I’ve been working with HubSpot for a while now, and I’m facing an annoying limitation. The platform insists that contacts move forward through stages and won’t let them go back. This seems like a significant drawback because, in real business situations, prospects sometimes need to return to earlier stages.
Has anyone discovered smart workarounds for this problem? I was considering using multiple pipelines or setting up custom properties to manage different stages. What solutions have proven effective for you? I need a method that allows me more flexibility in handling contact progression while still keeping track of essential data.
ugh, i totally get it! what I do is set up another “backup pipeline” for contact flexibility. when I need to move folks back, I just copy them over, make changes, then move em back to the main one. kinda a hassle, but helps a lot!
hubspot’s lists feature works great for this - just create smart lists for each stage instead of using lifecycle stages. you can move contacts between lists however you want and set up automated workflows based on which list they’re in. much easier than dealing with custom properties.
We hit this same problem six months ago with enterprise clients who kept stalling or restarting their evaluations. Here’s what worked: we switched to tracking deals instead of contact lifecycle stages. We left the contact lifecycle alone but built a separate deals pipeline that matches our actual sales process. Now we can move deals back and forth without messing up the contact’s history. The reporting’s a bit different at first, but you get the flexibility you need plus keep all your historical data. Also worth setting up enrollment triggers in workflows to auto-update related properties when stages change.
I wrestled with this for months and finally found a workaround that actually works. Use HubSpot’s contact association feature with a secondary tracking system. Don’t fight the main lifecycle stages - create a custom dropdown property called “Sales Process Position” that mirrors your real funnel stages. You can change this property freely without any restrictions. Keep both systems running - let HubSpot handle the forward-only lifecycle for automation, while your custom property tracks actual prospect movement. You’ll need to tweak your reporting dashboards to pull from the custom property instead of lifecycle stages, but you get complete control over stage management without losing the automation benefits.
I encountered a similar challenge with HubSpot. An effective workaround I’ve utilized is to establish a custom property named “Current Stage Status” that represents your pipeline stages. This allows for flexible movement of contacts in either direction while retaining the integrity of your main pipeline for reporting purposes. Although using a custom property can complicate reporting slightly, creating tailored reports can help maintain data clarity.