How To Set Up Lead Status in a CRM

Table of Contents

Lead Status and the Sales Funnel

In our previous article, How To Set Up a Sales Funnel in a CRM, we discussed how someone in the Sales Funnel goes from a Lead to an MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead) to an SQL (Sales Qualified Lead) to a Deal to a Customer. In addition to this, we should also track Lead Status. Let’s take a look at the various statuses and how to use them in our CRM.

Lead Status Definitions

While you don’t have to use statuses listed below, you should think about your Sales, Account Development, & Marketing departments, and what would work for them.

1. New – This is assigned to every new Lead that comes into your system. It denotes that no action has been taken yet; whether it be a phone call, email, or otherwise.
2. Contacting – Denotes that someone from Account Development or Sales is actively reaching out to this prospect, but has yet to get a response.
3. Engaged – This is the same as Contacting, but this time, we have gotten a response from the prospect.
4. Meeting Scheduled – If the initial goal of outreach is to procure a meeting, then this works as our next status. It lets us know that the prospect has done more than just respond to us, but has actively taken a step to meet with us.
5. Qualified – This lets us know that this is a potential buyer. We often move prospects to this stage when a deal is created.
6. Nurture – We use this when a prospect is not ready to move forward with us, but may one day become a customer. We use this status to let the Marketing department know that we should add this Lead to a marketing campaign. Note that we can have multiple nurture campaigns, which can be based on Lead Score, conversion from Contacting to Nurture, Engaged to Nurture, etc.
7. Disqualified – This is used when the individual has no potential to purchase. No outreach will take place in the future.

How To Set Up Lead Status

Now that we have a basic understanding of our 7 types of status, let’s break them down and understand how to use them in our CRM, both with and without workflow automation.

1. New

1. Automation: We can set up a workflow whereby everyone who is marked as a Lead is set to this status. You may or may not want to include all existing Leads in your system, but you should set this up for every new one. It’s important to capture this because we want to know which Leads have been touched. It’s important to note that the end result of every Lead should either be that they become Qualified (potential to purchase) or disqualified (no potential to purchase).
   1. If Lifecycle Stage = Lead AND Lead Status is unknown→ set Lead Status = New
2. Manual: If you don’t automate all new Leads to have a status of New, you can create a report in your tool and run it once a week as an audit. You can then mass update these Leads. Your data should be filtered to show:
   1. Lifecycle Stage = Lead AND Lead Status is unknown → manually set Lead Status = New

2. Contacting

1. Automation: We can set up an automation for this in our CRM that captures activity data such as emails, phone calls, text messages, etc. If you have such a CRM, you can set up a rule:
   1. If Lead Status = New AND Activity is known → set Lead Status = Contacting
2. Manual: However, if your CRM doesn’t have suh capabilities or you’re not ready to set up this automation due to resource constraints, you can ask your team to update the status after an Activity such as an email or phone call.
   1. After Activity → manually set Lead Status = Contacting

3. Engaged

1. Automation: While most CRMs and Marketing Automation Systems can capture activity data, many don’t distinguish between an inbound and outbound email or phone call. However, if your system does this, we can create a rule:
   1. If Lead Status = New or Contacting AND Inbound Activity is Known → set Lead Status to Engaged
2. Manual: Just the same as with Contacting, we can ask our team to update status after receiving a phone call, email, etc.
   1. After Inbound Activity → manually set Lead Status = Engaged

4. Meeting Scheduled

1. Automation: If you have an integration with a calendar software or a meeting scheduling program, you can automate this status.
   1. If a meeting is scheduled AND Lead Status is New, Contacting, or Engaged → set Lead Status = Meeting Scheduled
2. Manual: After you set a meeting with your Lead, manually move the status:
   1. After you schedule a meeting AND Lead Status = New, Contacting, or Engaged → set Lead Status to Meeting Scheduled

5. Qualified

1. Automation: At this point, if your Lead wants to move forward beyond the initial meeting, you should now create a Deal and with your Qualified Lead. Generally, at this point, we no longer call them a Lead, but a Contact; that’s another topic for another day. Automate with:
   1. If a Deal is associated to the Contact → set Lead Status = Qualified
2. Manual: We can manually update this as well after we create a Deal. A good idea is to create a report that shows Contacts with an Associated Deal where Lead Status ≠ Qualified. Anyone who shows up in that report should be manually moved to Qualified.
   1. After a Deal is created → manually set Lead Status to Qualified

6. Nurture 

1. Automation: There a number of options to automate this status, but it depends on the action that precede it:
   1. Contacting: Once someone has this status, we can make a rule that if there is no Inbound Activity within a certain timeframe, then we can move them to Nurture.
      1. If Lead Status = Contacting AND Last Inbound Activity Date is greater than X number of days ago → set Lead Status to Nurture
   2. Engaged: We can make a rule that if a Meeting isn’t scheduled within a certain time frame, then move them to Nurture.
      1. If Lead Status = Engaged AND Meeting Scheduled is Unknown AND Last Inbound Activity Date is greater than X number of days ago → set Lead Status to Nurture
   3. Meeting Scheduled: Same as above, but if there is no Deal created:
      1. If Lead Status = Meeting Scheduled AND Meeting Scheduled Date is greater than X number of days ago AND Deal is Unknown → set Lead Status to Nurture
   4. Qualified: If a Contact is part of a Deal that is lost, we may want to move them back to Nurture.
      1. If Lead Status = Qualified AND Deal is Associated with the Contact AND the Associated Deal = Lost → set Lead Status to Nurture
2. Manual:  We can manually move someone’s status to Nurture because we see that the prospect is not ready to continue forward with us at this point in time.
   1. If Lead is not ready to move forward → set Lead Status to Nurture

7. Disqualified 

1. Automation: This is usually done via Lead Scoring; you can get a recap of that from our Sales Funnel article. When someone hits a designated negative Lead Score, we can automatically move them to Disqualified.
   1. If Lead Score is less than X → set Lead Status = Disqualified
2. Manual: As we scour our Leads and reach out to people, we can manually set the status to Disqualified when it’s applicable.
   1. If Lead will never purchase from you → set Lead Status to Disqualified

Wrap Up – Lead Status

Whether you automate your status, handle it manually, or do a combination of both, it’s important to share your process with your team. It’s vital to ensure that Sales, Account Development, and Marketing all understand what each status means and how it helps everyone. Remember that at the end of the day, you are all working towards the same goal of bringing in new business, and this data works toward that aim.