Follow-Up Stop & Escalation Rules
Define exactly when follow-up should CONTINUE, CHANGE CADENCE, ESCALATE, ENTER NURTURE, STOP, DISQUALIFY, or RETURN TO ACTIVE TREATMENT — preventing both stopping too soon and following up indefinitely without purpose.
Link
4
Link Name
Follow-Up
Playbook
Follow-Up Playbook
Role
control
Loop Step
Repair
Review State
in_review
Delivery Status
content_ready_delivery_pending
Purpose
Define exactly when follow-up should CONTINUE, CHANGE CADENCE, ESCALATE, ENTER NURTURE, STOP, DISQUALIFY, or RETURN TO ACTIVE TREATMENT — preventing both stopping too soon and following up indefinitely without purpose.
Action Vocabulary
- CONTINUE
- CHANGE_CADENCE
- ESCALATE
- ENTER_NURTURE
- STOP
- DISQUALIFY
- RETURN_TO_ACTIVE
Governing Distinction
- Stop vs disqualify
- STOP FOLLOW-UP ends an active cadence; it does NOT mean the opportunity has no future value. DISQUALIFY is an evidence-based judgment that the lead is not a fit or is unreachable after required attempts. Stopping a cadence usually routes to nurture (RLR-25), not to disqualification.
- Rule
- Never record STOP as DISQUALIFY. A stopped cadence with remaining future value belongs in nurture.
Rule Schema
- Note
- Every rule is defined by these fields.
- Fields
- trigger; current_state; action; owner; channel; timing; required_disposition; next_review; exit_condition
Rules
prospect_responds
- Trigger
- Prospect responds (any channel)
- Current state
- active sequence
- Action
- CONTINUE
- Owner
- [Responder]
- Channel
- prospect's channel
- Timing
- immediate
- Required disposition
- contacted
- Next review
- per conversation outcome
- Exit condition
- conversation resolves to booking, nurture, or disqualify
prospect_books
- Trigger
- Appointment booked
- Current state
- active sequence
- Action
- STOP
- Owner
- [Responder]
- Channel
- n/a
- Timing
- immediate
- Required disposition
- appointment_booked
- Next review
- Link 5 handoff
- Exit condition
- handed off to Booking + Handoff (Link 5)
explicit_decline
- Trigger
- Prospect explicitly declines
- Current state
- active or recovery
- Action
- DISQUALIFY
- Owner
- [Responder]
- Channel
- n/a
- Timing
- immediate
- Required disposition
- not_interested
- Next review
- none
- Exit condition
- closed lost with explicit reason; suppress from active follow-up
requests_future_contact
- Trigger
- Prospect requests future contact
- Current state
- active or recovery
- Action
- ENTER_NURTURE
- Owner
- nurture owner
- Channel
- approved
- Timing
- at requested date
- Required disposition
- nurture
- Next review
- requested date
- Exit condition
- re-activation trigger or opt-out
not_a_fit
- Trigger
- Determined not to be a fit (evidence-based)
- Current state
- any
- Action
- DISQUALIFY
- Owner
- [Responder]
- Channel
- n/a
- Timing
- on determination
- Required disposition
- not_a_fit
- Next review
- none
- Exit condition
- closed with documented non-fit reason
invalid_contact
- Trigger
- Contact information invalid
- Current state
- active
- Action
- CHANGE_CADENCE
- Owner
- [Responder]
- Channel
- alternate channel
- Timing
- immediate
- Required disposition
- bad_contact_info
- Next review
- after data correction attempt
- Exit condition
- valid contact found → resume; none found after attempts → STOP as unreachable
high_intent_unresponsive
- Trigger
- High-intent prospect becomes unresponsive
- Current state
- active or recovery
- Action
- ESCALATE
- Owner
- named human owner (RLR-20)
- Channel
- human-led
- Timing
- within SLA
- Required disposition
- escalated
- Next review
- human owner sets
- Exit condition
- human resolves to booking, nurture, or documented disqualify
sla_sequence_complete
- Trigger
- SLA-defined follow-up sequence completes with no response
- Current state
- active
- Action
- ENTER_NURTURE
- Owner
- nurture owner
- Channel
- approved
- Timing
- on completion
- Required disposition
- nurture
- Next review
- nurture review date
- Exit condition
- re-activation trigger or opt-out
nurture_criteria_met
- Trigger
- Nurture criteria met (not ready yet, future value)
- Current state
- active or recovery
- Action
- ENTER_NURTURE
- Owner
- nurture owner
- Channel
- approved
- Timing
- on determination
- Required disposition
- nurture
- Next review
- nurture review date
- Exit condition
- re-activation trigger or opt-out
prospect_reengages
- Trigger
- Nurtured/quiet prospect re-engages or new intent detected
- Current state
- nurture
- Action
- RETURN_TO_ACTIVE
- Owner
- [Responder]
- Channel
- prospect's channel
- Timing
- immediate
- Required disposition
- reactivated
- Next review
- per active sequence
