The Sales Qualification Agent (SQA) in Dynamics 365 Sales is an AI assistant designed to automate and improve lead qualification so sellers can focus more on building relationships and closing deals. It helps address common challenges such as: - Priority overload: too many leads and not enough time to research or follow up. - Manual lead pursuit: hours spent gathering background information and drafting outreach. - Missed opportunities: leads going unprocessed or not followed up in time. What the agent does: - Proactively researches leads, contacts, and companies using both CRM data and external web sources. - Provides contextual information about every lead, including background, recent opportunities, and company news. - Evaluates each lead against your ideal customer profile (ICP) and classic qualification criteria like BANT (budget, authority, need, timeline). - Spots purchase interest based on replies, clicks, and activity signals. - Engages multiple leads at once with personalized emails and prompt follow-ups (in Research and engage mode). The result is more consistent lead handling, better-qualified opportunities, and more time for sellers to focus on higher-value conversations. Instead of replacing sellers, SQA acts as an around-the-clock ally that prepares research, suggests next-best actions, and, if you choose, manages early-stage outreach on your behalf.

The Sales Qualification Agent offers two autonomy levels so you can choose how much of the qualification and outreach process you want to automate. 1. Research-only mode (Level 1) This mode focuses on research and recommendations while keeping engagement in the seller’s hands. What it does: - Investigates assigned leads based on criteria you define (lead source, rating, geography, and more). - Surfaces insights about each lead’s background, recent opportunities, and company news. - Evaluates fit against your ideal customer profile (ICP). - Generates an initial outreach email draft for leads that meet your criteria. Handover logic: - High/medium ICP fit: the agent hands the lead to a seller for outreach. - Low ICP fit: the agent disqualifies the lead and alerts a supervisor. When to use it: - You prefer to keep all customer-facing communication under direct seller control. - You want to unlock time savings from automated research and insight generation but still send emails manually. - You’re starting with AI in your sales process and want a lower-autonomy setup. 2. Research and engage mode (Level 2) This mode adds autonomous engagement on top of the research capabilities. What it does (includes everything in Research-only, plus): - Sends personalized outreach emails on your behalf. - Follows up with leads and continues engagement based on their responses and activity. - Evaluates fit using your ICP, BANT criteria, and purchase interest signals. - Continues engagement until it detects no intent and then disengages. Handover logic: - Hands leads to sellers when ICP and BANT are met or purchase intent looks positive. - May also hand over leads if intent is unclear, the agent is blocked (for example, by an admin rule), or a lead’s email needs updating. - Disqualifies leads that do not show sufficient fit or intent, so sellers focus on higher-potential opportunities. When to use it: - You have high lead volumes and need help managing outreach and follow-up at scale. - You want to shorten the sales cycle by automating early-stage interactions. - Your team is comfortable with AI handling initial engagement under clear rules and handoff criteria. You can start in Research-only mode and move to Research and engage later as your team gains confidence with the agent’s behavior and results.

To get value from the Sales Qualification Agent, you’ll want to prepare your environment, define how the agent should behave, and make sure sellers know how to work with AI-qualified leads. 1. Licensing and credits - You need an active Dynamics 365 license. - Copilot Studio credits are required to run the agent. - If you upgrade to Dynamics 365 Sales Premium, Copilot Studio credits are included to help you get started. - If you already use Dynamics 365 Sales, your Microsoft Sales Representative can help you purchase the necessary credits and activate SQA. 2. Prepare your systems Integrate the core tools the agent relies on: - Dynamics 365 Sales (for CRM data and lead management). - Exchange email (for outreach and follow-ups). - Optional: SharePoint and OneDrive (for internal documents and knowledge the agent can reference). 3. Define autonomy and rules Decide how the agent should operate: - Choose the autonomy level: Research-only or Research and engage (you can upgrade later). - Add your company and product information. - Define your ideal customer profile (ICP) so the agent can score leads. - Set lead selection rules (for example, which lead sources, geographies, or ratings the agent should pick up). - Configure handoff criteria using BANT and purchase interest signals. - Add your email signature and messaging guidance so outreach aligns with your brand and tone. 4. Assign and go live - Choose which sellers or teams will receive qualified leads from the agent. - Run a quick simulation to validate that the agent is selecting and handling leads as expected. - Once you’re satisfied, activate the agent. 5. How sellers use it day to day In Dynamics 365 Sales (Sales Hub): - Go to Leads and select “Leads handed over by AI Agent.” - Open a lead to see the research summary and select “See full research” for more detail. - Use the Suggested action panel to draft and send emails, qualify the lead, or follow up. The agent includes the reasoning behind each recommendation. 6. Responsible AI and oversight - The Sales Qualification Agent is designed as a productivity tool and has been evaluated against Microsoft’s responsible AI principles. - There are separate responsible AI FAQs for both Research-only and Research and engage modes. - Supervisors can review disqualified leads and agent decisions, and admins can adjust rules, autonomy levels, and handoff criteria over time. By following these steps, you can reimagine your qualification process, reduce manual research, and help your sellers focus on leads that are more likely to convert, improving metrics like win rate, close rate, and overall sales cycle time.