Sales Training

HubSpot Sales Playbook

Quick Reference Guide

Lead statuses, deal pipeline, territory routing - everything your sales team needs in one place. Each section is designed as a standalone quick reference.

The #1 Rule

Lead Status is your only control. Update it, and everything else (lifecycle stage, customer status, deal creation) follows automatically. You never need to touch Lifecycle Stage directly.

Prepared by The Matchbox | March 2026 | Internal Use Only

Section 01

Lead Status & Deal Management

Your single control point for every contact in the CRM. Update lead status and everything else follows automatically.

Lead Status Lifecycle

New

MQL

In Progress

Meeting Booked

Open Deal

Lead Status Reference

Status	What It Means	How It Changes	Lifecycle
New	Brand new lead or company. No sales activity yet.	Automatic when record is created	Lead
MQL	Score hits 50+ (contact AND company) or marketing-qualified form fill.	Automatic via scoring workflows	MQL
In Progress	Rep is actively working the contact. Emails sent, calls logged.	Automatic when activity is detected	MQL
Meeting Booked	Meeting booked with the contact.	Automatic when meeting is logged	SQL
Open Deal	Deal created and actively being worked.	Automatic when deal enters pipeline	Opportunity
Cold	No engagement or activity for 90+ days.	Automatic after 90-day inactivity	No change
NQ - Other	Disqualified. Not a fit but keep for reference.	Manual - rep updates	No change
NQ - Partner	Identified as a tech partner, not a prospect.	Manual - rep updates	No change
NQ - Vendor	Identified as a vendor to MontyCloud.	Manual - rep updates	No change
NQ - Competitor	Identified as a competitor.	Manual - rep updates	No change
Do Not Contact	Hard DQ. Never contact again.	Manual - rep updates	No change

Automated (system handles it)

Manual (you update it)

When to Create, Change, or Leave It Alone

Contact reaches "Open Deal" lead status

A deal is automatically created at the Qualified stage. You do NOT need to create one manually.

You want to create a deal proactively

Change the lead status to "Open Deal" on the contact card. The system generates the deal and associates the contact.

A deal is already open for this contact

Do NOT change lead status. Go directly to the deal record and advance the deal stage through the pipeline.

A deal is Closed Lost and the contact re-engages

Create a new deal manually from the contact record. Do not reopen the old deal - it preserves your Closed Lost reason data.

You need to disqualify a contact

Change lead status to the appropriate NQ value (Partner, Vendor, Competitor, Other, or Do Not Contact). Do NOT create or modify a deal.

Contact Card Management & Auto-Creating Deals

Quick Tips

Advancing a deal through stages

Drag the deal to the next stage. A pop-up will ask you to check off exit criteria. If you skip it, the deal bounces back. Fill in the checkboxes and confirm.

Closing a deal as Lost

Move to Closed Lost. You must select a reason (No Budget, Timing, Competitor, etc.). If you choose "Chose Competitor," a field appears to enter the competitor name.

Creating a quote

Go to the deal record > Quotes > Add. Choose your template, insert the right snippet for Comments to Buyer, and combine Purchase Terms Part 1 + Part 2.

Don't touch Lifecycle Stage

It updates automatically based on your lead status and deal activity. Manual changes conflict with automation and create data issues.

Named Accounts

If a company is flagged as a Named Account, it routes to the Named Account owner (not territory). You'll see this at the top of the company and contact cards.

Section 02

Deal Pipeline

How deals move from qualified to closed. Each stage has exit criteria you must complete before advancing.

Pipeline Stages

Qualified

Tech Validation

Business Validation

Negotiate

Contract

Stage-by-Stage Guide

10%Qualified

Deal created. Rep has confirmed use case, BANT, and internal champion.

Demo completed. ROI criteria identified. Stakeholders mapped.

20%Tech Validation

Customer evaluating MontyCloud via POC.

Solution matches requirements. Champion validated. MNDA signed.

50%Business Validation

Deep technical and business validation. ROI estimated.

Customer agrees solution meets technical and business requirements.

80%Negotiate

Final proposal and pricing. MSA/SOW initiated.

Verbal or written commitment. MSA redlines completed.

90%Contract

Waiting on signature. Contract/PO in process.

Contract routed for internal approval.

100%Closed Won

Contract signed and executed.

Deal amount confirmed.

0%Closed Lost

Formally lost. Reason documented.

