Overview
Apollo provides default contact and account stages to track progress with people and companies. Review the default and recommended stages in the following sections, then create custom stages that fit your team's process.
Check out the following sections to set up contact and account stages.
Set Up Contact Stages
Default Contact Stages
These are the default contact stages on Apollo:
| Stage name | Description |
|---|---|
| Cold | This is a new contact that you haven't emailed, called, or reached out to before. |
| Approaching | You've sent the contact at least one message or called them. |
| Replied | This contact has replied to your email. |
| Interested | Your contact is interested in a meeting. Apollo updates the contact to the Interested stage automatically if your contact's email is detected in a Gmail calendar invitation. This only works when you have your Gmail account linked and you use Google Calendar. To move contacts to this stage based on call activity, set up call triggers. |
| Not Interested | The contact responded that they're not interested. You can try to re-engage with the contact at a later date if they fit your buyer profile. |
| Unresponsive | Apollo marks a contact as Unresponsive if they never reply or engage with your messaging. If you want to amend the default number of days in which Apollo marks a contact as unresponsive, refer to Create Sequence Rulesets. You might want to re-engage these contacts every 30-90 days as different positioning, more education about your product, a change in a contact's role, or better timing could still lead to a sale. |
| Do Not Contact | Apollo automatically assigns a contact to the Do Not Contact stage if a contact actively unsubscribes from your emails. You can also configure contact triggers in the settings if you want to set up additional automation. For one-off cases, such as when a contact personally requests for you to stop reaching out, or for competitors, you can manually assign saved contacts to the Do Not Contact stage from search. |
| Bad Data | The contact's email bounced because the email was incorrect. |
| Changed Job | Apollo informs you when a contact changes jobs so you can email them as they settle into their new role. |
Recommended Contact Stages
The following table outlines Apollo's recommended custom stages alongside the default stages you may wish to override:
| Default stage | Custom stage | Category | Prevents Trigger Reassignment? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cold | — | No Category | No |
| Approaching | — | In Progress | No |
| Replied | — | In Progress | No |
| — | Meeting Set | Succeeded | Yes |
| Interested | — | Succeeded | Yes |
| — | SQO | Succeeded | Yes |
| — | Active Evaluator | Succeeded | Yes |
| — | Current Client | Succeeded | Yes |
| — | Closed: Check Back Quarterly | Not Succeeded | Yes |
| Unresponsive | Closed: Unresponsive | Not Succeeded | No |
| — | Closed: Referred Elsewhere | No Category | Yes |
| Not Interested | Closed: Not Interested | Not Succeeded | Yes |
| — | Closed: Bad Fit | Not Succeeded | Yes |
| Do Not Contact | Closed: Do Not Contact | Not Succeeded | Yes |
| — | Closed: Bad Data | Not Succeeded | Yes |
| — | Closed: Changed Job | Not Succeeded | Yes |
| Bad Data | — | No Category | Yes |
| Changed Job | — | No Category | Yes |
Create a Contact Stage
To create a new stage for your contacts:
- Launch Apollo and go to Settings > Data management > Contact fields & stages > Stages.
- Click Add Stage.
- Enter a name for your contact stage.
- (Optional) Select a category for the stage. Apollo uses this for predictive insights and recommendations.
- (Optional) Toggle on Event triggers will not reassign contacts manually set to this stage to prevent triggers from changing a contact's stage after a user manually assigns the contact to this stage.
- Click Create Stage.
You have now created a new contact stage.
Set Up Account Stages
Default Account Stages
These are the default account stages on Apollo:
| Stage name | Description |
|---|---|
| Cold | This is a new account you have never engaged with. |
| Current Client | You're actively doing business with these accounts. |
| Active Opportunity | This is a prospective account that someone in your team is currently working on closing. |
| Dead Opportunity | This is an account that your team was unable to close, and you're no longer actively engaging. |
| Do Not Prospect | This is an account that you want to blocklist from your engagement efforts. You can manually assign saved accounts to the Do Not Prospect stage from search. |
Recommended Account Stages
The following table outlines Apollo's recommended custom stages alongside the default stages you may wish to override:
| Default stage | Custom stage | Category |
|---|---|---|
| Cold | — | No Category |
| — | Working | In Progress |
| — | Engaged / Hot | In Progress |
| — | Meeting Set | Succeeded |
| Active Opportunity | — | Succeeded |
| Current Client | — | Succeeded |
| Dead Opportunity | — | Not Succeeded |
| — | Churned | Not Succeeded |
| — | Bad Fit | Not Succeeded |
| — | Nurture - Timing | Not Succeeded |
| — | Nurture - Not Interested | Not Succeeded |
| — | Nurture - Unresponsive | Not Succeeded |
| — | Closed | Not Succeeded |
| Do Not Prospect | — | Not Succeeded |
Create an Account Stage
To create a new stage for your accounts:
- Launch Apollo and go to Settings > Data management > Account fields & stages > Stages.
- Click Add Stage.
- Enter a name for your account stage.
- (Optional) Select a category for the stage. Apollo uses this for predictive insights and recommendations.
- Click Create Stage.
You have now created a new account stage.
Next Steps
Stages set up. Here's how to put them to work across your sequences, automations, and CRM sync.
| Use Stage Triggers in a Sequence | Stages are most powerful when they drive action automatically. Map stage triggers so Apollo updates a contact or account's stage based on real engagement signals and keeps your pipeline moving without manual updates after every interaction. |
|---|---|
| Manage Sequence Rulesets | Don't let sequences fire at the wrong stage. Build sequence rulesets that automatically halt or pause outreach when a contact reaches a specific stage so you never accidentally email a Do Not Contact or already-closed account. |
| Automatically Create and Map Stages Between Salesforce and Apollo | Using Salesforce? Auto-map your Apollo stages to your Salesforce status fields in one click so both platforms stay in sync and your team isn't reconciling mismatched pipeline data across two systems. |
| Enrich Contacts with Job Changes | The Changed Job stage is only useful if Apollo knows when it happens. Schedule automated job change enrichment so Apollo automatically flags contacts who've moved on and updates their stage so your team can re-engage them at the right moment. |
| Create a Workflow | Want stage changes to trigger more than just sequence behavior? Build workflows that fire automatically when a contact or account reaches a specific stage to kick off follow-up sequences, update CRM records, or notify your team without lifting a finger. |