Sales pipeline and client statuses

How Nexte structures a contact's lifecycle, from first touchpoint to retention.

Every CRM contact carries a single status that summarizes where they stand in the commercial relationship. This status drives list filters, automation triggers, dashboard KPIs, and inbound email routing. Picking the right status at the right time is what turns a CRM into a steering tool rather than just an address book.

The 5 standard statuses

Lead — first contact, not yet qualified. Typically from a form, referral, or LinkedIn message. Handle within 48h to stay responsive.
Prospect — qualified lead, you've identified a real need and plausible budget. A proposal is being discussed or about to be sent.
Active — engaged client, signed contract, ongoing billing. This is where your recurring revenue and current production load live.
Loyal — recurring client for 12+ months or multiple completed engagements. Priority target for upsell and referrals.
Inactive — paused relationship. Past client with no current engagement. Keep for re-engagement campaigns and seasonal opportunities.

When to change status?

Lead → Prospect: as soon as you've confirmed a need and discussed budget (even rough). Don't delay — a lead that stays a lead for 30 days is dead.
Prospect → Active: at contract signing OR first deposit received, depending on your process. Be consistent for reliable KPIs.
Active → Loyal: after the second engagement or 12 months of continuous relationship. Mainly serves to filter for retention campaigns.
Active → Inactive: after engagement ends with no immediate renewal. Not an ending — just a pause.
Inactive → Active: rare but happens (client comes back). Reuses all their history. Very powerful: acquisition cost is zero.

Useful CRM fields to fill

Source: where the contact came from (LinkedIn, referral, website…). Essential to know which channels work.
Next follow-up date: Nexte notifies you automatically and surfaces the contact in the « To follow up » list.
Expected signing date: for prospects, feeds the 90-day forecast pipeline.
Estimated budget: lets you prioritize and compute weighted revenue (amount × probability).
Tags: free, multi-value. Used to segment your lists (industry, size, geography, need type…).

These fields are not mandatory — you can fill them gradually. But the more you fill early, the more relevant your automations and KPIs become. Plan for 30 seconds when adding a new contact to save hours of commercial steering later.

Visual pipeline

From the CRM tab, switch to Kanban view (grid icon → Pipeline button) to see your contacts in columns by status. Drag-and-drop to move a contact between statuses. Cards display name, expected amount, expected signing date, and a follow-up indicator if applicable.

Forecast total per column is shown at the top. This gives you at a glance your 90-day revenue forecast and your pipeline health (e.g., too many Leads and not enough Prospects = qualification problem).

Customize statuses

On the Agency plan, you can add, rename, or remove statuses from Settings → CRM → Statuses. Useful to match your internal vocabulary (e.g., rename « Prospect » to « Quote sent »). Custom statuses retain all automation and pipeline mechanics.

Avoid creating more than 8 statuses — beyond that, the pipeline becomes unreadable and your decisions slow down. If you feel the need to add a status, first ask if a tag or custom field wouldn't do the job better.