Stopping a cold sequence
A cold sequence stops the moment a stopping event occurs, not at the next scheduled step. Any reply stops it. So does a do-not-contact entry, an unsubscribe, a suppression, a person stopping it by hand, and identity resolution discovering that the organisation is already a relationship. Delay here has no upside and one very visible failure.
Why immediacy is the whole design#
A sequence that checks its stop conditions only when the next message is due is a sequence that sends one more message after somebody asked it not to. The gap can be days; the recipient experiences it as being ignored, and no explanation afterwards repairs that.
So stopping is an event, not a scheduled check. A reply, a refusal or a suppression takes effect when it happens, and the pending work is stopped then. This is the same discipline the follow-up queue uses everywhere: a commitment can be stopped for one thread or for one person, and stopping is not a state a later job discovers.
Every stopping event#
| Event | Scope of the stop | Reversible? |
|---|---|---|
| Any reply at all | This prospect's cold path | Not as a cold path — it is a conversation now |
| Do-not-contact | Every channel, every future conversation | By a person only; never by the Assistant |
| Unsubscribe | The channel the recipient acted on | By the recipient, in practice |
| A hard delivery failure | That route | Only if the route changes |
| A person stops it | One thread, or one person entirely | Yes — a person can restart what a person stopped |
| Identity resolution matches an existing relationship | The cold path ends; the relationship continues | Not applicable — nothing was wrong |
The channel's autonomy is set to off | Everything on that channel | Yes, by changing the mode |
Notice that a stop and a pause are different. Setting a channel to draft_only does not stop a sequence — it writes and stops before sending, which is a different thing you may want when you are watching what Connect would say rather than ending an outreach effort.
Stopping one by hand#
Decide the scope: this thread, or this person everywhere.
Result Stopping the thread leaves other conversations with the same person alone; stopping the person covers every channel and every future conversation.
Give the reason.
Result Whoever inherits the account can tell a deliberate stop from a lapsed one, which is the difference between a considered decision and an unexplained silence.
If the answer is *never again*, record do-not-contact rather than stopping the sequence.
Result A stop ends this effort; a do-not-contact entry holds across channels and outlives whoever set it.
Check the follow-up queue afterwards.
Result A pending commitment created before the stop is visible there, and seeing it empty is the confirmation that nothing is still due.
Confirming it actually stopped#
- The follow-up queue
- The clearest evidence. A stopped sequence leaves no dated commitment behind; anything still listed is still going to happen.
- The decision log
- Refusals are recorded as decisions, so a suppression that stopped a send appears with the rule that produced it.
- The prospect record
- Already-contacted stays set — stopping does not rewrite history, and it should not, because the business was in fact written to.
- The conversation
- A held message that was never sent leaves nothing on the recipient's side. There is no message to recall because none was handed to a provider.
Questions#
If a prospect replies angrily, do I need to do anything to stop the sequence?
The sequence is already stopped — any reply ends the cold path. What you may want to add is a do-not-contact entry, which is durable and cross-channel in a way that a single stop is not.
Does stopping one prospect affect the whole search?
No. A stop applies to a thread or a person, not to the criteria that found them. If you want a whole category to stop appearing, add a disqualifier to the criteria instead.
Can the Connect Assistant stop a sequence for me?
It can stop follow-ups and act on records within its rights, which are narrower than a person's. Clearing a do-not-contact entry is outside them entirely — that asymmetry is deliberate, because the safe direction to be wrong in is not sending.