Welcome to the fourth tutorial of the Boosting sales with AI course. 

Getting leads to convert into customers depends on how well your outreach activities connect with your sales process. Your team needs easy access to prospect information and must know right away when someone shows interest - otherwise, you risk missing out on promising opportunities. When sales reps can quickly see how prospects are engaging with your outreach and get alerts about hot leads, they can take action at exactly the right moment.

In this tutorial, you'll explore how to:

• Export and synchronize engagement data from Reply.io
• Set up a lead-scoring system to prioritize prospects
• Automate workflows for following up with high-value leads
• Launch nurture campaigns to engage potential customers
• Build a strategic plan for successfully closing deals

Tools you’ll need:

• A Reply.io account
• A Hubspot account

Let’s get started!

Export and synchronize engagement data from Reply.io

To align our workflow with the sales team, we’ll start by exporting our contact database along with their email engagement data from Reply.io. This data provides key insights, such as email clicks and opt-outs, which are crucial for understanding engagement levels.

Using this information, we can set up lead scoring in HubSpot to focus on high-value leads who have shown genuine interest.

To start with the Reply.io integration, head to your Reply.io dashboard, open the execution tab, and find the integrations section.

All external app integrations will be managed here in Reply.io.

Quick Tip: Although we are using Hubspot CRM in this tutorial, Reply.io supports many other CRMs. Choose the one you use the most. 

When you open the integrations page, you’ll see several options for syncing data between Reply.io and HubSpot. For our needs, we’ll focus on two key synchronizations:

1. Syncing contacts from Reply.io with HubSpot
2. Aligning people’s statuses in Reply.io with lead statuses in HubSpot

To get started, select the "People Sync" option in Reply.io. By default, two fields will already be mapped. Click "Add Field Mapping" to add more and choose additional fields you’d like to sync with HubSpot. This step ensures that all the data we previously imported from Clay.com is included in Reply.io, giving the sales team complete context about each lead.

Now, let’s set up the People Statuses Sync. This step involves mapping key engagement data from Reply.io, such as bounced emails, clicks, contact completion status, and invalid emails. These status fields will be synced to HubSpot to support lead scoring.

Before proceeding, check HubSpot’s settings menu to ensure all necessary lead statuses are available. For any statuses that don’t already exist, create new custom properties and set their type to Lead Status. This ensures seamless integration and accurate tracking of engagement data.

Once both synchronization steps are configured, activate the full sync by toggling the switch in the top-right corner. This will ensure that all data flows seamlessly between Reply.io and HubSpot.

Quick Tip: Make sure all contacts, prospect data, and engagement metrics are imported into your HubSpot or any other CRM you’re using. Engagement data, such as clicks or responses, may take a few hours to appear after the campaign is sent.

Lead scoring is a method for ranking potential customers based on their value to your business. This involves assigning points for specific actions and characteristics that indicate a prospect’s interest and fit for your product or service. Once prospects earn enough points, they’re marked as qualified leads, making them a top priority for your sales team.

In this case, we’ll use the engagement data synced from Reply.io to design a scoring system in HubSpot. This will help your sales team focus on prospects with the highest likelihood of conversion.

A strong lead scoring model tracks both explicit and implicit indicators of interest. Explicit indicators are direct actions, like responding to an email, while implicit indicators are subtler behaviors, such as opening emails or clicking links.

To start, go to HubSpot’s settings page and select Properties from the left-hand sidebar.

Search for the HubSpot Score property once you're in the Properties section. This is where we’ll set up and customize our lead scoring system.

Quick tip: To use HubSpot's scoring feature, you need to subscribe to the HubSpot Professional plan. Make sure your account is upgraded to access this functionality in your CRM.

Here’s the initial scoring framework for evaluating engagement in your Reply.io campaign:

• Link clicked: +5 points
• Replied: +10 points
• Meeting booked: +20 points
• Opted out: -20 points

This structure lets you prioritize prospects based on their positive actions while accounting for disengagement or opt-outs.

Quick Tip: When setting your lead scores, tailoring the framework to your specific business context is essential. For example, if your industry relies heavily on personal relationships, you may want to assign more points to replies, as they indicate a deeper level of engagement. On the other hand, if you’re selling a technical product, link clicks to technical documentation or product resources might be more valuable and, therefore, should carry a higher score.

Once you click Save, HubSpot will automatically calculate lead scores for all your prospects based on your set criteria.

