# Sales automation overview

## Understand automations

Sales automations handle outreach and follow-ups for you so leads don't slip through the cracks. Each automation is tied to a specific pipeline stage and is designed to move leads forward to the next stage. They're marked with a ⚡ lightning bolt icon in your pipeline.

Wonderly comes with five built-in automations, each assigned to a default stage. The pipeline and automations are designed to flow into one another, so leads entering your pipeline get the right outreach at the right time based on how complete their submission was.

### The five automations and their default stages

* **Contact customer for missing info** → New Lead stage. Reaches out to collect incomplete information so the lead can be qualified.
* **Schedule appointment with customer** → Meeting No-Show stage. Follows up to rebook a meeting after a no-show.
* **Remind customer about upcoming meeting** → Meeting Scheduled stage. Sends a reminder so the lead doesn't miss their appointment.
* **Reach out after a missed meeting** → Meeting No-Show stage. Contacts the lead after a missed meeting to reschedule.
* **Follow up on quotes and invoices** → Quote and Invoice Sent stage. Follows up when a quote or invoice hasn't been responded to.

{% hint style="danger" %}
Each stage can only have one automation assigned to it.
{% endhint %}

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### Our recommendation

We recommend leaving each automation on its default stage. Our product and engineering teams have optimized the pipeline so that automations flow into one another naturally. This setup works for the vast majority of users. However, you can change the stage assignment if your sales process requires it.

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### How the default flow works

When a new lead comes in through a form, call, email, or other channel, Wonderly places them into a pipeline stage based on how complete their submission was:

* **Incomplete info** → goes to the **New Lead** stage. The "Contact customer for missing info" automation kicks in to collect the missing details. Once qualified, the lead moves forward.
* **Complete info, no meeting booked** → goes to the **Qualified** stage or **Meeting Scheduled** stage depending on whether a meeting was booked during intake.

From there, each automation picks up where the last one left off. Reminders go out before meetings, follow-ups go out after no-shows, and outreach continues when quotes or invoices are pending. The automations are designed to hand off to one another so leads keep moving through your pipeline.

#### Example: What happens if you change a stage assignment

Say you move the "Contact customer for missing info" automation from **New Lead** to **Meeting Scheduled**. Here's what changes:

* Leads that enter the **New Lead** stage with incomplete info will no longer receive automated outreach. No one follows up to collect the missing details, and those leads may sit in your pipeline untouched.
* Meanwhile, leads in the **Meeting Scheduled** stage would start receiving requests for missing info, even though they've already been qualified and have a meeting booked. That outreach doesn't make sense at that point.

This is why we recommend keeping automations on their default stages. Moving them can break the flow and cause leads to get the wrong outreach at the wrong time.

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### How to edit an automation

If you do need to make changes, here's how:

1. Go to **Sales** → **Automations**.
2. Click **Edit** under the automation you want to change.
3. Click the **Stage** dropdown to change which pipeline stage the automation runs on.
4. Toggle the **Active** switch on or off to enable or disable the automation.
5. Click **Save**.

The automation updates immediately and runs according to your new settings.

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**FAQ**

**Can I create my own automations?** No. Wonderly comes with five built-in automations. You can edit their settings and change which stage they run on, but you cannot create new ones.

**What does the lightning bolt icon mean?** The ⚡ icon indicates that a stage has an automation assigned to it.