Which stage of your client lifecycle stalls?
This map scores ten handoffs across Acquire, Convert, Onboard, Deliver, and Retain and expand. It marks the stage where work needs the most chasing and names the system that covers it. Customer data, visibility, and failure handling sit underneath every stage as controls to check while scoping the bottleneck.
Where it stalls
[ WORST ] Convert is where work waits on someone the most, and the system that covers it is inquiry handling, follow-up and proposals. Onboard stalls as well, and the system there is client kickoff, access collection and setup.
| Stage | Score | System that covers it |
|---|---|---|
| Acquire | 1 | lead capture and routing |
| Convert[ WORST ] | 4 | inquiry handling, follow-up and proposals |
| Onboard[ STALLS ] | 3 | client kickoff, access collection and setup |
| Deliver | 1 | delivery handoffs, approvals and updates |
| Retain and expand | 3 | client reporting, renewal and expansion prompts |
Customer records, visibility and failure handling are the control layer underneath the lifecycle. Check them while scoping the worst handoff; they are not a separate stage.
Bring this map to me and I'll tell you which handoff I'd fix first.
How this is calculated
Each handoff gets one of three answers. Runs without anyone pushing it scores zero, works when someone chases it scores one, and stalls or gets dropped scores two.
Each stage has two handoffs, so a stage scores from zero to four. The stage with the highest score is the bottleneck, as long as it scores two or more. When two stages tie, the earlier one wins, because a stage can only work on what the stage before it hands over.
A stage that scores three or more is marked as stalled, and the map shows up to two of them. The five stages stay in lifecycle order: Acquire, Convert, Onboard, Deliver, and Retain and expand.
Controls across every stage
Customer data, visibility and failure handling form a control layer across the lifecycle. They are checked while scoping the handoff that stalls; they are not treated as a sixth stage.
The system for each stage
| Stage | The system that fixes it |
|---|---|
| Acquire | Lead capture and routing |
| Convert | Inquiry handling, follow-up and proposals |
| Onboard | Client kickoff, access collection and setup |
| Deliver | Delivery handoffs, approvals and updates |
| Retain and expand | Client reporting, renewal and expansion prompts |
Assumptions and limits
- The answers are yours, and the starting answers are an example.
- There is no benchmark. The score compares your stages with each other and with nothing else.
- It shows where work waits on people. The coordination cost tool puts an hourly cost on the chasing.
Questions
What is a stalled handoff?
A point where work passes from one person or tool to the next and then waits until someone notices. A proposal that sits in drafts after a good call is one. A new client who waits a week for a kickoff is another.
Why does the earlier stage win a tie?
Because every stage works on what the one before it hands over. If leads stall at convert, a faster delivery stage still only serves the clients who made it through.
What if no stage scores two or more?
Then nothing stalls badly, and the tool says so. Start wherever the chasing takes the most of your time.
Why are data and failure handling not another stage?
Because records, visibility and recovery support every stage. A broken customer record can block onboarding or delivery, and a silent failure can hide anywhere, so I check those controls while scoping the stage that stalls.
Related
- How a lead becomes revenue: an owner's mapMap the six steps from a new lead to a kicked-off project, time each handoff with a timestamp column, and fix the slowest one first.
- The four places a lead diesLeads drain out of a pipeline in four places: never recorded, never answered, never followed up and never closed out. How to count each one this week.
- Where do your leads leak?Twelve yes or no checks across the four places a lead dies: never recorded, answered, followed up or closed out. See your worst leak and what closes it.
- What does coordination cost your business each year?Turn your leads, proposals and active projects into the hours your people spend coordinating each month, and what that time costs you in a year.