Call people who reply in your outreach tool

A prospect writes back “sounds interesting, call me Thursday”. The sooner a rep calls, the likelier your email is still on their mind. Send interested replies from your outreach tool to Salesfinity with a tag, and the rep dialing that list calls them next, with the reply in front of them.

When to use it

Your cold email runs in Instantly, Smartlead, lemlist, Apollo, Outreach or a similar tool.
Your tool marks replies as interested, or someone on your team does.

Sequences in the Salesfinity Sequencer? That’s built in: see Replies to your sequences.

What you need

A list the rep dials, its _id, and an API key. See Before you start.
A way for your tool to tell you about a reply: a Zapier or Make trigger, or a webhook.
A phone number for the prospect, in your tool or added on the way. No number? Send the LinkedIn URL, and the rep can find a mobile number with SmartEnrich.

Set it up

Decide which replies get a call

Send replies that ask to talk: interested replies, meeting requests, “call me”. Leave out out-of-office replies, “not interested”, “remove me” and auto-replies. They don’t want a call now.The simplest rule: trigger on the moment a lead is marked Interested, by your tool or by a person, rather than on every reply.

Catch the reply

Tool	In Zapier	In Make	Good to know
Instantly	Instantly → New Event, for a lead marked interested	Instantly → Watch Events	The event carries the reply text. Instantly’s own webhooks (`lead_interested`) need the Hyper Growth plan or above.
Smartlead	No Smartlead app. Add a webhook in Smartlead (Settings → Webhook → Add Webhook) for lead category updates, sent to Webhooks by Zapier → Catch Hook.	Webhooks → Custom webhook, as the webhook’s address	Keep the Interested category only. Webhooks need Smartlead Pro or above. The event carries the last reply.
lemlist	lemlist → New Activity, for a lead marked interested	lemlist → Watch Activities	lemlist’s interested activity covers every channel. The reply text may not be included, so put the campaign in `notes`.
Apollo	No reply trigger in Zapier. In Apollo, build a Workflow with the Email replied trigger and the Send webhook action, to Webhooks by Zapier → Catch Hook.	Webhooks → Custom webhook	Email replied fires on every reply, so filter out the ones that aren’t interested. Workflows depend on your Apollo plan.
Outreach	No reply trigger, in Zapier or in Outreach’s own Triggers.	Not covered here	A developer can subscribe to Outreach’s API webhooks for replies (resource `mailing`, action `replied`) and send the request from your own code.

Something else? Look for a trigger or webhook for “lead marked interested” first, and “reply received” second.

Clean up the reply text

The reply goes in notes, so the rep reads it before dialing. Fix three things first:

Plain text. If your tool sends the reply as HTML too, map the plain-text version.
Length. Notes hold 2,000 characters. Cut long replies, and quoted threads, with Formatter → Text → Truncate in Zapier.
Quotes and line breaks. Typed into the JSON of a request, they make it invalid, and the API answers 400. In Zapier, add Formatter → Text → Replace steps that replace " with ' and remove line breaks ([:newline:]). In Make, set the request’s Body input method to Data structure, so Make writes the JSON for you.

Send the person to Salesfinity

Use the tag "Replied". Put the reply and the campaign in notes, for example Replied to “Q4 CFO outreach”: ‘Sure, call me Thursday after 2.‘

What to send

Field	From your outreach tool
`first_name`, `last_name`	The lead’s name
`email`	The lead’s email. Needed so the same person isn’t added twice.
`company`, `title`	Company and job title
`phone_numbers`	`[{ "type": "mobile", "number": "+17205550148" }]`, in E.164
`linkedin`	The LinkedIn URL, if your tool has it
`notes`	The campaign and the reply, at most 2,000 characters
`tag`	`"Replied"`

curl https://client-api.salesfinity.co/v1/contact-lists/YOUR_LIST_ID \
  --request POST \
  --header 'x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY' \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data '{
    "first_name": "Dana",
    "last_name": "Ortiz",
    "email": "[email protected]",
    "company": "Fernway Logistics",
    "title": "VP Operations",
    "phone_numbers": [{ "type": "mobile", "number": "+17205550148" }],
    "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/danaortiz",
    "notes": "Replied to \"Q4 ops outreach\": Sure, call me Thursday after 2.",
    "tag": "Replied"
  }'

1. Trigger: your outreach tool's trigger for an interested lead, or
   Webhooks by Zapier → Catch Hook for a webhook (see the table above).
2. Filter by Zapier: only interested replies, if the trigger fires on
   every reply.
3. Formatter → Text → Truncate the reply, and Replace quotes and line
   breaks.
4. Formatter → Numbers → Format Phone Number, to E.164.
5. Action: Webhooks by Zapier → Custom Request
   Method:  POST
   URL:     https://client-api.salesfinity.co/v1/contact-lists/YOUR_LIST_ID
   Headers: x-api-key     YOUR_API_KEY
            Content-Type  application/json
   Data:    the JSON from the cURL tab, with the lead's fields and the
            reply mapped into it, and "tag": "Replied".

1. Trigger: your outreach tool's module for an interested lead, or
   Webhooks → Custom webhook for a webhook from your tool.
2. Filter: only interested replies.
3. Action: HTTP → Make a request
   URL:               https://client-api.salesfinity.co/v1/contact-lists/YOUR_LIST_ID
   Method:            POST
   Headers:           x-api-key = YOUR_API_KEY
   Body content type: application/JSON
   Body input method: Data structure, shaped like the JSON in the
                      cURL tab (Make can generate it from that sample)
   Body:              the lead's fields and the reply mapped in, and
                      "tag": "Replied".

Test it

Start dialing the list, with your phone ready.
Put yourself in a test campaign with your own email and mobile number, and reply to the first email: “Sounds good, call me today.”
Mark the reply interested in your tool, if it doesn’t do so on its own.
Check that the notification shows, that Next up shows your name with the reply in the notes, and that your phone rings once the current call is logged.

Good to know

Stop the emails too. Make sure your outreach tool stops the sequence when someone replies, so the prospect doesn’t get the next email after your rep’s call.
One rep per mailbox or campaign. If several reps send, route each reply to the list of the rep who owns the campaign or mailbox. In Zapier, a Formatter → Utilities → Lookup Table step turns the sender’s email into a list ID.
Already import from this tool? Salesfinity also connects to Apollo, lemlist, Smartlead and other tools to import who to call. Keep that for the cadence. This workflow is for replies that shouldn’t wait for the next import.
The same person twice. If they’re already on the list, they move to the top and take the tag, but keep their notes from the first time.

For errors and what the rep sees, see Troubleshooting in the speed-to-lead guide.

Start here

Plan your day

Build lists

Work your book and your CRM

Make it repeatable

Workflows: call at the right moment

Call people who reply in your outreach tool

When to use it

What you need

Set it up

What to send

Test it

Good to know

​When to use it

​What you need

​Set it up

​What to send

​Test it

​Good to know

When to use it

What you need

Set it up

What to send

Test it

Good to know