<aside> 📊
Stage 3 of 9 · Most teams track "replies" and "meetings" and nothing in between, so they cannot tell where the system leaks. Track all seven stages.
</aside>
Lead → Lead engaged → Meeting booked → Show-up → Sales qualified meeting → Opportunity → Closed deal
Each stage has its own owner, its own metric, and its own fix.
<aside> ♻️
Anyone who does not move forward goes to nurture and comes back later. Nothing is ever deleted.
</aside>
| # | Stage | What it means | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lead | A contact you approach. Nothing more. | List building |
| 2 | Lead engaged | Replied positive to your campaign. Interest and intent. | Copy plus offer |
| 3 | Meeting booked | Meeting booked in the calendar. Whether they show up is a different KPI. | SDR |
| 4 | Show-up | They actually attended | Pre-call sequence |
| 5 | Sales qualified meeting | Problem, budget, authority, timing | Discovery |
| 6 | Opportunity | Saw the growth plan, next call booked | Sales |
| 7 | Closed deal | Signed and paid | Sales |
A contact you approach. That is the whole definition.
<aside> ⚠️
It is not an achievement and it is not a target. The goal is never to have more leads. Leads are raw input. A list of 50,000 people you emailed is not progress, it is just volume.
</aside>
They replied positive to your campaign. That reply is the signal, because it shows interest and intent.
<aside> 📌
This is the metric cold email is judged on, not open rate, not raw reply rate. "Unsubscribe" is a reply. "Who is this" is a reply. Neither is engagement.
</aside>