Customer Journey ("The Bowtie")
The Bowtie model maps the complete customer journey from initial awareness through post-sale expansion—visualizing how prospects move through acquisition stages and customers grow through retention stages, connected at the point of conversion.Bowtie model credit: Winning by Design
GTM Team(s)
Business DevelopmentBizDev
Sales
Service & Customer Success
Inbound Marketing → DemandGen
Customer Marketing → Loyalty → Referral
Revenue Operations
Awareness
Engage Across Channels
Contact
Consideration
Relationships, Trust, & Value
ContactLead
Decision
Stakeholder Engagement
ContactLeadDeal
Onboarding
Demonstrate ROI & Value
CompanyService
Retention
Service, Quality, & Renewal
CompanyService
Expansion
Upsell & Expansion
CompanyService
Commit
Customer
Growth FlywheelGrowth
The Growth Flywheel is continuous—customers who adopt, realize value, and succeed fuel retention, upsells, and expansion. That success generates advocacy, referrals, and new awareness—creating a self-reinforcing cycle of mutual growth.
Conversion %
Time
Conversion %
Time
Conversion %
Time
Win/Loss %
Sales Cycle
Conversion %
Time
Conversion %
Time
Conversion %
Time
Lifecycle Stages
Lifecycle stages define where a contact or company sits in your revenue process. Each stage has specific entry criteria, exit criteria, and ownership—creating a shared language between Marketing, Sales, and Customer Success.Other: Contacts or companies that do not follow our Customer Journey stages—such as vendors, competitors, or other non-prospect records. For clients, a reset protocol is applied if they change jobs or re-engage in a different capacity.
Recurring RevenueRecurring $
PLG MotionPLG
00
Subscriber
Contact
01a
Lead
Contact
01b
Engaged
Lead
02
MQL
Lead
02b
PQL
Lead
03
SAL
Lead
04
SQL
Deal
05
Opportunity
Deal
06
Onboarding
Company
07
Adoption
Company
08
Expansion
Company
09
Advocate
Company
Select a Customer Journey or Lifecycle Stage above to view insights, best practices, and CRM requirements.
Definition
Why Is This Important?
Recommendations
CRM Requirement(s)
Lifecycle Stage should never be manually updated by reps or users. Access is restricted—all lifecycle progression is managed through requirements lists and workflows to ensure data integrity and confidence.
Team Alignment (Best Practices)