“You should talk to Priya.” Priya is already in your CRM.
When a reply is classified as a referral, a workflow can start only for that label. It posts the referral to Slack, emails a thank-you from your own mailbox, pushes the lead to your CRM with the new contact in the notes, and labels the thread. Nothing is lost between “ask my colleague” and the first message to that colleague.
50 free credits · no credit card · about ten minutes on the canvas
Referrals are the best replies a cold campaign gets, and the easiest to drop. They arrive as plain text in a busy inbox, the colleague’s name never makes it to the CRM, and the person who referred you never hears a thank-you.
How the Referral handling workflow runs
One trigger, then each step in order. Every step has its own delay, and every outcome has somewhere to go.
Email or LinkedIn reply · Referral label only
Reply triggers can be limited to the labels you pick. Choose Referral and the workflow starts only when the inbox agent has classified a reply that way.
- 1
Notify on Slack
Post the referral to the client’s channel with the lead, the reply and the name they gave, so a rep can reach out the same day.
- 2
Send an email
A short thank-you to the person who referred you, from the client’s own Gmail or Outlook. A fixed template, so it costs no credits.
- 3
CRM push
Push the lead to HubSpot, Close or Attio with the agent’s mapping, referral and all, so the colleague’s name is on the record.
- 4
Set a label
Mark the thread Referred so it leaves the follow-up queue and shows in reports.
Build it on the canvas
Start from an empty canvas, pick the trigger, add the steps above and connect each outcome. Test it on a real lead without sending anything, then publish. About ten minutes.
- A thank-you within minutes, from a real mailbox
- No more follow-ups on a thread they have closed politely
- Every referral in one Slack channel, with the name to contact
- The referral on the CRM record, not in someone’s memory
- Referral counts per campaign and per client
- An inbox agent classifying replies (Referral is a built-in category)
- Slack and a CRM connected to the workspace
- A connected mailbox for the thank-you
Referral handling questions
How does the workflow know a reply is a referral?
The inbox agent classifies every reply as it comes in, and Referral is one of its categories. A reply trigger can be limited to that label, so the workflow starts only for referrals and ignores everything else.
Does it message the colleague who was referred?
No. It alerts your team and records the name so a rep can reach out properly. Automatically cold-messaging a third party from a referral is not something we recommend, and the workflow does not do it.
Which CRMs can it push to?
HubSpot, Close and Attio, using the field mapping already set on the inbox agent. GoHighLevel can be reached with the Send a webhook step.
Is there a template for this?
Not yet. It is four steps on the canvas and takes about ten minutes to build. Start from an empty canvas, pick the reply trigger, filter it to Referral, and add Notify on Slack, Send an email, CRM push and Set a label.
Put Referral handling on autopilot.
Connect your tools, publish the workflow, watch the first run on the canvas. Your first 50 credits are free.