Return value based off of earliest Date and Criteria

alexandrabiorka Well this is probably not what you are looking for. 

But I would just a custom sort. Sort it by customer and then add a level by Date. 

This will show you in order the first stage that comes up for a customer. 

You could take it further if you wanted. You could then use a formula in the far right column (adding a new column) that does an if statement. If will say if the customer of the field I am on is the same as the customer on the line above, then return blank. If the customer is new, then bring in the stage. The result in this column will be it will only show the first stage name once. All the other stages should be blank. 

Example:

1. Tom Jones - Lead

2. Tom Jones - Customer won

3. Ed Jones - Lead - Next column says, if column 2 is Ed Jones then blank. If not then bring in intial phase of Lead. (You will have to do the If statement. I am just writing out the example). 

4. Ed Jones - Customer won - Same formula. But since 3 is the same as 4 it will be blank. 

Anyhow. Hope you can follow.