The division of labour
| Job | Module | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Deciding who to approach | Marketing | It is a targeting question. |
| Writing the messages | Marketing | An agent drafts; a person approves. |
| Sending them | [CRM](/docs/modules/crm/sequences) | One sender, one suppression list, one record of who was contacted. |
| Handling replies | [CRM inbox](/docs/modules/crm/inbox) | A reply is a sales conversation, not a marketing artefact. |
| Calling anybody | [Phony](/docs/modules/phony#outbound) | And only within a strict ceiling. |
The reason to hold that line is suppression. If two modules could send, an unsubscribe recorded in one would not be honoured by the other, and the first person to discover that would be somebody who had asked twice to be left alone. One sender means one list.
Outbound
2 campaigns prepared
| Campaign | Audience | Messages | State |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trade distributors — Q2 | Procurement, 20–200 staff | 4 | Handed to CRM |
| Lapsed customers | No order in 12 months | 3 | In review |
What this will not do
Outbound here produces email material for CRM to send to contacts you hold. It does not upload a purchased list, and it never triggers a phone call — Phony caps calling at callbacks, fast responses to verified form submissions, and existing-relationship informational calls, and that ceiling is not reachable from this module.
What this does not do
By design. CRM sends.
Audiences are built from contacts you already hold.
Email material only.
Copy varies by segment, not by individual.
Questions
Can Marketing see CRM contacts?
It works with segments; the contact data stays in CRM.
Where do replies go?
The CRM shared inbox.
Can we A/B test?
Not within a sequence. Two campaigns to two segments is the available approach.
Related
Multi-step outreach in erp.io CRM: building a sequence, sending domains, deliverability, and the outbound channels that are built but inert.
PhonyVoice and chat agents in erp.io that answer, qualify and hand off — how they are built, what they know, and the outbound calling this product deliberately will not do.