Contact Stages

Overview #

Contact stages track where contacts are in your sales or customer lifecycle. They help prioritize follow-ups, measure conversion rates, and visualize your pipeline.

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What are Stages? #

Stages track contact position in your business process.

Common Examples:

• Sales: New → Contacted → Qualified → Proposal → Won/Lost
• SaaS: Lead → Trial → Customer → Renewal → Churned
• Support: New Ticket → In Progress → Waiting → Resolved

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Default Stages #

Stage	Color	Typical Use
New	Blue	Just added
Contacted	Green	Initial contact made
On Trial	Light Blue	Using trial/demo
On Hold	Orange	Temporarily paused
At Risk	Red	May churn/cancel
Unpaid	Dark Orange	Payment pending
Paid	Green	Payment received
Lost	Gray	Opportunity lost

Note: Fully customizable – add, remove, or rename to match your process.

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Managing Stages #

View All Stages:
PloverCRM → Settings → General → Stage Colors

Create/Edit:

1. PloverCRM → Settings → General
2. Stage Colors section
3. Modify stages and assign colors
4. Save Changes

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Renaming Stages (Cascade Update) #

When you rename a stage, PloverCRM automatically updates all contacts with the old name to the new name.

Example: Rename “New” → “Fresh Lead” updates all contacts automatically.

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Deletion Protection #

PloverCRM prevents deleting stages assigned to contacts.

To delete a stage:

1. Reassign contacts to a different stage
2. Then delete the empty stage

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Assigning Stages #

During Contact Creation:

1. Create/edit contact → Find Stage field
2. Select from dropdown → Save

Via Bulk Operations:

1. Select contacts → Bulk Actions → Update Stage
2. Select stage → Apply

Via Form Integration:
PloverCRM → Data Sources → Edit integration → Set Stage mapping

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Filtering by Stage #

In WordPress Admin:
Contacts → Filter by Stage → Select → Filter

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Best Practices #

Naming:

• Use action-oriented names (“Contacted” not “Contact”)
• Be specific (“Trial – Day 7” not “Trial”)
• Keep simple (5-10 stages maximum)

Color Coding:

• Green – Positive (Won, Paid, Active)
• Red – Negative (Lost, Churned, At Risk)
• Blue – Neutral/New (New, Contacted, Qualified)
• Orange – Warning (On Hold, Payment Due)
• Gray – Inactive (Lost, Closed, Archived)

Stage Flow:

• Linear progression (New → Contacted → Won)
• Clear exit points (Won, Lost, Churned)
• Regular review (don’t let contacts stagnate)

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Common Stage Setups #

Sales Pipeline:

<span class="hljs-keyword">New</span> Lead → Contacted → Qualified → Demo → Proposal → Won/Lost

SaaS Lifecycle:

Trial Signup → Trial Active → Trial Expiring → Paid → <span class="hljs-keyword">At</span> Risk → Churned

E-commerce:

Visitor → Cart Abandoned → First Purchase → <span class="hljs-keyword">Repeat</span> Customer → VIP

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Stages vs Status #

Stages (PloverCRM): Position in lifecycle, business process
Status (FluentCRM): Subscription state (Subscribed, Unsubscribed, Bounced)