Context

When running plays to prospect and sequence contacts, you may notice that fewer people are being found or enrolled than expected. There are several common reasons why prospects might not be found or enrolled in your plays, even when you believe they should match your criteria.

Answer

Here are the main reasons why prospects might not be found or enrolled in your plays, and how to resolve these issues:

1. Missing or Invalid Domain Information

Companies must have valid domains in your CRM for Unify to process them. If a company record is missing a domain or has an invalid domain:

• The company will not be ingested into Unify

• Add the correct domain to the company record in your CRM

• Once added, the record will automatically sync to Unify

Note: If a company is not currently in your CRM or Unify system, its domain won't appear in exclusion previews, but exclusions based on that domain will still work if the company enters your system later.

2. Persona Matching Issues

Prospects may not be found if they don't match your configured personas. To improve matching:

• Use exact title variations: Persona matching uses "string contains" logic, so titles must include the exact text from your persona configuration. For example, if a prospect's title is "Chief Technology Officer (CTO)", your persona should include "CTO" and "Chief Technology Officer" as separate entries rather than the full title with parentheses

• Include common abbreviations and variations of titles (e.g., both "Director of Engineering" and "Director Engineering")

• Review your persona configurations to ensure they aren't too restrictive

• Consider using the "Use existing People in Unify or CRM" option to include known contacts

How Unify's Fuzzy Matching Actually Works

Unify uses fuzzy matching to find personas that contain all words in the titles you specify. For example, if your "Engineering Executives" persona includes "Head of AI", it may match contacts with titles like "Head of AI Partnerships" because they contain all the specified words.

3. Exclusion Settings

Check your exclusion settings, as they may be unintentionally filtering out prospects:

Verify Sequence Status

Before troubleshooting complex enrollment issues, confirm that your sequence is active and not paused:

• Open the sequence and check its status at the top of the page

• If the sequence is paused, queued enrollments will remain in “Queued” status and will not send until the sequence is resumed

• Click “Resume” or toggle the sequence to active to allow queued emails to send

Verifying Sequence Ruleset Assignment

Before troubleshooting other exclusion issues, verify that your sequence is assigned to the correct ruleset:

• Go to your sequence → Settings → Ruleset to see which ruleset is currently assigned

• If the sequence is using the "default" ruleset, check whether that ruleset has the necessary exclusions enabled

• To modify the default ruleset settings, go to Settings → Sequences → Rulesets

• To assign a different ruleset to your sequence, change the selection in the sequence's Settings → Ruleset dropdown

• Review organization-level exclusions

• Check sequence-specific exclusions

• Verify that your "recently contacted" exclusion settings aren't too broad

• Sequence re‑enrollment rules: Contacts may be blocked from enrolling if they were recently enrolled in another sequence. Check your re‑enrollment wait period by going to Settings > Sequences > Re‑enrollment Rules and adjust the wait period (e.g., from 100 days to a shorter duration) if needed to allow earlier enrollment

• New hire filters: The "Find new hires at companies that don't exist in Unify" filter returns new hires at both new companies and companies that already exist in your Unify workspace, as long as they match your other filters (industry, headcount, etc.). You don't need to choose between tracking new hires at new versus existing companies.

• Verify domain matching: Ensure your exclusions are configured for the correct domain that matches the primary domain in your CRM company records. If a company has multiple domains, exclusions will only trigger for the domain specified in the exclusion rule, not alternative domains associated with the company

• Verify field value population: Check that the field values used in your exclusion criteria are actually populated in the CRM record. For example, if your exclusion rule filters by "ARR - Enterprise" field, verify that this field has a value in both the CRM and the synced Unify company record. Missing field values will cause exclusion rules to fail even when the rule itself is properly configured and enabled.

Advanced Exclusion Strategy: Persona-Level vs Organization-Level

Persona-level exclusions are more effective than organization-level exclusions because organization-level exclusions only apply to existing contacts in your CRM, not net‑new prospects discovered by Unify.

Best Practice: Add exclusion keywords to each persona's "excludes titles" section in Settings > Personas rather than relying on organization-level exclusions. This ensures filtering applies to all net‑new prospects found by Unify.

