Recycling Leads

Rizer supports recycling HubSpot leads in addition to deals. If your sales process uses leads — contacts that need qualification before becoming deals — you can track and re-engage them through the same recycling system.

This article covers how lead recycling works, how it differs from deal recycling, and how to manage recycled leads effectively.

Do You Use HubSpot Leads?

Before diving in, a quick clarification: HubSpot leads are a specific object type, separate from contacts and deals. Not every HubSpot account uses them.

If your sales process goes straight from contact to deal, you probably don’t use leads and can skip this article. If you have a qualification stage where contacts become “leads” before they become “deals,” then lead recycling applies to you.

Not sure? Check your HubSpot account. If you see a Leads section in your navigation or have lead pipelines configured, you’re using leads.

If your HubSpot account doesn’t use the leads object, Rizer will show you a message during setup saying lead recycling isn’t available. You’ll only see deal recycling options.

How Lead Recycling Works

Lead recycling follows the same basic process as deal recycling:

1. A lead doesn’t qualify or goes cold in HubSpot
2. The lead enters Rizer’s recycling system
3. You assign a recycle reason and callback date
4. Rizer tracks the lead until the callback date arrives
5. When ready, you re-engage by creating a new lead in HubSpot

The lifecycle is familiar. The statuses work the same way. The main differences are in the details — leads are simpler than deals because they don’t have products or line items.

Lead Statuses

Recycled leads move through these statuses:

In Recycling

Leads actively being tracked. Each has a recycle reason and callback date assigned. They’re waiting for the right moment to re-engage.

This is where most recycled leads sit. Rizer watches the calendar and watches for triggers, ready to move them forward when the time comes.

Ready for Callback

The callback date has arrived, or something triggered the lead early. These leads are ready for your team to pick up and re-engage.

This is your action list for leads. Review each one, decide whether to pursue it, and either re-engage or mark as completed.

Recycling Completed

Leads that went through the process but weren’t re-engaged. You reviewed them and decided not to pursue — maybe the contact left the company, the company isn’t a fit anymore, or the opportunity is too small.

These stay in Rizer for historical tracking but are out of your active queue.

Qualified After Recycling

The success metric for leads. These were re-engaged and qualified, meaning they moved forward in your sales process.

This is the lead equivalent of Won after recycling for deals. It’s how you measure whether your lead recycling efforts are paying off.

[Screenshot: Leads navigation showing the status tabs with counts]

How Leads Differ from Deals

While the recycling process is similar, there are important differences between recycling leads and deals.

No Products or Line Items

Deals in HubSpot typically have associated products — the things you’re selling. Leads don’t. They’re earlier in the process, before you’ve scoped out exactly what the prospect might buy.

This means the recycling form for leads is simpler. You don’t select recycle reasons per product — you just select one reason for the lead as a whole.

Default Products for Reporting

Since leads don’t have products naturally, Rizer lets you assign default products during setup. This is optional but helpful for reporting.

If you assign default products, recycled leads show up in product-level reports. You can see how many leads were lost for each product and track qualification rates by product.

If you don’t assign default products, leads are tracked separately from product reporting. They still work fine — you just won’t have product-level breakdowns.

Simpler Recycling Form

When you recycle a lead, you see fewer fields than with deals:

• Recycle reason — One reason for the whole lead (not per product)
• Callback date — When to follow up
• Competitor information — Optional, if you know who you lost to
• Missing feature — Optional, if a product gap caused the loss

No product mapping, no per-product reasons. It’s faster to recycle a lead than a deal.

Re-engagement Creates Leads

When you re-engage a recycled deal, you can choose to create either a lead or a deal in HubSpot. When you re-engage a recycled lead, Rizer creates a new lead.

This makes sense — leads are earlier in the process. If someone didn’t qualify as a lead the first time, they probably need to go through qualification again. If they’ve progressed enough to skip qualification, they probably shouldn’t have been a lead in the first place.

The new lead enters the pipeline and stage you configured during Rizer setup.

Success Metric Is Qualification

For deals, success means closing as won. For leads, success means qualifying — moving forward in your sales process, typically becoming a deal.

