The Sales Flow tab is the heart of your agent. A sales flow has three stages: Intro, Qualification, and Conversion. You write the agent's opening message, add the questions that qualify a prospect, and configure what happens when they reach your goal. You do not script every word; you give the agent the shape of the conversation and let it handle the back-and-forth.
This opening message is the agent's own first line, said once a conversation is already underway. It is not the same as an initiative's opt-in message, which is the DM that invites someone to tap in before any of this starts. See Writing your opt-in message.
The agent's opening message
This is the first thing a prospect hears from your agent, up to 500 characters. Write something that sounds like you and invites a reply. For a fitness coach, that might be a warm hello that asks what the person is working toward.
Qualification steps
Below the opening message, add qualification steps with Add Qualification Step. Each step is one moment in the conversation where the agent asks something and listens for the answer. You can add up to 10 steps and drag them into the order you want.
Each step has three parts:
- Message: the question the agent should ask, up to 500 characters. Keep it to exactly one question per step, and put the question last. Any context or setup belongs in front of it, so the step ends on the question mark. The builder checks this and will not let you publish a step that trails off after the question, with "Step N's question needs to come last. Move any extra context in front of the question, and end the step on the '?'." If you have two things to ask, make two steps.
- Field Selection: the field this step saves its answer to, usually one of your qualification criteria like budget, goal, or timeline. Pick a field from the dropdown and it attaches right away, marked Required. Every step captures exactly one field, and each field can only be captured once anywhere in the flow. You do not need steps for booking or checkout contact details; those are collected automatically when needed. See Capturing lead info in your sales flow.
- Flow Actions: optional if/then rules that react to the answer.
Flow Actions
A flow action reads: If [this step's answer] [comparison] Then do something. The "then" can be:
- Go to Step: jump ahead to a later step, branch into a sub-step (a follow-up question inside this step, up to 4 per step), or skip straight to the Conversion Stage. Jumps only go forward. Pointing one back at the current step or an earlier one blocks publishing, and a sub-step cannot branch into another sub-step.
- Change Lead State: mark the prospect Qualified, Disqualified, or Needs Human Intervention. Disqualified and Needs Human Intervention can carry an optional message the agent sends as it ends the conversation. Qualified cannot: the flow keeps going, so there is nowhere for a closing line to land, and anything you type there is never sent.
- Hold: stay on this step instead of moving on. It carries nothing else, no lead state, no step to jump to, no message, because the whole point is that the conversation stays where it is.
You can add up to 4 flow actions per step. This is how the agent gets smart about who is a real fit, instead of treating everyone the same.
Marking someone Qualified tags them in your pipeline but does not skip the rest of the flow; the conversation continues naturally. Disqualified ends the conversation, and Needs Human Intervention quietly hands it to you.
When to use Hold
Use Hold for the answer you are not willing to move past. The classic one is a prospect who says they need to check with someone else, or that the timing is wrong. Moving to the next question there just buries the thing that actually decides the sale.
While a hold is on, the conversation does not stall. The agent keeps talking with them at that step, answers what they ask, and handles what they raise. It just will not advance the flow.
It releases in one of two ways. Either their answer changes, so the rule no longer applies, or they say they are ready to move forward. Once they have moved forward, that same rule will not stop them a second time, so a prospect never gets stuck in a loop over a hesitation they already worked through.
A fitness coach might hold on "needs to talk to my partner" rather than carrying on to budget, because the partner conversation is the real gate.
Writing the condition
The condition editor adapts to the kind of answer the step captures, so you are usually picking rather than writing. Each rule is checked against that step's answer only, nothing else in the conversation.
Multiple choice answers. You get is one of or is not one of, plus a checklist of the field's own answers. Tick the ones that should fire the rule. The agent matches them exactly, so there is nothing to misread and nothing for you to word.
Number answers. You get is equal to, is less than, is greater than, is at least, or is at most, plus a box for the number. The agent compares the two numbers directly, so these are exact too. For example: Weekly Hours is less than 2.
Written answers. You get is, is not, includes, or does not include, plus a box for what to look for. There is no list to pick from here, so the agent reads the answer and your wording matters. Use is when the whole answer has to be that thing, and includes when it only has to mention it somewhere. For example: Tool Stack does not include Shopify, WooCommerce or Squarespace.
There is a Learn more link beside the condition that opens a short guide, with a tab for each kind of answer. The written-answer tab is the one with good and bad examples, since that is where wording actually matters.
Two rules worth knowing up front, though only the first is enforced at publish:
- Say what the answer is, not what it hints at. Words like indicates, suggests, implies, appears, seems, and reflects are rejected, because they ask the agent to read between the lines instead of checking something. Name the actual answers: "Business Line includes gambling, tobacco or vaping" works, "Business Line indicates a restricted industry" does not. This check only applies to written answers, since multiple-choice and number conditions are checked exactly rather than interpreted.
- Keep it to one thing. One condition, one check. If you need two, make two rules. A condition asking for two things at once tends to fire when only half of it is true. Nothing stops you publishing one of these, so it is on you to spot them.
Publishing also stops on a condition that has a comparison but nothing to compare against, with "Step N: the IF condition has a comparison but nothing to compare against."
Two guardrails you may bump into: you cannot put a rule on a contact detail field like email or phone (there is nothing to branch on there), and a rule that disqualifies someone only fires on an answer the person actually gave to this step's question. If they mention something in passing while answering something else, the agent waits until it asks properly. Disqualification is permanent, so it is deliberately hard to trigger by accident.
The Conversion stage
The end of the flow depends on the goal you set on Basics:
- Book Call: choose how booking happens, either your connected Calendly (prospects can pick a time right inside the chat) or an external booking link. Calendly agents can also send call reminders; see Automation settings.
- Close Sale: the agent works toward the sale using the offer you linked. If the offer sells through Cloziq, the agent sends a secure checkout link in the chat; otherwise it sends your external checkout link.
How the agent actually behaves in this stage, including slot offers, checkout links, and fallbacks, is covered in How booking and checkout work in DMs.
Tips
- Start simple. An opening message plus two or three qualifying questions is enough to launch. You can always add more.
- Use a disqualify rule for the people you do not want to spend time on, so your agent focuses on real prospects.
- Order your steps from easiest to most personal. Light questions first earn the right to ask heavier ones.