What you'll be able to do after this guide: set up a deal sync agent that spots genuine replies and records them as deals at the right stage, without ever overstating where a conversation has got to.
A reply that lives only in an inbox is easy to lose. The deal sync agent checks recent conversations once a day, and when a prospect has genuinely replied, it makes sure there's a deal in the CRM with a clear summary of what they said. A person then picks up the conversation.
Its queue is everyone with a last message date in the last three days. Pick a look-back window longer than the gap between runs, including weekends, so nothing slips through.
Because a message date has no direction (it doesn't say who spoke last), the agent must look at the conversation itself to know whether the prospect replied. It reads what has reached the CRM: email threads synced into Attio, and, for social platforms, replies a person has logged as a note or task comment. It never reads a social platform directly.
A reply is a message from the prospect sent after our latest message. These are not replies:
Our own unanswered message.
An out-of-office or other automatic response. A deal created from an auto-reply is a fictional opportunity.
A reaction or emoji with no text. Note it, but don't create a deal.
The agent reads the whole message before deciding, because a misread puts the wrong stage on a real commercial record.
No open deal: create one, usually at Responded. Fill in the company, the person, an owner and a one to two sentence summary of the opportunity. Leave the value and expected close date blank: a guessed number becomes a forecast the moment someone opens the pipeline view.
An open deal exists: add a comment first, then move the stage only if the conversation clearly justifies it.
Only a closed deal exists: never reopen it. Create a new deal and flag it as notable.
Several open deals: update the most recent and flag the duplicate for a person. Don't merge.
The comment covers what they said (in their words for anything commercially important), concrete facts (current tool, timeline, budget, team size), questions they asked, and the date.
We use these stages, in order: New, Contacted, Responded, Meeting Scheduled, Trial, Proposal, then Won, Lost or Disqualified. Some teams create a deal at New when a prospect reaches Review; others create one only when someone replies. Either works. The message stage moves a deal from New to Contacted after a confirmed send; deal sync handles Responded to Proposal; people handle the rest.
| The conversation shows | Stage |
|---|---|
| Interest, a question or a request for information; no meeting yet | Responded |
| A call, demo or meeting agreed, or they proposed a time | Meeting Scheduled |
| They asked for access or a trial | Trial |
| They asked for pricing that needs a written proposal | Proposal |
| No, not now, or wrong fit | Leave the stage; comment and flag for a person to close |
Forward only. If the conversation suggests a lower stage, leave it and say so.
Never set Won, Lost or Disqualified. Closing is a person's decision, even after a clear "no".
Ambiguity resolves downwards. Don't jump to Proposal on enthusiasm alone.
If the right stage isn't obvious, don't guess. Comment, leave the stage, and list the deal for review. An unmoved deal with a good comment is a much cheaper mistake than a wrong stage.
Stay in your lane. The deal sync agent sets the company to Contacted, writes deals and comments, and nothing else. It must not touch message or connection dates, because the message stage relies on them.
No tasks, with one exception. The deal and its comment are the record. Only if the prospect asked a direct question that would otherwise go unanswered does the agent create a single "Reply to..." task, due in 48 hours.
How many conversations were checked and how many had replies.
For each reply: person, company, deal created or updated, stage before and after (or deliberately left), and a one-line gist.
Every deal left unmoved for review, duplicates found, and replies on closed deals.
"Nobody replied" in one line, which is a normal outcome.
Next: move on to Run and Improve, starting with Logging and Run Summaries.
