Reply Relay is now available

Reply Relay is live — a Destinations feature for Smartlead and EmailBison. When a prospect replies to a send from a secondary domain, OutboundSync syncs that reply into your CRM and replies from the sequencer mailbox while CCing a sales-rep address. The thread continues in Gmail, Outlook, or whatever primary client your reps already use.

Scaled outbound often starts on a secondary domain. The reply still comes back to that address. OutboundSync already syncs campaign data into HubSpot, Salesforce, and Attio. The missing piece was where the sales rep actually handles the conversation — without living in the sequencer Unibox or hunting for a send path in the CRM.

The inbox silo Reply Relay fixes

Take a company like Pueblo Machine Co. They send net-new outreach from gopueblomachineco.com so the primary domain stays clean. Jane at Golden Nugget Pastries replies to that secondary address. Campaign data still needs to land in the CRM. The AE still needs the thread in the inbox they live in.

Without a handoff, those two needs fight each other. Reply Relay keeps both: CRM history stays complete, and the rep picks up the conversation where they already work.

What happens on a prospect reply

1. Smartlead or EmailBison delivers the prospect reply to your OutboundSync source webhook.
2. OutboundSync syncs the reply to the CRM immediately — contact or lead activity, company or account association, custom properties, and the usual campaign metadata.
3. After the send delay on the relay, OutboundSync replies from the sequencer mailbox and CCs the sales-rep address (optional short body, or CC-only).
4. The rep Reply-Alls from Gmail, Outlook, or a desktop client. From that point forward, the connected inbox and normal sync carry the thread.

Campaign name, campaign ID, lead category or disposition, sends, replies, opens, and clicks still land in the CRM like always. The relay is the handoff into the primary inbox — not a replacement for activity logging.

Setup lives under Connected accounts → Reply relays in the app. Full field notes, category/tag allowlists, and bind steps are in Setting up reply relays.

What stays true

• Smartlead and EmailBison only. Instantly and other platforms are not supported for Reply Relay yet.
• Destinations must be enabled on the CRM connection. That is not a self-serve toggle on the source — contact OutboundSync or your onboarding contact if you need it turned on.
• One handoff per source + campaign + prospect. Later replies in the same campaign still sync to the CRM; they do not send another automated “moving this to my other mailbox” message.
• Optional category/tag allowlists can limit which Smartlead categories or EmailBison tags get the CC.

If Destinations is off or your SEP is unsupported, the manual pattern is still valid: reply in the SEP and CC the rep. Prefer the automated relay when Destinations is on for Smartlead or EmailBison — see Where to reply: HubSpot and Where to reply: Salesforce.

Frequently asked questions

What is Reply Relay?

Reply Relay is an OutboundSync Destinations feature for Smartlead and EmailBison. When a prospect replies to a secondary-domain send, OutboundSync syncs the reply to your CRM and sends a short reply from the sequencer mailbox that CCs a sales-rep address so the thread continues in Gmail, Outlook, or another primary inbox.

How does Reply Relay work?

The sales engagement platform webhooks the prospect reply to OutboundSync. OutboundSync syncs campaign activity to HubSpot, Salesforce, or Attio immediately, then after the configured delay replies from the sequencer mailbox and CCs the sales rep. From that Reply-All forward, the rep works in their primary inbox while CRM sync continues.

Which platforms support Reply Relay?

Reply Relay supports Smartlead and EmailBison today. Instantly and other sales engagement platforms are not supported yet. Destinations must be enabled on the CRM connection before you can create or bind a relay.

Does Reply Relay replace CRM sync?

No. Reply Relay sits beside CRM sync. Campaign name, campaign ID, lead category or disposition, sends, replies, opens, and clicks still land in HubSpot, Salesforce, or Attio the way they always have. The relay only hands the live email thread to the sales rep’s primary inbox.

Where should reps reply after the handoff?

After the CC lands, reps continue the conversation from Gmail, Outlook, or their desktop client with Reply-All. They do not need to log into the CRM or the sequencer Unibox to handle that first follow-up. Later same-campaign replies still sync to the CRM; the automated handoff runs once per source, campaign, and prospect.

Watch the walkthrough

Transcript

0:00 Hey folks, this is Harris Kenny, founder of OutboundSync, and I’m excited to introduce our latest feature. It’s called Reply Relay, and we’ve solved for this silo problem that emerges when you’re sending emails from a secondary domain in a Smartlead or an EmailBison.

0:19 You get a reply back, and we’ve always handled getting that data into your CRM. Into HubSpot, Salesforce, Attio, no problem.

0:29 But what about your sales rep? Where do they handle the reply from? Reply Relay solves for this. It allows your sales rep to stay inside of Gmail, Outlook, or wherever your email provider or mail client is.

0:41 So they don’t even have to log into the CRM to handle the replies. Meanwhile, all the campaign data, the campaign name, campaign ID, lead category or disposition, sent emails, replies, opens, clicks, all of that lands in the CRM like always.

0:55 So let me move myself out of the way, show you how it works. Now I want you to just remember the context.

1:03 We have a company, Pueblo Machine Company. They set up a secondary domain, gopueblomachineco.com. That’s the thing that’s actually starting these new conversations.

1:12 The funnel: net new lead flow, emailing a prospect, Golden Nugget Pastries in the middle, without bouncing. You can set up this Reply Relay.

1:24 It’s a set of logical operators. Basically when reply comes in, then, or if reply comes in, then autorespond back and CC the sales rep’s primary inbox, which means that it retains that continuity of the thread.

1:38 First sent email, first reply back, sales reply. And then from that point forward, the sales rep is going to handle it inside of their primary inbox.

1:48 The data flow here is pretty simple. You’ve got these events in from Smartlead and EmailBison. We drop it into the CRM and then we also relay the reply into the sales rep’s primary inbox.

1:58 So I’ll just show you. I’ve got Thunderbird here. It’s a desktop client. So the email is sent from that secondary domain and you can see that Jane receives it.

2:06 Hey, Jane, I’m reaching out. Jane replies back. She replies back to that go Pueblo Machine Co address because that’s the secondary sending address.

2:17 What OutboundSync does is it then picks up a thread and CCs the sales rep’s primary address. Hey, moving this over to my other mailbox, we can pick it up from there.

2:29 Looking forward to continuing the conversation or whatever you want the logic to say in here. You can see that this conversation is sitting in the master inbox in EmailBison and Smartlead.

2:41 So you have that copy there. It’s running through their infrastructure, through the connected secondary domains on those platforms. And you can see that it’s dropping into HubSpot and Salesforce as well.

2:52 You’ve got the native email activity types and the timeline events in HubSpot, and you’ve got the custom properties in HubSpot.

2:58 You even have association up to the company object. And then in Salesforce, same thing. You can have email activity types or tasks with configurable subject lines, custom fields, relation up to the account object, or you can do accounts and contacts, or you can do leads.

3:13 And once that connected inbox is carrying the conversation moving forward, your normal data sync is going to handle it from there.

3:22 So we’re super excited about this. I think it’s going to solve a real disconnect that’s happening between the scaled outbound motions and then the sales reps that actually ultimately carry those deals forward.

3:33 And check it out. You can go to outboundsync.com, book a demo. I’m happy to show you how it works in greater detail.

3:40 Look forward to hearing from you soon, and we’re going to catch the next one because we’ve got a lot more coming.

3:44 Thanks.

Get started

1. Create a reply relay under Connected accounts → Reply relays (Destinations required).
2. Bind it on your Smartlead or EmailBison source and follow Setting up reply relays.
3. Book a demo if you want a walkthrough on your stack.