Sequences
A sequence is a planned ladder of contact: an email now, a call task in three days, another email a week later. Enrol a deal in one and the steps fall due on schedule. The moment the prospect engages, the sequence stops.
What you need: the Sales section, the CRM Sequences permission and the Sequences feature. Sending needs the Run Sequence Sends capability.
Enrolling a deal
Section titled “Enrolling a deal”From a deal, choose Enrol in Sequence.
Required: the Sequence and the Contact it should be addressed to.
What happens: emails and follow-up tasks are created step by step until the sequence completes or the prospect engages.
You can also enrol in bulk from the Deals list: tick the deals, choose Enrol in sequence, and the confirmation step shows each deal’s contact email and flags any that will be skipped before you commit.
Common reasons a deal is skipped at enrolment:
- The deal is not open, or is not available to you.
- It is already enrolled in a sequence.
- The chosen contact does not belong to that customer.
- There is no contact email address for the sequence’s email steps.
What stops a sequence
Section titled “What stops a sequence”This is the point of the feature, so it is worth knowing exactly what counts:
| Stop reason | When |
|---|---|
| Reply received | The customer replies to a CRM email, or you use Log Reply Received on the deal |
| Deal stage changed | Depending on the sequence, either any stage change or only a close |
| Proposal accepted | The customer accepted |
| Proposal declined | The customer declined |
| Email invalid | The address bounced or is suppressed |
| No marketing consent | Consent is required and not recorded |
| Stopped manually | Somebody used Stop Sequence |
Replies to a sequence email arrive in your own mailbox rather than the platform, which is why Log Reply Received exists. A reply that comes back through a CRM email thread stops the sequence by itself.
The Sequences page
Section titled “The Sequences page”Each sequence gets a panel showing its name, any tags (Inactive, Automatic, Create for approval) and a summary line: how many enrolments, how many active, completed and stopped, and how many of those stopped because of a reply.
The step table below shows each step, its action, its offset, and then the funnel: sent, delivered, opened, tasks created and reply stops. Reply stops count enrolments that stopped by a logged reply while sitting on that step.
A Showing picker switches between your own deals and the team’s, for holders of the Sales team queues permission.
The Sequence Run
Section titled “The Sequence Run”Sequence Run processes the steps that fall due today.
Step 1 - choose. Rows are grouped by sequence and step, pre-ticked, showing the deal, customer, recipient, due date and owner. A step that creates a task rather than an email says “Creates a TODO for the owner” instead of an address. Choose Continue.
Two extra panels sit below:
- Automated nightly - steps handled by the overnight automation, shown for information. Their results appear on the Automation page.
- Needs configuration - due steps set to send an email but with no correspondence type, so they cannot be sent.
Step 2 - confirm. Anything that stopped qualifying between the two screens is dropped and reported. Choose Process N steps now.
Step 3 - results. How many emails are being sent, how many tasks were created and how many steps were skipped, with the reason against each one.
Things to know:
- A run handles at most 500 due steps. Run it again for the rest.
- Without Run Sequence Sends the page is read-only, and says so.
Why a step is skipped at run time
Section titled “Why a step is skipped at run time”- No deal owner, owning department, enroller or Sales department to attribute the work to
- The step has no correspondence type
- No recipient email address, or the address is suppressed
- No marketing consent for this contact
- A marketing opt-out is recorded for this contact
- The daily contact cap has been reached
- The CRM package no longer includes sequence emails
Marketing consent
Section titled “Marketing consent”Sequence emails typed as marketing respect PECR.
Explicit marketing consent is required for personal customers, sole traders, and customers with no customer class set.
Corporate subscribers may be emailed while consent is unknown, because PECR treats them differently.
A recorded opt-out is honoured for everyone, regardless of class. Consent is read from the address row belonging to the customer’s own dealer, and a bounce recorded by any dealer suppresses the address everywhere.
There is also a hard cap of one sequence email per contact per day, across every deal they are on, so a contact on two deals never gets two emails in a morning.
Sending directly or for approval
Section titled “Sending directly or for approval”A sequence’s Execution Mode decides how its emails go out:
- Manually run - they appear on the Sequence Run for somebody to send.
- Created for approval - they are produced but held in the Send Correspondence queue, and re-checked against consent and suppression when they are actually released.
- Sent automatically - the overnight sweep sends them.
Configuring sequences
Section titled “Configuring sequences”Sequences and their steps are maintained in CRM Setup, under Engagement.
A sequence carries its name, whether it is active, its display order, its execution mode, and Stop On Stage Change - whether any stage change stops it, or only a close.
A step carries its name, order, whether it is active, its Action Type (email, phone call task or manual task), its Correspondence Type for email steps, Days After Previous Step (zero on the first step means due at enrolment) and its Task Text.
Sequence
Section titled “Sequence”Name, availability and stopping behaviour for this follow-up sequence.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Sequence | Name of this sequence |
| Active | Whether this sequence is available for enrolment |
| Display Order | Order this sequence appears in lists |
| Execution Mode | Whether due steps are run manually, created for approval, or sent automatically by the daily sweep |
| Stop On Stage Change | Whether enrolments stop when the deal changes stage at all, or only when the deal closes (won, lost or dropped) |
System Information
Section titled “System Information”| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Last Modified | Timestamp of the most recent modification to this sequence |
Sequence step fields
Section titled “Sequence step fields”Position and delay of this step within its sequence.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Sequence | Sequence this step belongs to |
| Step | Name of this sequence step |
| Display Order | Order this step appears in within the sequence; enrolments advance in this order |
| Active | Whether this step is available for use |
Action
Section titled “Action”Correspondence or task action performed when this step becomes due.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Action Type | Action taken at this step: send a templated email, or create a phone call or manual task for the deal owner |
| Correspondence Type | Correspondence type sent at this step (email actions only) |
| Days After Previous Step | Days after the previous step completes before this step falls due (0 for the first step means due at enrolment) |
| Task Text | Text of the TODO created for phone call and manual task steps |
System Information
Section titled “System Information”| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Last Modified | Timestamp of the most recent modification to this step |
Enrolment fields
Section titled “Enrolment fields”Enrolment
Section titled “Enrolment”Sequence, deal and current progress of this enrolment.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Sequence | Sequence this enrolment follows |
| Deal | Deal this enrolment belongs to |
| Customer | Customer the deal belongs to |
| Status | Overall status of the enrolment (active, completed or stopped) |
| Stop Reason | Why this enrolment stopped, when stopped before completion |
| Enrolled By | User who enrolled the deal in this sequence |
Recipient
Section titled “Recipient”Customer contact and email address receiving the sequence.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Contact | Contact enrolled to receive this sequence's emails |
| Recipient Email | Email address resolved from the contact at enrolment; the contact's current address is preferred at send time |
Schedule
Section titled “Schedule”Current step and the next time the sequence is due to run.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Enrolled | Date this enrolment was created |
| Current Step | Step this enrolment is currently on; advanced by processing the step action |
| Next Action Due | When the current step falls due; the enrolment appears on the sequence run from this date |
| Stopped | Date this enrolment was stopped |
| Stopped By | User who stopped this enrolment; blank when stopped automatically |
| Last Email | Date a sequence email was last sent to the enrolled contact |
| Last Activity | When activity was last recorded against this enrolment |
System Information
Section titled “System Information”| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Last Modified | Timestamp of the most recent modification to this enrolment |