The Sales Qualification Agent helps organisations process large volumes of leads by researching prospects, evaluating suitability and supporting lead handover.
It operates in two modes: Research-only and Research and engage. Although they share several capabilities, the level of automation is significantly different.
What is the Sales Qualification Agent?
The agent selects leads using configured conditions such as lead source, rating or geography.
It can research the lead and their company, evaluate suitability against a target customer profile and prepare relevant insights for sellers. Microsoft positions it as a productivity tool that assists seller judgement rather than replacing it.
Sales Qualification Agent overview – Microsoft Learn
Research-only vs Research and engage
| Capability | Research-only | Research and engage |
|---|---|---|
| Research leads | Yes | Yes |
| Evaluate target customer profile | Yes | Yes |
| Generate an outreach email | Yes | Yes |
| Send the outreach email | No | Yes |
| Evaluate BANT criteria | No | Yes |
| Analyse customer responses | No | Yes |
| Send follow-up emails | No | Yes |
| Hand leads to sellers | Yes | Yes |
| Notify supervisors about disqualified leads | Yes | Yes |
The key difference is control.
In Research-only mode, the agent completes the research and generates an outreach email. The seller reviews the insights and decides whether to send the email.
In Research and engage mode, the agent can contact the lead, respond to questions, send follow-ups and assess buying intent before handing the lead to a seller. It can also use BANT—Budget, Authority, Need and Timeline—as part of the evaluation.
Example business scenario
Consider a manufacturing company receiving hundreds of leads from announcing an event.
The business could configure the agent to process leads where:
- Lead source is event
- Rating is Hot or Warm
- Industry is Retail
- The contact holds a decision-making role
- The company meets the required size or revenue criteria
With Research-only mode, sellers receive researched information and a prepared email.
With Research and engage mode, the agent can send the email, continue the conversation and hand the lead over when the configured customer-fit and purchase-intent conditions are met.
Important functional decisions
Before configuring the agent, the business should agree on:
- Which leads the agent should process
- What defines the target customer profile
- Which BANT questions should be considered
- What qualifies a lead for seller handover
- When a lead may be disqualified
- How leads should be distributed across sellers or teams
- Which knowledge sources the agent may use
- The approved email tone, signature and outreach instructions
Microsoft’s configuration process includes lead-selection criteria, customer-profile rules, assignment rules, email instructions and knowledge sources.
Configuration guidance – Microsoft Learn
Prerequisites to consider
The documented prerequisites include:
- Dynamics 365 Sales administrator access
- Copilot Studio licensing and capacity
- The modern Sales Hub interface
- Required data-policy permissions
- Server-side synchronization with Exchange - required for research and engage mode
- In-app notifications for seller and supervisor handovers
Custom model-driven apps must also include the relevant agent views and access to Dynamics 365 AI Hub.
How should it be tested?
Start in a sandbox using controlled test leads and test email addresses.
Microsoft recommends testing leads that match and do not match the selection criteria, together with high-, medium- and low-fit customer profiles.
Validate:
- Whether the correct leads are selected
- Accuracy of research insights
- Relevance and tone of outreach emails
- Positive, negative and unclear customer responses
- Handover to the correct seller or team
- Lead disqualification and supervisor review
- References from configured knowledge sources
Testing guidance – Microsoft Learn
One important limitation
An organisation can deploy only one mode.
Research-only can later be upgraded to Research and engage, but Microsoft does not support downgrading it back to Research-only. The engagement design should therefore be tested carefully before upgrading.
Upgrade guidance – Microsoft Learn
Final takeaway
Research-only is suitable when sellers must retain control over customer communication.
Research and engage is appropriate when the organisation is comfortable allowing the agent to conduct initial outreach, manage follow-ups and evaluate purchase intent.
The technology can automate the work, but the result still depends on clearly defined qualification rules, reliable knowledge sources, sensible assignment logic and proper exception handling.
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