Set up your first automation
Build a workflow that reacts to a new lead on its own: pick the trigger, add the steps, turn it on, and confirm from the run history that it actually fired.
An automation watches for something to happen, checks whatever conditions you set, and then acts on its own. The example here is the one most teams build first: a new lead comes in, it goes to a rep, and the lead gets a WhatsApp message without anyone touching it. Building it takes about ten minutes.
Before you start
- Automation is on the Professional plan and above. See pricing.
- Automations has to be in your left sidebar. If it is not there, your role does not have the workflow permission yet, and an admin can add it.
- For the WhatsApp step, a number must already be connected and you need an approved template. See Connect your WhatsApp number.
- Nothing you build runs until you switch it on, so it is safe to experiment.
Steps
Open Automations in the left sidebar and click Create Workflow. Give it a name you will recognise in a list six months from now, such as “New lead, assign and greet”.
Choose a trigger. This is the event that starts the workflow. You get nine, grouped under Leads, Deals and Follow-ups:
Group Triggers Leads Lead created, Lead stage changed, Lead owner changed, Form submitted Deals Deal created, Deal stage changed, Deal won, Deal lost Follow-ups Follow-up overdue For this example pick Lead created.
Click Add a step and pick Assign owner. Choose Round robin to rotate through a list of reps one lead each, or Always the same user to send everything to one person. Skip the current owner is there for when you are reassigning rather than assigning fresh.
Add a second step: Send message. Pick the WhatsApp tab, choose the number to send from, and pick an approved template. If the tab says Connect WhatsApp first, finish that setup and come back.
The other two tabs are Email, which goes out through ViveLead’s own mail service so there is nothing to connect, and Notification, which is an in-app alert to your own team rather than to the lead.
Add a Wait or an If / else if you need one. Wait pauses the run for minutes, hours or days before the next step. If / else splits the path on a condition, so you can treat a lead from one city or one source differently.
Click Save. The workflow is stored, and it is now a Draft.
Turn it on, or nothing happens
A saved workflow does nothing. This is the single most common reason an automation “is not working”.
Go back to the Automations list. Your workflow shows a Draft chip. Open its row menu and choose Turn ON. The toast reads Automation turned on and the chip changes to Active.
The same menu pauses a live one later, and a paused workflow resumes from the same place.
Check that it actually ran
Do not judge it from the list. Create one real test lead the way a lead normally arrives, then open the workflow’s row menu and choose Execution history.
Every run appears there with when it started, how long it took, how many steps ran, and its status. Open a run to see each step one by one, including what the step sent and any error it hit.
What each run status means
| Status | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Success | Every step ran | Nothing |
| Goal reached | Your exit condition matched, so the rest was skipped on purpose | Nothing |
| Running | Still going | Reload in a moment |
| Waiting | Sitting on a Wait step | Nothing. It resumes by itself at the time shown |
| Paused | The lead replied, and the workflow is set to stop when they do | Nothing resumes it. Take the conversation over by hand |
| Failed | A step could not complete | Open the run, read the step error, fix the step, save |
| Cancelled | The run was stopped before finishing | Open the run to see why |
A run that stopped early also shows the reason in plain words, such as Lead replied on WhatsApp, Goal condition matched or Lead was deleted.
Two settings worth knowing
Both live under Workflow settings in the builder.
- Pause if the lead replies. Any inbound reply stops the whole run. Use it on nurture sequences so a lead who answers stops receiving scheduled messages. It does not restart on its own.
- Auto-exit when goal is met. Set a condition, such as the deal reaching Won, and the run ends the moment it is true instead of finishing the remaining steps.
Things that catch people out
- Follow-up overdue is not instant. Overdue follow-ups are scanned every fifteen minutes, so allow up to that long before the workflow fires.
- Round robin remembers where it stopped on the workflow itself, so the rotation carries on across days rather than restarting.
- A WhatsApp step needs a template, because the message starts the conversation rather than replying to one. A template that is not approved cannot be sent.
- The WhatsApp step needs a lead. A workflow triggered by a deal event still needs the lead behind it for a WhatsApp send to resolve a number.
Related
- Connect your WhatsApp number before building a WhatsApp step.
- Connect Facebook lead ads so ad leads arrive on their own and trip the Lead created trigger.
Still stuck on this step?
Send us what you are seeing and we will sort it out with you.