The Value Path - Jul 30, 2026
July 30, 2026
Lifecycle stages were built to move one direction. People don't. Chris Carolan and Joshua Oakes take apart why MQL/SQL and deal stages misread a room full of stakeholders, and why the Value Path tracks each person's readiness separately, forward and backward.
Key takeaways
Lifecycle stages are a one-way road by design — in Joshua's read an automation cannot move a record backward, only clear the property and set it again. Real decisions move both ways.
MQL usually marks the moment of handoff to sales, not the moment a person signalled readiness. The definition tracks your org chart, not your customer.
A company-level stage flattens every stakeholder into one label. On the same opportunity, the buyer, the economic buyer and the security reviewer are routinely at three different stages of readiness.
Regression is not relationship damage. When a reorganization pushes an Advocate back to proving value again, the situation changed — the relationship didn't.
Stage gates are genuinely good at reporting, process compliance and coaching. They are bad at telling you how ready a human is. Keep both; don't make one do the other's job.
The Value Path is tracked per person and moves in both directions: Audience, Researcher, Hand Raiser, Buyer, then Value Creator, Adopter, Advocate, Champion.
An interest does not close — it wanes. An Interest object lets one person hold several interests across a two-year decision without manufacturing five opportunities.
When the system cannot hold the truth, the truth moves to a shadow CRM — a phone's notes, a spreadsheet, a rep's head — and the organization loses the pattern entirely.
A hand going down is not a loss. The priority slipped off number one; the person is back at Researcher and still on the list.
Keep learning
You just watched the work. Now build it.
The next step is doing it yourself — live, with people on the same path.
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