Important: Even when exclusions are turned off at the ruleset or sequence level, prospects can still be blocked if the exclusion itself has “Exclude from Sequences” toggled on at the organization level (Settings → Organization → Exclusions). Always verify that the “Exclude from Sequences” toggle is disabled for the relevant exclusions, not just the ruleset‑level toggle.

Specific Titles to Exclude

• partnerships

• sales

• account executive

• intern

• assistant

• chief of staff

• admin

• cos

• administrative assistant

• coordinator

1. Identify which specific exclusions are blocking your prospects using the direct lookup method

2. Go to Settings → Features → Sequences → Rulesets and locate the ruleset your sequence belongs to

3. Turn off the sequence toggle for the specific exclusion in that ruleset only (do not disable global exclusions)

4. Go to Settings → Organization → Exclusions and toggle off “Exclude from Sequences” for the relevant exclusions

5. Wait ~30 minutes for the exclusion changes to register in the system

6. Duplicate your play and run the new version

7. Immediately re‑enable the exclusion toggles in both the ruleset and organization settings

Advanced Diagnostic Steps

When prospects aren't being found or enrolled in your plays, use these specific diagnostic methods to identify and resolve the underlying issues:

Checking Enrollment Failures with Specific Navigation

• Open your Play → go to Metrics → click the Sequence node (or the “Not Enrolled” count) to view the list of contacts and failure reasons

• This provides detailed visibility into which step is blocking enrollment

Multiple Ways to Check Enrollment Failures

• From the Play: Open your Play → go to Metrics → click the Sequence node (or the “Not Enrolled” count) to view the list of contacts and failure reasons

• From the Sequence: Open the sequence directly → go to the Enrollments tab → check the “Not Enrolled” breakdown for per‑contact failure reasons and the specific rule or limit that blocked each contact

Note: After bulk CSV uploads or large enrollment operations, enrollment counters may lag during eligibility checks. Allow 30–60 minutes for the system to complete evaluation and finalize the “Not Enrolled” list before troubleshooting apparent drop‑offs.

Understanding Loop Step Behavior

When Loop Steps Are Required

Loop steps are required after any action that returns a list of people, such as the "Prospect for new People" node. Prospecting returns multiple people, and the Loop runs downstream actions (like Sequence enrollment and CRM sync) once per person. Without the Loop, the Sequence node won't receive individual people to enroll, preventing any enrollments from occurring.

The Loop itself doesn't filter people—it simply runs the action once per person in parallel and won't block sequencing on its own. This prevents confusion when troubleshooting enrollment issues.

Advanced Exclusion Troubleshooting Methods

To identify which specific exclusion is blocking a prospect, you have two practical options:

• Direct lookup method: Go to Contacts in Unify, search for the person by email address, click on their contact record, and navigate to the “Exclusion” tab to see which exclusion rule is preventing enrollment. If no exclusions appear but you expected one to apply, check the associated company record to verify that all fields used in your exclusion criteria (e.g., ARR, customer status, industry, domain) are populated with values. Also verify that the sequence is assigned to a ruleset that has the necessary exclusions enabled.

• Audience toggle method: Create an audience based on the prospect's email and toggle exclusions off/on to see which one the contact falls into

Understanding How Exclusions Affect Sequences

• When the toggle is enabled: Contacts meeting the exclusion criteria will be removed from active sequences immediately, even mid‑sequence

• When the toggle is disabled: Contacts already enrolled in sequences will continue receiving emails, but new contacts meeting the criteria cannot enter sequences

Sequence‑level exclusion toggles operate independently from play‑level toggles; even when exclusions are turned off at the play or audience level, enabling them at the sequence level will still exclude contacts and can remove them from active sequences mid‑enrollment.

• Sequence‑level exclusions are checked at enrollment time and will block prospects even if they pass through the play’s audience filters.

• Disabling exclusions at the play level does not override sequence‑level exclusions.

• Always verify sequence‑level exclusions when prospects aren’t enrolling despite passing play filters.

