Next to each client on Contacted, you'll see a small row of dots. They tell you exactly where the client is in your follow-up sequence at a glance.
Reading The Dots
- Filled dot = a send that's already gone out.
- Empty dot = a send queued but not yet sent.
- Three filled dots = the full sequence has been delivered.
Refinance Sequence
A refinance outreach has a 3-send sequence:
- Initial outreach.
- Day-7 follow-up.
- Day-21 follow-up.
So a freshly-sent refinance outreach shows 1 filled, 2 empty. A week later, it shows 2 filled, 1 empty. After 21 days with no reply, 3 filled.
Renewals Sequence
A renewals drip is tied to maturity milestones. The default sequence has 4 sends:
- 12 months to maturity.
- 7 months to maturity.
- 3 months to maturity.
- 1 month to maturity.
The number of dots matches whatever sequence you've configured in outreach settings, so if you've added or removed steps the dot count changes to match (up to 12 steps). Each dot's "next" label reflects its milestone (for example "7-month touch").
Because renewals are time-based (not day-based), the dots fill as the client crosses each milestone, not on a fixed cadence.
What Stops The Dots From Filling
If the client replies at any point, the remaining dots stay empty forever. The sequence is done. The client moves to Interested or Not Interested (Contacted Stages Explained) and any queued follow-ups are cancelled.
Turning Follow-Ups On Or Off
Follow-ups are normally armed by the "Automated follow-ups" toggle in the send modal, at the moment you send the first message. If that toggle was off, the client's dots stay empty.
When follow-ups are off, the Next column shows a Turn on follow-ups button. Clicking it arms the sequence and catches it up to however much time has already passed since your last message, instead of restarting the clock:
- Less than 7 days since the last message - follow-up 1 goes out on its normal due date (7 days after the last message).
- 7 to 21 days since the last message - follow-up 1 goes out on the next outreach sweep, within the hour.
- More than 21 days since the last message - follow-up 1 is skipped and only follow-up 2 goes out, so the client never receives two catch-up emails back to back.
- If follow-up 2 already went out - the sequence is already finished, so the button has nothing left to schedule.
The cadence itself doesn't change: initial message, then the day-7 follow-up, then the day-21 follow-up. For a Draft in Inbox client, the "last message" used in the catch-up math is when the draft was created, not when you eventually send it.
Doing This In Bulk
Select checkboxes on two or more clients (see Filtering And Sorting Contacted for how selection works) and a bar appears at the bottom of the screen with Clear, Turn off follow-ups, and Turn on follow-ups.
Turn on follow-ups arms every selected client at once, but each is still caught up individually using the rules above, not on a shared schedule.
Turn off follow-ups stops the sequence for the selected clients and clears their next scheduled follow-up. It doesn't change the client's stage and doesn't cancel any one-off message you already scheduled by hand.
Either action quietly skips any selected client it can't apply to, then tells you how many it skipped ("armed 8, skipped 2"). A client is skipped when they've already replied and moved to Interested or Not Interested (their sequence ended when they replied), or, on turn-on, when they've already received the whole sequence (the day-21 follow-up went out, or a renewal crossed its last drip) so there's nothing left to schedule.
Why The Dots Matter
The dots tell you whether it's worth manually following up:
- All dots filled, still no reply → consider a different channel (call, SMS) or shelving the client.
- 1 dot filled, fresh → don't manually follow up yet; let the sequence work.
- 2 dots filled, no reply → good moment for a personal touch if it's a priority client.
What To Do Next
- See how follow-ups are configured: Scheduling Sends And Automated Follow-Ups.
- Adjust the templates that fill those dots: Editing The IRD Email Template.