Structure your lifecycle stages so each one has one meaning
A lifecycle stage is the one field that says where a person stands with you: stranger, lead, qualified, in a sales conversation, customer. Reports, routing and nurture all read it, so it has to move forward on rules, one field, no backwards steps. This article gives the standard stage set, the rule that moves each one, the field setup in the four tools MarqIQ reads most, and how MarqIQ checks the field is used for what it is for. For what is wrong with your stages today, open the Funnel analysis.
The standard set, and what moves each stage
| Stage | Who is in it | What moves them in |
|---|---|---|
| Subscriber | Opted in to hear from you and nothing more | A newsletter or blog sign-up |
| Lead | Gave you a business email in exchange for something | Any form other than a bare subscribe |
| Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) | Fits who you sell to and showed buying intent recently | The MQL rule — see Define an MQL your sales team will accept |
| Sales Qualified Lead (SQL) | A salesperson looked and agreed it is worth pursuing | Sales accepts, by hand, within the SLA |
| Opportunity | A deal is open with an amount and a close date | The deal record is created — never set by hand |
| Customer | A deal is won | The deal is marked won — never set by hand |
| Evangelist / Other | Partners, press, employees, competitors, students | Set once, and excluded from every funnel count |
Six working stages and one bucket for people who are not buyers. Fewer is fine; more than eight and nobody agrees what they mean.
The four rules that keep it honest
- One field for the stage. A second field called Status is for the sales conversation (new, attempting, connected, recycled); it is not a second lifecycle.
- Forward only. A person who goes quiet stays an MQL with a recycled status; they do not go back to Lead. Backwards moves destroy every conversion rate you will ever report.
- Rules set the stage, people set the status. The only stage a person sets by hand is SQL (acceptance). Everything else is a workflow, a deal event or a won event.
- Every stage has a date. HubSpot stamps them itself; in Marketo, Salesforce and Pipedrive add one date field per stage and fill it in the same flow. Without dates there is no funnel velocity.
Set it up in your tool
Write the stage list and the moving rule for each on one page.
Sales and marketing both sign it. This page is the definition; the tool only enforces it.
Map the list onto the tool’s field.
HubSpot: Lifecycle Stage (rename or hide the stages you do not use). Marketo: a revenue-cycle model, or a Lifecycle Status picklist when you have no model. Salesforce: a lifecycle picklist on Lead and Contact, kept in step by a flow. Pipedrive: a custom single-option field on the person.
Build one automation per forward move.
Lead → MQL from the qualification rule; Opportunity from deal creation; Customer from a won deal. Each automation checks the current stage first and never moves backwards.
Turn off every other writer.
Imports, forms and integrations that set the stage directly are the usual cause of stages going backwards. Let them set the status; only the automations touch the stage.
Add the dates.
One date field per stage, filled the first time the stage is reached and never overwritten.
How MarqIQ checks it
The Funnel analysis shows how many people sit at each stage and where they stall. Field intelligence tells you which field is really playing the lifecycle role, whether it is filled on new records, and whether two fields are fighting over it. The Field discipline analysis catches stages that went backwards and fields that stopped being written. Ask “how many contacts are at each lifecycle stage” or “which stage has the most contacts” for your own split.
Do not rename stages that reports already read
Renaming a stage value in the tool changes every historical report that used it. Add the new value, move people forward with a one-off rule, then retire the old value.
Next steps
Related articles
Was this article helpful?