FS-DOC-03Operations
Process Runbook / SOP
Lead Nurture Sequence
[YourCompany.com] · Sales Department · Prepared by FullSpec · [Today's Date]
This runbook is the day-to-day operating guide for your Lead Nurture Sequence automation. It explains what the system does at every step, where your team needs to act, how to handle things when something goes wrong, and who to call when you need help. FullSpec has built and configured the automation end to end. Your team's job is to respond to booked meetings and inbound replies, keep templates current, and review the occasional flagged lead. Everything else runs without manual input.
01Process overview
When a new contact record is created in HubSpot with a lifecycle stage of lead, the automation fires immediately. Three agents run in sequence: the Lead Qualification Agent scores the contact and applies a tag, the Sequence Messaging Agent sends a timed series of personalised emails via Gmail and monitors for replies or Calendly bookings, and the Sales Alert Agent posts a formatted Slack notification to the sales channel the moment a booking or positive reply is detected. Your sales rep only needs to act when a real human reply arrives or a meeting appears in the calendar. All CRM logging, stage updates, and follow-up scheduling happen without anyone touching HubSpot manually.
Process name
Lead Nurture Sequence
Trigger
A new contact record is created in HubSpot with a lifecycle stage of lead, via form submission or manual CRM entry
Final output
Lead is either booked into a sales meeting (confirmed via Calendly and alerted in Slack) or moved to a long-term nurture tag in HubSpot after three unanswered touchpoints
Agents running
Lead Qualification Agent, Sequence Messaging Agent, Sales Alert Agent
Tools involved
HubSpot, Gmail, Calendly, Slack, Google Sheets
Weekly volume
Approximately 23 new leads per week (~90/month)
Human checkpoint
Sales rep reads and responds to inbound replies and attends booked meetings. No other manual steps are required.
Process owner
[Your name] · [Rep email]
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02Step-by-step: what happens and who acts
What you actually need to do: The only human step in this process is reading and responding to inbound replies from leads. When a lead replies to any email in the sequence, the automation detects the reply, stops further automated messages, and your sales rep takes over the conversation directly in Gmail. Everything else, including scoring, email sending, CRM updates, and Slack alerts, happens automatically.
Step
What happens
Who acts
Type
1
A new contact record is created in HubSpot with a lifecycle stage of lead. This happens when a form is submitted or a contact is manually added to the CRM. The automation platform detects the new record and starts the sequence immediately.
System
Automated
2
The Lead Qualification Agent reads the contact record, form submission fields, and any lead source data stored in HubSpot. It compares this information against the ideal customer profile criteria held in Google Sheets, assigns a fit score, and writes a qualification tag back to the HubSpot contact record. Standard leads are processed without any human input. Edge cases that cannot be scored confidently are flagged for rep review.
Lead Qualification Agent
Automated
3
If the lead meets the ICP threshold, the Sequence Messaging Agent sends the first personalised email via Gmail. The email uses the lead's name, enquiry topic, and source channel pulled from HubSpot, and includes the Calendly booking link. The outreach activity is logged in HubSpot and the contact lifecycle stage is updated to contacted, all without manual input.
Sequence Messaging Agent
Automated
4
If no reply and no Calendly booking is detected after two business days, the Sequence Messaging Agent sends the second follow-up email via Gmail. The message is personalised using the same HubSpot contact data. The touchpoint is logged and the CRM stage is updated automatically.
Sequence Messaging Agent
Automated
5
If no reply and no booking is detected after four business days from first contact, the Sequence Messaging Agent sends the third and final follow-up email via Gmail. After this message is logged, the system checks for any response or booking signal before deciding the next action.
Sequence Messaging Agent
Automated
6
If a lead replies to any email at any point in the sequence, the automation detects the reply, stops all further automated messages, and flags the contact in HubSpot. The sales rep receives the reply in their Gmail inbox and reads and responds to it directly. This is the only step that requires a human.
Sales Rep
Human
7
If a Calendly booking is detected at any point during the sequence, the Sales Alert Agent posts a formatted notification to the Slack sales channel. The message includes the lead's name, company, and meeting time, plus a direct link to the HubSpot contact record. The sequence stops automatically once a booking is confirmed.
Sales Alert Agent
Automated
8
If three emails are sent with no reply and no booking detected, the automation tags the contact as long-term nurture in HubSpot and removes them from the active sequence. No manual decision is required. The contact remains in HubSpot for future campaigns.
System
Automated
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03Handling exceptions
Situation
What the system does
What you do
Lead record is missing key fields (e.g. no email address, blank enquiry topic, or missing lead source)
The Lead Qualification Agent detects incomplete data and cannot score the lead reliably. It applies an incomplete data tag to the HubSpot contact and pauses the sequence for that contact without sending any email.
Open the flagged contact in HubSpot, fill in the missing fields, and manually remove the incomplete data tag. The sequence will resume scoring on the next scheduled check. If the data cannot be found, mark the contact as disqualified.
A duplicate contact record is created in HubSpot for the same lead
The automation may begin a second sequence for the duplicate record if the duplicate passes through HubSpot's standard deduplication check. Both records could receive emails independently.
