Best Email Sequence Software for Cold Outreach

Why Your Email Sequence Software Choice Actually Matters

Most people underestimate how much their sequencing tool affects results. They pick something, plug in a generic follow-up cadence, and wonder why nothing converts. The tool isn't just a delivery vehicle - the infrastructure behind it determines whether your emails land in inboxes or spam folders, whether follow-ups fire at the right time, and whether you can actually diagnose what's broken.

I've helped over 14,000 agencies and entrepreneurs generate sales meetings through cold outreach. The technical stack matters less than the message, but a bad stack can quietly kill a good campaign. So let me break down exactly what matters when choosing email sequence software, and which tools are worth your time.

What Email Sequence Software Actually Does

At its core, email sequence software automates the delivery of a series of personalized emails to prospects based on pre-defined triggers and time intervals. Unlike standard email marketing blasts, sequencing software facilitates one-to-one communication by mimicking manual follow-ups - and it detects when a recipient replies so it automatically pauses the sequence, preventing your prospect from getting another automated message after they've already responded.

The best tools go further. They handle:

• Multi-step cadences - sequences of 3-8 emails spaced strategically over days or weeks
• Behavioral branching - different follow-up paths depending on whether someone opened, clicked, or ignored your email
• Inbox warm-up - gradually increasing send volume on new domains so you don't get flagged as spam
• Deliverability monitoring - tracking bounce rates, spam complaints, and domain health
• A/B testing - testing subject lines, opening lines, and CTAs to find what converts
• CRM integrations - syncing reply data back to HubSpot, Salesforce, or Pipedrive

If you want templates to plug directly into whatever tool you choose, grab my Killer Cold Email Templates - they're built for the kind of outreach these tools are designed to send.

Cold Email Sequence Benchmarks: What Good Actually Looks Like

Before you pick a tool, you need to know what you're benchmarking against. Most people have no idea what a good reply rate looks like, which means they can't tell if their campaigns are working or broken.

Here's what the data shows: the average cold email reply rate sits around 3-5%. Solid B2B campaigns hit 5-10%. Top performers push past 10% consistently. If you're running tight, high-intent segments with strong personalization, 15%+ is achievable. Anything below 2% usually means a deliverability problem, a targeting problem, or both.

A few things that change the math significantly:

• Follow-ups are not optional. The first email captures the majority of replies, but a meaningful share come from follow-ups. One well-timed follow-up can increase your reply rate by close to 50%. The catch: most senders never follow up at all.
• Sequence length has diminishing returns. A two-email sequence often outperforms longer ones on pure response rate. By the fourth or fifth email, unsubscribes and spam complaints start climbing. Three to four emails is a practical sweet spot for most B2B campaigns.
• Brevity wins. Emails under 80-100 words outperform longer ones. Every word has to earn its place. If you can't explain your hook in two sentences, you haven't found your hook yet.
• Personalization is a multiplier. Campaigns with advanced personalization - beyond first name and company - see reply rates that are dramatically higher than generic templates. Real context: recent funding, job changes, tech stack, specific pain points. That's what moves the needle.

The data also shows mid-week sends - Tuesday through Thursday - consistently outperform Monday and Friday. Wednesday in particular tends to peak for reply rates. None of this replaces strong copy and the right prospect list, but it's worth factoring into your sequence settings.

The tracking sheet I use with clients captures all of this. My Cold Email Tracking Sheet covers sends, opens, replies, meetings booked, and close rate per campaign - so you can see exactly where things are breaking down.

The 5 Features That Separate Good Tools from Bad Ones

1. Deliverability Infrastructure

This is the single most underrated factor. A tool that gets you 70% open rates on warmed domains beats one with better features that lands in spam. Look for tools with built-in warm-up networks, randomized send times to mimic human behavior, and bounce shields that pause sending automatically when something looks wrong. The best platforms in this space - Instantly, Smartlead, and Lemlist - all include native warmup features, though the scale and quality differ.

One number to watch: roughly 17% of cold emails never reach the inbox at all, often due to poor domain authentication, high bounce rates, or spam-triggering language. That's nearly one in five emails failing before your copy even gets a chance. Your deliverability setup is not a detail - it's the foundation.

