Why Your “Customers” Might Not Actually Be Customers

This weekend, I was elbow-deep in a HubSpot audit for one of my largest clients. I’m talking hundreds of thousands of contacts.

And you know what shocked me?

Their Lifecycle Stages were immaculate. No rogue changes. No weird backslides. Everything moved forward—intentionally, cleanly, and automatically. They even had a workflow that blocked backward movement. Perfection.

But here’s where it gets interesting.

This same client—the biggest one I work with—also happens to be the one using Lifecycle Stages the most effectively. They’re dialed in. And not just in Marketing or Sales. Their entire system is talking to itself.

Now compare that to some of my smaller clients.
Some aren’t using Lifecycle Stages at all. Others have such messy, haphazard usage that it’s hard to tell if the Lifecycle Stage even means anything. Did this “Customer” actually buy something? Who knows!

It’s a little ironic. But it made me think:

Could clean, intentional lifecycle usage actually be a signal of maturity—and maybe even a contributor to success?

What Are “Unknown Lifecycle Changes”?

Let’s zoom out for a sec.

In HubSpot, Lifecycle Stages represent where a contact is in your business process: from Subscriber to Lead to MQL, SQL, Opportunity, Customer, and beyond.

But lifecycle stages don’t always change the way you think they do.

Sometimes, someone fills out a form or opens a support ticket and—boom—they’re now a “Customer.”
No closed-won deal. No revenue. Just a misfired automation.

This is what I call an “unknown lifecycle change.”
And when your system is full of them, it’s hard to trust your reports, your segmentation, or your automation logic.

Where the Trouble Starts (By Hub)

Marketing Hub
Often sets the stage—literally. But if one form assigns “Lead” and another leaves it blank, or if scoring rules aren’t clear, Marketing might promote people too soon—or not at all.

Sales Hub
Creates deals that may (or may not) bump a contact forward. Without rules in place, Sales can manually override Lifecycle Stages, leading to a disjointed CRM.

Service Hub
This one’s sneaky. Sometimes just opening a support ticket flags someone as a “Customer.” But unless there’s a purchase, that title might be misleading.

Operations Hub
This is where the magic happens. You can use custom workflows or code to block regressions (like Customer → Lead), enforce logic, and log changes so you know exactly what happened—and why.

So What’s the Fix?

The best Lifecycle Stage setups I’ve seen have a few things in common:

1. They’re intentional.
   Every stage change is tied to a real, trackable event: a form, a deal, a payment.
2. They’re forward-only.
   Lifecycle moves in one direction—unless there’s a very good reason to go backward (and it’s documented).
3. They’re logged.
   You can look at any contact and know exactly what moved them and when.

The Bigger Picture

Back to my audit this weekend. My most sophisticated, high-volume client had the cleanest Lifecycle logic I’ve ever seen. My smaller clients? Not so much.

That’s not to say Lifecycle Stage management is the only reason they’re successful…
But I can’t help wondering:

Is strong lifecycle discipline just a symptom of maturity—or is it part of what creates it?

Maybe a little of both.

Either way, if your Lifecycle Stages are changing without rhyme or reason, that’s not just a data issue—it’s a strategy issue.