Follow up on unanswered proposals in 6am

Outcome: every proposal in the review has verified sending information, an accountable owner and an explicit next step on the correct sales opportunity.

Use: app.6am.ag. Select your company, then Sales opportunities. You need permission to manage contacts. The original proposal and communication history remain your sources of evidence.

Scope: register and review proposals already sent; record actual replies or delivery issues; organize follow-up tasks; close the correct deal when justified. Creating proposal documents, sending emails, automatic reminders and delivery tracking are outside this module. A stage named “Proposal” does not prove that anything was sent.

1. Choose the exact opportunity

1. Agree the pipeline, owner and review scope. Use the Pipeline, Assignee and Status filters. Review every page of the selected set.
2. Match the customer, opportunity title and pipeline to the original proposal. The same contact can have separate opportunities in different pipelines. Never use the contact alone to decide which sale to update.
3. Confirm the opportunity is open and its owner is still an authorized company member. If the owner is missing, use Edit to assign one before continuing.
4. If you cannot verify whether or when the proposal was sent, leave the proposal unregistered. Create a task on this opportunity to verify the original document and sending history. Do not invent a date or send a message merely to populate the record.

2. Register the actual proposal

Open Proposal on the correct row. Check the opportunity number and title in the dialog.

• Proposal reference: enter the document number/version or a link to the original sent document. A reference is a record, not a file upload or an automatic verification of that link.
• Actually sent at (UTC): use the real sending timestamp converted to UTC. For example, 10:00 at UTC−03:00 is 13:00 UTC. Future sending dates are rejected.
• Expected response date: use the customer’s agreed decision date, your promised return date or a date agreed with the owner. This is a calendar date; the “overdue” and “today” filters use the server’s UTC calendar. It cannot precede the UTC sending date.
• Proposal status: select Awaiting response, Reply received or Delivery issue, based on evidence.
• Response received at (UTC): required for a real reply; it must be between sending and now. Explain the reply or delivery problem in the notes. An email open or click is not a customer reply or acceptance.

The record represents the current proposal. When revising its reference or dates, explain the revision in the notes. Earlier saved versions remain in Proposal history, with author and recording time. Saving does not move stages, close the deal, send a message or award points. It changes the opportunity version, so a previous stage acceptance evaluation may become outdated.

3. Leave a useful next task

In the same dialog, select Next follow-up task:

1. Prefer an existing pending task on this opportunity, including a cadence task. The selection shows its number, title, deadline and owner. Reusing it preserves its timing and owner; it does not count as completing the activity.
2. If there is no suitable task, select Create a new follow-up task, enter a specific action and a calendar deadline. The new manual task uses the opportunity owner. The proposal and the new task save together or neither saves.
3. If the proposal already has a usable pending task, reuse it. To replace it, first complete or cancel it explicitly in Follow-up tasks, then register the replacement. Expired or inactive-cadence tasks cannot be reused.
4. Open Follow-up tasks from the opportunity row. Confirm the opportunity filter, title, pipeline, owner and date. Change manual task deadlines or notes there. Manage cadence timing through its normal pause/resume and stage workflow, rather than rewriting its generated tasks.

Recording a response does not automatically complete a manual task. Keep the current review task linked while recording the response, then complete it after doing the work. If a final decision still requires verification, the next action can be “Confirm acceptance conditions and close this opportunity”; do not schedule a fictional customer follow-up.

4. Review unanswered proposals

Use Proposal review (open opportunities) together with Pipeline and Assignee:

• Awaiting response: open opportunities with an actual sending record and no recorded reply.
• Unanswered · overdue: that set with expected response date before today in UTC.
• Unanswered · due today (UTC): that set with today’s expected response date.
• Reply received: open deals needing a response, negotiation or closure review.
• Delivery issue: open deals needing the delivery problem resolved.

A response deadline and a task deadline serve different purposes. The former records the expected customer decision; the latter schedules your next action. Review Needs attention for overdue activities, missing tasks or invalid owners as well. Closed deals are excluded from these proposal-review filters; history is retained.

5. Perform the follow-up and record the result

1. Re-read the original proposal and latest conversation. If a follow-up is due and permitted, use the approved individual communication channel outside this module. Confirm recipient, sender, exact proposal and existing opt-out instructions before sending. Do not automate or bulk-send from this procedure.
2. Be specific and helpful: “Hi Jordan, regarding proposal Q-107 for the Cedar project: would clarifying the scope help your decision? If you need more time, what date should we use for our next step?” Do not invent discounts, urgency or promises.
3. Verify the sending result in that communication tool. Record the date, channel, reference and useful outcome in the proposal notes or task notes. If delivery failed, select Delivery issue and assign the corrective action; do not record successful delivery.
4. If the customer asks a question, requests a revision or needs more time, select Reply received, record the actual reply time and details, then update the next task. Use Edit to move to the appropriate negotiation stage if needed; existing cadence and acceptance rules still apply.
5. If a revised proposal is actually sent, update its reference and actual sent time, select Awaiting response and agree a new expected response date. Explain which revision replaced the earlier one.
6. If the business’s acceptance conditions are met, use Edit → Won. If the customer declined or the owner explicitly ends the deal, use Edit → Lost with the actual reason. Silence alone is not evidence of loss. Do not treat a reply or AI score as acceptance of the proposal.
7. Closing cancels pending cadence activities for this opportunity. Manual tasks remain: complete or cancel each applicable task explicitly. Do not change tasks or status for another opportunity belonging to the same contact.

6. Completion checklist

• Every selected proposal has been reviewed, including remaining pages.
• Sending reference/date are verified, or a verification task exists instead of an invented record.
• Every open deal has an authorized owner and a useful pending task with a deadline.
• Replies, delivery problems and revised proposals have evidence and dates.
• Won/lost decisions and loss reasons reflect the actual business outcome.
• Completed/cancelled manual work is reconciled; other deals are unchanged.
• Reopen Proposal or Proposal history and verify the saved values. If another user changed the record, reload and reconcile; do not overwrite a stale form.

Related procedures: manage opportunities — SOP 103, follow-up tasks — SOP 104, pipeline review — SOP 105, cadences and acceptance — SOP 106.