Who can use this: Any team member
Available on: Gong Engage
Ideal for: Sales rep, Sales manager
A person can't be added to a flow when a flow rule or a company setting blocks it. These rules apply to both company and personal flows. Check the section below that matches what you're seeing.
The person is already in an exclusive flow
An exclusive flow keeps a person out of every other flow while they are in it. To add them somewhere else, remove them from the exclusive flow first. What exclusivity blocks depends on how the person is being added.
Note:
Exclusivity only blocks new adds. It never removes anyone from a flow they are already in.
Note:
Your admin can turn off multiple simultaneous flows for the whole company. Every flow then behaves as exclusive, the This flow is exclusive property is disabled on the ruleset, and each person can only be active in one flow at a time.
When you add people manually
Selecting an exclusive flow means no other flow can be selected alongside it.
A person already in an exclusive flow must be removed from that flow before you can add them to another one.
People in non-exclusive flows can be added to more non-exclusive flows.
When you add people in bulk
A bulk add from the People, Accounts, or Flows page shows what is standing in the way before anything is saved. Learn more about adding people to a flow in Engage.
People who are already in flows, who are in exclusive flows, and who are marked as Do not contact are all visible in the selection.
People already in flows can be removed from their current flows first.
Changes take effect when you click Save.
When automation rules add people
Someone in one or more non-exclusive flows who matches another non-exclusive flow is added to it.
A person in no flow at all who matches both an exclusive and a non-exclusive flow goes to the exclusive one.
Anyone matching several exclusive flows at the same time is added to one of them.
When people come from a third-party integration
The same rules apply to people added through an integration such as LeadIQ or ZoomInfo, because the API recognizes and applies exclusivity. Where the person came from does not change the restrictions.
The person is in a cool-off period
A cool-off period is a configurable waiting window that follows a person out of a flow. Your company flow settings decide whether it applies at all, and each ruleset decides whether to honor it.
The period starts when a person exits a flow, whether they completed it or were removed from it.
During the period, the person can't be added to another flow.
Try to add them anyway and you see a message explaining that they can't be added yet.
A flow whose ruleset ignores the cool-off period can still accept them.
The People page and the contact panel show whether a person is in a cool-off period, including how much time remains.
Once the period ends, the person can be added to a flow again.
Manual outreach, such as a one-off email or call, neither starts nor resets the period.
The person is marked as do not contact
Do not contact records that a person has opted out of outreach. How that affects their flows depends on which of two modes your admin has set on the Opt-out controls page.
Global: One CRM field covers every channel. A person marked do not contact is removed from all active flows, and their flow status shows as "Opted out". Automation rules and the API can never add them to a flow, although some configurations still let a rep add them manually after a warning.
Granular: Separate CRM fields cover each channel, so emails and calls are restricted independently. The person stays in the flow, and steps for the restricted channel are skipped according to the compliance policy your admin has set for that channel.
Check the flow's ruleset properties
Exclusivity and the cool-off period both live on the flow's ruleset, under Flow properties. Rulesets are managed by admins, so you may need to ask your admin to check or change these properties.
To check a flow's ruleset properties:
From the left sidebar, click Assets.
Open the ruleset in one of these ways:
From Flows: Select Flows, select the flow, click Settings, and expand the Ruleset section.
From Flow rulesets: Select Flow rulesets, and select the ruleset.
Under Flow properties, check the following:
This flow is exclusive: Prevents a person from being added to other flows at the same time. The property is disabled and forced on when your company flow settings do not allow people to be in multiple flows.
Apply the cool-off period: Applies or ignores the company cool-off period for this flow. The property does not appear at all when your company has the cool-off period disabled.
Frequently asked questions
Can I add someone who has no email address or phone number?
Yes. A person with no email address can still be added to a flow that has email steps, and a person with no phone number can still be added to a flow with call steps. Open their record in Gong or in your CRM and fill in what's missing, and Gong uses the new details for the relevant steps the next time the flow runs.
Can the cool-off period be bypassed?
Yes, when the flow's ruleset is set to ignore the cool-off period. Your admin controls that on the ruleset, and it can't be changed for one person at a time.
If someone unsubscribes from a flow email, are they removed from all flows?
When a person clicks the unsubscribe link, they choose whether to opt out of one flow or all flows. Marking someone as do not contact removes them from all active flows in Global mode, while in Granular mode they stay in their flows and steps for the restricted channel are skipped.