Follow-up sequences that stop when a lead replies
How Achekam follow-up sequences enrol leads and stop on a reply, booking or decision, and what checking the firm's Microsoft 365 or Gmail mailbox adds.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Accountants & audit firms in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
The worst automated e-mail a firm can send is the one that ignores what the prospect just said. A lead writes back on Tuesday, "Yes, please call me about the audit", and on Thursday receives "Just checking in, did you see our last message?" The prospect concludes that nobody at the firm reads their mail, and they are right.
Follow-up sequences are worth having. Most prospects need more than one contact before they reply, and few people in a busy practice remember to send the third reminder. But a sequence is only safe if it stops the moment the conversation becomes real.
Achekam's sequences are built around that stop.
What a sequence is made of
A sequence is a series of steps the firm designs. Each step is either a task for a person, such as "phone the lead", or an e-mail that AI writes. Once a sequence is switched on, it enrols leads and works through the steps.
Three settings shape how cautious it is:
- A new sequence starts paused. Nothing goes out while the firm is still building it.
- E-mails go without a person reading each one. That is the point of a sequence, and the reason to keep its steps short and modest.
- There is a volume limit. By default, an address receives at most one automatic e-mail in 12 hours, whatever sequences it is in.
If a step cannot be sent, it becomes a follow-up for a person instead of failing silently.
When a sequence stops
A lead leaves its sequence when any of these happens:
- The lead replies.
- The lead books a meeting.
- The lead is marked won.
- The lead is marked lost.
- The lead says it is not interested.
Booking is the stop many firms overlook. Each staff member can set up a booking page and send a lead a private link to pick a free time; the meeting goes into the host's calendar, and a time someone else has just taken is refused. A lead who books has answered the question the sequence was asking, so the sequence ends.
The first stop, the reply, is the one that needs the most thought, because Achekam has to know that a reply arrived.
Reading replies from Microsoft 365 or Gmail
A firm can switch on a check of its sending mailbox in Microsoft 365 or Gmail. With the check on, an e-mail from a lead stops that lead's sequence and creates a "reply to" follow-up for the lead's owner, so the reply lands on someone's list rather than only in a shared inbox.
The check is off by default. Switching it on is a decision about access to the firm's mailbox, and it belongs with whoever administers the firm's e-mail.
What the mailbox check cannot see
The check has real blind spots, and a sequence designer should plan around them:
- Plain SMTP cannot be read. If the firm sends through a plain SMTP service, there is no mailbox for Achekam to check, and replies will not stop sequences automatically.
- Replies to a staff member's own mailbox are not seen. If the prospect replies to a partner directly, rather than to the sending address, the check does not find it.
- Matching is by sender address only. A reply from a different address, such as the prospect's personal e-mail or an assistant writing on their behalf, does not match the lead.
In each of those cases the reply exists, but the sequence does not know. The safeguard is a person. Whoever receives a reply outside the sending mailbox should act on it at once and, where the reply settles the matter, record the lead as won, lost or not interested, which stops the sequence. Forwarding the reply does not help, because the forwarded message comes from a staff address, not the lead's.
Follow-ups and the daily digest
Sequences sit on top of the CRM's ordinary follow-ups. Staff can put dated follow-up tasks on a lead for themselves or a colleague, mark them done or cancelled, and see those overdue and those due over the next seven days, under CRM & SALES > Leads > Follow-ups. Follow-ups are never deleted, so the history of who promised to do what remains.
A firm can also send each person a daily e-mail of their due follow-ups, set a first-response target that alerts a lead's owner when a lead waits too long, and assign unowned connector leads by turn or by audience. All three are off until switched on, and a server check runs every 15 minutes by default.
Together, these mean a reply caught by the mailbox check becomes a follow-up on the owner's own list, which is exactly where the overdue view and the daily e-mail look.
Designing a sequence that will not embarrass the firm
- Keep it short: a few steps, spaced out, with a phone task early.
- Write each e-mail so that it still makes sense if the prospect replied yesterday and you have not seen it.
- Avoid deadlines, fees or promises in any step.
- Send from the mailbox the check reads, and ask staff to update the lead whenever a reply reaches them somewhere else.
- Leave the sequence paused until a colleague has read every step.
South African firms should also read the Information Regulator's guidance note on direct marketing, which explains how POPIA regulates direct marketing, including consent for electronic marketing and marketing to existing customers.
Sequences pick up where the first contact leaves off. For that first contact, see auto-replies and welcome packs; for where leads come from, see Facebook lead ads via Zapier and web forms and the mailing list.
Build your first sequence for one lead source only, switch on the mailbox check if your e-mail allows it, and watch the "reply to" follow-ups for a fortnight before adding more.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
