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Knowing where your contacts are in the buying process allows you to tailor content that steers them towards conversion. By providing the right information at the right time, you can establish long-term relationships that generate repeat business.
Throughout my career, I have architected lifecycle models in Marketo, Salesforce, and HubSpot. In my experience, this is the general criteria and formula to help you quickly identify where prospects are dropping out of the sales funnel:
Contacts never move backwards through stages.
| Stage | Criteria |
|---|---|
| Lead | Email Identified |
| MQL | Ideal company/customer profile + relevant marketing trigger |
| SQL | Declared intent signal (demo request, contact us, pricing inquiry) |
| SQO | Deal created, contact in discussion with sales |
| MRL | First deal is closed/lost or on hold |
| Customer | First deal is closed/won |
| Evangelist | Custom criteria based on your business |
| Lapsed Customer | Did not renew contract, no longer a customer |
| Disqualified | Does not meet any criteria, do not contact |