Account Record Types for B2B database segmentation

I am writing to the community on this architentual issue, hoping some one has some ideas that could help.

First off, worth noting that we bring all contacts/leads into Marketo to run communications across our whole customer journey.

When I designed our SF instance I decided to use Record Types to handle the following Account types:

• Suspect
  • These are holding places for account information. We might know demographic information about the account, but have zero contacts/leads. Think of them as bonus information that might be useful in prospecting.
  • Contacts should never exist under a Suspect Account and should be entered as Leads.
  • It is perfectly acceptable to have Leads that match a Suspect Account.
  • Does not have an oppty.
  • NEVER work a Suspect account, work the Lead.
• Customer
  • An active customer
• Lost Customer
  • Was once a Schoolbox customer but has since churned
• Prospect
  • Qualified Leads are converted into Prospects with an Opportunity.
  • Prospects will be worked by reps through the Oppty stages
• Prospect Re-engage
  • An account that was once a prospect and now requires re-engaging.
  • If we update the Oppty stage to Dead Lost, the account should change from Prospect to Prospect Re-engage.
  • Contacts under a Prospect Re-engage record will be treated and marketed to as nurtured contacts (just like leads)
• Government
  • A Government department
• Association
  • Industry Associations, Bodies or groups. e.g. ASBA, Catholic Diocese, Independent Schools Victoria
• Partner
  • Partner companies
• Supplier
  • A company that we do trade with that supplies us with goods and services.
• Tertiary / Higher-Ed
  • University, TAFE, Tertiary Education, Higher Education. Not our target market
• Vendor
  • A company that exists, that is neither a supplier or partner, nor any other type.
• Competitor
  • A company we consider a direct competitor to Schoolbox

The benefits of record types is that they have page layout control and other configuration per type, but I can tell I’ve over done it.
Association + Government and Supplier+vendor are the same layouts, and yet have different record types.

Therefore, I am trying to seek input on how other B2B companies have handled this categorisation.

In our case we sell to schools, but also sometimes sell to a group buyer like a body that represents a group of schools.

Therefore, I am thinking we could reduce the record types to the following:

• School
  • Add a “Lifecycle status”
    • Suspect
    • Prospect
    • Prospect Re-engage
    • Lost Customer
• Enterprise
  • Add a “Sub-type category”
    • Association
    • Government
    • Group Buyer
  • Add a “Lifecycle status”
    • Suspect
    • Prospect
    • Prospect Re-engage
    • Lost Customer
• Partner
• Vendor
  • Is Supplier moved to checkbox
  • Is Tertiary is a checkbox
• Competitor

The other option is to have no record types on Account.

If you manage/have managed a B2B instance, can you please share how you dealt with this?

Any input is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Sean