Merge the duplicate records in HubSpot as soon as you notice them. Check the activity log on both records to confirm no email was sent twice to the same address. If duplicate emails were sent, note it in the contact record and continue the sequence from the correct record only.
A lead books a meeting via Calendly but the booking does not trigger the Slack alert
The Sales Alert Agent monitors the Calendly webhook. If the webhook event is not received, the alert is not posted. The sequence may continue sending further emails to an already-booked lead.
Check the Calendly integration status in the automation platform dashboard. If the webhook has missed an event, manually update the HubSpot contact stage to meeting booked and stop the sequence from the contact record. Post a manual Slack message to the sales channel. Contact FullSpec at support@gofullspec.com if the webhook failure repeats.
A qualified lead does not receive the first email (no outreach sent after 24 hours)
If the Gmail sending action fails, the automation logs the error and retries up to three times over a two-hour window. If all retries fail, the contact is flagged with a sequence error tag in HubSpot.
Check HubSpot for any contacts tagged with sequence error. Review the automation platform error log to confirm whether the failure is a Gmail authentication issue or a sending limit. Restart the sequence from the contact record once the issue is resolved, or send the first email manually from Gmail if urgent.
The sales rep does not respond to an inbound reply within a reasonable time
The automation has already stopped the sequence for this contact. No further automated emails are sent. The contact sits in the replied state in HubSpot.
Respond to the lead directly in Gmail as soon as possible. Update the HubSpot contact stage manually to reflect where the conversation stands. If the lead has gone cold due to a delayed response, a short re-engagement message sent from Gmail is recommended.
HubSpot or Gmail is unavailable due to an outage
The automation platform queues pending actions and retries them when the affected tool comes back online. No data is lost. The sequence timing may shift by the duration of the outage.
Check the HubSpot and Gmail status pages if you notice emails are not being sent or CRM records are not updating. No manual intervention is needed during a brief outage. If the outage lasts more than four hours and high-priority leads are in the queue, contact FullSpec at support@gofullspec.com for guidance on manual workarounds.
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04Who to contact and when
Fill in the rows below once your team is confirmed. Keep this table updated whenever a team member changes role or leaves. The FullSpec rows are fixed and do not need to be edited.
Role
Name
How to reach them
Process owner (sales lead)
[Your name]
[Your email or Slack handle]
Sales Manager
[Sales Manager name]
[Email or Slack handle]
Sales Rep (primary sequence handler)
[Rep name]
[Email or Slack handle]
HubSpot admin (field and integration access)
[HubSpot admin name]
[Email or Slack handle]
FullSpec builder (build and configuration queries)
FullSpec team
support@gofullspec.com
FullSpec support (errors, outages, unexpected behaviour)
FullSpec support
support@gofullspec.com
For any automation error, unexpected behaviour, or tool connection failure that you cannot resolve from this runbook, contact FullSpec at support@gofullspec.com. Include the affected contact record link from HubSpot and a brief description of what you expected to happen versus what occurred.
05Ongoing maintenance
Whenever intake form fields change
Review the HubSpot contact properties that the Lead Qualification Agent reads for scoring. If a field is renamed, removed, or moved to a new property, notify FullSpec so the agent mapping can be updated before the next lead enters the sequence.
Process owner + FullSpec
Whenever email templates need updating
Send the revised copy to FullSpec with clear notes on which sequence touchpoint it replaces (first, second, or third email). FullSpec will update the template in the automation platform and confirm the change before it goes live. Do not edit templates directly in Gmail drafts.
Process owner + FullSpec
Monthly spot-check
Pick five recent leads from the last 30 days and trace their journey in HubSpot. Confirm that each contact was scored, received the correct number of emails, had their CRM stage updated after each touchpoint, and was either booked, alerted in Slack, or moved to long-term nurture as expected.
Sales Manager or Process owner
Monthly error-log review
Open the automation platform dashboard and review any errors or failed actions logged in the previous 30 days. Check for repeated Gmail sending failures, missed Calendly webhook events, or contacts stuck with a sequence error tag in HubSpot. Escalate anything that recurs to FullSpec.
Process owner
When a team member joins or leaves
Update the contact table in Section 04 of this runbook. If a rep who was the sequence handler leaves, reassign the Gmail inbox and Slack notification channel permissions before their account is deactivated. Inform FullSpec if any connected API credentials are linked to the departing team member's account.
Process owner + HubSpot admin
Quarterly volume review
Compare the current monthly lead volume against the original baseline of approximately 90 leads per month. If volume has grown significantly, review whether the automation platform subscription and Gmail sending limits remain adequate. Contact FullSpec if the build needs to be scaled for higher throughput.
Process owner + FullSpec
The most common maintenance issue for this process is HubSpot contact fields becoming inconsistent after a form or CRM update. When the intake form fields change and the Lead Qualification Agent is not updated at the same time, leads enter the sequence with incomplete scoring data and the personalisation quality in emails drops immediately. Always notify FullSpec before making changes to your HubSpot intake form or contact property layout.
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