2. Behavioral Sequence Logic

Static sequences assume every prospect behaves the same way. Smart ones don't. You want conditional branching: if someone opens but doesn't reply, send follow-up A. If they click a link, move them into a different sequence. This behavior-based logic dramatically improves conversion rates because you're responding to signals, not just firing emails on a timer. The best tools let you set if-then paths based on opens, clicks, no engagement, or specific keywords in replies.

3. Pricing Model (Flat Fee vs. Per Seat)

This matters more as you scale. Per-seat pricing compounds fast for agencies managing multiple clients or team members. Flat-fee platforms that allow unlimited sending accounts and unlimited mailboxes let you scale volume without scaling costs linearly. If you're running a lean operation, pay close attention to how costs change as you add inboxes or clients. Some tools look cheap at signup and get expensive fast once you actually start building out your sending infrastructure.

4. Personalization Depth

Merge tags for first name and company aren't enough anymore. The tools worth using let you insert custom variables, use spintax to rotate copy, pull in dynamic content based on prospect data, and in some cases generate AI-powered custom icebreakers. The more your emails feel written specifically for each person, the better your reply rates. First name and company name stopped being personalized a long time ago. What you want now is the ability to pull in real context - funding rounds, job changes, company news, tech stack - and turn those into merge tags that drop right into your sequences.

5. Unified Inbox and Reply Management

When you're running multiple sequences across multiple accounts, replies pile up fast. A unified inbox that pulls all responses into one place - and ideally tags them by intent (positive, neutral, objection) - saves enormous time and ensures no hot lead gets missed. Some platforms also offer AI reply detection that reads incoming responses and categorizes them automatically, which matters when you're managing volume.

Before You Pick a Tool: Build a Real Prospect List

No email sequence software in the world fixes a bad list. I see this constantly - people invest in the right tool, set up a solid sequence, and still get 1% reply rates because they're emailing the wrong people at outdated addresses.

Before you load anything into your sequencer, you need verified contacts that match your actual ICP. I use ScraperCity's B2B email database to pull targeted prospect lists filtered by job title, seniority, industry, location, and company size. You're building a list that matches your ICP before a single email gets written, not scrubbing a garbage list after the fact.

Once you have your raw list, run it through an email validator before uploading to your sequencer. Sending to unverified addresses tanks your deliverability and destroys the domain reputation you spent weeks warming up. This email validation tool handles exactly that - run your list through it before your first send. Bounce rates above 5% should trigger a full list audit. Many programs aim to keep bounces under 2%.

If your outreach involves phone follow-ups or you're running a multichannel sequence with call steps, you also need direct dials. Hunting for switchboard numbers wastes your SDRs' time. ScraperCity's mobile finder surfaces direct phone numbers for prospects so your call steps actually connect to real people.

The Tools Worth Considering

Instantly - Best for High-Volume Flat-Fee Sending

Instantly is the go-to for founders and agencies who want to scale cold email without paying per inbox. It allows unlimited email accounts on flat-fee plans, which removes the disincentive to add more sending accounts as you grow. The built-in warm-up engine and inbox placement tests run automated checks before campaigns launch - you know where your emails are landing before you hit send on a full campaign.

There's also a built-in B2B contact database if you need leads alongside your sending infrastructure. The AI Reply Agent is a notable differentiator - it reads incoming replies and can draft responses on your behalf, handling objections and sending calendar links automatically. For teams prioritizing simplicity and volume, Instantly is the easiest starting point.

The flat-fee unlimited mailbox model is what makes Instantly particularly attractive for agencies. You're not penalized for adding clients or inboxes. One plan, predictable cost, scalable volume.

Smartlead - Best for Agencies Needing White-Label Control

Smartlead is purpose-built for agencies managing multiple clients under one roof. It also runs on unlimited mailboxes and flat-fee pricing at the base level, though agencies should factor in the per-client fee that compounds as you add accounts. Smartlead's SmartDelivery suite provides granular deliverability testing, spam score monitoring, and IP/domain analytics - making it a strong choice for technical teams who want deep visibility into sending health.

The sub-sequence feature is one of Smartlead's best differentiators. If someone opens but doesn't reply, they get a different follow-up path than someone who showed no engagement at all. That behavior-based branching at scale is what serious outbound teams need. If you're running 100,000+ emails per month and need API-first control and white-label client reporting, Smartlead handles the complexity well.