Rizer tracks this automatically. When you re-engage a recycled lead and that new lead gets qualified in HubSpot, Rizer updates the original to Qualified after recycling.

Setting Up Lead Recycling

Lead recycling is configured during the onboarding wizard, but you can adjust settings anytime.

Import Settings

Go to Settings > Integrations > HubSpot > Settings and click the Lead Import tab.

Import from pipeline

Select which lead pipeline or pipelines contain lost leads you want to recycle. Rizer only imports leads from pipelines you select here.

If you have multiple lead pipelines (maybe different ones for different regions or products), you can select all of them or just the ones you want to track.

Default products

Since leads don’t have line items, you can assign default products here. These products get associated with every recycled lead for reporting purposes.

If your leads are generally product-agnostic at this stage, you might skip this. If you have a sense of which products leads are interested in, assigning defaults helps with reporting later.

Export Settings

Click the Lead Export tab.

New leads pipeline

Select which pipeline new leads should be created in when you re-engage. This is usually your main lead pipeline.

New leads stage

Select which stage within that pipeline. New leads typically start at the beginning, but you might have a specific stage for recycled opportunities.

Auto-creation strategy

Same options as deals:

• Unlimited — Create leads in HubSpot as soon as they’re ready, no limits
• Limited — Set a maximum per owner per day or week
• None — All re-engagement is manual

If you use limited, you can also specify which days of the week leads can be created.

Finding Leads to Recycle

Like deals, where you find leads depends on your auto-recycle settings.

With Auto-Recycle Enabled

Lost leads automatically import to the In recycling tab when they hit a closed status in HubSpot. They get AI-suggested recycle reasons and default callback dates.

Your job is to review recent imports and verify the suggestions are accurate.

Without Auto-Recycle

Lost leads appear in a holding area where you can review them and decide which ones to recycle. Browse the list, select the ones worth tracking, and recycle them manually.

Filtering the List

The leads list supports the same filtering as deals:

• Owner filter — Show leads assigned to specific reps
• Time filter — Filter by year or month
• Search — Find specific companies or contacts by name

Use filters to work through the list in manageable chunks.

Recycling a Lead

The process is straightforward — simpler than deals because there are no products to configure.

From HubSpot

1. Open a lead record in HubSpot.
2. Find the Rizer card in the sidebar.
3. Click Recycle in Rizer.
4. The recycling form opens with AI suggestions.
5. Review the Recycle reason — adjust if needed.
6. Review the Callback date — adjust if needed.
7. Add competitor information if you know who you lost to.
8. Link to a missing feature if that’s why the lead didn’t qualify.
9. Click Save.

[Screenshot: Rizer card on a HubSpot lead record showing the recycling form]

The lead appears in Rizer’s In recycling list.

From Rizer

1. Navigate to your leads section in Rizer.
2. Find the lead you want to recycle.
3. Click to expand its details.
4. Click Recycle.
5. Select a recycle reason.
6. Set the callback date.
7. Add competitor or missing feature information if relevant.
8. Click Save.

The lead moves to In recycling.

Recycling Multiple Leads

Like deals, you can bulk recycle leads:

1. Select multiple leads using the checkboxes.
2. Click Recycle selected.
3. Set a recycle reason and callback date (applies to all).
4. Click Save.

All selected leads move to In recycling with the same settings.

The Lead Recycling Form

Let’s look at each field in the recycling form.

Recycle Reason

Why didn’t this lead qualify? The same standard reasons are available:

Product-related:

• Missing feature
• Implementation too complex

Pricing-related:

• Too expensive
• Unclear value / ROI
• Better price by competitor
• Buyer requested a discount
• No available budget

Buyer readiness:

• Not the right time

Decision-maker obstacles:

• No decision-making authority
• Internal misalignment

Trust and confidence:

• Didn’t trust vendor/brand

Engagement challenges:

• Buyer stopped responding
• No feedback provided

Unlike deals, you select one reason for the whole lead — there’s no per-product breakdown.

Callback Date

When should you follow up? The form suggests a date based on the recycle reason’s default timing. You can accept it or set your own date.

