FS-DOC-03Operations
Process Runbook / SOP
Outbound Prospecting & Cold Outreach Cadences
[YourCompany.com] · Sales Department · Prepared by FullSpec · [Today's Date]
This runbook is your day-to-day reference for how the Outbound Prospecting and Cold Outreach Cadences automation works, what your team needs to do, and what to do when something goes wrong. The automation handles enrichment, personalisation drafting, sequence execution, CRM logging, and rep alerts without any manual input beyond a single review step. This document is written for the process owner and the Sales Development Rep running the cadence, not for the FullSpec build team. Keep it accessible to anyone who covers the SDR role.
01Process overview
This process runs every time a new contact enters your outreach pipeline with a status of 'To Contact' in HubSpot. From that moment, three agents work in sequence: the first enriches the contact record using Clearbit and Apollo.io; the second drafts a personalised opening line and creates a review task for the rep; the third, once the rep approves the draft, enrolls the contact in the correct HubSpot sequence, fires all scheduled email touches via Gmail, logs every event back to the CRM, and sends a Slack alert the moment the prospect replies or books. Your team's only required action in the entire flow is reviewing and approving the AI-drafted opening line before touch one goes out. Every other step runs automatically in the background, even while the rep is on calls or out of the office.
Process name
Outbound Prospecting & Cold Outreach Cadences
Trigger
A contact is created or updated in HubSpot with status set to 'To Contact'
Final output
A fully executed cadence logged in HubSpot, with a Slack alert to the rep on any reply or meeting booking
Agents running
Prospect Enrichment Agent, Personalisation Drafting Agent, Cadence Execution and Logging Agent
Tools involved
HubSpot, Apollo.io, Clearbit, Gmail, Slack
Weekly volume
Approximately 120 prospects per month (roughly 30 per week)
Human checkpoint
Rep reviews and approves the AI-drafted opening line inside HubSpot before touch one is sent
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02Step-by-step: what happens and who acts
What you actually need to do: Your only required action in this process is to open the review task in HubSpot, read the AI-drafted opening line, and either approve it or make a quick edit before approving. Everything before and after that step happens automatically. If you do not action the task, touch one will not fire and the cadence will not start for that prospect.
Step
What happens
Who acts
Type
1
A contact is added to HubSpot with status 'To Contact', or a new row is written to the import list. This event fires the automation.
System
Automated
2
The Prospect Enrichment Agent calls Clearbit and Apollo.io to retrieve the contact's job title, company size, tech stack, and any recent trigger events. All confirmed data is written directly to the HubSpot contact record without the rep touching a browser.
Prospect Enrichment Agent
Automated
3
The Personalisation Drafting Agent reads the enriched HubSpot fields and writes a concise, context-specific opening line to a dedicated custom field on the contact record. A review task is simultaneously created and assigned to the rep inside HubSpot.
Personalisation Drafting Agent
Automated
4
The rep opens the HubSpot task, reads the draft opening line, and either approves it as written or makes a short edit before marking it approved. This is the only step that requires human action. Target time: under 5 minutes per contact.
Sales Development Rep
Human
5
Once the rep approves, the Cadence Execution and Logging Agent enrolls the contact in the correct HubSpot sequence, inserting the approved personalisation token into touch one automatically.
Cadence Execution and Logging Agent
Automated
6
HubSpot fires each of the 6 to 8 scheduled email touches via the connected Gmail account on the configured cadence days. No rep action is needed between touches.
Cadence Execution and Logging Agent
Automated
7
Every send, open, click, and reply event is automatically logged to the HubSpot contact timeline and the deal stage is updated based on engagement signals. CRM accuracy is maintained at 100% without any manual logging.
Cadence Execution and Logging Agent
Automated
8
When the prospect replies or clicks a meeting booking link, a Slack message is sent to the rep with the contact name, the last touch number, and a direct link to the HubSpot record so the rep can respond immediately.
Cadence Execution and Logging Agent
Automated
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03Handling exceptions
Situation
What the system does
What you do
Enrichment returns incomplete data (e.g. a small private company with minimal web presence)
The Prospect Enrichment Agent writes whatever fields it can retrieve to HubSpot and flags the contact with a 'Low Enrichment Coverage' tag. The Personalisation Drafting Agent still generates a draft, but notes in the task description that data coverage is limited.
Review the draft more carefully and add any known context manually before approving. If the company is genuinely unknown, write a more generic but still relevant opening line in the edit field before approving.
A duplicate contact already exists in HubSpot when the new record is created
The automation detects the existing record by matching email address and pauses enrolment. A task is created for the rep flagging the potential duplicate and linking both records.
Open the task, compare the two records, merge or delete the duplicate in HubSpot, and confirm which record should continue through the cadence. The automation will resume once the status on the surviving record is set back to 'To Contact'.
