Group leads by their plans, verify permissions and review the last conversation, then ask one useful question. Each reply should lead to a next action, an agreed pause or a closed follow-up.
1. Inactive does not mean uninterested
“Inactive” describes your record: no recent activity or no next action. “Uninterested” describes an intention the person has expressed. Do not turn silence into a definitive refusal, but do not treat it as an invitation to keep sending messages either.
Read the last exchange before changing the status. Someone who asked to revisit a project in the spring is in a different situation from someone who asked not to be contacted again. The first has context to review; the second must be excluded from the relevant follow-up.
The goal is not to move every record into an active pipeline. It is to identify projects that remain relevant and leave others paused or closed. The situations in this guide are illustrative, not customer results.
2. Check context and permissions first
For each record, review the contact source, date and content of the last exchange, stated project, preferred channel, documented permissions and owner. Check stop requests, duplicates and conversations a colleague already handles. An imported record is not evidence of permission.
CRTC guidance explains that commercial electronic messages must meet applicable consent, identification and unsubscribe requirements. Implied consent can expire. An email asking for consent is not a workaround for lacking permission to send it.
OACIQ guidance ties consent to a specific purpose rather than every future use of personal information. Have the responsible person at your agency review the selection and messages when scope or evidence is unclear. Put those records into review without starting an outreach sequence.
The official sources checked on October 29, 2026 are linked in this section and at the end of the guide. This sales process is not a guarantee of compliance.
CRTC: implied consent and commercial messages · OACIQ: confidentiality and consent (French) ·
3. Build three useful segments
Group contacts by what they actually told you. A buyer on hold has expressed a project and a reason for pausing. A seller with a postponed project has delayed listing. A contact who has not replied has not confirmed the current state of the project: that status remains unknown.
Add a short note explaining why contact would be useful now. An agreed follow-up date is a better reason than a rule that includes every old record. If you lack reliable context or verified permission, remove the record from the outreach selection.
The table below is an illustrative working guide. It does not prescribe an optimal cadence or replace reviewing the file.
| Segment | Message focus | Next action after a reply |
|---|---|---|
| Buyer on hold | Return to the stated reason for pausing and the area discussed | Update the project; agree on an action or a pause |
| Seller with a postponed project | Check the previously agreed time to reconnect | Confirm timing and assign a dated task |
| Contact who has not replied | Briefly recall the specific request without assuming interest | Clarify the status; continue, pause or close |
One person may be planning both a purchase and a sale. Keep a consistent contact record and coordinate follow-up to avoid simultaneous, competing messages.
4. Three templates to personalize
Use these templates only where outreach has been checked as permitted and relevant. They are written as short emails. Replace every variable, verify the context and include your full professional signature and a working unsubscribe mechanism.
Keep one main question. Do not invent a new listing, a rate reduction or a potential buyer to create urgency. If you mention market information, make sure it is accurate and useful for the person’s project.
Buyer on hold — subject: Your search in [area]
Hi [first name], when we spoke on [date], you were looking to buy in [area] and wanted to wait for [reason the person shared] before continuing. Where do your plans stand today? Depending on your reply, we can identify a next step or leave the follow-up paused. [Name and professional title] — [Agency] — [Mailing address] — [Professional phone or email]. To stop receiving my commercial emails: [working unsubscribe link].
Seller with a postponed project — subject: Your selling plans
Hi [first name], we discussed your plans to sell in [area] and agreed to revisit the conversation around [agreed period]. Does that timing still work for you? I can adjust the follow-up to your current plans without assuming you have decided to sell. [Name and professional title] — [Agency] — [Mailing address] — [Professional phone or email]. To stop receiving my commercial emails: [working unsubscribe link].
Contact who has not replied — subject: Following up on your [topic] enquiry
Hi [first name], you contacted me about [specific request] on [date]. I am returning to that conversation to check whether you would still like to continue it. If your project is finished or on hold, feel free to let me know and I will update the record. [Name and professional title] — [Agency] — [Mailing address] — [Professional phone or email]. To stop receiving my commercial emails: [working unsubscribe link].
5. Turn the reply into a next action
After a reply, pause scheduled messages and assign the conversation to its owner. Check what has changed: plans, timing, criteria or willingness to continue. Do not automatically suggest a meeting to someone who has only told you their project is delayed.
Illustrative example: a seller says her move has shifted to February and agrees to speak again in January. The next action could be “Camille: reconnect during the agreed week in January.” The status becomes “postponed — follow-up agreed,” rather than “active — follow up.”
For a project that has become concrete again, suggest a proportionate step: update criteria, clarify timing or arrange a meeting. Record the owner, action, date and channel. An appointment is confirmed only once a time has been agreed.
If the person mentions another broker or a representation issue, have a person review the file under your agency’s practices before taking another step.
6. Set stopping rules before sending
A reply removes the contact from automated follow-up for human review. A refusal, unsubscribe or request not to be contacted blocks the relevant messages. An invalid contact detail should be corrected or excluded rather than retried repeatedly on the same channel.
For a postponed project, keep only the next action actually agreed to. For an unanswered contact, define an end to the sequence and a human review; do not create an endless loop. The interval between messages depends on context and permissions, not a universal number of days.
Retain the useful stop or refusal history under your agency’s rules so another list or colleague does not contact the person by mistake. Closing a sales follow-up does not mean arbitrarily deleting the file.
7. Organize re-engagement in Ocliq
Ocliq currently describes contact records with history, tags, custom fields and smart lists, along with buyer and seller pipelines. Tasks, owners and follow-up sequences are configured around your practice and enabled channels.
One possible setup separates records needing review, paused projects with agreed dates, active conversations and stopped follow-ups. This is a configuration example, not a list of screens or stages already installed in your account.
In a demo, ask to walk through a complete case: select a permitted segment, review its history, assign a task, receive a reply and stop the related sequence. Confirm duplicate handling, unsubscribes and ownership changes before sending anything.
Start with a group your team can review and handle individually. Useful automation organizes the next action; it does not replace judgement about the project or permissions.
Explore Ocliq for real estate · Read the Quebec real estate CRM guide
8. Measure qualified replies and appointments
Separate contacts selected after review, delivered messages, people who replied, replies that clarify a project and agreed appointments. Count unique people so one conversation does not inflate the results.
Define a qualified reply before starting. For example: a purchase or sale project still exists, context or timing has been clarified, and a next step is accepted. An unsubscribe is a reply that needs handling, but it is not a sales opportunity.
If you calculate a reply rate, state the denominator: people who replied out of unique recipients who received a message during the period. Track agreed and attended appointments separately. No success rate is guaranteed, and this guide offers no validated benchmark to promise.
At the end of the review, look especially for replies without an owner and overdue next actions. Good follow-up also includes records that have been properly paused or closed.
Build your follow-up process
Frequently asked questions
How many days make a lead inactive?
There is no universal threshold in this method. An overdue next action or a project without one deserves review; an agreed delay should stay tied to its date.
Can I contact an entire old database?
Do not treat it as automatically eligible. Check context, permissions, exclusions and duplicates before selecting recipients.
Should the first message suggest a meeting?
Only when that fits the context. A question about the current plans may be more useful. Suggest a meeting when there is a relevant, concrete next step.
Does Ocliq stop every follow-up automatically?
Sequences and their rules depend on configuration. Have reply handling, stopping triggers and exclusions verified for your account during the demo.
Organize your re-engagement process in Ocliq
Bring your current segments, buyer and seller stages, and reply-handling process. We can review the fields, tasks and rules to configure for your team.