Lemlist - Best for Multichannel Personalization

Lemlist takes a different approach - instead of competing on raw volume, it competes on personalization and multichannel reach. You can build sequences that include email steps, LinkedIn connection requests, phone calls, and manual tasks, all in one visual sequence builder. The campaign builder is drag-and-drop, which makes multichannel sequence design genuinely intuitive.

Lemlist also maintains a built-in database of over 450 million leads, so you can skip straight to qualification rather than hunting for contact data separately. The AI integrates directly into the campaign editor, letting you optimize emails for deliverability, reply rate, or meeting booking without leaving the builder.

The tradeoff is pricing. Lemlist operates on a per-user model, which makes scaling expensive compared to flat-fee alternatives. It limits you to three sending accounts per user by default, with additional inboxes charged separately. If your deal sizes are large, your ICP is narrow, and personalization is your edge, Lemlist is worth the premium. If you're trying to send at volume across many clients, the economics work against you.

Reply.io - Best for Full Multichannel Sequences

Reply.io is a mature sales engagement platform that supports email, LinkedIn, calls, SMS, and WhatsApp within a single sequence workflow. It's especially useful for teams running outbound B2B campaigns that need multiple touchpoints and centralized reply management. The AI in Reply tags incoming responses as positive, neutral, or negative so reps can prioritize the right leads.

Reply.io has been around long enough to have genuinely earned its reputation. Users consistently praise the reporting depth and the ability to get a granular view of team-wide sequence performance. The multichannel sequencing is the real draw - if you need email plus LinkedIn plus calls in a single coordinated flow without stitching together multiple tools, Reply.io handles that natively. Pricing is positioned in the mid-market tier and starts at $60/user/month for email-only, scaling up for full multichannel access.

Close CRM with Sequences - Best for Keeping Outreach Inside Your CRM

If you want your sequences and your deal pipeline in the same system, Close is worth a look. It's a CRM built for outbound sales teams that includes built-in email sequences, calling, and SMS - no separate tool required. Users consistently praise the fact that everything lives in one place, and the integration between sequences and pipeline tracking is genuinely seamless.

The honest tradeoff: Close is a CRM first. It doesn't offer automated warmups or advanced deliverability tools the way dedicated sequencers do. If pure email volume or deliverability infrastructure is your priority, dedicated sequencers will outperform it. But if you hate managing a separate CRM and want your call notes, email replies, and deal stages in one dashboard, Close solves that elegantly. Paid plans start at $59/user/month.

Saleshandy - Best Budget Option for Getting Started

Saleshandy is worth mentioning for teams just getting started or running on tighter budgets. It combines lead generation, email automation, and deliverability tools into a single platform at a flat-fee price point that starts around $25/month. The AI Sequence Copilot generates full multi-step sequences from your website URL and prospect list, which reduces setup time significantly for new campaigns.

The platform supports unlimited email accounts, sender rotation, and email warm-up from the entry level - features that other tools charge extra for. It also includes a lead finder and built-in email verification, which cuts down on the number of separate tools you need to manage. The honest limitation is that Saleshandy's sequence logic is less sophisticated than Instantly or Smartlead at high volume. If you're sending under a few thousand emails a week and want everything in one affordable package, it's a practical starting point. If your outreach grows into serious scale, you'll likely graduate to more powerful infrastructure.

Woodpecker - Best for Beginners Who Want Simple Deliverability Focus

Woodpecker is a clean, beginner-friendly cold email tool that gets out of your way. The interface is simple, setup is quick, and the feature set doesn't overwhelm someone who's new to outbound. What sets Woodpecker apart at its price point is the conditional sequence logic - if someone opens but doesn't reply, you can send a different follow-up than you'd send to someone who showed no engagement. The AI reply detection and bounce shield also pause sending automatically when something looks off.

The tradeoff is scope. Woodpecker is email-only - no built-in lead finder, no LinkedIn automation, and limited multichannel options. Per-inbox pricing also adds up quickly; if you need multiple sending accounts for deliverability rotation, costs climb fast. It's a strong starting tool, but agencies and high-volume senders will hit its ceiling.

QuickMail - Best for Agencies Focused on Deliverability and Scale

QuickMail is built for teams that care about scale, simplicity, and deliverability without a bloated interface. It automates sending personalized email sequences, allows inbox rotation across multiple accounts within a single campaign, and handles bounce detection automatically. The Auto-Warmer is free for up to 50 inboxes per account, which is a meaningful cost saving for agencies managing multiple client domains.

