Plays, Prospecting, and Task Best Practices

Audience: Reps & anyone setting up or running plays
Goal: Maximize deliverability, coverage, and personalization while avoiding common pitfalls.

Glossary

What is a Play?

A play in Unify is a workflow or automation that combines multiple actions to execute your outbound campaigns.

What is Prospecting?

Prospecting in Unify refers to the automated process of finding and enriching contact information for people at target companies based on your specified criteria.

What is a Task?

A task in Unify is a manual action item assigned to a sales rep that needs to be completed as part of a sequence or play.

Play Setup Best Practices

1. One Play Per Rep (Mailbox-Level Routing)

• Each rep should have their own play.

• Plays should route directly to the rep’s mailbox

• Avoid routing by company owner

  Why? It’s brittle and error‑prone - owner fields are often outdated or inconsistent, which leads to misrouting, missed tasks, and duplicate outreach. Direct mailbox or round‑robin routing is more reliable, easier to maintain, and ensures consistent ownership end‑to‑end.

Exception: Routing to Salesforce Contact Owner

If you need to align email sending with the Salesforce Contact Owner’s inbox, follow these steps before the Sequence step in your Play:

1. Add an Assign owner action.

2. In the Sequence routing settings, select “Use a mailbox associated with the company/person record owner”.

3. Verify each rep has a mailbox configured under Settings → Deliverability → Mailboxes and set appropriate fallbacks.

4. Keep the Assign owner and Sequence steps in the same branch, with Assign owner first.

Example 1: Direct Mailbox Routing

You have a play targeting enterprise accounts and want all prospects to go to your enterprise AE, Sarah. You would:

• Select "Manually select mailboxes" in the routing settings

• Choose only Sarah's mailboxes (e.g., sarah@company.com, s.johnson@company.com)

• All prospects from this play will be assigned to Sarah and emails will send from her mailboxes.

Example 2: Round-Robin Routing

You have website visitors that should be distributed equally across your 3 SDRs (Tom, Jake, and Maria). You would:

• Select "Manually select mailboxes"

• Choose all mailboxes from Tom, Jake, and Maria's groups

• Unify will automatically rotate prospects: first prospect goes to Tom, second to Jake, third to Maria, fourth back to Tom, etc.

Why this matters:

• All records run through the play are automatically assigned

• Prevents conflicts, delays, and ownership confusion

• Ensures consistent task ownership and follow-up

2. Use the Recommended Prospecting Node by Default

• Always start with the recommended prospecting node

• Treat it as the baseline configuration

• Start with 2-4 prospects per company, then scale up based on results

  

3. Finding More Than 10 People at a Company

• Do not rely on a single prospecting node

• Use multiple prospecting nodes to expand coverage

Example approaches:

• Split by function (e.g., Sales, RevOps, Marketing)

• Split by seniority tiers

• Use separate nodes for each persona to control allocation

4. Always Enrich Phone Numbers

• Enable “Enrich phone number” in all prospecting nodes

• Always keep it on when using the Chrome extension

• Important: Only enrich when sequences include call tasks to avoid wasting credits

  

Why this matters:

• Improves call task usability

• Prevents dead-end tasks later in the workflow

  Important limitation: Enabling phone enrichment in a play only applies to newly prospected contacts. It does not retroactively enrich contacts already in audiences or enrolled in sequences. If you need to enrich phone numbers for existing contacts, use one of the workarounds below depending on your scenario.

  Note: Enrichment is only available in prospecting nodes, not as standalone enrichment steps

Enriching Phone Numbers for Existing Contacts

If you have contacts already in an audience or enrolled in sequences that need phone enrichment for call tasks, use the export and re‑import method:

1. Export the audience or sequence participants as CSV (see How to Export Sequence Participants to CSV)

2. Re‑upload the CSV via People and toggle on Enrich phone numbers (requires First Name, Last Name, and Company Domain)

3. The enriched contacts will then be available for your play

For contacts already enrolled in sequences with call tasks, after enrichment is complete:

• Create a new call‑focused play and enroll these newly enriched contacts

• Ensure re‑enrollment is allowed in Settings > Sequences > Rulesets

See How to enrich existing audiences with phone numbers for detailed steps.

5. Persona Strategy: Use Tiers, Not One Long List

• Avoid one massive persona list

• Use multiple persona tiers instead

  Important: Personas are processed in priority order - first persona gets filled before moving to second.

Benefits:

• Better targeting

• Cleaner prioritization

• Easier iteration and debugging

• Prevents one persona from consuming all available prospects

Task Best Practices

1. Skip Call Tasks Without Phone Numbers

• If no number exists, skip the task or use enrichment

• Don’t burn time on non-actionable calls

  Tip: You can enrich phone numbers directly from the task view.

