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            How a Lead Nurturing Agent Processes Prospects

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            How a Lead Nurturing Agent Processes Prospects

            Prospects can be assigned to the agent in three ways–when the prospect assignment criteria set within the Engagement Rules in Agentforce Builder are met, by an automated action, or when a sales rep sends a prospect to the agent. The agent takes the prospect through a flexible set of engagement steps. The specific steps taken depend on how the prospect responds. When a prospect is sent to the agent, the record owner doesn't change.

            Required Editions

            Available in: Lightning Experience in Enterprise, Performance, and Unlimited editions with Sales and the Agentforce Lead Nurturing add-on.

            For example, in Agentforce Builder, the default assignment criteria for leads are:

            • Status = Cold
            • Activity = None

            The agent takes each prospect through a series of outreach and reply steps. The steps taken are defined in the Engagement Rules set in Agentforce Builder.

            Here’s an example of how the agent processes a prospect according to the default settings.

            1. When you assign a prospect to the Lead Nurturing agent, the agent drafts an initial outreach email based on the lead, contact, or person account record details. The agent schedules and sends the email to the address on the prospect record without delay.

              If Send as Seller is on in the agent configuration, the agent sends its emails using the prospect record owner’s email address, signature, and business hours. The record owner must have a working email address connected to Inbox.

              If Require Manual Approval is on, the agent adds each email to a queue for approval by the prospect owner or their manager. Emails awaiting review appear in the Activity Timeline and the Lead Nurturing Control Center. If Send as Seller is also turned on for the agent, only the record owner can approve emails sent on their behalf.

            2. If the prospect doesn’t reply within the Time Between Attempts period set in the Agentforce Builder Engagement Rules, the agent drafts and sends nudge emails until the prospect replies or has reached the Maximum Attempts value set in Agent Builder.
            3. If the prospect doesn't reply within 3 days of the final nudge, the agent disengages.
            4. If the prospect replies with a question, the agent drafts an answer using the data library. You create a data library by uploading documents about your business in Agent forceBuilder. The answer email includes a meeting link but does not copy the prospect owner. By increasing the maximum number of replies in Agentforce Builder, you can let the agent handle more questions autonomously.
            5. If the prospect replies with an off-topic question or comment, the agent drafts and sends a generic reply stating it isn’t able to help with the prospect's question, copies the prospect owner, and disengages. The agent sends no more emails to the prospect.
            6. If the prospect replies with interest without requesting a meeting, the agent drafts and sends a reply including a link to book a meeting with the prospect owner and does not copy the prospect owner. The agent will continue to respond to similar prospect replies until the maximum number of replies is reached. If the prospect doesn’t reply for three days, the agent disengages.
            7. If the prospect replies and requests a meeting, the agent drafts and sends a follow-up email with meeting time options based on the prospect owner's calendar. The agent copies the prospect owner on the email. The agent considers the prospect handed off to the prospect owner, disengages, and sends no more emails.
            8. If the prospect asks not to be emailed again, the agent sets the prospect’s Email Opt Out field to True, stops sending emails, and disengages.
             
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