know your options
FOUR WAYS TO ADD CHANNELS.
ONE THAT DOESN'T HURT.
You want SMS and calling on top of your cold email. There are four ways to get there — three of them cost you your stack, your time, or your thread history. Here's the honest breakdown.
| Sticky Ricky (outbound layer) |
Rip & replace with a sales platform |
Bolt-on SMS point tool |
Separate dialer software |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Keep your current sequencer | ✓ That's the whole point | ✗ Migrate everything | ✓ Usually | ✓ It doesn't know it exists |
| SMS as a native sequence step | ✓ Sits between email four and call one | ~ If the platform has it, on their terms | ✗ Separate campaigns, separate logic | ✗ No SMS at all |
| AI dialer with live transfer | ✓ Qualifies, books, bridges a rep mid-call | ~ Rare, priced enterprise | ✗ | ~ Power dialing yes, AI agent rarely |
| One thread per lead across channels | ✓ Email, SMS, and call recordings together | ✓ Inside their walled garden | ✗ Replies live in another tab | ✗ Calls logged nowhere near email |
| Reply on one channel stops the others | ✓ Automatic, instant | ~ Within their channels only | ✗ Manual list surgery | ✗ Manual |
| 10DLC, opt-outs, quiet hours handled | ✓ Registration + enforcement built in | ~ Varies | ~ Registration yes, cross-channel opt-out no | ✗ Not their problem |
| Outcomes sync back to your CRM | ✓ Webhooks + native sync | ~ After you migrate the CRM too | ~ CSV exports if you're lucky | ~ Depends |
| Time to first stacked sequence | Days — connect, provision, go | Months of migration | Weeks of duct tape | Weeks + a new tab habit |
| Pricing | ✓ $97–$597/mo, public | ✗ "Talk to sales" | ~ Per-seat + carrier fees | ~ Per-seat |
The short version
Sales engagement platforms want you to move in. Point tools leave your channels blind to each other. Sticky Ricky takes the third path: your sequencer keeps doing what it's great at, and Ricky stacks SMS and AI calling on the same leads, in the same rhythm, with one thread of truth — synced back to whatever CRM you already believe in.