Outreach and Twilio integrate through the Outreach API and Twilio Messages API to add SMS steps to sales sequences, letting sales reps trigger text messages to prospects at specific cadence points alongside email and phone call tasks. This integration is used by sales development teams that run Outreach for their outbound prospecting sequences and want to add SMS as a touchpoint for prospects who are unresponsive to email but frequently check text messages. The connection uses Outreach webhooks on sequence step completions to trigger Twilio SMS, and the Outreach API to log SMS interactions as activities on the prospect's record.
What You Need Before You Start
Create an Outreach OAuth 2.0 application in the Outreach Platform under Settings, then Apps, then OAuth Applications, noting the Client ID, Client Secret, and setting the redirect URI to your middleware callback URL for the authorization code flow. Complete the OAuth authorization flow by directing the Outreach admin to the authorization URL, exchanging the returned code for access and refresh tokens at POST https://api.outreach.io/oauth/token with grant_type=authorization_code, and storing both tokens for API calls, as Outreach access tokens expire after 2 hours requiring regular refresh via the same endpoint with grant_type=refresh_token. From Twilio, collect your Account SID, Auth Token, and an SMS-capable phone number registered under an A2P 10DLC campaign. Ensure your Outreach prospects have the mobilePhone or phoneNumber attribute populated on their prospect records, as Outreach stores multiple phone fields and you will need to identify which field your team uses most consistently for mobile contact.
Step-by-Step Integration Guide
Configure an Outreach webhook by navigating to Settings, then Webhooks in Outreach, adding a new webhook for the sequenceStep.completed event type and pointing the URL to your middleware endpoint, which will fire each time a sequence step is completed for a prospect. In your middleware, receive the Outreach webhook POST, extract the prospectId from the payload, and fetch the prospect record by calling GET https://api.outreach.io/api/v2/prospects/{prospectId} with the Authorization header set to Bearer {accessToken}, reading the mobilePhone or phoneNumber attribute from the prospect's attributes object. Normalize the retrieved phone to E.164 and dispatch the Twilio SMS by calling POST https://api.twilio.com/2010-04-01/Accounts/{AccountSid}/Messages.json with Basic authentication and a Body composed from the prospect's firstName attribute and the sequence step's message context. Log the SMS activity back to the Outreach prospect by calling POST https://api.outreach.io/api/v2/tasks with a JSON API body containing data.type set to task, data.attributes.taskType set to manual_email (the closest available type for SMS), data.attributes.note set to the SMS message body, and a relationship linking to the prospect ID, creating a visible activity record on the prospect timeline.
Common Issues and How to Fix Them
Outreach webhook events for sequenceStep.completed fire for all step types including email steps, not just the specific sequence step where you intend to trigger SMS, causing Twilio SMS to be dispatched on email step completions where only an email was intended. Filter the webhook payload by checking the sequenceStep relationship attributes for step type and only dispatching Twilio SMS when the sequence step type matches your designated SMS step, which you can identify by a naming convention such as including the word SMS in the step name. Outreach access tokens expire after 2 hours and all API calls return 401 Unauthorized after expiry, with the token refresh endpoint requiring the refresh token obtained during initial authorization. Store the refresh token securely and implement automatic refresh in your middleware by catching 401 responses from the Outreach API and refreshing via POST https://api.outreach.io/oauth/token with grant_type=refresh_token before retrying the original request. Outreach prospect phone fields may contain extensions or direct dial numbers rather than mobile numbers, making SMS delivery unreliable when the extension or direct line is passed to Twilio as a mobile destination. Add a qualifier in your middleware that checks whether the phone number appears to be a mobile number using the Twilio Lookup API at GET https://lookups.twilio.com/v2/PhoneNumbers/{number}?Fields=line_type_intelligence and only dispatching SMS when the line_type field returns mobile.
How to Get More from This Integration
Build a rep-triggered SMS feature by creating an Outreach plugin using the Outreach Extension Framework that adds a Send SMS button to the prospect detail page, allowing the sales rep to compose and send a Twilio SMS to the prospect's mobile number directly from within Outreach without switching to a separate messaging tool. Create automated SMS follow-ups for email non-openers by running a daily job that queries the Outreach API for sequence email steps sent more than 48 hours ago with no open event via GET https://api.outreach.io/api/v2/mailings with a filter on the mailing sentAt timestamp and openedAt being null, and dispatching a Twilio SMS follow-up to each non-opening prospect. Track SMS reply rates by configuring your Twilio inbound number's webhook to receive replies and match the From phone to an Outreach prospect phone, then calling the Outreach API to add a task note on the prospect with the reply content and to advance the prospect to the next sequence step using POST https://api.outreach.io/api/v2/sequenceStates with the appropriate action. Measure sequence SMS lift by comparing the reply rate and meeting booking rate of sequences with SMS steps against identical sequences without SMS steps using Outreach's sequence analytics, quantifying the incremental impact of the SMS touchpoint on your team's outbound conversion rate.
Conclusion
Outreach and Twilio together add SMS as a logged, tracked, and sequence-integrated touchpoint in your sales cadences, increasing prospect responsiveness without pulling reps away from their primary tool. Contact Telphi Consulting to design and deploy this integration for your Outreach sales team.
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