AI Inside Sales Representative: Service Expectations
Conversations AI must be active on your account. See the full requirements below.
The AI Inside Sales Representative (ISR) Setup is a do-it-with-me service where our experts configure, train, and launch the AI Inside Sales Representative for your business. Our team handles the technical setup, configures a sales-qualified persona, sets up lead discovery and qualification logic, enables lead capture and appointment booking capabilities, and connects your knowledge sources — including your services list, website, and FAQs.
What's included?
AI Employee profile
We create a custom AI Employee with a name and avatar that represents your business. Customers interact with a professional sales persona rather than a generic bot. The profile is configured within the AI Workforce section of Business App.
Sales role prompt
We configure a confident, empathetic inbound sales consultant persona for your ISR. The prompt is designed to guide customers toward a solution — an appointment or consultation — rather than simply collecting a message. Every conversation is kept moving forward with qualifying questions and clear next steps.
Lead discovery and qualification
We set up a custom capability that defines the qualification logic: the ISR confirms your business can actually serve the customer's need before capturing their contact information. If a customer asks about a service you do not offer, the ISR politely informs them and stops the lead capture process — no wasted time for your sales team.
The quality of your services list directly affects qualification accuracy. A specific services list — for example, 'furnace repair, AC installation, duct cleaning' rather than 'HVAC services' — allows the ISR to make faster, more accurate qualification decisions.
Lead capture and appointment booking
Built-in capabilities manage the full lead capture sequence: Name → Phone → Email. Phone number validation and objection handling are included — if a customer says 'just email me,' the ISR acknowledges their preference, explains the value of a quick call, and pivots. If they object a second time, the ISR accepts email as a fallback.
When a calendar is connected, the ISR checks availability and books appointments directly in the conversation — presenting up to three time options, confirming the selection, and sending a confirmation.
Appointment booking requires a connected Google, Outlook, or Microsoft calendar in Business App. Without it, the ISR qualifies and captures leads but cannot schedule meetings.
Knowledge base setup
We connect your business profile, website, services list, and any FAQs to the ISR's knowledge base. This allows the ISR to answer questions about your services, pricing, hours, and location accurately — without fabricating information.
AI Workforce Optimization Plan
The AI Workforce Optimization Plan is a monthly subscription that keeps your AI employee performing after launch. Setting up an AI employee is only the beginning — real value comes from the steady tuning that follows. This plan gives your team a direct line to Vendasta's experts so prompts, automations, and settings can evolve as your business does, without you having to do the technical work yourself.
What's included
- 1 AI employee setup: Choose your AI employee at purchase. Setup is delivered in Month 1 and follows our standard setup scope: tasking, prompts, automations, and settings.
- Monthly AI employee check-in: A proactive touchpoint each month where our team reaches out to ask for business updates and confirm the accuracy and overall performance of the AI employee.
- Coverage for AI employees set up by our team: Ongoing optimization coverage applies to AI employees configured by Vendasta's services team within the standard setup scope: tasking, prompts, automations, and settings.
- Unlimited changes: Request as many changes as you need to prompts, automations, and AI employee settings.
- Email access to our expert team: Submit requests by email and receive a same-day acknowledgment. Our target is to fully resolve standard requests within 2 business days.
- Live training session for your team: A live, guided training session so your team understands how the AI employee works, how to spot issues, and how to make the most of the optimization plan.
What's not included
The AI Workforce Optimization Plan is focused on tuning and operating AI employees within the Vendasta platform. It is not a custom development engagement. The following are out of scope:
- Sophisticated automations and integrations beyond the platform: Work that goes beyond what can be configured within the Vendasta platform in a reasonable amount of time.
- Custom software development: Writing, hosting, or maintaining custom code, scripts, or APIs on your behalf.
- Third-party tool buildouts and administration: Configuring, administering, or paying for third-party tools and accounts that sit outside the Vendasta platform.
- Strategic consulting and business process design: Designing your overall go-to-market strategy, sales process, or operational workflows.
- Content creation and creative production: Producing long-form marketing content, brand assets, or creative deliverables.
- Net-new AI employees beyond the one included: Additional AI employees can be added through a separate setup engagement.
- Coverage for AI employees you configured yourself: Self-configured AI employees can be brought into scope through a setup engagement.
- Guaranteed business outcomes: We commit to expert configuration and ongoing optimization, not to specific revenue, lead, or conversion outcomes.
If a request falls outside the optimization plan, we'll let you know. We can scope your request to see if it's something we can set up and support, and let you know if additional charges apply.
What to expect: response times, check-ins, and change requests
Response and resolution
- Same-day acknowledgment. Every request you email in is acknowledged the same business day so you know it has been received and is queued.
- 2-business-day resolution target. Most standard requests — prompt edits, small automation tweaks, settings updates — are resolved within two business days. Larger or more complex requests may take longer, or not be included; if so, we'll set expectations up front.