- Exit condition
- route to RLR-23/RLR-24 or Link 5
duplicate_inquiry
- Trigger
- Duplicate inquiry detected
- Current state
- any
- Action
- CHANGE_CADENCE
- Owner
- [Responder]
- Channel
- n/a
- Timing
- immediate
- Required disposition
- merged_duplicate
- Next review
- n/a
- Exit condition
- merge to primary record; no parallel cadence
do_not_contact
- Trigger
- Contact requests no further communication (opt-out)
- Current state
- any
- Action
- STOP
- Owner
- [Responder]
- Channel
- n/a
- Timing
- immediate
- Required disposition
- opted_out
- Next review
- none
- Exit condition
- add to suppression list; no further contact on that channel/all channels per request
delivery_failure
- Trigger
- Channel delivery failure (bounce, undeliverable)
- Current state
- active
- Action
- CHANGE_CADENCE
- Owner
- [Responder]
- Channel
- alternate channel
- Timing
- immediate
- Required disposition
- delivery_failed
- Next review
- after alternate attempt
- Exit condition
- reach via alternate → resume; all channels fail → STOP as unreachable
owner_inaction
- Trigger
- Owner fails to take required action (missed next action / SLA breach)
- Current state
- any
- Action
- ESCALATE
- Owner
- revenue operations lead
- Channel
- internal
- Timing
- on SLA breach
- Required disposition
- escalated_internal
- Next review
- manager review
- Exit condition
- action completed or reassigned
Two Failure Modes Prevented
- Stopping too soon
- Rules require the SLA-defined coverage to be delivered before any 'unreachable' STOP; abandonment before completion criteria is a leak (RLR-22), not a valid stop.
- Endless follow up
- Rules require a defined completion, nurture transition, or disqualification so no lead is followed indefinitely without purpose.
Escalation Detail
- Principle
- High-intent-but-unresponsive prospects and complex/high-value opportunities go to a named human owner instead of exhausting automation.
- Sla
- Operator-configured escalation SLA (e.g. same business day for high intent). The rule set carries the SLA field; the value is set by the business.
- Handoff Context
- Escalations carry full qualification and follow-up history so the human does not re-qualify.
Compliance Guardrail
Opt-out and do-not-contact triggers STOP and suppress immediately across the requested scope. Respect channel permissions, business suppression, and approved communication policy. Do not author rules that bypass provider restrictions, opt-outs, or consent controls. Jurisdiction/industry rules are applied by the operator.
Disposition Integration
Every rule writes a required disposition consistent with the Link 3 Lead Disposition Standard (RLR-21), so every follow-up attempt and stop is accounted for and no lead ends in an ambiguous state.
What To Measure
Stop-reason completeness, abandoned-before-completion rate, escalation rate and human follow-through, opt-out suppression accuracy, and STOP-vs-DISQUALIFY correctness.
Data Required
Per-lead rule-application logs with trigger, action taken, disposition written, owner, and timestamps.
How To Interpret
Unknown/ambiguous stop reasons or high abandoned-before-completion indicate stopping too soon; leads active far beyond SLA indicate endless follow-up; misclassified STOP-as-DISQUALIFY indicates lost future value.
Action That Follows
Wire triggers into the sequences (RLR-23/RLR-24) and nurture (RLR-25), connect escalation to named human owners (RLR-20), and enforce disposition writes (RLR-21).
Owner
Revenue operations lead owns the rule set; per-rule owners named inline; escalations to named human owners.
How To Implement
Encode each rule as an automation/CRM condition with the required disposition and next review, configure the escalation SLA, and connect suppression to opt-out handling.
How To Test
Simulate each trigger; confirm the correct action fires, the correct disposition is written, opt-outs suppress, escalations route to a human within SLA, and no lead is stopped before completion criteria or left active past SLA.
When To Remeasure
At 14 and 30 days via RLR-22 re-audit and on the operating-review cadence.
How To Know It Improved
Re-measured unknown stop-reason rate and abandoned-before-completion fall, escalations resolve within SLA, opt-outs are honored, and STOP vs DISQUALIFY is applied correctly — evidenced by data, not by rules being installed.
How to implement
Install the change exactly as the playbook describes; log it on the Repair Plan.
How to verify
Installing a workflow is implementation, not closure. QA the repair before you trust it.
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