How to Handle Rep PTO
Outreach is a crucial part of many reps' day-to-day workflow so when a rep goes on a holiday there are a few things to keep in mind. Below we list a few suggestions on how to best manage Outreach when a rep is out. We split things out between a short absence of a few days versus a longer absence (family leave).
Short Absence
Option 1: Pause prospects
-
Instruct your rep to pause all their prospects active in sequence so that no activity happens while they are out.
-
As a manager or as a rep, navigate to Settings > Sequence states and then select all prospects marked as ʻActiveʼ
-
Open the Sort & Filter panel, and select You under the Owner field
If your rep does not own the prospect they sequence, you can filter by Sequencer -
Add a tag to all these prospects labeled 'OOO date'.
-
Now select 'Pause' to pause all selected prospects.
-
Here is a quick video showcasing these steps.
-
-
Reactivate your paused prospects once the rep returns
-
Navigate to Settings > Sequence states, and then select all prospects marked as paused
-
Open the Sort & Filter panel, and search for your tag you applied before heading OOO
-
Select ʻResumeʼ to restart them into the sequence, Check out this video here for more visual instruction.
-
-
Pro Tip: Tagging is important here in case the rep has prospects that were previously paused and should not be resumed. Do not forget to remove the OOO tag once resumed!
Option 2: Manage on Behalf of Users
- Instead of pausing prospects in a sequence, a manager or colleague monitors active tasks of the absent rep and completes, reschedules or skips any manual sequence tasks. This way the prospect moves forward in the sequence.
- Beware of skipping tasks that might be references in a follow-up action. For example, skipping an email task when the next email is a reply thread.
- Here is how to find your rep's tasks and skip them. Check out this video here for more visual instruction.
- Find the tasks that are past due.
- Navigate to Tasks > Under Assigned, select the appropriate User > Under Type, select the Options Sequence Email, Sequence Call and Sequence Task > Under Due at Date Date Range, select 'Until Today'.
- Now skip the past due tasks (do not delete them):
- Select all tasks past due > Select the 3 dots at the top of the page for more actions > Select 'Skip Step'
- Find the tasks that are past due.
- What happens if someone replies?
- If a response is received, the rep will follow up within a few days once they have returned.
- Or alternatively, the manager monitors the inbox and follows up on replies.
- Pro Tip: Ensure the rep does have an OOO email reply enabled.
Long Absence or Departure
When a rep is absent for a longer time frame due to family leave (for example), it is often best to fully reassign prospect ownership and all corresponding tasks to a new user. The new rep can simply pick up the tasks where the other rep left off. Luckily this is a quick and easy process within Outreach.
- Ensure you have the setting “Propagate Prospect Ownership” enabled (support article). Navigate to settings > sequence states and select all active Prospects of the user that is leaving (prospects not in sequence do not need to be changed).
- Select the new owner to which you want to assign the Prospects. This video here will provide further instruction on how to complete these applicable steps.
- This will reassign the sequence actor to the new rep. So all current and future tasks and mailings will be on behalf of the new owner.
- You may consider leaving this setting disabled until you intend to reassign all tasks and mailboxes to prevent accidental reassignment and/or confusion for reps.
Note: If you do not want to enable the Propagate Prospect Ownership feature you can still change ownership manually by following the steps described here.
Resources