QuickMail's Deliverability AI is a standout feature - it can replace weak email accounts during an active sequence to help maintain inbox placement without you having to manually intervene. A/B testing is built directly into the sequence flow, so you can test subject lines, copy, and send timing without restarting campaigns. One limitation: follow-ups don't send in the same thread as the original email by default, which some users find suboptimal for certain outreach styles. Pricing starts at $49/month for the basic plan with a 14-day free trial.

Snov.io - Best All-in-One for Solopreneurs and Small Teams

Snov.io is an all-in-one sales automation platform that covers lead finding, email verification, and outbound sequences in a single tool. It's a reasonable choice if you're a solo operator or small team who wants to minimize the number of subscriptions you're managing. The email finder and verifier are genuinely useful, and the sequence builder lets you add conditions based on prospect behavior.

The limitations worth knowing: Snov.io doesn't include native email or domain warm-up, so you handle that manually or through a third-party tool. A/B testing is only available on higher-tier plans. And the email sending limits are strict by tier, so check your required volume against the plan specifics before committing. It's a solid starting point for solopreneurs; less suitable for agencies needing volume and white-label control.

Klenty - Best for Sales Teams Wanting CRM-Integrated Multichannel Cadences

Klenty is a sales engagement platform built for structured outbound teams - SDRs, account executives, and sales ops who run coordinated multichannel cadences. It supports email, LinkedIn, phone, SMS, and WhatsApp within automated sequences, and integrates natively with Pipedrive, Zoho CRM, HubSpot, Salesforce, and Slack. Klenty's Liquid Templates allow deep personalization, and video integration via Hippo Video adds another dimension to outreach.

The honest limitations: Klenty doesn't include built-in email warm-up, so you need a separate tool for that. Each team member needs their own account, which drives costs up quickly for larger teams. Pricing starts at $55/user/month on the Startup plan. It's best suited for structured sales teams that already have their CRM dialed in and need a multichannel cadence tool that syncs with it cleanly.

Quick Comparison Table: Which Tool for Which Situation

How to Structure a Cold Email Sequence That Actually Converts

The software handles the mechanics. You still have to write the right thing. Here's the sequence structure I've found works consistently for B2B outreach:

• Email 1 - The Hook: Short, specific, one clear ask. No paragraphs of company background. Lead with the problem you solve or a relevant observation about their business. Keep it under 100 words. Elite senders average fewer than 80 words on the first touch - brevity forces clarity and every word must earn its place.
• Email 2 - The Follow-Up (Day 3-4): Assume they didn't see the first email. Don't just write "bumping this up." Add one new piece of value - a case study, a relevant stat, a different angle on the problem. The first follow-up alone can add close to 50% more replies to your campaign.
• Email 3 - The Social Proof Hit (Day 7-8): Brief. Name a similar company you've helped, the result you got them, and the same ask. Specificity matters here - vague claims about helping "companies like yours" land flat. Name the company, name the result.
• Email 4 - The Permission-Based Break-Up (Day 12-14): Tell them you'll leave them alone if now isn't the right time. This one often gets the most replies - including yes replies from people who just hadn't responded yet. It works because it creates a real deadline and takes all pressure off the prospect.

A few tactical notes on copy and timing based on what the data shows:

• Send mid-week - Tuesday through Thursday consistently outperforms Monday and Friday across large datasets. Wednesday peaks for reply rates.
• One CTA per email. Multiple asks dilute focus. Top performers use binary questions: "Does this make sense?" or "Worth a quick call?"
• No attachments in the first few emails. Messages without attachments get close to double the reply rate of those with files included.
• Subject lines that reference a specific problem, outcome, or situation relevant to the prospect's world get opened. Generic subject lines get ignored.

For proven subject lines to pair with this structure, see my Cold Email Subject Lines resource - it covers what's working across different industries. And for the follow-up copy itself, grab the Cold Email Follow-Up Templates - these are the exact scripts that have generated meetings at scale.

The Deliverability Non-Negotiables

Whichever tool you choose, these aren't optional. Getting any one of these wrong can kill an otherwise solid campaign.

