How we automated Zoho CRM follow-ups for ScaleUp — without replacing their stack
ScaleUp runs follow-ups out of Zoho CRM. We layered an AI agent on top that pulls full contact context, researches the company, and drafts the email or LinkedIn message — then waits for a human to approve before anything sends.
- · Drafted, not sent
- · No rip-and-replace
- · Email and LinkedIn
The brief
ScaleUp didn't want a new CRM or a black-box autoresponder. They wanted their reps to keep control of Zoho while losing the slow part — writing a personalised, well-researched follow-up for every contact. The constraint: nothing leaves without a human looking at it.
How the agent works
- 01 Zoho trigger A cadence/workflow task fires a webhook
- 02 Fetch context Contact, account, notes, deal + email history
- 03 Research Company identity, recent news, public profile
- 04 Draft Email or LinkedIn copy, in ScaleUp's voice
- 05 Human approves Card in Google Chat — review, edit, send
- 06 Sync back Account/contact updated in Zoho
Built Cloudflare-native: a Worker takes the webhook, a queue does the slow research + drafting so Zoho gets an instant response.
Why the drafts land
- Same body for everyone
- No memory of the last touch
- Generic “just checking in”
- Reps still rewrite it
- Pulls real CRM + email history
- Knows the company and recent news
- Right channel: email or LinkedIn
- Rep edits, not writes
The decisions that made it safe
Drafted, not sent
The agent only ever prepares a draft. A teammate approves it from a Google Chat card with a one-click compose link.
No rip-and-replace
Zoho stays the source of truth. The agent reads and writes through the Zoho API — the team's workflow is untouched.
Email and LinkedIn
If a contact's email domain looks stale, the card flips to copy-ready LinkedIn content and explains why.
Idempotent by design
Each task is de-duplicated, so retries never double-send and cadence steps stay clean.
Stack
Deven quickly understood our Zoho CRM and follow-up workflow, then built a secure, practical automation that gives our team useful context without adding operational noise.
Frequently asked
No. Zoho stays your system of record. The agent reads context from Zoho and writes drafts/updates back through the API — your team keeps working exactly where they already do.
Only if you want it to. ScaleUp runs it fully human-in-the-loop: the agent drafts, a person approves and sends. We also support hybrid and fully-automated modes per stage.
Zia and templates work from merge tags. This agent pulls real CRM history plus live company research and writes a specific message — closer to a junior rep than a mail-merge.
Run follow-ups out of a CRM?
We'll map your cadence and show you exactly where an AI agent saves time — without changing your stack.
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