Build the Account Lifecycle

Acme Manufacturing sits in the target segment. Priya downloaded a guide and requested a walkthrough. A workflow sees that request and sets Acme to Customer. The new-business Opportunity is still in Discovery in progress. No commercial activation event exists anywhere in the record. That's a customer count nobody can defend in a board meeting.

The company relationship is its own dimension

An Account lifecycle needs the same discipline as the person lifecycle: a meaning, entry evidence, one accountable owner, a milestone date, valid exits, and a reporting rule for every stage. This worked example moves Acme through Target, Prospect, Customer, Former customer, and Recycled, which are illustrations rather than a taxonomy to copy.

Prospect requires Sales to accept the documented handoff and confirm a current pursuit. Priya's request supports that review, it doesn't make the transition on its own. Customer needs its own separate, approved commercial activation event (this example uses activation after an executed agreement). A later ending event moves Acme to Former customer without erasing its original customer history, and a new approved event can reactivate it with its own new activation event.

Two records, two different stories

Sales accepts the handoff and confirms the active pursuit: Acme becomes Prospect, Priya becomes Sales-ready. Two transitions that answer different questions and leave separate history. Later, the Opportunity reaches Closed won on its own evidence; Acme still doesn't become a customer until the defined activation event occurs.

Carry this into your business

Ask the people who own Sales, Customer Success, Finance, and reporting which event each of them actually uses for customer status today. Where their answers differ, that's the conflict worth logging first.