Concept
Lifecycle Stage
A contact's or account's position in the journey from anonymous visitor to expanding customer — the backbone of every CRM architecture.
Lifecycle stages (typically: Subscriber, Lead, MQL, SQL, Opportunity, Customer, Evangelist) define where every contact sits in the relationship with your company. It's the most fundamental property in a B2B CRM.
A clean lifecycle architecture requires unambiguous transition criteria (when does a lead become an MQL?), automatic triggers, and alignment between marketing and sales. Without consistent lifecycle stages, segmentation, scoring, and reporting can't be trusted.