**To temporarily pause a follow-up Sequence for a contact in Papo (https://papo.global/), you can combine custom attributes and conditions in the Flow to stop the sends without canceling the enrollment. This way, the cadence is paused and can be resumed exactly where it left off — ideal for sensitive negotiations.**

In many consultative sales or customer service situations, you need to stop the automatic sending of messages to a specific lead — for example, when they ask for more time to decide or when a parallel conversation comes up. Removing the contact from the Sequence solves the problem, but it forces you to restart the flow from scratch if you want to reactivate it later. With the temporary pause strategy, you keep the contact enrolled and can resume the cadence at the exact point where it stopped.

## Summary of ways to interrupt the follow-up

| Method | What happens | When to use |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| **Remove the contact from the Sequence** | Cancels the enrollment; future messages are not sent. To resume, you must enroll the contact again, restarting the flow. | When the pause is permanent or you don't mind starting the cadence over. |
| **Temporary pause with a condition in the Flow** | The contact stays in the Sequence, but a condition blocks the sending of the next messages. When you remove the condition, the cadence continues from where it was. | Ideal for sensitive negotiations, leads who ask for time, or when you want to resume the follow-up without losing the cadence history. |

## How the temporary pause works without removing the contact

Papo does not have a "pause" button for a contact inside an active Sequence. However, you can create this behavior using two features already available on the platform:

- **Custom attributes** – fields you create in the CRM to store contact-specific information, such as "pause_status".
- **Conditions in the Flow** – decision nodes that check the value of an attribute and route the flow (for example, "if the attribute equals 'paused', do not send the message").

By adding a condition before each message in the Sequence, you gain control to stop or release the sends just by changing the attribute value on the contact's profile.

### Step by step to set up the temporary pause

1. **Create a custom attribute** in Settings → Custom Attributes. Give it a name such as `pause_status` and set the type to text.
2. **In the Sequence editor (Flow)**, find the point where you want to allow the pause. Before each "Send Message" action, insert a **Condition** node.
3. Configure the condition to check the `pause_status` attribute:
   - If the value is **different from "paused"**, proceed to send the message.
   - If it is **equal to "paused"**, route to a path that sends nothing (for example, a "Wait" node or the end of a branch).
4. **Save and activate the Flow**. From now on, the Sequence will only send messages to contacts whose attribute is not set to "paused".
5. **To pause a contact**, open their profile in the CRM, edit the `pause_status` attribute, and set the value to "paused". The next scheduled messages will be blocked.
6. **To resume**, change the attribute to any other value (e.g., "active") or simply clear the field. On the next condition check, the flow will start sending messages normally again.

This method preserves the contact's enrollment and the progress of the cadence. If the Sequence had, for example, three messages with two-day intervals and you paused after the first one, when the contact resumes they will receive the second message as soon as the next interval is reached — without starting over from scratch.

## Who this strategy is useful for

- **B2B salespeople** who need to respect the prospect's timing without losing the nurturing history.
- **Pre-sales and SDRs** who hear "get back to me in 30 days" and want to resume the cadence automatically.
- **Customer Success teams** who want to stop automatic reminders during a renewal negotiation but keep the customer in the flow for future communications.
- **Operations that use long Sequences** and don't want to resend messages already delivered when reactivating a lead.

## Frequently asked questions

### Is there a "pause" button for a contact inside the Sequence?

No. The platform does not offer a native individual pause feature. Removing the contact is the direct action to stop the sends. The temporary pause described here is a workaround using attributes and conditions that achieves the same effect without canceling the enrollment.

### If I pause with this method, does the Sequence keep counting the waiting time?

Yes. The "Wait" nodes keep running normally. When the waiting time ends, the flow reaches the condition and decides whether or not to send the message. If the contact is paused, the message is skipped and the flow moves on to the next step (which may be another wait or the end). When the contact resumes, the next message will be sent after the next interval.

### Can I use a tag instead of a custom attribute?

You can use tags to flag the contact's status, but Flow conditions check attributes, not tags. So for the condition to work inside the Sequence, you need to use a custom attribute. You can also apply a tag such as "Paused Lead" in parallel to make segmentation easier in reports or campaigns.

### Does this pause affect other contacts in the same Sequence?

No. The condition is evaluated individually for each contact based on the custom attribute value. Only contacts whose `pause_status` attribute equals "paused" will have their messages blocked. The others keep receiving the cadence normally.

### Do I need to recreate the Sequence to include the conditions?

If the Sequence is already active with enrolled contacts, you can edit it to add the condition nodes. Contacts that have already passed the edited point will not be affected retroactively, but the next steps will follow the new logic. Ideally, plan the temporary pause when building the Sequence.

### What happens if I remove the attribute from the contact instead of changing its value?

If the field is empty, the condition will treat it as a value different from "paused" (unless you have configured a specific check for empty). In that case, the flow will interpret that the contact is not paused and will send the messages. To guarantee the pause, keep the attribute filled with "paused".

## Read also

- [How to pause a message Sequence for a contact](/hc/papo/articles/how-to-pause-a-message-sequence-for-a-contact)
- [How to personalize automatic messages with the contact's name and data](/hc/papo/articles/how-to-personalize-automated-messages-with-contact-data)

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