During a working session with Miriam Framson (Citrus America), the team finalized HubSpot deal automation logic and clarified the full set of lifecycle stages in use. The key outcome: when a contact's lifecycle stage is set to Opportunity, a workflow automatically creates an associated deal. Two new lifecycle stages were also added to handle edge cases: Departed and Unqualified.
Related: [1] | [2]
A contact's lifecycle stage changes to Opportunity. This stage is reached when a contact meets BANT criteria (Budget, Authority, Need, Timing).
A new deal is automatically created in HubSpot and associated with the contact.
[Company Name] - New Deal
Sales reps can edit the deal name after creation (e.g., to reflect machine type or product line).
The full set of lifecycle stages configured for Citrus America:
| Stage | Description |
|---|---|
| Prospect | Known contact, insufficient info to qualify as a lead |
| Lead | Has name, email, state, and category on file |
| MQL | Lead + MQL qualifier answered (e.g., "Are they juicing?") |
| SQL | MQL + detailed sales data (volume, equipment, preferences, etc.) |
| Opportunity | SQL + BANT criteria met; deal auto-created |
| Customer | Closed won |
| Evangelist | High-value repeat customer (available but likely unused) |
| Not Ready | Interested but not currently in-market; enters drip sequence |
| Unqualified | No longer interested; do not contact |
| Departed | Contact has left their company; record preserved for history |
| Other | Catch-all |
| Subscriber | Email list subscriber (under review for removal) |
Departed
Added during this session. Used when a known contact leaves their company. The contact record is retained with full activity history, but flagged as inactive. This avoids data loss while keeping the pipeline clean. If a replacement contact is identified, lead stage and history can be transferred or referenced manually.
"You could leave that person in that company, but just tag them as having departed. So all of their activity and everything that ever went on with them would be there. But you know that they're not active anymore." — Mark Hope
Unqualified
Repurposed from "disqualified." Used for leads who have explicitly opted out or are no longer interested. Internal documentation should clarify this distinction so the team (including Brian) uses it consistently rather than informal labels like "bogus lead."
Not Ready
For contacts who express future interest but lack current budget or timing. These contacts enter a drip nurture sequence rather than being discarded.
A notable workflow decision: sales reps are not required to pass through MQL if they gather all qualifying data in a single call. If a rep collects both MQL and SQL data simultaneously, the contact can advance directly from Lead → SQL, bypassing the MQL stage.
This was confirmed as acceptable and will be supported in the workflow logic. The "Are they juicing?" field (the MQL gate) must still be answered, but it can be answered in the same session as the SQL fields.
All qualifying fields support an "Unknown" value, allowing the workflow to trigger even when specific answers are unavailable. A field marked Unknown is treated as answered for workflow purposes.
As of this session, no automation exists for Closed Won or Closed Lost deal stages. Miriam flagged this as a near-term need. Chris will investigate options.
Status: Pending — assigned to Chris Ostergaard.
To improve sales team adoption, Chris will research a simplified data-entry interface — potentially a pop-up questionnaire or embedded form — that allows reps to fill in contact qualifying fields without navigating the full HubSpot contact profile. Completed responses would automatically populate the relevant contact record fields.
Status: In research — assigned to Chris Ostergaard.
| Owner | Task | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Chris Ostergaard | Activate lead progression workflows (Prospect → Lead → MQL → SQL) | Pending |
| Chris Ostergaard | Build Opportunity workflow to auto-create deals | Pending |
| Chris Ostergaard | Investigate Closed Won / Closed Lost automation | Pending |
| Chris Ostergaard | Research simplified data-entry UI (pop-up form) | Pending |
| Miriam Framson | Test full lead-to-opportunity flow with sales team | Pending |
| Miriam Framson | Lead contact cleanup: reassign Jay's contacts, update active conversations | Pending |
A departed sales rep named Jay still owns a large number of contact and account records. Miriam will lead a cleanup effort using HubSpot's export/import process:
Key constraint: Picklist field values in the spreadsheet must exactly match HubSpot's configured options. Any mismatch will cause import errors.