In BenchmarkONE, your contact statuses represent the lifecycle of a contact—moving them progressively from initial outreach to a closed deal or active customer.
How Status Ordering Works
BenchmarkONE evaluates your statuses from the Account Settings > Customizations > Contact Status list strictly from top to bottom:
Top of the List (Earliest Stages): Initial lifecycle statuses (e.g., Lead, Prospect, Unqualified).
Bottom of the List (Later Stages): Advanced pipeline or final statuses (e.g., Opportunity, Customer, Won).
How "Do Not Move to an Earlier Status" Protects Your Pipeline
When setting up automated status updates (for example, on an online form or campaign trigger), you can check the setting: "Do not move to an earlier status."
When enabled, BenchmarkONE checks the contact's current position in your status list before making any automated updates:
Forward Progression (Allowed): If a contact is currently a Lead (Position 1) and submits a form set to update them to Opportunity (Position 3), the update occurs because Opportunity is further down the list.
Backward Progression (Blocked): If a contact is already an Opportunity (Position 3) and submits a general inquiry form set to apply Lead (Position 1), BenchmarkONE ignores the status update. Because Lead sits higher on the list than Opportunity, it is treated as an "earlier status" and blocked from overwriting their progress.
Best Practices for Organizing Your Statuses
To ensure your automations protect your contact records properly:
Go to Account Settings > Customizations > Contact Status.
Click Edit Statuses.
Drag by the three lines on the left side: Reorder your statuses so your newest/earliest statuses are at the top, and your advanced/final statuses sit at the bottom.
Save Changes: Ensure the strict chronological order reflects your business's natural customer journey.