The rep does not action the personalisation review task within 48 hours
The system sends a reminder Slack message to the rep after 24 hours of task inactivity. If the task remains open after 48 hours, a second Slack alert is sent to the Sales Manager.
Complete the review task as soon as possible. If you are away, reassign the task to another rep using the HubSpot task assignment feature so the cadence is not held up.
A prospect replies mid-cadence but the reply is not a booking (e.g. an out-of-office or an unsubscribe request)
The Slack alert fires as normal with the reply content visible. The system does not automatically halt the cadence on a non-booking reply; it logs the reply event to HubSpot and continues scheduled touches unless the contact's status is updated.
Open the HubSpot record immediately via the Slack link. If the reply is an unsubscribe, set the contact's email opt-out flag in HubSpot straight away to stop further sends. If it is an out-of-office, you may leave the cadence running or pause it at your discretion.
Clearbit or Apollo.io is unavailable or returns an API error
The automation platform retries the enrichment call three times with a 5-minute delay between attempts. If all retries fail, the contact is tagged 'Enrichment Failed' in HubSpot and a Slack alert is sent to the process owner.
Check the FullSpec error log (shared with you at go-live) and confirm whether the outage is ongoing. If enrichment is still failing after 30 minutes, manually research the contact and fill the key HubSpot fields so the Personalisation Drafting Agent can proceed. Contact support@gofullspec.com if the API connection appears broken.
Gmail sending limit is reached and a scheduled touch cannot fire
The automation holds the pending send in a queue and retries once the sending window resets (typically the next calendar day). The touch is not skipped; it is delayed. A Slack alert is sent to the process owner noting the queued sends.
Review the Slack alert and confirm the send queue is clearing. If volume regularly hits the daily Gmail cap, notify FullSpec at support@gofullspec.com so the sending domain configuration and warm-up schedule can be reviewed before the issue affects cadence timing.
04Who to contact and when
Fill in the rows below once your team is confirmed. Keep this table updated whenever roles or contact details change so that anyone covering the process knows exactly who to call.
Role
Name
How to reach them
Process owner
[Your name]
[Your email or Slack handle]
Sales Development Rep (primary)
[Rep name]
[Rep email]
Sales Development Rep (backup)
[Backup rep name]
[Backup rep email]
Sales Manager
[Manager name]
[Manager email or Slack handle]
FullSpec builder
FullSpec team
support@gofullspec.com
FullSpec support
FullSpec support
support@gofullspec.com
Contact FullSpec at support@gofullspec.com for any of the following: an agent stops triggering; enrichment failures persist beyond 30 minutes; a Slack alert fires but the HubSpot record is not updating; Gmail sends are queuing without clearing; or you need to update the personalisation prompt template or cadence sequence structure.
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05Ongoing maintenance
When HubSpot sequence templates are edited or replaced
Notify FullSpec at support@gofullspec.com before making changes to any sequence that the automation enrols contacts into. Template structure changes can break the personalisation token mapping and cause touch one to send without the approved opening line.
Process owner, with FullSpec support
When the prompt template for the personalisation draft needs updating (e.g. offer change, new ICP, tone shift)
Submit the updated prompt copy or brief to FullSpec via support@gofullspec.com. Do not edit the prompt inside the automation platform directly. FullSpec will update, test, and redeploy the change within an agreed timeframe.
Process owner, coordinated by FullSpec
Monthly spot-check (first Monday of each month)
Review five to ten HubSpot contact records processed in the past 30 days. Confirm that enrichment fields are populated, the opening line is present, all cadence touches are logged, and no tasks are sitting unactioned for more than 48 hours.
Process owner or Sales Manager
Weekly error-log review (every Friday)
Check the shared FullSpec error log for any 'Enrichment Failed' or 'Send Queued' flags raised during the week. Confirm each has been resolved. Escalate any unresolved items to support@gofullspec.com before the end of the business day.
Process owner
When a rep joins, leaves, or changes role
Update the HubSpot task assignment rules and Slack alert routing so review tasks and reply notifications go to the correct rep. Notify FullSpec of any change to the rep whose Gmail account is connected to the cadence sends, as the OAuth connection will need to be re-authorised.
Process owner, with FullSpec support for Gmail re-authorisation
Quarterly volume review (every 3 months)
Compare the current monthly prospect volume against the build baseline of 120 contacts per month. If volume has grown beyond 400 emails per day, review Gmail sending domain configuration and HubSpot daily email caps with FullSpec before the limit causes delayed sends.
Sales Manager and FullSpec
The single most common maintenance issue for this process is a rep leaving or changing Gmail accounts without the OAuth connection being updated. When this happens, all scheduled cadence sends queue silently and no emails are delivered. If send volume drops unexpectedly or the error log shows repeated Gmail authentication failures, this is the first thing to check. Contact support@gofullspec.com immediately so the Gmail connection can be re-authorised against the correct account.
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