- Business hours. Requests are handled during standard business hours, Monday to Friday. Requests received outside of business hours are picked up on the next business day.
Monthly check-ins
- Each month, we proactively reach out to ensure your AI employee is performing as expected or to identify any necessary updates.
- If you know of upcoming changes to your business, please notify us during these meetings so we can make proactive adjustments.
Change requests
- Submit change requests by emailing marketingservices@yourdigitalagents.com. Please include the AI employee, what you'd like changed, and the desired outcome.
- There is no cap on the number of requests per month — but the more clearly you describe the desired outcome, the faster we can deliver it.
- We will confirm changes once they are live so you can validate them in your environment.
Roles and responsibilities
Vendasta will
- Set up your included AI employee within the standard setup scope in Month 1.
- Reach out proactively each month to ensure AI employee accuracy and performance.
- Action your change requests against the AI employee's prompts, automations, and settings.
- Acknowledge requests the same business day and target 2-business-day resolution.
- Deliver one live training session for your team.
You will
- Provide accurate business information, processes, and content the AI employee should reflect.
- Submit change requests with enough context for us to act: the AI employee, the change, and the desired outcome.
- Validate changes in your environment after we confirm they are live.
- Keep us informed of meaningful changes to your business — new services, hours, pricing, or processes — so the AI employee stays accurate.
Once your subscription is active, your services contact will reach out to schedule the Month 1 setup and onboarding, the live training session, and your first monthly check-in. From there, you can email change requests at any time.
The setup process
The process involves a fulfillment form, a series of calls, and configuration steps to get your AI Inside Sales Representative running effectively.
1. Fulfillment form
To ensure a smooth and efficient setup, please fill out the fulfillment form with as much detail as possible. This will help streamline the entire experience.
- Timeline: We'll review the order and start the process within 2 business days.
2. Onboarding call
Our team of experts will lead an onboarding call to understand your business needs and configure your AI Inside Sales Representative to reflect your brand, tone, and qualification criteria. We will come to the call with an initial setup ready to demo and refine together.
- Timeline: An onboarding call can be booked in as little as 1 business day, depending on availability.
- For U.S. businesses: A2P registration is required to validate the business' use of SMS. Please be ready with your business legal information if you'd like to use SMS. Registration for A2P can take up to two weeks to complete.
If you are unable to attend the onboarding call, our team will proceed with setup using the information provided in your fulfillment form and will follow up via email and phone to review and refine. If we are unable to reach you after our follow-up process, the project will be closed — but can be reopened at any time by reaching back out to us.
3. ISR setup
Using the information gathered during the onboarding call, we will configure your AI Employee with a sales-qualified persona, set up lead discovery and qualification logic, enable lead capture and appointment booking capabilities, and connect your knowledge sources — including your services list, website, and FAQs.
- Timeline: Your AI Inside Sales Representative will be complete in 1 business day, or 3 business days for setups with custom integrations or complex knowledge bases.
4. Training call
This call will walk you through your new AI Inside Sales Representative: where to find your captured leads, how the qualification logic works, how to manage conversations in Business App, and how appointment notifications are handled.
- Timeline: This call can be booked in as little as 1 business day after ISR Setup completion, depending on availability.
5. 30-day check-in
This call will be used to review your conversations, determine whether the qualification logic or knowledge base needs to be updated, and ensure your ISR is converting inquiries effectively.
Prior to this call, our team will review 5–10 conversations to provide recommendations for improvement and highlight wins during the call.
- Timeline: This call will be booked 3–4 weeks after the completion of your ISR Setup.
Requirements
To set your business up for success, the following requirements must be met to deliver this service efficiently.
Conversations AI
Conversations AI must be active on your account. This is the platform requirement for deploying the AI Inside Sales Representative.
Connected calendar
To enable appointment booking, your Google, Outlook, or Microsoft calendar must be connected in Business App.
A connected calendar is required for the appointment booking capability. Without it, the ISR will qualify leads and capture contact information but will not be able to check availability or book meetings directly.
Services list
A clear, specific list of what your business does — and does not — offer. This is the single most critical input for lead qualification accuracy. The ISR uses this to determine whether a customer's need is a fit before capturing their information.
'Furnace repair, AC installation, duct cleaning' allows the ISR to qualify leads far more accurately than 'HVAC services.' The more specific, the better.
Knowledge base content
Your business profile (address, hours, phone), website URL, and any FAQs or additional information you would like the ISR to reference during conversations.
Completing SMS registration
For U.S. businesses, A2P registration is required to validate the business' use of SMS. Please be ready with your business license and legal information, which includes the following:
- Legal Business Name
- Business Category
- Business Type
- Country/Region
- Business Registration Number (EIN for U.S. businesses)
- Address
- Website or a link to an online listing
We will also need the following information for an Authorized Business Representative:
- First and Last Name
- Job Position
- Title
- Phone Number
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
How is the AI Inside Sales Representative different from the AI Chat Receptionist?