• Set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC on every domain before you send a single email. These aren't just best practices - they're now baseline requirements from major email providers. Skipping them means your emails fail authentication checks before they even reach spam filters.
• Warm up new inboxes for at least 3-4 weeks before running campaigns. Start at 10-20 emails per inbox per day and ramp gradually. Most tools automate this but it still takes time. There is no shortcut.
• Use secondary sending domains, not your primary company domain. If a domain gets flagged, you want it to be a sending domain, not the one on your website. Spin up dedicated outreach domains and point MX records to your sending accounts.
• Monitor bounce rates weekly. If bounce rate exceeds 5%, stop the campaign and audit your list. Many programs aim to keep bounces under 2%. High bounce rates destroy domain reputation fast and are hard to recover from.
• Rotate sending accounts across campaigns to distribute reputation risk. Multi-inbox senders consistently outperform single-inbox users - spreading load across multiple accounts protects you if one domain takes a hit.
• Cap daily send volume per inbox. Even with a warmed domain, capping sends at 30-50 per inbox per day keeps sending patterns within human-looking ranges. Volume spikes trigger spam filters.

Email Sequence Software vs. Email Marketing Software: The Difference Matters

A lot of people conflate these two categories and end up using the wrong tool entirely. The distinction is simple but important.

Email marketing software - Mailchimp, Klaviyo, ActiveCampaign in its marketing mode - is built for sending to opted-in subscriber lists. These are people who gave you their email address and expect to hear from you. The tools are optimized for design, newsletters, promotional blasts, and list management at scale. They are not built for cold outreach and using them for it will get your account suspended.

Email sequence software is built specifically for one-to-one outbound sales communication to people who haven't opted in yet. The deliverability infrastructure is different. The compliance approach is different. The logic is different. Sequencing tools are designed to mimic manual human email behavior - randomized send times, reply detection, thread continuity - in ways that bulk marketing platforms are not.

If your goal is booking sales meetings, you need a sequencing tool. Full stop.

FAQs About Email Sequence Software

What is email sequence software?

Email sequence software automates a series of personalized cold emails sent to prospects on a scheduled timeline. Instead of manually tracking who opened, clicked, or replied, the software handles follow-ups based on prospect behavior. If someone replies, the sequence stops. If they don't, the next email goes out automatically at the interval you set. Most platforms also handle deliverability infrastructure - warm-up, bounce detection, spam monitoring - that keeps your emails reaching inboxes instead of spam folders.

How many emails should be in a cold email sequence?

Three to five is the practical sweet spot for most B2B outreach. A two-email sequence with one follow-up often shows the highest raw response rate. After the fourth email, unsubscribes and spam complaints start climbing meaningfully. That said, the right answer depends on your ICP, deal size, and whether you're adding genuine value at each step. A five-email sequence where every email adds something new is better than a three-email sequence where emails two and three just say "following up."

Can email sequence software hurt my deliverability?

Yes, if you use it wrong. Sending to unverified lists, skipping domain warm-up, using your primary company domain, or blasting high volumes too fast can all tank deliverability. The tools themselves don't cause the damage - poor list hygiene and bad sending practices do. The best sequencing platforms include guardrails: bounce shields, warm-up networks, spam score monitoring. Use them.

What's the difference between email sequence software and email marketing tools?

Email marketing tools are built for opted-in subscriber lists - newsletters, promotional campaigns, product announcements. Email sequencing tools are built for cold outbound sales - reaching people who haven't heard from you yet. The deliverability infrastructure, compliance requirements, and feature sets are fundamentally different. Don't use email marketing tools for cold outreach.

Is there free email sequence software?

Most of the better tools offer free trials rather than free plans: Saleshandy offers a 7-day trial, Woodpecker a 7-day trial, QuickMail a 14-day trial. Apollo has a free plan with limited credits. For serious outbound work, a paid plan on the right tool is a non-negotiable cost of doing outreach correctly - the deliverability infrastructure on free plans is usually stripped down in ways that matter.

How do I know if my sequence is working?

Measure reply rate first, not open rate. Open rate tells you about subject line performance and deliverability. Reply rate tells you whether your message is resonating with the right people. A 30% open rate with a 1% reply rate means your subject lines are working and your copy or targeting isn't. Track sends, opens, replies, positive replies (meetings booked), and close rate per campaign, per sequence step, and per audience segment. My Cold Email Tracking Sheet has the full framework for this.

