---
title: BluepointATM HubSpot CRM Simplification
type: article
created: '2026-04-05'
updated: '2026-04-05'
source_docs:
- raw/2025-10-30-bluepoint-hubspot-training-98188548.md
tags:
- hubspot
- crm
- bluepoint
- lifecycle-stage
- contact-type
- segmentation
- properties
- workflows
layer: 2
client_source: null
industry_context: null
transferable: true
---

# BluepointATM HubSpot CRM Simplification

## Overview

During a HubSpot training session with BluePoint ATM, the team identified that using both `Lifecycle Stage` and `Lead Status` in parallel was creating redundant, confusing tracking. The agreed solution was to consolidate around `Lifecycle Stage` as the single primary metric and introduce a new `Contact Type` property to handle relationship-based segmentation.

This approach simplifies reporting, enables cleaner automation triggers, and makes it easier to exclude non-prospect contacts (e.g., vendors, GPOs) from marketing communications.

---

## Problem: Redundant Tracking Fields

BluePoint was maintaining two overlapping properties:

- **`Lead Status`** — used to track granular sales progress (e.g., "Proposal Presentation")
- **`Lifecycle Stage`** — HubSpot's native funnel property (Subscriber → Lead → MQL → SQL → Opportunity → Customer)

This created confusion about which field to update, which to report on, and how automations should fire. Many contact records had `Lead Status` populated but `Lifecycle Stage` empty or inconsistent.

> *"I think what I would do here is stop using the lead status. Take the lead status off of the side panel and don't use it at all. Just use the lifecycle stage."*
> — Mark Hope (Asymmetric)

---

## Solution: Lifecycle Stage as Primary Metric

### Lifecycle Stage Configuration

`Lifecycle Stage` is the field HubSpot's automation engine is built around. All workflow triggers, reporting, and funnel views should reference this property.

**Stages in use at BluePoint:**

| Stage | Notes |
|---|---|
| Subscriber | Candidate for renaming to **Prospect** (see below) |
| Lead | Someone being actively worked |
| Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) | Meets partial BANT criteria |
| Sales Qualified Lead (SQL) | Meets full BANT criteria |
| Opportunity | Proposal has been made |
| Customer | Closed/won |
| Evangelist | Rarely used; referral partners |
| **Disqualified** | **New — added during this session** |

**Changes made during the session:**
- A `Disqualified` stage was added to capture contacts who should never be re-engaged (e.g., "do not call" requests).
- The `Subscriber` stage is a candidate to be renamed `Prospect` to better reflect BluePoint's use case — someone whose name was sourced from a list or event but hasn't been qualified yet.

### Retiring Lead Status

The team agreed to stop actively using `Lead Status`. Rather than deleting it immediately (which would affect ~14 existing records), the plan is to:
1. Stop populating it on new contacts.
2. Leave existing values in place temporarily.
3. Hide it from the contact sidebar view once the team has migrated to `Lifecycle Stage`.

---

## New Property: Contact Type

### Purpose

BluePoint's CRM contains more than just sales prospects — it includes past customers, GPO partners, and vendors. Without a way to distinguish these, marketing emails and workflows risk being sent to the wrong audience.

`Contact Type` was created as a custom dropdown property to categorize contacts by their *relationship* to BluePoint, independent of where they are in the sales funnel.

### Values

| Value | Description |
|---|---|
| **Lead** | Someone BluePoint is actively trying to sell to |
| **Customer** | Existing/past customer |
| **GPO** | Group Purchasing Organization partner (e.g., Integra) |
| **Vendor** | Company BluePoint pays for services (e.g., telecom) |
| **Other** | Catch-all for contacts that don't fit above |

> *"The telephone company is a vendor. A GPO is a partner — a type of partner. You need a field that you can separate those. You can say, hey, this guy's a vendor, I don't want to send him marketing emails."*
> — Mark Hope (Asymmetric)

### How to Use It

- **Filtering:** Create list views filtered by `Contact Type = Lead` to ensure marketing campaigns only target prospects.
- **Exclusions:** Exclude `Vendor` and `GPO` contacts from enrollment in drip sequences.
- **Reporting:** Segment pipeline reports by contact type to see lead volume vs. customer base at a glance.

---

## Bulk Editing Contacts

To update existing contacts with the new `Contact Type` property, Mark demonstrated a bulk-edit workflow:

1. **Create a filtered list view** — e.g., filter by `Lead Status` is any of [active values] to surface all current active leads.
2. **Set page size to 100** to see all records at once.
3. **Click "Edit columns"** (top right of the list view) to add `Contact Type` as a visible column.
4. **Select all contacts** using the header checkbox.
5. **Use the inline edit** — click the `Contact Type` cell and choose a value; HubSpot will apply it to all selected records.
6. **Save the view** — don't forget to save after configuring columns and filters.

> **Pro tip:** When working through a contact list, right-click a contact name and open it in a new tab. This lets you review and update the record without losing your place in the list.

---

## Action Items

| Owner | Task |
|---|---|
| **Mike Stebbins** | Bulk-update existing contacts with `Contact Type` using the filtered list view method |
| **Mike Stebbins** | Begin using `Lifecycle Stage` as the primary field for all lead tracking going forward |
| **Mike Stebbins** | Stop populating `Lead Status` on new contacts |
| **Mark Hope** | Confirm whether the `Subscriber` → `Prospect` rename should be applied globally |
| **Wade & Mike** | Document any remaining HubSpot questions for the next training session |

---

## Related

- [[clients/bluepoint-atm/index]]
- [[knowledge/hubspot/callrail-integration-strategy]]
- [[knowledge/hubspot/drip-campaign-workflows]]