Explore How to Re-Engage with Cold Leads Using Cadences in Zoho CRM
Requirement Overview
Re-engage with inactive leads to determine their interest and bring them back into the sales pipeline.
Use case
In many businesses, especially in industries with longer sales cycles, not all leads convert immediately. Some leads may initially show interest but gradually become unresponsive due to timing, budget constraints, or changing priorities. These leads are often categorized as cold leads in the CRM system.
However, a lack of recent activity does not necessarily indicate a lost opportunity. After a significant period, such as 6 months, these leads may regain interest due to new needs, market changes, or renewed purchasing intent. Without a structured follow-up approach, such opportunities can be missed.
For example, a customer who showed interest in a specific car model six months ago may have delayed their decision due to financial planning, waiting for a new model release, or comparing alternatives. Over time, their interest may revive, especially during festive offers, new stock arrivals, or promotional discounts.
This use case focuses on identifying such leads in the CRM system who have had no activity for the past 6 months and re-engaging them through structured follow-ups using cadences.
Permissions & Availability
→ If the profiles have 'Manage Automation' permission, then the respective users will be able to View and Manage Cadences.
→ Users with 'Manage Template' permission will have access to create email templates.
→ Profiles in which the 'Enroll' and 'Un-enroll' option is enabled under Cadences permission will have the ability to do the respective actions in the record (manually enrolling and unenrolling).
→ Users with the Manage Sandbox permission can manage the sandbox.
Solution
We will utilize Cadences feature in Zoho CRM to systematically manage and automate the re-engagement of leads who have become inactive over time. By leveraging cadences, the system can continuously monitor lead activity and trigger a predefined sequence of follow-ups whenever a lead remains untouched for a specified duration, such as six months.
This approach ensures that every inactive lead is reintroduced into a structured communication flow without relying on manual intervention. Through a series of timely and relevant touchpoints, such as emails, calls, or follow-up tasks, the cadence keeps the outreach consistent and purposeful. This helps the sales teams to reconnect with prospects, reassess their current interest, and seamlessly bring responsive leads back into the active sales cycle.
Configuration : Step-by-Step Implementation Guide
To test your Cadences safely, you could create them in the sandbox and then deploy them to the production environment.
Step 1: Create a custom view for the cold leads.
Based on the use case, we will be using the Leads module and configuring a criterion in the custom view. As we need to identify the records that are not edited for last 6 months, we need to use the 'Modified time' field with 'Age in Days.'
You could add any criteria when creating the custom view based on your requirement.
Step 2: Create Cadences in Zoho CRM
Navigate to Settings (⚙️) in Zoho CRM → Automation → Cadences → Create Cadence
You could configure the enroll property as Custom view and select the custom view which you have created in previous step.
Follow-up 1 (Email notification): Triggered immediately after enrolling
Add an email follow-up and configure the email template to be sent to the lead when the record is enrolled in the Cadence. This email is to check if the customer is now interested in buying a car from the showroom.
Follow-up 2 (Email notification): Sent, Opened
Configure an email follow-up using a 'New update on product' template that needs to be sent to the Leads. This email will be triggered after 14 days of the previous follow-up. As this email is intended for all leads, select the previous email status as Sent, Opened.
Note: If you are using any link in the previous email, you can add the status 'Clicked'
Follow-up 2 (Task): Bounced, Unsubscribed
This follow-up task will be created immediately when the previous email status is updated as 'Bounced' or 'Unsubscribed'. The sales representative can check the reason and update the record within the due date of the task. Once the task follow-up is completed after the sales representative edits the record, it will be removed from the Custom view. When removed from custom view, the record will get unenrolled from the cadence using the exit criteria.
Follow-up 3 (Call): Opened
This Call will be triggered in the following order -
Follow-up 1 → Follow-up 2 (Previous Email is 'Opened, Sent') → Follow-up 3 (Call)
When the Lead opens the previously sent email, a call follow-up is scheduled after 5 business hours. The sales representative is expected to reach out to the lead within one hour of the follow-up being triggered.
Follow-up 3 (Call): Sent
This Call will be triggered in the following order -
Follow-up 1 → Follow-up 2 (Previous Email is 'Opened, Sent') → Follow-up 3 (Call)
A call follow-up is scheduled if a previously sent email remains unopened for 10 business days, and the sales representative is expected to reach out within one business day of the follow-up trigger.
