Qualification level
Your Aijent is already set to Balanced, which suits most businesses. What that means, and when it is worth changing.
Your Aijent is already set to Balanced, which means it establishes what a visitor needs and whether their timing is real before offering a meeting. That suits most businesses and you do not need to change it before going live. There are five levels in total, and the right time to change is when your own conversations tell you to, not before.
This is not something you need to configure before going live. The wizard sets it deliberately, and it works from your very first conversation. This page explains what it does, so that if you ever do change it, you are changing it for a reason.
You will find it on the Qualification tab of your Aijent.
What Balanced does
Before offering a meeting, your Aijent establishes two things: what the visitor is trying to achieve, and whether their timing is real.
That is usually the right amount. It gives whoever takes the call enough to prepare properly, without putting a visitor through an interview before anybody has offered them anything.
Test it before you change it
Have a few conversations with your own Aijent, then let it run on your site for a week and read what actually happened.
Most businesses look at that and leave it alone. That is a good outcome, not a missed opportunity.
The five levels
From lightest to heaviest.
1. Direct. Almost no qualifying. It offers as soon as it has a name, email and company. If your Aijent shares a link rather than booking a meeting, it offers the link as soon as the visitor shows genuine interest.
2. Light. One qualifying question first.
3. Balanced. Need and timing. This is where your Aijent is set.
4. Thorough. Need, authority and timeline, so it also works out whether it is speaking to somebody who can actually make the decision.
5. Full BANT. All of the above, plus budget. At this level a visitor who clearly does not qualify is offered a callback from your team rather than a meeting.
BANT is long-standing sales shorthand: Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline.
When it is worth changing
Change it because of something you have seen in your own conversations, not because of what kind of business you think you are. There are two signals worth acting on, and they point in opposite directions.
You are getting meetings with people who were never going to buy. Your Aijent is not learning enough before it offers. Move up one level.
Visitors are dropping out mid-conversation, before any offer was made. Your Aijent is asking more than your visitors will tolerate. Move down one level.
Either way, move one level and give it a week. Two or three conversations tell you nothing. If neither pattern is happening, leave it alone.
The mistake worth avoiding
When meetings are disappointing, the instinct is to jump straight to Full BANT.
Somebody genuinely ready to buy will answer a question or two happily. Asked four in a row before anyone has offered them anything, a good number simply leave, and the ones most likely to leave are the busiest and most senior. A heavier setting is a filter, and filters remove good leads along with the bad.
Turning the wrong people away is a different job
Qualification level decides how much your Aijent learns before it offers. It assumes the visitor is somebody you would like to meet.
Deciding who is worth offering to at all is separate, handled by two settings that work together:
- Visitor Screening is where you describe who is not a fit. It is on every plan, and it is off until you turn it on. If you answered the screen-out question during setup, most of it is already written.
- SureGate builds on that with a clear set of rules for what counts as a good fit, so the decision is consistent every time.
SureGate needs Visitor Screening switched on first, so they are not two alternatives to pick between.
If the wrong kind of business is booking with you, no qualification level will fix it. These are the settings you want.
SureGate is available on Growth and Pro. You can see your current plan and change it on your billing page.
Support Aijents and Aijent Relay do not qualify anyone, so this setting does not appear for them.