A lead in Tern is always on its way somewhere. A playbook is the route: the steps, the branches and how much Tern may do on its own. The goal at the end of the route is the outcome, such as a booked meeting.
Get leads in
Leads arrive from the sources you connect, not by typing them in.
- While the list is empty it says No leads yet. Press Connect a source.
- Connect the platform your leads come from. See Lead feeds.
- A person who writes to an agent on WhatsApp Web before they exist in Tern shows up in the Inbox. See Inbox and Link to lead.
Read the leads list
- In the sidebar open Leads.
- The tiles at the top show Open leads, New this week, Engaged and Pipeline value.
- Use the quick chips Mine, High priority and Interested, or the search box, which looks in name, email, phone and tag.
- Every filter lives in the link, so you can send a filtered list to a colleague by copying the address.
- Press Board to see the same leads as one column per playbook step. Dragging a card asks Why the move? and writes your reason on the timeline.
The columns that matter most:
| Column | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Status | Where the lead is overall: New, Working, Engaged, Won or Stopped. |
| Outcome | What the last interactions point to, with a priority score. See Priority call list and outcome signals. |
| Step | Where the lead sits on its route. |
| Owner | The agent responsible, or Unassigned. |
| Next action | What is planned and when, or Nothing planned. |
| Goal | The result the playbook works toward. |
Work on several leads at once
- Tick the leads in the list.
- In the bar that appears choose Reassign (to a person or Round robin), Playbook, Tag, Export or Stop.
- Stop cancels every planned action for those leads.
Read a lead's page
- Click a lead in the list.
- The header has Open thread, Call, New ticket and Actions.
- The Timeline tab shows every message, call, note and action in order. Tern's own actions carry a Why did Tern do this? link.
- The Add a note tab takes a typed note or a voice note.
- The Details tab holds email, phone, timezone and goal.
- On the right, Priority shows the score and the reason, Tasks shows what is open for you and Commitments shows promises made on calls and threads, either way.
- Under Actions you can Assign to me, Add a tag or Opt out of a channel.
Shape a playbook
Team leads and above can change playbooks.
- In the sidebar, under Configure, open Playbooks. Each card shows its goal, Active leads, Conversion and Avg days.
- Open the playbook you want to shape. Its goal is one of Book a meeting, Collect documents, Re-engage or Onboard. If your workspace has no playbook yet, write to sales@fastflowup.com and we will set up your first route with you.
- Find the Route card. It runs top to bottom, from Lead enters the route to the row that marks the outcome achieved.
- Press Add node and pick a type from the first table below.
- Select a node to edit its Label, Channel, wait time and What this node does. That last line is shown on the timeline as the reason when Tern runs it.
- Set Autonomy for the playbook. The second table below explains the three modes.
- Press Save playbook. Leads on this route pick up the change at their next step.
| Node | What it does |
|---|---|
| Message | Send on the lead's channel |
| Call | Place or schedule a call |
| Wait | Pause for a set time |
| Condition | Continue only when a check passes |
| Branch | Route on a yes or no |
| Task | Hand a step to a person |
| Escalation | Pull in a senior |
| Mode | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Suggest | Tern drafts, a person sends. |
| Approve | One tap sends what Tern prepared. |
| Auto | Low-risk steps run on their own. |
Start with Suggest. First contact always waits for a person whatever you pick. Every node passes the guard before it acts: quiet hours, opt-out, the reply window and caps.
Put leads on a playbook
- Open Leads and tick the leads.
- Press Playbook in the bar, then choose the playbook under Move to playbook.
- They start at the first step after the guard check.
To do this by itself for every new lead, make an automation with the trigger Lead created and the action Add to playbook. See Automations.
When the outcome is reached
Nobody ticks a box. When a lead reaches the end of its route, the timeline shows Outcome achieved and nothing more is planned. A lead you stopped shows Stopped.