AI agents for GTM and RevOps · Part 8 of 13
Contact rules: unsubscribes, frequency caps and who never to contact
Who your SDRs and AI SDR may email, and how often: one cap per contact across every sender, the CRM read before each message, and nine checked cases.
The short version
Cap each contact’s messages across every sender: your SDRs, the AI SDR, and marketing if it shares the limit. Name the unsubscribe flag the rule reads. Read the CRM just before each message, since a deal can open after import. Test on cases, and know the law’s numbers.
A cap counted across every sender
Example Software, an invented company that sells to finance teams, has two SDRs and an AI SDR writing to the same prospects. Its head of sales owns the outbound playbook, which says: “No message goes to a contact who has unsubscribed” (2.1). “A contact receives at most three messages in any 14 days, counted across everyone on the team, the AI SDR included” (2.2). “Within these limits, anyone on the outbound team, the AI SDR included, sends a message without approval” (2.3).
One contact’s 14 days, 6 to 19 October
- 8 October
- the AI SDR: 1 of 3
- 13 October
- an SDR: 2 of 3
- 16 October
- the AI SDR: 3 of 3
19 October: the AI SDR asks to send a fourth
Not allowed, clause 2.2.
Write who is counted into the clause, and name marketing if it shares the limit. Then check what your tools count. HubSpot sets “a limit to the number of sequence emails a user can send each day”, per sender. Outreach lets an admin “Limit the number of emails a single Prospect can be sent per day or week”, so a 14-day window needs a count of its own. And a cap counts only the messages it sees.
Settle the edges in writing: in the rules the engine checked, a message sent exactly 14 days earlier no longer counts. And name the flag 2.1 reads: HubSpot’s “Unsubscribed from all email” property, for one, “can be true even if the contact unsubscribed from only one brand”.
Nine cases the engine checked
Run the rules through cases before the AI SDR sends anything, the edges above all. These nine were run against clauses 2.1 to 2.3 on 21 October 2026.
| The case, 19 October | Answer | Clause |
|---|---|---|
| 1. The AI SDR, a first message | Allowed | 2.3 |
| 2. The AI SDR, to a contact recorded as unsubscribed | Not allowed | 2.1 |
| 3. The AI SDR, unsubscribe status left out | Missing: whether they unsubscribed | none |
| 4. The AI SDR, after two in the 14 days | Allowed | 2.3 |
| 5. The AI SDR, after two of its own and one from an SDR | Not allowed | 2.2 |
| 6. An SDR, by hand, after three from the AI SDR | Not allowed | 2.2 |
| 7. The AI SDR, after three, the oldest exactly 14 days back | Allowed | 2.3 |
| 8. The AI SDR, when another contact had three | Allowed | 2.3 |
| 9. The AI SDR, contact left out | Missing: the contact | none |
Two answers name a missing fact. Sent without the unsubscribe status, the check asks for contact_unsubscribed by name; the tool reads it from HubSpot and asks again. Support part 8 sets out the four kinds of answer; part 10 turns cases like these into a test set.
Who not to contact, checked at send time
Other people may be off limits too. Four examples, which aren’t in the playbook and weren’t checked by the engine: a customer’s people, a company where another rep owns an open deal, competitors, and a do-not-contact list. One HubSpot user didn’t want to reach out to “Jane in Facilities if we’re already in talks with Liz the CHRO”.
What matters is when each check runs. Instantly reads its main list across running campaigns, but one kept in a Google Sheet “is checked only when importing or uploading leads”, so it misses what changes mid-sequence. Have the AI SDR’s tool read each fact from the CRM just before every message, as part 6 shows for HubSpot.
Example rules: no message to
A customer’s people
- Read at send
- the company is a customer
- Can change
- the company signs in week 2
A company where another rep owns an open deal
- Read at send
- open deals at the contact’s company, and who owns each
- Can change
- a rep opens a deal with the CFO
A competitor
- Read at send
- the company’s domain is on your competitor list
- Can change
- a new rival joins the list
Anyone on your do-not-contact list
- Read at send
- the contact’s email or domain is on the list
- Can change
- a prospect asks, by phone, to be left alone
The law’s numbers
Some limits come from law, quoted here from the texts; how they apply to your company is for whoever handles its legal questions.
United States
CAN-SPAM Act, 15 U.S.C. § 7704
- 10 business days
- to act on an opt-out; then no commercial email
- 30 days
- the opt-out keeps working after each message
- Who it covers
- the sender, and anyone acting on its behalf
United Kingdom
PECR and the UK GDPR, in the ICO’s guidance
- Companies
- PECR’s email rule doesn’t apply; honour opt-outs
- Sole traders
- and some partnerships: treated the same as individuals
- Personal data
- a business contact’s right to object to marketing is absolute
In the US, once a recipient opts out, the CAN-SPAM Act makes it unlawful to send them commercial email “more than 10 business days after the receipt of such request”, including “for any person acting on behalf of the sender”. The opt-out must work “for no less than 30 days after the transmission of the original message”.
In the UK, the ICO says “The PECR rule on direct marketing by electronic mail does not apply to corporate subscribers”, such as companies, while sole traders and some partnerships are treated “the same as individuals”. It says to add anyone who objects or opts out to your do-not-contact list “instead of simply deleting all record of them”.
The ICO on a business contact’s right to object to direct marketing: “This right is absolute and there are no grounds for you to refuse.”
ICO, “Business-to-business marketing”Next in this series
Part 9: lead routing and CRM updates. See all 13 parts.
Where Himmel fits
Your AI SDR’s tool asks Himmel before each message, with the contact and whether they unsubscribed. The messages your SDRs send are reported to Himmel too, so its count of the last 14 days covers everyone. Himmel checks the message against your rules as their owner confirmed them, and keeps each answer with its facts, rule version and sender. The cases above are the answers Himmel’s engine returned for them.
Sources
- HubSpot Community, “Best way to filter contacts to avoid those associated with active deals?”, 19 April 2021, read on 21 October 2026.
- HubSpot, “Enroll contacts in a sequence”, read on 21 October 2026.
- HubSpot, “Manage your contacts’ messaging subscriptions”, read on 21 October 2026.
- Outreach, “Outreach User Admin Settings: Org Email Overview”, read on 21 October 2026.
- Instantly help, the article on its global list of leads not to contact, read on 21 October 2026.
- 15 U.S. Code § 7704, “Other protections for users of commercial electronic mail”, Legal Information Institute, read on 21 October 2026.
- 15 U.S. Code § 7701, “Congressional findings and policy”, whose note gives the short title, the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, Legal Information Institute, read on 21 October 2026.
- ICO, “Business-to-business marketing”, read on 21 October 2026.