Think about what would need to change for this lead to qualify. Budget cycle? Organizational change? Feature release? Set the callback for when that change might happen.

Competitor Information

If you lost to a competitor even at the lead stage, capture it:

• Switched to — Competitor, in-house, no solution, or unknown
• Competitor name — Which competitor
• Competitor product — Their specific product if you know it

This is optional but useful for competitive analysis. Even leads you lose to competitors tell you something about your market position.

Missing Feature

If the lead didn’t qualify because you’re missing a feature they need:

• Select the feature from your tracked list
• Rate how important it was (1-5 scale)

When that feature ships, the lead automatically moves to Ready for callback.

Managing Recycled Leads

Once leads are in recycling, you manage them the same way as deals.

Viewing Lead Details

1. Go to Leads > In recycling.
2. Click any lead row to expand it.

You’ll see:

• Contact and company information
• Recycle reason and callback date
• Competitor information (if recorded)
• Missing feature links (if any)
• AI suggestions
• Activity timeline

Editing a Recycled Lead

1. Find the lead in In recycling.
2. Click to expand it.
3. Click Edit.
4. Update whatever needs changing.
5. Click Save.

Marking Ready Early

To move a lead to ready status before the callback date:

1. Find the lead in In recycling.
2. Click to expand it.
3. Click Mark ready for callback.

The lead moves to Ready for callback immediately.

Marking as Completed

If a lead isn’t worth pursuing anymore:

1. Find the lead in In recycling or Ready for callback.
2. Click to expand it.
3. Click Mark as completed.

The lead moves to Recycling completed and leaves your active queue.

Re-engaging Leads

When a lead reaches its callback date and you decide to pursue it, re-engagement creates a new lead in HubSpot.

Finding Ready Leads

1. Go to Leads > Ready for callback.
2. You’ll see leads that have reached their callback date or triggered early.

[Screenshot: Ready for callback leads tab showing leads ready for re-engagement]

Each lead shows:

• When it became ready
• Contact and company information
• Owner information
• Why it was recycled
• AI suggestions for re-engagement

Re-engaging a Single Lead

1. Click a lead row to expand its details.
2. Review the information — remind yourself why it didn’t qualify and what might have changed.
3. Click Re-engage prospect.
4. Select which owner should be assigned the new lead.
5. Click Create.

[Screenshot: Re-engage modal for a lead showing owner selection]

Rizer creates a new lead in HubSpot in the pipeline and stage you configured. You’ll see a confirmation with a link to the new record.

Re-engaging Multiple Leads

1. In the Ready for callback list, check the box next to each lead you want to re-engage.
2. Click Re-engage prospect.
3. Assign owners — same owner for all, or individual owners.
4. Click Create.

All new leads get created in HubSpot at once.

What Gets Created

The new lead includes:

• Association to the same contact
• Association to the same company
• Lead name (with a recycling indicator)
• The owner you selected

The new lead starts fresh — no old notes or history cluttering things up. The relationship context is preserved through the contact and company.

What Happens After Re-engagement

Rizer tracks what happens to the new lead:

• If it gets qualified in HubSpot, the original recycled lead updates to Qualified after recycling
• If it doesn’t qualify again, you can recycle it for another attempt
• The cycle can repeat as many times as needed

Lead Reporting

Recycled leads appear in Rizer’s reports alongside deals. You can see:

• Total leads recycled — How many leads are in your recycling system
• Leads by status — Breakdown of in recycling, ready, completed, and qualified
• Leads qualified after recycling — Your success metric
• Qualification rate — What percentage of recycled leads eventually qualify
• Time to qualification — How long from recycling to qualifying

Filtering Reports

Most reports let you filter by:

• Leads only — See just lead data
• Deals only — See just deal data
• Both — See combined totals

This lets you analyze lead and deal recycling separately or together, depending on what you’re trying to understand.

Product-Level Reporting

If you assigned default products to leads during setup, they appear in product-level reports. You can see:

• How many leads were lost for each product
• Qualification rates by product
• Which products have the most leads in recycling

If you didn’t assign default products, leads are tracked but won’t appear in product breakdowns.

