Context

When running website intent-based sequences, you may want to automatically exclude contacts who request a demo through your website, as they are now part of your inbound sales process. This automation helps prevent duplicate or conflicting outreach to prospects and can work both at sequence enrollment and continuously throughout the sequence.

Answer

You can set up automatic exclusions in Unify based on Salesforce status changes that occur when a prospect requests a demo. Here's how to implement this:

HubSpot-Specific Implementation Requirements

While the main demo exclusion process works for both Salesforce and HubSpot, HubSpot users need to follow specific implementation requirements that differ from Salesforce. See the HubSpot Deal Stage Configuration section below and the Important Limitation: Company-Level Scope Only section in the troubleshooting area for critical HubSpot-specific details.

1. Set up a delay of approximately one hour between website intent audience entry and sequence enrollment to ensure CRM data syncs properly with Unify. This delay is critical because both the CRM read sync and Play trigger run on ~15‑minute polling cycles, and they must happen in the correct order: opportunity data needs to be ingested into Unify before the Play trigger evaluates exclusion criteria. Without this delay, contacts may be enrolled even if they have a demo booked or open opportunity, because the exclusion data hasn't synced to Unify yet at evaluation time.

2. Create an exclusion rule in Unify based on your Salesforce demo request status field or opportunity fields. When setting up the exclusion:

   • Select Companies as the exclusion type for company-level exclusions

   • Use Unify Opportunity fields in the criteria picker to access Salesforce opportunity data (such as Stage, Meeting Outcome, or other opportunity fields)

   • Set your criteria based on the opportunity field that indicates a demo has been booked

   For example, you can set up an exclusion where Unify Opportunity Stage = "1 - Qualification" or Meeting Outcome = "Scheduled" to automatically remove contacts from sequences when a demo is booked.

   HubSpot Deal Stage Configuration: When configuring exclusions based on HubSpot deal stages, you must use the deal stage's internal property value (pipeline stage ID) rather than the display label shown in the HubSpot interface. Using display labels will cause the exclusion to fail. To find the correct internal values, navigate to your HubSpot property settings, locate your deal pipeline and stage properties, and use the internal property values (pipeline stage IDs) in your Unify exclusion criteria.

3. For account-based exclusions: If you want to stop outreach to all contacts at an organization when anyone from that company books a demo, create a company-level exclusion instead. Go to Settings → Exclusions → New → select Companies and set criteria using your demo‑booked field (e.g., Salesforce opportunity stage or demo request field). This will automatically exclude all contacts from that organization from sequences.

4. Verify exclusion settings at all levels: Check that your exclusion isn't disabled at the audience level, as audience‑level exclusion settings can override universal exclusions. When creating or editing an audience, you can selectively disable universal exclusions for that specific audience.

5. Configure the sync between Salesforce and Unify to ensure the demo request status is properly transmitted

6. Enable the "Sequences" toggle in your exclusion settings to ensure contacts are automatically removed from active sequences if they meet exclusion criteria after enrollment

Continuous Exclusion Monitoring

Unify continuously monitors exclusion criteria throughout sequence execution, not just at enrollment. When the "Sequences" toggle is enabled in your exclusion settings, contacts will be automatically unenrolled from active sequences if they meet your exclusion criteria at any point during the sequence.

Important: If the "Sequences" toggle is NOT enabled for an exclusion, contacts already enrolled in sequences will continue to receive emails even after meeting the exclusion criteria. The exclusion will only prevent new enrollments. Always verify this toggle is enabled for demo request exclusions to ensure contacts are removed from active sequences after booking a demo.

Key details:

• CRM-based exclusions (like opportunity creation) typically update every 15 minutes

• Note: Due to Unify's polling-based sync architecture, there's no way to fully prevent timing race conditions where contacts are enrolled before exclusion data syncs from your CRM. Adding a delay node at the start of high‑priority plays gives CRM data more time to sync before exclusions are evaluated.

• Contacts are proactively removed from sequences when exclusion conditions are met

• This works for any exclusion criteria, including demo requests, opportunity creation, or status changes

Additional Automatic Sequence Removal Scenarios

• Email opt-out clicks: When contacts click the email opt-out link, they are immediately removed from all active sequences.

• Mailbox ownership changes: Contacts are removed when the sender's mailbox ownership changes for the mailbox used to enroll them.

• Company-level exclusion triggers: All associated contacts from a company are removed when company-level exclusions are activated.

Company-wide exclusion strategy: To prevent sequencing multiple contacts from the same company after a demo request, set up a company-level exclusion using your demo‑booked field. This ensures all contacts from that company are excluded from sequences, not just the person who submitted the form. This approach is particularly valuable for account‑based outreach strategies where multiple contacts from the same organization might be in sequences.

