Set up Alice
Configure Alice step by step - authenticate your sending domain, build the knowledge base, define your ICP, and launch your first outbound sequence.
Setting up Alice takes five steps: authenticate your sending domain, build her knowledge base, define your ICP, configure a sequence, and review before launching. The domain authentication is the only step with an external dependency — it needs DNS access — so start there.
Who this applies to: workspace Admins configuring Alice for the first time. You'll need DNS access for your sending domain and admin access to your CRM. If you're a rep receiving meetings from Alice, see Getting started as a User instead.
Prerequisites
- CRM connected (Salesforce or HubSpot) — see Quickstart step 2
- A domain you control, with DNS access
- Your positioning and product materials
- A defined target segment
Step 1 — Authenticate your sending domain
Email authentication determines whether Alice's messages reach the inbox. Do this before anything else and verify it independently.
Choose your sending domain strategy
Use a dedicated sending subdomain or a separate domain for outbound rather than your primary corporate domain. This isolates outbound reputation from your transactional and internal mail.
Publish SPF, DKIM, and DMARC
Add the DNS records 11x provides for the sending domain. All three are required — SPF authorizes the sending servers, DKIM signs the messages, and DMARC tells receivers what to do on failure.
Verify the records independently
Confirm each record resolves before sending. Use the free 11x tools:
Warm up new mailboxes
A new domain or mailbox has no sending reputation. Let the Deliverability Engine pace volume upward rather than sending at target volume on day one.
Do not send outbound volume from a brand-new domain at full rate. Mailbox providers treat sudden volume from an unknown domain as a spam signal, and reputation damage is far slower to repair than to avoid.
Step 2 — Build the knowledge base
The knowledge base is what Alice knows about your company. It is the highest-leverage input you control: generic outreach is almost always a thin-knowledge-base problem.
Provide, at minimum:
| Input | Why Alice needs it |
|---|---|
| Positioning | What you sell, who it's for, the problem it solves |
| Product detail | Capabilities specific enough to make a concrete claim |
| Competitive differentiation | How to respond when a prospect names an alternative |
| Objection handling | The five objections you hear most, and your answers |
| Proof points | Case studies, named customers, quantified results |
| Pricing posture | How much to say about pricing before a rep is involved |
| Boundaries | Claims Alice must never make; topics to route to a human |
Write the knowledge base the way you'd brief a new SDR in their first week — including the things you'd tell them not to say. Constraints matter as much as content.
Step 3 — Define your ICP
Set firmographic filters
Industry, employee count, revenue band, geography, and technology stack. Start narrow — one well-defined segment produces better signal than a broad list.
Set role filters
Job titles, seniority, and function. For ABM motions, define each buying-committee role you want engaged, not just the primary contact.
Set exclusions
Existing customers, accounts with open opportunities, competitors, partners, and any do-not-contact list. Exclusions are where CRM connection earns its value — Alice reads ownership and opportunity state directly.
Enable the Qualification Agent
This verifies ICP fit before outreach begins, so touches aren't spent on out-of-profile accounts.
Step 4 — Configure a sequence
Choose the channels for this segment. Email is the default backbone. Add LinkedIn for senior roles, consented calling where you have consent, and SMS or WhatsApp where the segment expects it.
Only enable calling where you have the consent applicable law requires. See the autodial terms.
Set the order of touches and the delay between them. Longer gaps with better research generally outperform tight cadences with thin personalization.
Define what removes a prospect from the sequence: any reply, a booked meeting, a disqualification, a bounce, or an opportunity opening on the account. Set these deliberately — a prospect who stays in a sequence after replying is the fastest way to lose the account.
If this motion is one you'll repeat, save it as a Playbook so the target definition, angle, channel mix, and success criteria travel together.
Step 5 — Review, then launch
Inspect drafted messages
Pull a sample of prospects and read what Alice drafted for each. Ask whether you'd be comfortable with a rep sending it under their own name. If not, the gap is almost always in the knowledge base or the ICP definition.
Check the research
Verify the researched claims are accurate. Wrong research is worse than no research.
Launch at limited volume
Start below your target volume. Confirm deliverability and reply quality hold, then scale.
Review daily for the first week
Watch inbox placement, reply quality, qualification accuracy, and whether reps agree the booked meetings were qualified.