The AI Chat Receptionist is designed to capture leads from anyone who contacts your business through web chat. The AI Inside Sales Representative goes further — it qualifies leads first by confirming your business can actually serve the customer's need before asking for any contact information. If a customer asks about a service you don't offer, the ISR politely informs them and stops the process. This means your sales team only receives leads that are genuinely a fit.
What happens if a customer asks about a service we don't offer?
The ISR will politely let the customer know the business doesn't offer that service and stop the lead capture process. It will not ask for contact information. The accuracy of this depends on how clearly your services are described in your knowledge sources — which is why a specific services list is the most critical input we need from you.
Does the ISR need a calendar to work?
A connected calendar is required for appointment booking. Without it, the ISR will still qualify leads and capture name, phone, and email — it just won't be able to check availability or book meetings directly in the conversation. You can connect a calendar at any time to unlock booking. We support Google, Outlook, and Microsoft calendars connected through Business App.
How does the ISR handle lead capture? What's the sequence?
Once a lead qualifies, the ISR collects contact information in a structured sequence: Name → Phone → Email. The ISR validates phone number format and includes built-in objection handling. If a customer says 'just email me,' the ISR acknowledges their preference, explains the value of a brief call, and pivots back to phone. If they object a second time, the ISR accepts email as the fallback. You do not need to configure these rules manually — they are built into the Lead Capture capability.
Can the ISR book an appointment on my behalf?
Yes, when a calendar is connected in Business App. After capturing lead information, the ISR checks your calendar availability, presents up to three appointment options, confirms the customer's selection, and sends a booking confirmation. For Google Calendar, Outlook, or Microsoft calendars connected through Business App, booking works natively. For external booking tools, we require API keys and documentation to determine if the system can be connected. If direct booking is not possible, we will configure the ISR to send your booking link instead.
What languages does the AI Inside Sales Representative support?
The ISR is configured to use the predominant language of the conversation or the primary language of the country where your business is located. No additional configuration is required for multi-language support.
How do I know when a new lead is captured?
When a lead is captured, you will receive either an email or SMS notification (or both) letting you know a new contact has come through. These notifications will also appear directly in Business App whenever you're logged in.
Your customer will also receive an automated message (email or SMS) letting them know that a team member will be in touch soon. All of these messages can be customized to match your brand.
Can I use email and SMS to communicate with my customers?
SMS is available for all Canadian and U.S. businesses. Please let our team know during the onboarding call if you'd like to utilize email, SMS, or both.
Note: If you're located in the U.S., please be prepared to supply your legal business information for A2P registration.
What is A2P and what information do you need from me in order to set it up?
A2P stands for Application-to-Person messaging, and is required by businesses who send text messages to their customers in the U.S. We will need the following information from you in order to set it up:
- Legal Business Name
- Business Category
- Business Type
- Country/Region
- Address
- Website or a link to an online listing
We will also need the following information for an Authorized Business Representative:
- First and Last Name
- Job Position
- Title
- Phone Number
I don't have an EIN for my business. Can you still set up A2P?
Unfortunately, this is a limitation of our SMS provider and we are unable to use a SIN/SSN instead of the EIN at this time. Our team is aware of this limitation and is looking into solutions to ensure you are still able to manage SMS conversations with your customers.
What happens if I miss the onboarding call?
If you are unable to attend the onboarding call, our team will proceed with setup using the information provided in your fulfillment form and demo the configuration when we connect. We will then follow up via email and phone to review, refine, and answer any questions you have.
If we are unable to reach you after our follow-up process (4 emails and 4 phone calls), the project will be closed. However, the project can be reopened at any time by reaching back out to us — no need to start over from scratch.
Can the ISR qualify leads and capture contacts through both web chat and SMS?
Yes. The AI Inside Sales Representative can be configured to operate through web chat, SMS, or both — depending on your preferences. Please let our team know during the onboarding call which channels you'd like to activate. If you're a U.S.-based business, A2P registration is required before SMS can be enabled.
How many AI employees does the optimization plan cover?
The plan includes setup and ongoing optimization for one AI employee. Additional AI employees can be added by activating another instance of the same solution.
Is there a limit on change requests?
No. Changes to prompts, automations, and AI employee settings are unlimited. Larger or more complex requests may take additional time or charges to deliver — we'll always set expectations up front.
What counts as a "standard" request?
Standard requests include anything that we originally set up for the AI employee — prompt edits, small automation adjustments, and settings changes. Work that requires custom development or integrations beyond the platform is out of scope.
What if my AI employee was set up by someone other than Vendasta?
Optimization coverage applies to AI employees set up by our team within the standard setup scope. If yours was self-configured, talk to your services contact about a setup engagement to bring it into scope.
How do I submit an optimization plan request?
Email marketingservices@yourdigitalagents.com with the AI employee in question, the change you'd like made, and the desired outcome. You'll receive a same-day acknowledgment and an expected resolution timeline.