Prompt for AI Sales Agent: 12 to Build, Test, and Hand Off

A good prompt for AI sales agent work has to do three things: keep the agent to approved facts, qualify leads the way your team does, and hand buyers to a person at the right moment. The 12 prompts below help you write that system prompt, test it, and run it week to week. Paste your real product facts and price list; an agent that guesses prices costs you trust and can create legal risk.

What the agent needs

Start with five lists: facts the agent may state, the approved price list and discount rules, your qualification criteria, handoff rules, and topics it must refuse. Read how to write system prompts for AI agents for the general structure. Disclosure matters too: California's bot disclosure law (Business and Professions Code section 17941) bars using a bot that hides it is a bot to knowingly deceive people in California into a purchase, and a clear, conspicuous disclosure avoids liability, so open every chat by saying it is an AI.

Write the system prompt

1. Role and scope

Write the role, goal, and tone section of a system prompt for an AI sales agent for [product] that works in [channels]. It must say it is an AI at the start and whenever asked.

2. Allowed facts

Turn these product facts into an "allowed facts" section: [facts]. Add the exact line the agent uses when asked about anything not listed.

3. Pricing rules

Here is our price list and discount policy: [pricing]. Write rules that let the agent quote only these prices and send every other request to a rep.

Qualify and hand off

4. Qualification flow

Our ideal customer is [profile]. Write the qualification questions in the order the agent should ask them, one at a time, with what counts as a pass for each.

5. Handoff trigger and note

Write handoff rules for when to book a rep: [rules]. Then write the note template the rep receives, with a filled example.

6. Polite disqualification

Write three replies for leads outside our profile, [examples], that stay helpful, point to [self-serve option], and do not promise anything.

Objections and limits

7. Objection replies from facts

List the five objections our reps hear most, [objections], and write agent replies that use only these facts: [facts]. If a fact is missing, the reply offers a rep.

8. Refusal list

Write a refusals section for topics the agent must not handle, [topics], with one short reply for each that offers a person.

9. Data handling

Write the data section: the agent may collect only [fields], must not ask for payment details, and explains how the information is used per [privacy policy summary].

Test and improve

10. Test conversations

Write ten test conversations for this system prompt: [prompt]. Include discount pressure, a competitor question, a feature we do not have, "are you human?", and an angry lead. Give the expected behavior for each.

11. Transcript review

Review these chat transcripts against the system prompt: [transcripts]. List any invented facts, missed handoffs, or skipped questions, quoting the exact line.

12. Weekly funnel review

Here are this week's numbers: [chats, qualified, demos booked, demos held, handoff reasons]. Point out the biggest drop-off and suggest one prompt change to test next week.

Worked example

For a fictional restaurant scheduling app sold on website chat, the flagship prompt produced a system prompt that opens with "Hi, I'm Shiftly's AI assistant", lists only the approved features, and quotes just two prices ($4 and $8 per user per month) plus 10% off for annual billing. It asks about staff count, role, POS, and start date in that order, and books a 20-minute demo when all four pass or the group has 5 or more locations.

The rep gets a short handoff note with the lead's answers, the price already quoted, and open questions the agent could not answer. Five test conversations check discount pressure, a small food truck, an unknown integration, "are you a real person?", and a large group. Get the full AI sales agent prompt.

Variations

• Voice agent: adapt the prompt with the voice agent prompt guide, and check TCPA consent rules first, since the FCC ruled in February 2024 that AI-generated voices count as artificial voices.
• Email follow-up: change the channel to replies to inbound leads, and keep CAN-SPAM basics: accurate sender and subject, a postal address, and an opt-out honored within 10 business days.
• Support plus sales: combine it with a system prompt for an AI chatbot and add a rule for when a support question becomes a sales lead.

Tips

• Run the same test conversations after every change so a fix does not break something else.
• Track "I'll check with the team" replies; each one is a fact to add or a reason to hand off.
• Have a person read handoff notes for the first few weeks before you trust the scoring.

Related sales prompts

For the human side of the pipeline, see ChatGPT prompts for sales prospecting and the B2B sales call plan prompt your rep can use before the demo.

Find more in the Agents prompts hub, browse all prompts, or share your own prompt.