Closed Lost reason selected. Competitor name if applicable.

Navigating the Deal Pipeline Effectively

Creating a Quote: Step-by-Step Guide

Required Fields by Stage

Qualified (entry)Contact associated, Company associated, Deal amount, Close date, Deal owner

Tech Validation > ContractExit criteria multi-select checkboxes (pop up when you move the deal)

Closed WonDeal amount (confirmed)

Closed LostClosed Lost reason (required). Competitor name (if reason = "Chose Competitor")

Closed Lost Reasons

No BudgetTiming - Revisit LaterChose Competitor(triggers competitor name)No DecisionNot a Fit - TechnicalNot a Fit - BusinessChampion LeftWrong ContactDuplicate

Section 03

Territory Routing

How leads and companies get assigned to reps automatically. Routing is fully automated - you don't assign contacts yourself.

Planned Change

Routing will shift to MQL-gated - only leads with MQL status and scores above 50 will be assigned to sales reps. Pending Ryan approval.

Routing Decision Flow

Named Account?

Free Email?

Has State?

Company Exists?

Default

Is this a Named Account?Yes: Routes to the Named Account owner. A rep can own a named account outside their territory.

Is the email Gmail / Yahoo / AOL?Yes: Lead status set to Nurture. Routes to Marketing Owner for enrichment before sales touches it.

Does the company have a state?Yes: State maps to the territory table. Territory Owner is set on company AND all associated contacts.

Company exists but no state?Workflow copies state/country from the company record to contacts. If company has no state either, falls to Ann Marie.

No company associated?Cannot be routed. Defaults to Ann Marie. Pending: Breeze Intelligence enrichment to fill company data automatically.

Territory Assignments

Rep	States / Criteria	Region
Ryan Broderson	Named Accounts only (no territory - head of sales)	Named Accts
JD Romero	MA, ME, NH, VT, RI, CT + temp: OH, WI, MO, NE, MN, MI, KY, IN, IL, IA, WV	East / Central
Nicole Francese	NJ, NY, PA, DE	East
Matt Gross	CA + temp: WA, OR, AK, HI	West
Paola Garcia	FL, GA, NC, SC, AL, MS + temp: VA, MD	Southeast
Sam Hess	KS, LA, OK, TX, TN + temp: WY, UT, NV, ID, CO, AZ, ND, SD	Central
Ann Marie Woodburn	LATAM + all unassigned territories (UK, Europe, APJ, unlisted states)	Catch-all
Marketing Owner	Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, free email domains (no company data)	Nurture

Temporary assignments are separated so workflows can be reassigned to a new hire without rebuilding routing logic.

Key Rules

Territory Owner = the owner. Company Owner and Contact Owner still exist but are hidden from your view. Territory Owner is what you see and what matters.

Customers and open deals are protected. If a company has a closed-won deal or an active open deal, the current owner is preserved when routing reruns.

Named accounts can live outside your territory. A rep can own a named account in another rep's geography. Named account assignment overrides territory.

Never manually change Territory Owner. The workflow will overwrite it. If an assignment is wrong, message RevOps (Cole / Ann Marie) so they fix the data or workflow.

Vendors and partners are excluded. Contacts flagged as vendors or partners are excluded from lead routing queues entirely. If you identify one, NQ them so they're removed from future routing.

History is preserved. When ownership changes, all past activity (emails, calls, notes) stays on the record. Nothing is deleted.

Pending Confirmation

Named account routing errorsSome named accounts routing incorrectly (e.g. North Bay going to Ann Marie instead of JD). Cole doing deep dive to fix data enrichment issues.

Vendor / partner exclusionVendors and partners need to be excluded from lead routing queues. Ann Marie providing lists for exclusion.

Eventbrite - no company dataEventbrite can't restrict to business emails. Personal emails enter without company associations. Team evaluating Splash or custom HubSpot forms.

~7,500 contacts missing companies~6,900 of these have zero engagement history. Cole cleaning up database - disqualifying unengaged contacts with personal emails.

MQL-gated routing (planned)Routing will shift from assigning all new leads to only assigning MQL-status leads with scores above 50. Pending Ryan's approval.

Day2 automated workflowLegacy workflow assigns most Day2 sign-ups to Matt Gross regardless of territory. Madhavi owns this - needs routing update.

Questions? Reach out to your Matchbox team or refer to the training videos. This page reflects the HubSpot configuration as of March 2026.