Exclusion Hierarchy and Troubleshooting

Understanding the exclusion hierarchy is crucial for ensuring your demo request exclusions work properly:

• Universal exclusions are applied by default to all audiences, but can be toggled off at the audience level

• Audience-level exclusions can override universal exclusions for specific audiences

• Sequence-level exclusions always take precedence over both universal and audience-level settings

Common troubleshooting steps:

• If contacts are still being enrolled despite having exclusions set up, check if the exclusion is disabled at the audience level

• Verify that the "Sequences" toggle is enabled in your exclusion settings (this may not be available for all exclusion types)

• Review play execution logs to see the specific enrollment reason and any exclusion events

Diagnosing Enrollment Drop-offs

Product limitation: There is currently no easy self‑serve way to see exactly why a specific person didn't go through a play. This is a recognized product gap.

Step‑By‑Step Diagnostic Process

1. Check the Person‑level Exclusions tab: Go to an individual person's profile in Unify and click the Exclusions tab to see which global exclusions apply to them. This requires checking each person one by one but shows exactly which exclusions are blocking enrollment.

2. Review all active exclusions: Navigate to Settings → Features → Exclusions to review all active global and sequence‑level exclusions and cross‑reference which ones might be catching contacts.

3. Toggle exclusions in the play view: Navigate to the play view and toggle individual exclusions on/off to see which contacts are affected by each exclusion.

Efficient Enrollment Diagnosis

Primary diagnostic tool: Navigate to the sequence’s Enrollments tab and review the “Not Enrolled” section, which lists specific block reasons per contact with counts. This shows exactly why each contact was skipped, including reasons such as: already in another/paused sequence, recently enrolled (re‑enrollment window), global/audience exclusions, company caps, mailbox/sequence sending limits, unsubscribe status, routing mismatches, or missing template variables. Important constraint: Contacts cannot be in multiple sequences simultaneously; if the Not Enrolled breakdown shows contacts are blocked because they’re “already in another sequence,” those contacts must be fully removed from the other sequence before they can be enrolled in a new one.

Understanding Expected System Behavior

Queued contacts and exclusions: If you see contacts appearing as “queued” in your sequence despite meeting exclusion criteria, this is expected behavior. Exclusions are evaluated at send time, not when contacts are queued. Contacts matching your exclusion criteria will be automatically skipped when the sequence attempts to send, so they will not receive emails even though they appear in the queue.

Multi‑CRM Opportunity Considerations

Cross‑system opportunity aggregation: If you have both Salesforce and HubSpot connected, Unify pulls opportunities from both systems when evaluating exclusion criteria. An exclusion may trigger even if you don’t see a matching opportunity in your primary CRM because an active opportunity exists in your secondary CRM. When troubleshooting unexpected exclusions, check for opportunities in all connected CRM systems, not just your primary one. You can view all associated opportunities by scrolling down on the company record in Unify to see the complete list of active opportunities across all sources.

Temporarily Bypassing Exclusions for Specific Sequences

Ruleset‑Level Bypass Method

1. Identify which exclusions are blocking the contacts using the diagnostic methods above

2. Navigate to the Ruleset that your sequence falls under (Settings → Features → Exclusions → Rulesets tab)

3. Turn off the sequence toggle for that specific exclusion within the Ruleset (this only affects sequences in that Ruleset, not global behavior)

4. Wait approximately 30 minutes for the change to process

5. Duplicate the play and re‑run it

6. Turn the exclusion back on in the Ruleset immediately after enrollment

Critical Distinction: Ruleset vs Global Toggles

Important: Turning off exclusions in the Ruleset only affects that ruleset, but exclusions can still block contacts if the exclusion itself has “Exclude from Sequences” enabled. If contacts are still being excluded after disabling the Ruleset toggle, you must also toggle off “Exclude from Sequences” in the exclusion settings at Settings → Organization → Exclusions, then wait 30 minutes before re‑running the play.

Warning: Do not turn off global exclusions entirely, as they apply across all sequences and could cause unintended enrollments elsewhere. Always use the Ruleset‑level or sequence‑specific toggles when possible.

Additional Company-Level Exclusion Troubleshooting

When company-level demo request exclusions aren't working as expected, these specific technical issues are often the root cause:

Important Limitation: Company-Level Scope Only

Critical limitation: Unify's native exclusions based on opportunity or deal data (using Unify Opportunity fields) only work at the company level. This means you cannot use these fields to exclude only the specific contacts associated with a deal while leaving other contacts at the same company unaffected. This limitation applies to both Salesforce and HubSpot implementations and affects users who need more granular control over which contacts are excluded based on deal associations.

