Lifecycle & Pipeline
Make the stages mean something.
Give teams a shared way to describe the customer relationship and manage active opportunities. Clear stages help people decide what to do—not simply label a record.
Separate the relationship from the opportunity.
Two connected views can answer different questions.
Customer lifecycle
Describes the broader relationship, from early interest through customer experience and retention.
Sales pipeline
Tracks a specific opportunity with its own progress, next action, and outcome.
Write the rules people can use.
A stage name alone leaves too much room for interpretation.
- 01
Entry and exit
State what must be true before a record moves.
- 02
Owner and next action
Make responsibility and the expected step clear.
- 03
Exceptions
Allow for unqualified inquiries, stalled opportunities, repeat customers, and re-entry.
- 04
Evidence
Use information the team can actually maintain and verify.
Test the model against real situations.
Walk through a new inquiry, a returning customer, and a lost opportunity with the people doing the work. Adjust the model before building dashboards around it.
A few useful answers
Should every team use the same stages?
Teams need common definitions where work is shared, but different processes may need different views. Consistency should make the work clearer, not force every journey into an unsuitable pipeline.