Lifecycle stage
Definition
Where a contact sits on the path from first touch to closed customer, as the CRM records it. Every funnel report you are shown is an aggregation of this one field.
How it works
A contact holds one stage at a time and moves in one direction. Each transition has a written trigger and a named owner, whether that owner is a person or an automation. The ladder has to match how the company sells: a stage model copied from a CRM template files real buyers under labels nobody uses in conversation, and every report built on it describes a funnel the company does not have.
What to watch for
Sort contacts by time in stage. A block of records parked in the same stage for months means either the next stage’s definition is wrong or nobody owns the move; both are findable. Read the stage names aloud in a sales meeting and listen for translation, where the team says trial and the CRM says opportunity. And where the marketing platform and the CRM each hold their own lifecycle field, compare a sample of contacts: every mismatch is a person counted twice in one report and missing from another.
The question you ask
“How long does a contact sit in each stage, and who owns each move?”