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Daily

Draft follow-ups for stalled deals and new leads

Each morning, stalled deals and untouched new leads get a personal follow-up drafted in your Gmail, with a note added in Zoho.

Runs
Daily
Apps
Gmail, Zoho CRM
AI
Yes, uses the built-in AI allowance
Access
Zoho read+write; gmail.compose

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: every weekday at 8, find Zoho deals with no activity for 10 days and new leads not contacted yet. Draft a personal follow-up for each in Gmail and add a note to the record in Zoho.

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

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 manages sixty open deals. The ones with an active conversation get attention; the quiet ones drift until the prospect has bought elsewhere. New leads from the website sometimes sit for a week before anyone writes to them.

Every morning the rep finds drafts waiting in Gmail: a short, personal follow-up for each deal that's gone quiet and each new lead nobody has contacted. They read, adjust and send, and Zoho shows that a follow-up was prepared.

What you get out of it

  • Quiet deals get attention

    Deals that would have slipped are put in front of you before it's too late.

  • New leads contacted quickly

    Drafts for untouched leads make a same-day first email easy.

  • You stay in control

    Drafts wait in Gmail for you to check and send, so nothing goes out you haven't read.

  • CRM shows the activity

    A note on each record records that a follow-up was prepared and when.

How it works

What happens, step by step

  1. Every weekday morning, ClickRuntime searches Zoho CRM for quiet deals and uncontacted new leads.

  2. It skips any record that already got a follow-up recently.

  3. AI writes a short follow-up for each, using the deal name, stage and last notes.

  4. The emails are saved as drafts in your Gmail and a note is added to each record in Zoho.

Before it runs live

  • Connect Google through your own Google app (a one-time, 10-minute setup), so it works with your own Gmail
  • Connect Zoho CRM

What you get

RunsDaily
Draft follow-ups for stalled deals and new leadstoday, 9:00Succeeded
Gmail · DraftsChecking in: Acme warehouse licences. Hi Taylor, just checking whether the revised quote answered your questions...

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

  • Run it at a different time, more or less often, or only on weekdays
  • 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 Gmail and 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_ups_for_deals_and_new_leads.pyexample
import base64
from datetime import date, timedelta
from email.message import EmailMessage
from google.oauth2.credentials import Credentials
from googleapiclient.discovery import build
from clickruntime import on_trigger, credentials, http, ai, state

ZOHO = "https://www.zohoapis.com/crm/v6"

@on_trigger
def run(event):
    zh = {"Authorization": f"Zoho-oauthtoken {credentials.connection('zoho', 'work')}"}
    cutoff = (date.today() - timedelta(days=10)).isoformat()
    deals = http.get(f"{ZOHO}/Deals/search", headers=zh,
                     params={"criteria": f"((Modified_Time:less_than:{cutoff}T00:00:00+00:00)and(Stage:not_equal:Closed Won))"}).json().get("data", [])
    gmail = build("gmail", "v1", credentials=Credentials(credentials.connection("google", "work")), cache_discovery=False)
    drafted = state.get("drafted") or {}
    for d in deals:
        if drafted.get(d["id"], "") > cutoff or not d.get("Email"):
            continue
        body = ai.generate(f"Short friendly follow-up for deal '{d['Deal_Name']}' at stage {d['Stage']}.", max_output_tokens=200).text
        msg = EmailMessage()
        msg["To"], msg["Subject"] = d["Email"], f"Checking in: {d['Deal_Name']}"
        msg.set_content(body)
        gmail.users().drafts().create(userId="me", body={"message": {"raw": base64.urlsafe_b64encode(msg.as_bytes()).decode()}}).execute()
        http.post(f"{ZOHO}/Notes", headers=zh, json={"data": [{"Parent_Id": {"id": d["id"]}, "$se_module": "Deals",
                                                                "Note_Content": "Follow-up drafted in Gmail."}]})
        drafted[d["id"]] = date.today().isoformat()
    state.set("drafted", drafted)
    return {"drafted": len(drafted)}

FAQ

Common questions

What counts as stalled?
Open deals with no modification or activity for the number of days you set, such as 10. Closed deals are ignored.
Will it draft for the same deal every day?
No. A deal gets a new draft only after another quiet period has passed since the last one.
Can it send instead of drafting?
Yes, for new leads if you prefer, though drafts are the default so you can review each email.
What permissions does it need?
Zoho read+write; gmail.compose. 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 runs (daily). Checks that find nothing to do 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.

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