A new inquiry.
A follow-up you can trust.
Make the next action clear from the first inquiry. Define who responds, what happens if nobody replies, and when reminders should stop so follow-up supports a real conversation.
Make the handoffs visible.
An illustrative lead follow-up flow. Adapt the roles, tools, and rules to the way your business works.
An inquiry arrives through a form, email, phone call, or referral and is recorded as a lead.
Capture the inquiry
Record contact details, the request, and where it came from. Check for an existing conversation before opening another record.
- Owner
- Intake owner
- Tool or record
- Form, inbox, or lead record
Acknowledge and assign
Confirm receipt where appropriate. Assign a person to answer questions or review fit.
- Owner
- Sales coordinator
- Tool or record
- CRM or shared lead list
Follow the agreed sequence
Choose a next action and follow-up interval. Check reply and booking status before each reminder.
- Owner
- Assigned salesperson
- Tool or record
- Email or messaging tool
Has the person replied, booked, or asked you to stop?
YesStop the reminder sequence and record the appropriate next action.
NoContinue only within the agreed follow-up limits, then send unresolved leads to their owner.
Hand off or close the loop
Record the booking, route an exception to a person, or close the lead with a reason. Stop the old sequence.
- Owner
- Assigned salesperson
- Tool or record
- Calendar and lead record
The lead has a booked conversation, a clear next action, or an appropriate closed status.
Know what to check.
A useful build plan includes the cases that should stop, wait, or reach a person. Start with these.
A reply stops the reminder
Add a reply just before a scheduled follow-up. Confirm the stale message does not send.
One person, one conversation
Submit an inquiry from someone already in the pipeline. Make sure the owner sees the existing history.
A difficult question reaches a person
Use a request the sequence cannot answer. Confirm it creates a visible handoff rather than an invented answer.
Turn your process into a build plan.
Steve, your AI process designer, helps you decide whether this is a process worth automating. Then he maps your steps, people, tools, and decisions and creates a phased plan. You can keep building with his guidance.
Before you build.
Can I map phone inquiries as well as form submissions?
Yes. Include every way a lead reaches you and identify how each becomes a shared record. A phone inquiry may need a person or a call-handling service to capture the details before the follow-up process begins.
What if qualification needs a real conversation?
Keep that conversation in the process. Acknowledgments, assignment, and reminders can support it; the map should name the person who makes the decision and the information they need.
How does this relate to my CRM’s existing sequences?
The map defines the rules your sequence needs: starting conditions, timing, ownership, stop conditions, and exception handling. You can then check which parts your CRM supports and which need another implementation approach.
What happens to leads that are not a fit?
Give them an explicit path. Record the reason, decide whether a response or referral is appropriate, and stop any messages that assume the opportunity is still active. Do not leave a disqualified lead in a generic reminder sequence.