Inbound sales
Inbound sales answers every Lead in writing at once and carries the buyer to a signed Agreement.
Outcome
| Part | This Process |
|---|---|
| Outcome | Each Lead gets a written answer within five minutes and, when qualified, a Deal with a Quote inside the discount Limit. |
| Reads | Lead |
| Leaves | Deal, Quote, Meeting |
| On time | Within 5 minutes (business hours); the clock never stops. Late Actions go to the Sales Lead. |
| Runs in | Each Startup |
Accountable
Responsible: Sales Engineer.
Consulted: Marketing Lead.
Informed: Customer Lead.
Workflows
| Workflow | Runs | Team |
|---|---|---|
| Answer inbound | on Lead.created | Sales Team |
Who does each step
| Workflow | Step | Role | Calls | Approval |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Answer inbound | 1. Answer the Lead in writing within 5 minutes. | Sales Engineer | Message.create | None |
| Answer inbound | 2. Qualify the Lead against the ICP. | Sales Engineer | Lead.qualify | None |
| Answer inbound | 3. Show coverage on the buyer’s own sample before any charge. | Sales Engineer | Collection.query | None |
| Answer inbound | 4. Book a Meeting with a sandbox loaded with that sample when the buyer asks for one. | Sales Engineer | Meeting.book | None |
| Answer inbound | 5. Open a Deal with a Quote from list Price, inside the discount Limit. | Sales Lead | Deal.create | None |
| Answer inbound | 6. Send click-to-sign terms. | Sales Lead | Quote.send | Asks first; waits 1 business hour |
Events
| Direction | When | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| In | On Lead.created | Starts Answer inbound |
| In | On Lead.created | Wakes this Process, the first time only. The first Lead arrives. |
| Out | Message.created | Raised by step 1 of Answer inbound |
| Out | Lead.qualified | Raised by step 2 of Answer inbound |
| Out | Collection.queried | Raised by step 3 of Answer inbound |
| Out | Meeting.booked | Raised by step 4 of Answer inbound |
| Out | Deal.created | Raised by step 5 of Answer inbound |
| Out | Quote.sent | Raised by step 6 of Answer inbound |
Plays
Controls
No Control names this Process or a Workflow of it.
Settings
| Setting | Type | Default | Say | Set with |
|---|---|---|---|---|
inbound.answerWithin | string | 5m | Answer new leads within five minutes | Setting.update |
inbound.bookDemos | boolean | true | Book a demo with every qualified lead | Setting.update |
Failure
A failed step retries; when retries run out, the Action goes to the Sales Lead.
| Step | On failure |
|---|---|
| Answer inbound 1. Answer the Lead in writing within 5 minutes. | Times out after 5 minutes. Goes to the Sales Lead. |
Loop
| Step | Value |
|---|---|
| Hypothesis | A written answer within five minutes turns more Leads into paid Orders than an answer within a day. |
| Measure | Outside paid Orders over 30d, at least 50 observations |
| Learn | The learn step reads the Readout, records Evidence and a Decision, and drafts the next Variant. |
Code
Turn on inbound salesEnable
On by default for Dataset API, Headless SaaS, SaaS, Agent as a Service, Services-as-Software, E2E managed service. Process.pause stops new Actions; Actions in progress finish.
Answer new leads within five minutesExample
A litigation-support firm fills the demo Form of a court-filings API at 10:02. By 10:04 the Sales Lead has replied, parsed five of the firm's own dockets and sent a Quote. The firm signs the $400 plan that afternoon.