Workaround for Contact-Level Deal Exclusions

If you need to exclude only specific contacts who are associated with deals (rather than all contacts from companies with deals), use this workaround:

1. Create a contact-level field in your CRM (e.g., "Has associated deal in stage X?" as a checkbox or select field)

2. Set up CRM automation to populate this field for contacts tied to deals in the relevant stages

3. Sync this field to Unify through your standard field mapping

4. Create a people-level exclusion in Unify based on this contact-level field

This approach allows you to exclude individual contacts based on their deal associations without affecting other contacts at the same company.

Implementation example: Create a HubSpot workflow that sets "Demo Requested" = "Yes" for any contact associated with a deal in "Demo Scheduled" stage, then exclude contacts where "Demo Requested" = "Yes" in Unify.

Duplicate Account Domain Issue

Critical troubleshooting step: Exclusions based on opportunity data may fail when multiple Salesforce accounts share the same domain (common in hierarchical account structures). Unify may select an account without the relevant opportunity, causing the exclusion to not trigger. Audit your Salesforce for duplicate accounts with the same domain if exclusions aren't working as expected.

Opportunity Stage Synchronization

Backend configuration requirement: Verify that your opportunity stage names in your CRM (Salesforce or HubSpot) exactly match what's configured in your Unify exclusion criteria. If stage names have been updated in your CRM, update the exclusion rule in Unify to reflect the new stage names. Navigate to Settings → Exclusions, select the relevant exclusion, and modify the opportunity stage criteria to match your current CRM stage naming convention.

Domain Matching Requirements

• Domain entry format: When entering multiple domains in an exclusion field, separate them with commas (e.g., competitor1.com, competitor2.com, competitor3.io). Do not include protocol prefixes like http:// or www — use only the root domain for best results.

• Exact domain matching: Company-level exclusions require precise domain matching between your CRM company records and contact email domains. Domain variants (www.company.com vs company.com) must be added as separate company records or the exclusion will fail.

• Subdomain handling: If contacts use subdomains (sales@subdomain.company.com), ensure your company record includes the exact subdomain variant or the exclusion won't trigger.

Company Association Issues

• Missing associations: Contacts must be properly linked to company records in your CRM. If a contact requesting a demo isn't associated with the correct company record, company-level exclusions won't apply to other contacts from that organization.

• Duplicate company records: Multiple company records for the same organization can cause exclusion failures. Consolidate duplicate records to ensure all contacts are associated with the same company record that has the demo‑booked status.

• Opportunity field access: When creating company-level exclusions based on Salesforce opportunity data, select "Unify Opportunity fields" in the criteria picker rather than looking for a separate "Salesforce Opportunity" option. Unify Opportunity fields pull directly from your Salesforce opportunity records and include stages, outcomes, and other opportunity-level data.

Data Quality Validation

• Empty domain fields: Verify that company domain fields are populated in your CRM. Empty or null domain values will prevent company-level exclusions from matching contacts.

• Domain format consistency: Ensure domains are stored consistently (with or without 'www', with or without protocols like 'https://') across all company records.

Acquisition and merger scenarios: When one company acquires another, Unify continues to identify the acquired company by its original domain rather than automatically linking it to the parent company. This means exclusion rules based on the parent company's status (e.g., “Current Customer”) won’t apply to contacts from the acquired company’s domain. To resolve this, update the acquired company’s Salesforce record directly with the appropriate status or relationship field values. The exclusion will take effect once Unify syncs the updated data (typically within ~15 minutes).

Critical Implementation Timing

Processing delays for exclusion changes: After configuring or modifying exclusion settings, allow approximately 30 minutes for the changes to process before testing or expecting the exclusions to take effect.

Technical Limitations to Consider

Person-level exclusion reliability: Person-level exclusions may fail for newly created contacts due to caching delays in Unify.

• If your exclusion is based on person-level fields (like individual contact status), it may not work reliably for brand new contacts.

• Consider using company-level exclusions instead for more reliable results when dealing with fresh leads from demo requests.

• This limitation is particularly relevant for high-velocity demo request scenarios where contacts are created and immediately enrolled in sequences.

HubSpot Lists Limitation

HubSpot lists cannot be used as criteria in Unify exclusions. If you were planning to use a HubSpot list of companies that have requested demos as exclusion criteria, you’ll need to use alternative approaches:

• Use individual field‑based criteria (opportunity stage, demo status fields, etc.).

• Export your HubSpot list and upload as a CSV‑based exclusion in Unify.

• Set up property‑based exclusions using the fields that define your demo request status.