Follow-up 4 (Task): Cancelled, Completed
This Task will be triggered in the following order -
Follow-up 1 → Follow-up 2 (Previous Email is 'Opened, Sent') → Follow-up 3 (Previous Email is 'Opened') → Follow-up 4 (Task)
When a previous call is completed or cancelled, a follow-up Task is triggered immediately. The Sales Agent is expected to update the notes with the reason for the call cancellation or record the outcome if the call is completed.
Follow-up 4 (Task): Cancelled, Completed
This Task will be triggered in the following order -
Follow-up 1 → Follow-up 2 (Previous Email is 'Opened, Sent') → Follow-up 3 (Previous Email is 'Sent') → Follow-up 4 (Task)
A follow-up task is triggered immediately after a call is completed or cancelled. The sales agent must update the notes with either the cancellation reason or the call outcome.
Follow-up 5 (Email notification): Completed
This Email will be triggered in the following order -
Follow-up 1 → Follow-up 2 (Previous Email is 'Opened, Sent') → Follow-up 3 (Previous Email is 'Opened') → Follow-up 4 (Previous call is 'Cancelled' or 'Completed') → Follow-up 5 (Email notification)
After the agent updates the reason/outcome and marks the task as completed, an email will be triggered to the lead after two days from completing the task. This email includes the information about the Car available in the showroom and the details on offers. So the lead can review it and reach the sales team when needed.
Note: If a positive response is received from the lead, the sales agent will update the status of the Lead record. As a reult, the record exits the custom view and gets unenrolled from cadence.
Follow-up 5 (Email notification): Completed
This Email will be triggered in the following order -
Follow-up 1 → Follow-up 2 (Previous Email is 'Opened, Sent') → Follow-up 3 (Previous Email is 'Sent') → Follow-up 4 (Previous call is 'Cancelled' or 'Completed') → Follow-up 5 (Email notification)
When the sales agent completes the task by updating the reason/outcome in the record, an email will be triggered to the lead after two days. This email includes the information about the Car available in the showroom and the details on offers. So the lead can review it and reach the sales team when needed.
Note: Upon receiving a positive response from a lead, the sales agent with update the lead status. This causes the record to exit the custom view and be unenrolled from the cadence.Step 3: Un-enroll properties
Un-enroll properties play a critical role in ensuring that customers are not over-contacted and the cadence stops at the right time. Instead of blindly completing all steps, the cadence dynamically exits a contact when certain conditions are met.
The first condition - 'Record doesn’t match custom view criteria' is applied to ensure that only leads eligible for follow-up remain in the cadence. The cadence is initially configured to include leads marked as 'cold leads' and with no recent activity. As the cadences progress, when a sales agent engages with the lead and updates the Lead status, the record no longer meets the defined criteria of the custom view. Consequently, the lead is automatically removed from the cadence, ensuring that further scheduled follow-ups are executed for that record.
The second condition, 'Follow-up criteria,' is used to identify customers who have actively responded through email during the cadence. When a customer replies to any of the follow-up emails, it indicates active engagement. Based on this condition, the system automatically unenrolls the customer from the cadence.
You can configure any un-enroll properties based on your requirements.
Step 4: Workflow for incoming email
If a lead responds to an email and the response goes unnoticed by the sales agent, it can result in missed opportunities. To prevent this, a workflow is configured to trigger based on incoming emails, ensuring that such responses are promptly reviewed by the sales agent.
A) Workflow Trigger:
Create a workflow by selecting the module as Email, and configure the trigger as 'Incoming Email' and choose 'Received'.
B) Workflow Criteria:
Select the Leads module and choose the option Lead matching certain conditions. Define the same criteria used in the custom view to ensure that the workflow is triggered only for records that meet those conditions.
C) Workflow Action:
In the workflow actions, add a Task action. When a lead responds to an email, the workflow will create a new task, notifying the sales agent to follow up with the lead.
Note: Once you have created this cadence, you can test the behaviour using a sample record. All the follow-ups will be triggered as specified in Production. To test your Cadence safely, create them in the sandbox and then deploy them to the Production environment when needed.
Custom Solution Created by Harish K | Zoho Partner Support
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