on the Deals view.

Object Placement Principle

"If the question is about the place, put it on the Company object. If the question is about the person, put it on the Contact object."
— Mark Hope, working session

This rule ensures that company intelligence (juicing status, location count, volume) survives contact turnover. When a key contact leaves, the Deal and Company records remain intact, and the sales task becomes finding the replacement contact rather than starting qualification from scratch.

^[3]
^[2]
^[4]

Source Session

Decisions documented from: CAI HubSpot CRM Setup — Lifecycle Stages, Deal Management & BANT Integration (2025-10-09)
Attendees: Melissa Cusumano, Mark Hope, Chris Ostergaard (Asymmetric); Miriam Framson (Citrus America)