2. Keyboard Efficiency

• Press “K” to move quickly from task to task

• Use filtered task views by assignee for better organization

  

3. Manual Personalization Using Research Panel

• Use the research panel on the left to personalize emails

• Reference recent activity, role context, or company signals

• Leverage AI agents for research insights before outreach

Best used for:

• High-value accounts

• First-touch emails

4. Reassigning Task Ownership

Task ownership and mailbox ownership are independent – you can reassign tasks without changing who sends emails.

To reassign existing tasks (including specific task types like call tasks):

• Navigate to the Tasks tab and use filters to find the relevant tasks

• Filter by task type (e.g., Call, Email, LinkedIn) to reassign only specific types

• Optionally filter by sequence to narrow results

• Select all tasks that need reassignment

• Click "Assign Owner" to bulk reassign to the correct owner

To route future tasks from a sequence to a different owner:

1. Open the sequence → Edit → Advanced Settings

2. Enable "Manually assign tasks" and select the desired owner

3. Save the sequence

Note: This assigns all new sequence-generated tasks to the selected owner while emails continue sending from the existing mailbox owner. This only affects new enrollments - existing enrollments keep their current task assignment.

Preventing task assignment mismatches with round-robin mailbox distribution:

When using plays with manual mailbox selection and round-robin distribution, task assignment settings in sequences must match the routing method to prevent the email sender and task assignee from being different people.

• Ensure all manual task steps (LinkedIn tasks, call tasks, etc.) in your sequences are set to “Assign to: Sender” rather than “Mailbox owner”

• If tasks are assigned to “Mailbox owner” while emails rotate through multiple mailboxes via round-robin, the email sender and task assignee will be different people

To verify and fix task assignment settings:

1. Open each sequence used in plays with round-robin routing

2. Check every manual task step (LinkedIn tasks, call tasks, etc.)

3. Ensure the “Assign to” setting is set to the sender option, not “Mailbox owner”

4. For existing misassigned tasks, use the bulk reassignment process described above

Note: Changing task assignment settings only affects new enrollments. Existing enrolled contacts retain their original task assignments and must be manually reassigned.

• Navigate to the Tasks tab and use filters to find the relevant tasks

• Select all tasks that need reassignment

• Click "Assign Owner" to bulk reassign to the correct owner

What to Avoid

1. Prospecting Issues

Problem: Play prospecting 0 people despite large companies

Solution: Broaden persona titles, check location filters, verify company data quality

1a. List Count vs. Play Trigger Preview Discrepancies

Problem: List shows more contacts (e.g., 92) than appear in play trigger criteria preview (e.g., 64)

Solution: The difference typically comes from filters or protections applied at the play/audience level before sequence enrollment:

• Exclusions - Global exclusions filter out contacts even if they're in the list. Temporarily toggle exclusions off in the audience/trigger preview to see if the count increases

• Enrollment protections - Contacts may not qualify because they're opted out, already in another active sequence, hit daily caps, or fail sequence‑specific rules

• Dynamic criteria - If your trigger uses additional filters beyond “exists in list,” only the subset meeting those filters will show in the preview

Note: Check the Play's Metrics tab to review “Not Enrolled” reasons for specific contacts. See Understanding and Resolving Audience Discrepancies for details.

2. Low Sequence Enrollment Counts

Problem: Prospecting finds contacts but far fewer enroll in sequences than expected (e.g., averaging 0.9 enrollments when max is set to 10 per account)

Solution: Check these common causes:

• Company enrollment limits shared across plays - The per-company sequence cap is shared globally, so other plays can consume the limit and block additional enrollments from this play

• Daily sending caps reached - Check if daily sending limits have been hit, which can cause contacts to queue rather than enroll immediately

• Contact ineligibility - Open the Play → go to Metrics → click the Sequence node (or click the “Not Enrolled” count) to see who was enrolled vs. not enrolled and the specific reason per contact. Check the “Not Enrolled” breakdown for reasons like: Already enrolled, Recently enrolled, Max enrollments reached, or No routing target

• Simultaneous enrollment blocked - Contacts cannot be enrolled in multiple active sequences at the same time; if already enrolled elsewhere, they will be blocked from this sequence

• Exclusions blocking enrollment - Review Settings → Organization → Exclusions for any with “Exclude from Sequences” toggle enabled, which can prevent enrollment or proactively unenroll contacts

• Execution Logs - Check per-contact records for specific error or status messages

• Audience propagation delay - If you recently updated the audience, allow 15‑30 minutes for changes to fully propagate before contacts can be processed

3. Sequence Assignment Problems

Problem: Wrong rep getting tasks or emails

Solution: Use mailbox groups and verify routing logic in play setup

3a. Reassigning Emails Mid-Sequence

Problem: Need to change email sender after sequence has started

Solution:

• Queued emails (Step 1 only): Can be bulk reassigned via Dashboard → Leading → Email Backlog → Reassign Sequence Enrollments. See How to Reassign Emails in the Backlog

• Mid-sequence scheduled emails: Cannot be bulk reassigned and must be updated manually

• After Step 1 has sent: Mailboxes cannot be switched mid-sequence to maintain consistent sender experience for recipients

4. Duplicate Outreach

Problem: Multiple people at same company getting identical emails

Solution: Use A/B nodes to ensure single rep per company

5. Credit Waste

Problem: Excessive prospecting credit usage

Solution: Set proper ICP filters, use existing contacts first, monitor usage by play

6. Prevent Outreach During Active Deals

Audience: Sales Operations, RevOps, and Sales Leaders

Goal: Prevent embarrassing outreach to companies with active deals or ongoing conversations

Problem

Unify's "Max enrollments per company" setting is purely count‑based and does NOT consider:

• CRM deal status or opportunity stages

• Active conversations or engagement history

• Lifecycle stages or lead scoring

• Custom fields indicating "do not contact" status

This can lead to awkward situations where prospects receive cold outreach while actively evaluating your solution or during ongoing sales conversations.

Solution: Company-Level CRM Exclusions

Create dynamic company‑level exclusions that automatically prevent outreach based on your CRM data:

Step 1: Set Up CRM-Based Company Exclusion

1. Navigate to Settings → Organization → Exclusions

2. Create a new company‑level exclusion

3. Set criteria based on your CRM fields:

   • Deal/Opportunity Status: Open opportunities, specific stages (e.g., "Demo Scheduled", "Proposal Sent")

   • Account Status: Active customer, churned customer, do‑not‑contact

   • Engagement Recency: Recent meeting activity, email replies, form submissions

4. Enable "Exclude from Sequences" toggle

Step 2: Configure Automatic Unenrollment

With "Exclude from Sequences" enabled, the exclusion will:

• Block new sequence enrollments for matching companies

• Automatically unenroll contacts already in active sequences

• Prevent task creation for excluded companies

Example Exclusion Criteria

Company has:
- Open Opportunity = True
OR
- Opportunity Stage = "Demo Scheduled", "Proposal Sent", "Negotiation"
OR
- Account Status = "Customer", "Do Not Contact"
OR
- Last Meeting Date within 30 days

Advanced: Multi‑Layered Protection

For comprehensive protection, combine multiple exclusion types:

1. Company‑level: Active deals, customer status

2. Contact‑level: Individual opt‑outs, recent replies

3. Domain‑level: Competitor domains, partner companies

Monitoring and Maintenance

• Review exclusion performance monthly

• Update criteria as your sales process evolves

• Monitor "Not Enrolled" metrics to ensure exclusions aren't too broad

• Coordinate with sales team on exclusion criteria changes

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

• Over‑broad exclusions: Don't exclude entire companies for single contact interactions

• Stale data: Ensure CRM sync is working and data is current

• Missing edge cases: Consider all deal stages, not just "Closed Won"

• Lack of coordination: Align exclusion criteria with sales team expectations

Scaling Plays to Multiple Similar Targets

When expanding a successful play to additional targets (e.g., multiple competitors, different market segments, or regional variations), you need to decide between duplicating or reusing plays.

When to Duplicate vs. Reuse Plays

Duplicate the play when you need:

• Separate tracking and performance metrics per target

• Different routing or sequences for each target

• Independent control over each play's configuration

Reuse the same play when:

• You want unified tracking across all targets

• The sequence and routing logic are identical

• You're comfortable with combined metrics

Best Practices for Scaling

For duplicating plays:

1. Duplicate the original play for each new target

2. Update the audience filter to target the new competitor/segment

3. Set the prospecting node to "prospect for net new people only" before publishing to avoid re‑prospecting existing contacts

4. Adjust sequence or routing if needed for the specific target

5. Use clear naming conventions (e.g., "LinkedIn Competitor - [Company Name]") to track performance separately

For reusing plays:

1. Update the existing play's audience to include the new target

2. Republish the play to automatically enroll new companies matching the updated criteria

How to Stay Organized

1. Use Folders for Scale

- Create folders per rep for audiences, sequences, and plays

- Organize plays by type (LinkedIn, Website Intent, Cold Outbound)

2. Testing and Iteration

- Start with small audiences to test play logic

- Use duplicate-and-modify approach for testing variations

- Monitor metrics and adjust persona/prospect limits based on performance

3. Maintenance (every 2 weeks)

- Regularly review and update persona titles

- Clean up old/unused plays and sequences

- Update exclusions as your customer base grows

Final Notes

• Defaults exist for a reason - use them unless you have a strong reason not to

• Most issues come down to data hygiene, routing, or exclusions.