You can easily customize leads statuses so they can fit into your workflow.
To add new lead status you will have to go to Setup -> Leads -> Statuses and click New Lead Status.
To setup default lead status navigate to Setup->Settings->Leads and chose Default Status.
The default lead status is used to auto-populate the status field when creating a new lead, each time you add new lead this status will be auto-selected.
ClearCRM installation comes with 1 lead status, this is the system status for converted leads, the status will have name Customer, this status is mostly used for reports, for recognition that specific lead is converted to a customer.
Do not rename this status to some other name like NEW to prevent confusion.
