Lifecycle stage

The three properties

Entry event

The observable thing that happened — a call booked, a quote sent, a contract signed.

Exit condition

What must be true to move on, phrased so a third person can verify it.

Stall limit

The maximum time a record should sit here before it is an exception worth someone's attention.

The test that proves a definition works

Give three people ten live records and ask them to assign stages independently. Agreement below ninety percent means the definitions describe sentiment rather than events, and every report built on them will be unreliable.

Common mistakes

• Too many stages. Each one adds classification cost and reduces agreement.
• Stages named for internal activity rather than customer progress, which makes conversion rates meaningless.
• No stall limit, so a stalled pipeline looks identical to a healthy one at the same volume.

Stage design is covered in CRM architecture; repairs run through the CRM cleanup playbook.