Lifecycle

Shing-Yi Tan Updated by Shing-Yi Tan

The Lifecycle feature helps you track and manage Contacts throughout every stage of your sales process, from the first interaction to conversion.

By organizing your Contacts into different Lifecycle Stages, your team can gain valuable insights into where each Contact is in their customer journey, making it easier to tailor communications, manage conversations, and ultimately, convert leads into customers.

Setting up Lifecycle

The Lifecycle feature is automatically enabled for new organizations when they sign up. You can start organizing your Contacts into Lifecycle Stages right away in the Inbox and Contacts modules.

You can also enable Lifecycle manually by turning on the “Show Lifecycle Stages” toggle in the platform’s settings. This will make Lifecycle visible in the Inbox and Contacts modules.

To do this, go to Workspace settings > Lifecycle.

Watch how to set up Lifecycle for your organization:

Getting Started

Lifecycle is a flexible, customizable tool that allows you to define the stages of your sales process and easily move Contacts through these stages as they progress.

When a new Contact sends a message, Lifecycle automatically assigns them to a default stage, ensuring that all your Contacts are organized right from the start.

Lifecycle Stages

Lifecycle comes pre-configured with four primary stages and one Lost Stage to help you get started.

Lifecycle Stages:

  • New Lead: The Contact has shown interest for the first time.
  • Hot Lead: The Contact is actively interested and ready to move forward.
  • Payment: The Contact is considering your offer and payment is in progress.
  • Customer: The Contact has made a purchase and is now a paying customer.

Lost Stages:

Lost Stages are designed to track Contacts who leave the sales process, offering insights into drop-off points. Lifecycle comes with one Lost Stage, which you can edit or remove like all other Stages:

  • Cold Lead: The Contact has stopped showing interest and is no longer responsive.

You can also add more Lost Stages to suit your business and sales process. Some examples are:

  • Unqualified: Contact does not meet your business criteria (e.g., budget, needs).
  • No Response: Multiple follow-ups, but the Contact remains unresponsive.
  • Lost to Competitor: Contact chose a competitor’s product or service.
If you were using Lifecycle before the introduction of Lost Stages, the Cold Lead stage will remain in the main Lifecycle Stages column by default. To move it to Lost Stages, you’ll need to manually recreate it there and then delete it from Lifecycle Stages.

Setting a default Stage

You can set a default stage to automatically categorize new Contacts as soon as they message you. For instance, you can set "New Lead" as your default Stage to categorize all initial Contacts.

To set a default Stage:

  1. Go to Workspace Settings > Lifecycle
  2. Select the three-dot button > Select Set as default
  3. Select Save

Creating a new Stage

You can create, rename, and manage up to 20 stages in total, which can include both Lifecycle Stages and Lost Stages, allowing you to customize your sales process and track drop-offs effectively.

Creating new Stages:

  1. Go to Workspace Settings > Lifecycle
  2. Select Add Stage
  3. Give your Stage a name and description
  4. Select Save
Rearrange Stages by dragging and dropping them to your desired position using the button on the left.

Creating Lost Stages:

  1. Go to Workspace Settings > Lifecycle
  2. In the Lost Stages column, select Add Stage
  3. Enter a name, description, and emoji for the stage
  4. Select Save

Lost Stages are not assigned to default inboxes but help you track drop-offs within your sales funnel.

Using Lifecycle in the Inbox Module

In the Inbox module, you can quickly assign and update stages for your Contacts. This includes both Lifecycle Stages and Lost Stages, allowing you to track progression in your sales process. For example, if a lead becomes unresponsive, you can move them to a Lost Stage such as Cold Lead.

You can create custom inboxes to filter and manage Lost Stages as needed, as they don’t appear as a default inbox.

You can also filter conversations by stage, helping agents prioritize leads and focus on Contacts that are ready to move forward in the sales process.

Each time a Lifecycle Stage is updated, it creates a Contact Event that logs when and by whom the change was made. This helps keep a record of every stage transition, offering transparency and clarity to your team.

See how Lifecycle works in the Inbox module once it's turned on:

Using Lifecycle in the Contacts Module

You can also view and change Stages of individual Contacts in the Contacts module.

To do this, select the Contact and the Lifecycle Stages will be displayed in the Contact details drawer. You can make changes to it as needed.

Owners and managers can also segment and filter Contacts by their Lifecycle Stage or Lost Stage, enabling better tracking of drop-offs and opportunities for re-engagement.

To filter, use the filter option to sort and view Contacts based on their current Lifecycle Stage. Using the filter option is a fast, efficient way to search and display Contacts based on their Lifecycle Stage or other criteria.

You can also create Lifecycle segments to view and filter Contacts. Segments allow you to group and manage Contacts based on their stage, offering a convenient way to stay on top of your sales pipeline.

Each time a Contact’s Lifecycle Stage is updated, it’s logged as an activity in the Contact’s Activities tab. This provides a clear record of every stage change, helping you track a Contact’s journey over time.

Lifecycle Metrics in the Dashboard

With Lifecycle metrics in the Dashboard, owners and managers can now view the distribution of Contacts across Lifecycle Stages at a glance. This includes real-time counts for each stage (excluding Lost Stages), such as the number of open, snoozed, or unassigned conversations for a given stage.

To view Lifecycle metrics:

  1. Navigate to the Dashboard.
  2. Scroll to the Lifecycle section.
  3. View the metrics cards for each Lifecycle Stage.

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