On a schedule

Draft a follow-up email for each new lead

Every new lead gets a personalised follow-up draft saved as a note, ready to send.

Runs: On a schedule
Apps: Zoho CRM
AI: Yes, uses the built-in AI allowance
Access: leads read, notes create

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: for each new Zoho CRM lead, draft a short follow-up email that mentions their company and what they asked about, and add it as a note on the lead.

Paste it into your assistant. It tells you what it will send or change before it runs live.

Add to ChatGPT Add to Claude

First time? Adding ClickRuntime to your assistant takes about two minutes.

Why use it

Why teams use this automation

A sales rep at a software reseller starts Monday with 14 new leads in Zoho CRM. Each needs a first message that references the lead's company and request, and writing 14 individual emails takes an hour. So the rep sends a generic template, or waits until the afternoon, and the leads who would have responded to a thoughtful note go cold. Slow first replies are well known to hurt conversion.

At each scheduled check, newly created leads are fetched from Zoho CRM. The built-in AI writes a personalized follow-up draft using the lead's name, company and what they asked about, and the draft is saved as a note on the lead record. The lead IDs are remembered so no one gets two drafts.

Best for small sales teams that want fast, specific first replies but do not want emails sent without review.

What you get out of it

First replies go out faster
A draft waiting on the lead means the rep edits and sends in a minute. Leads who hear back within hours are far more likely to answer than those who wait until the next day.
Messages that sound personal
Drafts mention the lead's company and what they asked about, instead of opening with a generic greeting. A relevant first line gets more replies than a template that every prospect has seen before.
Reps spend time selling
Writing fourteen emails from scratch burns an hour that could go to calls and demos. With drafts in place, the rep's effort goes where it changes the outcome, which is the conversation itself.
Nothing sends without a person
The draft is saved as a note, so the rep reads and approves it. A wrong tone or a mistaken detail never reaches a prospect unseen, which protects your brand while still saving time.
Consistent quality across the team
New hires get a well-structured starting point alongside veterans. The quality of outreach stops depending on who is on shift, and the team sounds consistent. The standard is set by your instructions, not by whoever is rushing.
A record in the CRM
Because each draft is stored as a note on the lead, the CRM keeps a history of the suggested approach. A colleague who takes over the lead can see what was planned.

How it works

What happens, step by step

Every 15 minutes ClickRuntime checks Zoho CRM for leads created since its last check, so each lead gets one draft.
AI writes a short, friendly follow-up email for each lead, using their first name, company and what they asked about.
The draft is saved as a note called "Follow-up draft" on the lead in Zoho CRM, ready for a salesperson to review and send.

Before it runs live

Connect Zoho CRM

What you get

RunsOn a schedule

Draft a follow-up email for each new leadtoday, 9:00Succeeded

Zoho CRM · Note on leadFollow-up draft: Hi Dana, thanks for asking about bulk pricing for Acme. Happy to walk you through the tiers this week...

Build your own

Need it to work differently?

This template is a starting point. Copy the prompt and change it, or describe a different automation from scratch, with your own conditions, more apps or an AI step. Your assistant writes it, tests it and runs it on ClickRuntime.

Your own rules
Conditions, thresholds, filters and exceptions, written the way you'd explain them to a colleague.
Any number of apps
One automation can read from one app and update several others. Over 248 apps are ready, and anything with an API works too.
AI where it helps
Summaries, classification, extraction and drafts use ClickRuntime's built-in AI, with no extra key.
On a schedule or on each event
Runs as often as every 5 minutes, or the moment an app sends an event, and keeps track of what it already handled.

Changes you can ask for

Act only on the items that match your own rules, and skip the rest
Change what the AI looks for, or how it writes the result
Add another app, for example also send it to Slack
Combine it with other Zoho CRM steps into one automation

Under the hood

The code that runs this automation

This is the Python script that runs each time the automation starts. Your AI assistant writes it for you when you send the prompt, and you allow each step in your assistant. To change how the automation works, describe the change to your assistant and it updates the script for you. For every function it can use, see the script reference.

ai_follow_up_draft_for_new_leads.pyexample

from clickruntime import on_trigger, credentials, http, state, ai, report_fetched

BASE = "https://www.zohoapis.com/crm/v8"

@on_trigger
def run(event):
    h = {"Authorization": f"Zoho-oauthtoken {credentials.connection('zoho', 'work')}"}
    last = state.get("last_created") or "1970-01-01T00:00:00+00:00"
    r = http.get(f"{BASE}/Leads", headers=h, params={
        "fields": "First_Name,Company,Description,Created_Time", "sort_by": "Created_Time", "sort_order": "desc"})
    leads = [l for l in (r.json()["data"] if r.status_code == 200 else []) if l["Created_Time"] > last]
    report_fetched(len(leads))
    if not leads:
        return {"summary": "Nothing new"}
    for l in leads:
        draft = ai.generate(f"Write a short, friendly follow-up email to {l.get('First_Name') or 'the lead'} at "
                            f"{l.get('Company')}. They asked about: {(l.get('Description') or 'our product')[:1000]}",
                            max_output_tokens=250).text
        http.post(f"{BASE}/Leads/{l['id']}/Notes", headers=h,
                  json={"data": [{"Note_Title": "Follow-up draft", "Note_Content": draft}]}).raise_for_status()
    state.set("last_created", max(l["Created_Time"] for l in leads))
    return {"drafted": len(leads)}

FAQ

Common questions

Where do I find the draft?

It appears as a note on the lead record in Zoho CRM. The rep opens the lead, copies the text into an email and edits it. Nothing is emailed automatically. The note stays on the lead until someone uses it.

Does the AI use my product details?

It writes from the lead data plus instructions you give about your offering and tone. You can put your product description and sign-off style in those instructions to keep drafts on brand. You can include product and tone guidance in the instructions.

How often are new leads checked?

At the interval you set. A shorter interval makes drafts appear quickly after a lead arrives, while a longer one batches them. Each lead is handled once because IDs are stored. A shorter interval makes drafts appear sooner.

What permissions does it need?

leads read, notes create. Nothing else in your accounts is used.

Does it need AI?

Yes. It uses ClickRuntime's built-in AI, so you don't need an OpenAI or Anthropic key. Every plan includes a monthly AI allowance.

How many runs does it use?

One run each time it checks. Checks that find nothing new and stop right away aren't counted.

Can I change how it works?

Yes. Describe the change to your AI assistant, for example a different schedule, channel or filter. It updates the automation, tests it and tells you what changed.

Every 15 minutes