The customer lifecycle can be broken down into the following process:

1. Offering: You and your team build an offering, either a product or service, which satisfies a customer needs.
2. Awareness: You build awareness in the market of your company’s offering with the goal of increasing your exposure, brand recognition and sales opportunity.
3. Purchase: You connect, pitch, and negotiate with potential prospects, seeking to gain customers for your products and services.
4. Usage: Your customers use your products and services. They either achieve or fail to achieve their desired outcomes.
5. Advocacy: Your most engaged customers build loyalty with your company and become advocates and/or ambassadors for your brand.
6. Expansion: Your customers purchase new products and services; increasing their investment in your company.

When done right, your customers should go through multiple iterations of the customer lifecycle throughout their lifetime. With each successful iteration you should aim to increase the recurring revenue from a customer account; thus extending the customer lifetime.