Advanced Tactics: Getting More From Your Sequences

Use Intent Signals to Time Outreach

The best-performing outbound teams don't just blast their ICP on a schedule. They use intent signals to reach prospects at high-relevance moments: recent funding rounds, new hires in key roles, job changes, product launches, or tech stack changes. The closer your outreach aligns with something happening in the prospect's world right now, the higher your reply rate. Some platforms have intent data built in. For others, you layer in signals from external sources before building your list.

Run A/B Tests from Day One

Don't wait until a campaign fails to start testing. From your first send, test one variable at a time: subject line, opening line, CTA, send day, sequence length. Cull losing variants quickly once you hit statistical significance. The compound effect of iterating on what works is how you get from a 3% reply rate to an 8% reply rate over time. Every tool on this list supports A/B testing in some form - use it.

Layer Phone Outreach Into High-Value Sequences

For deals with large enough ACV, adding a call step to your email sequence meaningfully increases conversion. Multichannel outreach - email plus LinkedIn plus phone - can boost results well above email-only sequences. If you're running call steps, you need direct dials, not switchboard numbers. Most prospect lists from standard databases only have company numbers. Use a tool like ScraperCity's mobile finder to surface direct numbers before your reps pick up the phone.

Segment Your Lists Before You Write a Single Email

One sequence for every prospect is a bad idea. A CFO at a 500-person SaaS company has different problems than a founder at a 10-person agency. Segment by role, company size, industry, or pain point cluster before you write copy. Then write a different sequence for each segment. The lift in reply rate from proper segmentation consistently beats any copy optimization you can do on a single generic sequence.

Clean Your List Before Every Campaign

List decay is real. Email addresses go stale. People change companies, get promoted, leave roles. A list you built three months ago needs re-verification before you load it into a new sequence. Running unverified lists through your sequencer is the fastest way to spike bounce rates and damage domain reputation. Before every campaign, put your list through an email validator and remove addresses that don't pass. This is not optional.

The Role of Clay in Advanced Sequence Workflows

Once you've got the basics of sequencing dialed in, you'll eventually hit a ceiling on personalization at scale. Manually researching every prospect to write a custom first line doesn't work when you're sending to hundreds of contacts a week. This is where Clay comes into the picture for more advanced operators.

Clay lets you build enrichment workflows that automatically pull in data from dozens of sources - LinkedIn, company websites, news, job postings, tech stacks - and turn those data points into merge tags you feed into your sequencer. The result is personalization at scale that doesn't require a researcher for every row in your spreadsheet. It's a more technical workflow that requires some setup, but for teams running sophisticated outbound, it's worth the learning curve.

Which Tool Should You Actually Use?

Stop looking for the perfect answer. Pick based on your situation:

• Solo founder or small team, straightforward cold email: Start with Instantly - easiest setup, flat pricing, solid deliverability. If budget is a constraint, Saleshandy gets you started at a lower price point.
• Agency managing multiple clients: Smartlead for volume and white-label control, or Instantly if you want simpler cost math. Both run unlimited inboxes on flat-fee plans.
• High-touch, large deal sizes, need LinkedIn + email combined: Lemlist - worth the per-seat cost when your deal sizes justify the personalization edge. The visual sequence builder and multichannel steps are genuinely well built.
• Need email + calls + LinkedIn + SMS in one place: Reply.io for full multichannel sequences, or Klenty if your team is already CRM-integrated and you need tight Salesforce or HubSpot sync.
• Want CRM and sequences in one tool: Close - especially if you're also running cold calls and want everything from first touch to closed deal in one place.
• Complete beginner, want simple with good deliverability guardrails: Woodpecker or QuickMail - both are clean, focused tools that won't overwhelm you while you're learning the fundamentals.

The right tool with a mediocre list and weak copy will still underperform. Focus 80% of your energy on who you're targeting and what you're saying. The tool just makes sure it gets delivered on time.

And before you touch any of these tools, make sure your prospect list is solid. Pull verified contacts from a B2B lead database filtered to your actual ICP. Validate every email. Then load it into your sequencer of choice.

If you want help getting the strategy right - not just the software selection - I work through this in depth inside Galadon Gold.

Start simple. Get your first 200 emails out the door. Measure what happens. Then optimize.