Lifecycle Stage Definitions

Complete templates for lead lifecycle stages, MQL criteria by business type, SLAs, and rejection/recycling workflows.

Stage Templates

Subscriber

Entry criteria:

• Opted in to blog, newsletter, or content updates
• No company information required

Exit criteria:

• Provides company information via form or enrichment
• Visits 3+ pages in a session
• Downloads gated content

Owner: Marketing (automated)

Actions on entry:

• Add to newsletter nurture
• Begin tracking engagement score

Lead

Entry criteria:

• Identified contact with name + email + company
• May come from form fill, enrichment, or import

Exit criteria:

• Reaches MQL threshold (fit + engagement)
• Manually qualified by marketing/SDR

Owner: Marketing

Actions on entry:

• Enrich contact data (company size, industry, role)
• Begin scoring
• Add to relevant nurture sequence

MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead)

Entry criteria:

• Meets fit score threshold AND engagement score threshold
• OR triggers high-intent action (demo request, pricing page + form fill)

Exit criteria:

• Sales accepts (becomes SQL)
• Sales rejects (recycled to nurture with reason code)
• No response within SLA (escalated to manager)

Owner: Marketing → Sales (handoff)

Actions on entry:

• Instant alert to assigned sales rep
• Create follow-up task with 4-hour SLA
• Pause marketing nurture sequences
• Log all recent activity for sales context

SQL (Sales Qualified Lead)

Entry criteria:

• Sales rep has had qualifying conversation
• Confirmed: budget, authority, need, or timeline (at least 2 of 4)

Exit criteria:

• Opportunity created with projected value
• Disqualified (recycled with reason code)

Owner: Sales (SDR or AE)

Actions on entry:

• Update lifecycle stage in CRM
• Notify AE if SDR-qualified
• Begin sales sequence if not already in conversation

Opportunity

Entry criteria:

• Formal opportunity created in CRM
• Deal value, close date, and stage assigned

Exit criteria:

• Closed-won or closed-lost

Owner: Sales (AE)

Actions on entry:

• Add to pipeline reporting
• Create deal tasks (proposal, demo, etc.)
• Notify CS if deal is likely to close

Customer

Entry criteria:

• Closed-won deal
• Contract signed and payment terms set

Exit criteria:

• Churns, expands, or renews

Owner: Customer Success / Account Management

Actions on entry:

• Trigger onboarding sequence
• Assign CS manager
• Schedule kickoff call
• Remove from all sales sequences

Evangelist

Entry criteria:

• NPS score 9-10, or active referral behavior
• Agreed to case study, testimonial, or referral program

Exit criteria:

• Ongoing program participation

Owner: Customer Success + Marketing

Actions on entry:

• Add to advocacy program
• Request case study or testimonial
• Invite to referral program
• Feature in marketing campaigns (with permission)

MQL Criteria Templates by Business Type

Each threshold below fits only its own point table. scoring-models.md has fuller example models with different weights and thresholds, and the holdout method for setting a threshold from your own closed-won data, which beats either set of example numbers.

PLG (Product-Led Growth)

Fit score (40% weight):

Engagement score (60% weight) — weight product usage heavily:

MQL threshold: 65 points

Sales-Led (Enterprise)

Fit score (60% weight) — weight fit heavily:

Engagement score (40% weight):

MQL threshold: 70 points

Mid-Market (Balanced)

Fit score (50% weight):

Engagement score (50% weight):

MQL threshold: 60 points

SLA Templates

MQL-to-SQL SLA

SQL-to-Opportunity SLA

Opportunity-to-Close SLA

Lead Rejection and Recycling

Rejection Reason Codes

Recycling Workflow

1. Sales rejects MQL with reason code
2. CRM updates lifecycle stage to "Recycled"
3. Lead enters recycling nurture sequence (different from original nurture)
4. Engagement score resets to baseline (keep fit score)
5. If lead re-engages and crosses MQL threshold, re-route to sales with "Recycled MQL" flag
6. Track recycled MQL conversion rate separately

Recycling Nurture Sequence

• Frequency: Bi-weekly or monthly (lower frequency than initial nurture)
• Content: Industry insights, case studies, product updates
• Duration: 6 months, then archive if no engagement
• Re-MQL trigger: High-intent action (demo request, pricing page revisit)

Outbound Stages

Outbound contacts don't fit the inbound lifecycle: they never "convert" on a form, and most never reply. Track them on their own stages, so outbound pipeline isn't hidden inside "Lead" and replies don't get lost.

Fields to capture on every outbound contact so meetings can be attributed and sequences compared:

• Source list and data provider
• Signal (type and date) that put them on the list
• Tier
• Sequence and step that produced the reply
• Channel of the reply (email, LinkedIn, phone, other)
• Reply type (see the cold-email skill's reply handling reference)
• Last verification date and result

Handoff SLA: positive replies get a human response within minutes during business hours, and a meeting proposal in that first response. Meetings booked by an SDR transfer to the AE with the account brief and the full thread attached.

Outbound and inbound collide. If an outbound contact fills out a form or signs up, keep the outbound history and owner, and record the inbound action. Don't let the inbound workflow reassign the contact and restart a nurture sequence mid-conversation.