As you gather more insights into what defines a qualified lead for your business, feel free to adjust the scores. For example, if you discover that prospects who click links convert at a higher rate than those who only open emails, you can increase the points for link clicks to reflect their higher value.

Automate workflows to follow up with high-value leads

Now that the scoring system is set up, it's time to create automated workflows that turn these lead scores into actionable tasks for your sales team.

Go to Automation > Workflows in your HubSpot dashboard. Then, click the "Create workflow" button in the top-right corner to get started.

You’ll see various workflow types—select "Contact-based" since we’re dealing with contact properties and scores.

Next, name your workflow "High-Value Lead Follow-up" to keep it clear and specific. Then, let’s set up the enrollment trigger to determine when contacts qualify to enter this workflow.

Click "Set up triggers" and choose "When filter criteria is met" as your trigger type. Then, locate the "HubSpot Score" property you created earlier and set the condition to "is greater than 15". This threshold will help identify prospects who have engaged significantly with your outreach and are likely ready for follow-up.

After saving the trigger step, click "Add action" and choose "Create task" from the actions menu. This will allow you to create a task that notifies a sales representative whenever a high-value lead is identified, ensuring timely follow-up.

You can assign tasks using other project management apps like Asana or Notion.

In the task creation form:

• Set the task title to "Follow up with high-value prospect from Reply.io campaign."
• Select the task type
• Set the task due date to "2 days after enrollment."
• Assign the task to the contract owner or a specific sales rep.

Click “Review and publish” to enable the workflow. We’ve successfully set up the automation to identify engaged leads and inform our sales rep automatically.

Launch nurture campaigns to engage potential customers

Once your workflow in HubSpot is set up to create tasks for high-scoring leads, it’s important to have a strategic plan for nurturing leads who haven’t fully engaged yet.

Create a new sequence tailored for nurture campaigns. This should differ from your initial outreach, which focuses more on delivering value based on your observed engagement patterns. For example, if specific links or topics attracted more clicks during your first campaign, build your nurture messages around these themes to keep the engagement going.

Additionally, it is essential to train your sales team to use these new tools effectively. Schedule a short training session to teach them how to interpret Reply.io's engagement metrics and integrate these insights into their follow-up strategies. This will ensure a smooth transition from automated outreach to personalized, high-impact interactions.

Build a strategic plan for successfully closing deals.

While automated systems manage lead scoring and task creation, closing deals requires a strategic human touch that leverages all the data we’ve gathered. This is where AI insights become invaluable during negotiations.

Before any sales conversation, review the engagement data from both Reply.io and HubSpot. Look for patterns in how prospects have interacted with your content—what features caught their attention, what pain points resonated, and when they tend to engage. This intelligence will help shape your negotiation strategy.

Develop a pre-call ritual that includes reviewing:

• The complete engagement timeline
• Specific content interactions
• Response patterns and timing
• Common objections from similar prospects

When reaching out to high-scoring leads, reference their specific interactions with your campaigns. If they’ve consistently engaged with content related to certain features or benefits, highlight those topics during your conversation. This approach shows attentiveness and adds a personal touch to your pitch.

Integrating nurturing through Reply.io with data-informed human interaction creates a powerful system for effectively moving leads through your pipeline. You’re not simply following up—you’re continuing a conversation that has already shown promise through measurable engagement.

To gain​​ deeper insights into your cold outreach campaign performance, head to the Reports section and download your campaign report from the Reports section.

You can analyze this data in depth using tools like ChatGPT or Claude. Try using these prompts to uncover valuable insights from your reports:

Campaign overview

Use the following prompt for a campaign overview. 

Prompt:

Analyze the uploaded campaign report and provide:

1. A summary of the key metrics (delivery, open, and reply rates)
2. How these numbers compare to industry standards
3. The most notable strengths and areas for improvement

Engagement analysis

‍Based on these campaign metrics, identify:

1. The effectiveness of our outreach (looking at the open-to-reply ratio)
2. Any concerning metrics that need immediate attention
3. Specific suggestions to improve engagement rates

Conversion metrics
‍
‍Using this campaign data, analyze:

1. The conversion rate from total emails to meetings booked
2. Whether our interested response rate aligns with industry standards
3. Recommendations for improving conversion rates

That’s it. You have successfully completed this collection. Congrats. You can now use AI to manage your cold outreach pipeline and maximize sales.