Troubleshooting Workflow for ‘Unenroll from Sequences’ Issues

1. Disable the “unenroll from sequences” setting at the organization level.

2. Wait ~30 minutes for exclusions to update in the system.

3. Then disable exclusions at the audience level before attempting enrollment.

Re-enrolling Previously Excluded Prospects

1. Go to Settings → Features → Sequences → Rulesets and locate the ruleset your sequence belongs to

2. Temporarily toggle off the specific exclusion that's blocking the prospects

3. Wait approximately 30 minutes for the exclusion change to register in the system

4. Re‑add/re‑enroll the prospects from the list

5. Toggle the exclusion back on

Important: Be cautious when modifying organization‑level exclusion settings, as they have downstream effects on all sequences and plays across your organization.

Verifying Exclusion Reasons Through Activity Logs

• Check the contact's Activity tab in Unify to see their Play run history

• Review the Logs tab in the associated Play to see enrollment failures and specific reasons (e.g., “already enrolled” or “recently enrolled”)

• Note that if your Play settings don’t allow re‑runs at all, excluded contacts won’t show new activity entries—you’ll only see their previous enrollment

Play‑Level Re‑run Settings

Verify your Play‑level re‑run settings, as these work separately from sequence re‑enrollment rules and can prevent contacts from being triggered again. This is a commonly overlooked setting that can block prospect enrollment even when other conditions are met.

4. Data Provider Coverage

Sometimes prospects aren't found due to limitations in data provider coverage:

• The prospect's information may not be available in the data provider's database

• Their employment information might be outdated or incomplete

• Job titles may not be accurately notated in the source data

5. CRM Sync Issues

If you have duplicate or merged records in your CRM:

• Merged companies may not sync properly

• Duplicate records can cause inconsistent filtering

• Ensure your CRM records are clean and properly merged

Duplicate Person Records Causing Enrollment Failures

Duplicate person records can cause Unify to evaluate the wrong record, leading to enrollment failures even when one record has the correct data.

• When a prospect has multiple records (e.g., different email addresses for the same person at the same company), Unify may read the record that's missing required fields or recent activity data.

• To diagnose: Check if the prospect exists multiple times in your CRM with different email addresses or slight name variations.

• To resolve: Merge the duplicate records in your CRM, ensuring the merged record retains all important field values (email, recent conversion data, etc.).

• Once merged, the corrected record will sync to Unify and the prospect will qualify for enrollment on the next audience recomputation.

• Temporary workaround: If merging isn't immediately possible, manually populate the required fields on the record that Unify is currently reading.

Linked Company Records in Audience Previews

Companies with multiple linked CRM records can appear in audience previews even when they seem not to match your criteria. This happens because Unify evaluates each linked record individually – if any one linked record matches your audience filters, the company will appear in the preview, even if other linked records show different field values.

For example, if a company has two HubSpot records sharing the same domain, and one record has “AA Lifecycle Stage = Expired” while the other has “AA Lifecycle Stage = Active”, the company will appear in an audience filtered for “Expired” because one of its linked records matches.

• Open the company record in Unify and check the Linked Records tab to see if multiple HubSpot company records are linked or if domains are grouped together.

• Verify the field values (like lifecycle stage, engagement stage, etc.) on each linked record in HubSpot.

• Identify which linked record has the matching values that caused the company to appear in the preview.

• Merge or align the duplicate records in your CRM so key fields are consistent across all linked records.

This is expected Unify behavior when evaluating audiences with linked records.

6. Play Completion Status

If you've added new personas or modified targeting criteria but aren't seeing new prospects:

• Completed plays don't automatically re-run when edited - once all play runs have finished, the play remains inactive even after making changes

• To process new personas or updated criteria, duplicate the play and run the new version

• This ensures your updated targeting settings are applied to find additional prospects

Alternative Methods for Reprocessing Records in Completed Plays

While duplicating plays is the default approach, you can also reprocess records using the methods below.

Manual Trigger Method

• Set the play's trigger to Manual, then use “Run/Send to Play” from the Audience to enroll the full audience again.

Scheduled Reruns Configuration

• Enable the play's rerun toggle in the play settings (gear icon) and set a cadence (minimum 1 day) for automatic reruns.

• Scheduled reruns run on the defined schedule; they do not execute immediately and require a minimum 1‑day cooldown between runs.

Key implementation details: Editing and publishing an existing play will not re‑enroll past records. To re‑execute immediately, duplicate the play; otherwise use the manual trigger for immediate reprocessing or scheduled reruns for ongoing prospecting.

