Overview

A contact's stage tells you where that relationship stands right now, so you can see at a glance who needs your attention and who just needs to stay top of mind. Every person in Grove has one stage, and you can change it from the People list or from their contact record.

The stages

Grove comes with ten built-in stages. Each has its own color and icon, so you can spot it quickly in your list.

These are suggestions, not rules. Grove doesn't attach a fixed meaning to any stage, so pick what each one means for your business and use it consistently. That keeps your list easy to read.

Stage is separate from Role (for example, Buyer, Seller, or Investor) and Sources (how you know someone). A past client can also be an investor, so set both.

Change a contact's stage from the People list

1. Click People in the left navigation. Make sure All People is selected.

   

2. Find the contact and click their stage in the Stage column.

3. Choose a new stage from the menu. The current stage has a check mark next to it. Scroll the menu to see all ten stages.

   

Change a contact's stage from their record

1. Click People, then click the contact's name to open their record.
2. In the right panel, find the Status section.
3. Click the Stage dropdown and choose a new stage. You'll see the same ten stages as in the People list.

Manage your stages

You can add your own stages and adjust the built-in ones in settings.

1. Click People Settings at the bottom of the People sidebar.
2. Under People, click Stages & Types.

3. In the Stages table, you'll see every stage and how many contacts are in each one. From here you can:

• Add a stage: click Add stage, enter a Stage label, then click Save.
• Reorder stages: drag a stage by the handle on its left.
• Change how a stage looks or behaves: click the ... menu under Actions.

4. The Action menu (see the "...") to the right of each Stage gives you:

• Edit description: add a short note for your team about how you use that stage. It shows in the table once it's set.
• Background and Text: change the stage's colors.
• Assignable: turn this off to stop the stage from being chosen for contacts.

5. Stages you add yourself can be renamed or deleted at any time.

Good to know

• Built-in stages have a lock icon. They can't be renamed or deleted, but you can turn off Assignable to keep them out of the way. Custom stages can be renamed and deleted.
• You can filter the People list by stage and save it as a view, so the people who need your attention are one click away.
• Changing a stage doesn't change your campaigns or the Grove overview on a contact's record by itself. If you want something to happen when a contact moves to a new stage, like adding them to a campaign, you'll need to do that yourself.
• Add a description to each stage you use. It keeps everyone on your team using stages the same way.
• The Contacts count in Stages & Types shows how many people are in each stage, which is a quick check on the health of your sphere.