When to Recycle Leads vs. Let Them Go

Not every lead that doesn’t qualify should be recycled. Here’s how to think about it.

Recycle When…

Timing was the issue

They weren’t ready to evaluate solutions right now, but they might be in a few months. Classic recycling candidate.

Budget wasn’t available

They were interested but didn’t have money allocated. Budget cycles reset. Worth checking back when new budgets kick in.

The right person wasn’t available

Your contact couldn’t make the decision, or the actual decision-maker was unavailable. Organizational changes might open doors later.

They went dark but seemed interested

The lead was engaged and then stopped responding. People get busy. A check-in a few months later might restart things.

You were missing something they needed

A feature gap or capability issue blocked qualification. If you’re building what they need, track the lead and follow up when it ships.

Don’t Recycle When…

They’re fundamentally not a fit

Wrong industry, wrong company size, wrong use case. If they’ll never be a good customer, recycling won’t change that.

The contact is gone with no path forward

Your contact left and you have no other way into the company. Without a relationship, there’s nothing to follow up on.

They explicitly said no

If they asked not to be contacted, respect that. Mark it completed and move on.

It was a bad lead from the start

If the lead should never have entered your system — spam, wrong company, student project — recycling doesn’t make sense.

When You’re Unsure

Lean toward recycling. The cost of tracking a lead that never qualifies is low. The cost of forgetting one that could have qualified is higher.

You can always mark it completed later if you decide it’s not worth pursuing.

Lead Recycling vs. Deal Recycling

Here’s a quick comparison:

Aspect	Leads	Deals
Products	No line items (optional default products)	Has line items with products
Recycle reasons	One per lead	One per product
Form complexity	Simpler	More detailed
Re-engagement creates	New lead	Lead or deal (you choose)
Success metric	Qualified after recycling	Won after recycling
Typical cycle	Shorter	Longer

The underlying mechanics are the same. Leads are just a simpler, earlier-stage version of the same process.

Tips for Lead Recycling

A few practices that help:

Be Quick About It

Leads that don’t qualify should be recycled promptly while the context is fresh. If you wait weeks, you’ll have forgotten why they didn’t qualify and what the right follow-up timing is.

Capture Why They Didn’t Qualify

The recycle reason matters for leads just like deals. “Buyer stopped responding” is less useful than knowing they went dark after you sent pricing information. Add notes if the standard reasons don’t capture the full picture.

Set Realistic Callback Dates

Leads often have shorter cycles than deals. A callback date 6 months out might be too long if the lead’s situation could change in 6 weeks. Think about what would need to change and when that might realistically happen.

Link to Missing Features

If a capability gap blocked qualification, link the lead to that feature. When it ships, you’ll have a ready-made list of leads who wanted exactly that thing.

Review Ready Leads Regularly

When leads hit Ready for callback, act on them. Review, decide, and either re-engage or mark completed. Letting leads pile up defeats the purpose.

Track Qualification Rates

Pay attention to which recycled leads actually qualify. If certain recycle reasons never lead to qualification, adjust your approach. Maybe those leads aren’t worth recycling, or maybe your re-engagement approach needs work.

Common Questions

Can I recycle leads and deals separately?

Yes. Lead and deal recycling are independent. You can use one without the other, or use both. They have separate settings, separate lists, and separate reports.

What if a lead becomes a deal and then gets lost?

If a lead qualifies, becomes a deal, and that deal is later lost, you’d recycle it as a deal (not a lead). The deal recycling process applies.

Can I convert a recycled lead directly to a deal?

When you re-engage a recycled lead, Rizer creates a new lead in HubSpot. If that lead then qualifies and becomes a deal, that happens through your normal HubSpot process. Rizer tracks the lead as “Qualified after recycling” when it moves forward, regardless of whether it becomes a deal immediately or later.

What if my company stops using HubSpot leads?

If you stop using the leads object in HubSpot, your existing recycled leads stay in Rizer. You just won’t have new leads to recycle. You can continue working through and re-engaging your existing recycled leads.

Do lead and deal recycling share settings?

Some settings are shared (like competitor tracking and missing features), but import and export settings are separate for leads and deals. You configure each independently.