7. Template Variable Issues

Missing Template Variable Values

If your sequence templates use variables like {{companyName}} or other custom fields, prospects will be blocked from enrollment when those values are missing.

• When a template contains a variable that has no value, Unify blocks enrollment rather than sending with an unresolved placeholder

• This can occur even when the company record exists in your CRM but specific fields are empty

• Solution: Use snippets or smart snippets with static fallback text for any variables that might be missing

• Create a snippet for portions of your template that reference company or contact data

• Set a static fallback value in the snippet settings

• If any variable in the snippet is missing, Unify will use the fallback text instead of blocking enrollment

• Note: Fallback text must be static – you cannot use variables inside fallback text

• If a snippet contains multiple variables, the fallback is used if any one variable is missing

Template Variable Syntax Errors

Ensure template variables use single curly braces {variable} rather than double braces {{variable}}; double‑bracketed variables will cause enrollment steps to be blocked.

1. Open the blocked enrollment and click “See variables breakdown” to identify unresolved placeholders

2. Common causes include:

   • Double‑bracketed variables (e.g., {{first_name}} instead of {first_name})

   • Stray curly braces or placeholder notes like {INSERT ...}

   • Unresolved variables in subject lines, signatures, or links (not just email body)

3. Edit the sequence step to fix the variable syntax, then save

4. Click “Upgrade all enrollments” to apply the fix to all blocked enrollments in that sequence

5. If the step remains blocked despite correct variables, contact support for a manual refresh

Important: “Blocked” is an enrollment/step status, not a mailbox status. Your Mailboxes tab can show green (healthy) while specific sequence steps remain blocked for other reasons. When you see a “Step blocked” notification but your mailboxes appear fine, the issue is with the enrollment step itself, not your email infrastructure.

CRM Sync Timing Issues

Template variables are hydrated at enrollment time. If variables were recently updated in your CRM, wait up to 30 minutes before enrolling contacts to ensure the data has synced to Unify.

Enrollments may become blocked if contacts are enrolled before recently updated variables have synced from your CRM.

Mailbox Sending Limit Configuration

Incorrect mailbox sending limit settings can cause sequence steps to become blocked even before any outreach occurs.

• Solution: Verify your mailbox sending limits in Settings > Mailboxes and ensure they are set to appropriate values (maximum 25 per day recommended)

• Alternatively, try changing the mailbox group assigned to the sequence to use a different mailbox with correct limit settings

• After adjusting limits, blocked enrollments should automatically reschedule

Skipped Thread Root Email

If the first email in a sequence is skipped, subsequent emails configured as threaded replies will be blocked with a “step blocked” error.

• Threaded reply emails depend on the first email (thread root) being sent successfully

• If the initial email is skipped for any reason, reply emails cannot send because there is no thread to reply to

• This can occur even when all template variables are properly resolved and mailbox settings are correct

Solutions:

• Unenroll and re‑enroll the contact to restart the sequence from step 1

• Skip all remaining email tasks for the affected enrollment

• Send one‑off emails outside of the sequence if you still need to reach the contact

Note: There is no way to retroactively fix existing enrollments affected by this issue.

For more details, see the documentation on Template Variables and Smart Snippets.

If you continue to experience issues after checking these items, consider:

• Using an AI agent in your play to improve matching

• Reviewing your play's logs to understand exactly where prospects are being filtered out

• Checking if prospects have the required fields (email addresses, titles, etc.) populated in your CRM

• Understanding that your play's "total sample" represents the full audience available to the play before filters are applied, not everyone in your CRM - this helps determine if your filtering criteria are too restrictive

8. Data Enrichment Timing Issues

Company enrichment (including employee count and other firmographic data) may not be complete when your play's filtering logic runs.

• If using if/else nodes for employee size or other company attributes, the enrichment may happen after the evaluation.

• Add a 10‑15 minute delay at the beginning of your play to allow enrichment to complete before filtering.

• Consider using AI agents instead of if/else nodes for employee size filtering, as they often yield better results with enriched data.

• Use Unify's built‑in company data filters (e.g., “Unify Company | Employee Count”) rather than CRM‑based filters for more accurate results.