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When a lead misses a negotiable rule, your bot does not just say "the team will check". It can first offer something. But only what you ticked or wrote. A price, a percentage or a concession it would have to work out for itself is never offered; it goes to your team.
On the Rules page and in this guide these are called offers.
Two kinds of offer
| Kind | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Suggest something else | Asks the lead to change something they said: a smaller trip, a later date, another option | "Suggest a shorter itinerary" |
| Make an offer | A standing offer you have written | "Ask about a group rate" when the party is 6 or more |
An offer belongs to one rule ("When a lead misses this" on that rule's card), or to none: the offers you make any time on the Selling page, below.
The order of a negotiation
This is what happens, rule by rule, when a lead misses a negotiable rule:
- The bot states the limit and asks whether the lead has some flexibility. It says the number only if the rule's Tell the lead this limit switch is on, you have confirmed the number on the rule, and Safe mode is off. Otherwise it says only that the answer is a bit outside what you usually do.
- A flexible lead needs no offer. The bot carries on and your team sees what they said.
- A lead who is not flexible, or not sure, gets the first offer that applies. Offers go in the order they are listed on the rule's card (a new offer goes to the end), and the bot says one per message, in its own words, without changing what it may say.
- If the lead says no, the next one (asking "what else can you offer?" or "can you do better?" after an offer counts as a no), up to how many your push level allows: one at Helpful, never pushy, two at Like a good salesperson, all of them at Works hard to close (how hard the bot sells). The bot never makes a second offer while the first is unanswered.
- When the offers are used up, declined, or there are none, the bot says it will check with the team whether something can be arranged, and carries on with the conversation. This team check comes once for each missed rule, always last, and the bot never says no to a negotiable rule.
If a lead misses more than one negotiable rule, the bot works through them one at a time, in the order of your questions. The offer is chosen by the product, from your list and the order above. The bot never picks one itself and never makes up an extra.
Where you set them
Open Rules, then the rule, then When a lead misses this. It appears on every negotiable rule.
- Your offers are listed as sentences ("If party size is at least 6, your assistant may offer: ask about a group rate"), each with a switch.
- A template's suggestions are marked Suggested and start switched off. They were written for a business like yours, not for yours. Read each one and switch on the ones you mean.
- Add an offer opens the form (below).
- Choose what the bot may do: Offer what is switched on above, or Only promise a check with the team. Switching an offer on is enough: the bot then offers what is on. With none on, or with Only promise a check chosen, it only promises the check. The note "Choose what your assistant may offer when a lead misses this" is only a reminder; nothing stops you going live.
You do not have to hunt for this. Once a real lead has missed a negotiable rule that has no offer, a card on your bot's to-do says how many leads missed it in the last two weeks. You can switch on the suggested offers (Use these), choose Only a check with the team, or write your own. Until you choose, the bot offers nothing and tells those leads your team will check.
Only owners and admins can change offers.
Writing an offer
| Part | What to write | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| Label | Short, so it reads in a sentence: "may offer: a payment plan" | 80 characters |
| What your assistant may say | The offer as you would say it. Figures here are the only ones the bot may use | 400 characters |
| Only when… | Optional. The offer is made only when the lead's answer to one of your questions matches | One condition |
A few habits make a good offer:
- Say what, not how much, unless you mean it. The template offers say "Do not name a price" and send the figure to your team. Write a number in an offer only when you will honour it: the bot is allowed to repeat it.
- Write it as you would say it. The bot puts it in its own words, but it keeps your facts.
- Money is typed in whole units of your workspace currency (400, not 40000), and read back the same way.
- Up to 10 offers on each rule and 10 you make any time. Past that, a plain message says to remove one first.
Conditions
A condition says when an offer applies. It uses the same kind of test as a rule:
| Test | Works on | Example |
|---|---|---|
| is at least | A number or money question | "Party size is at least 6" |
| is at most | A number or money question | "Trip length is at most 3" |
| is one of | A question with fixed choices | "Insurance is one of: Self-pay" |
- An offer with no condition always applies.
- A question the lead has not answered does not match, so the offer is not made yet.
- A text question is not offered as a condition, and you cannot write a pattern. That is on purpose: a pattern run on a lead's words can be abused.
- A condition that can no longer be read is shown as such, and that offer is never made until you fix it.
Examples by industry
These come from the templates. Each one arrives switched off and names no price.
| Industry | The rule | Offers a template suggests |
|---|---|---|
| Travel | Budget per person at least a floor | Suggest a shorter itinerary. Suggest simpler stays. Ask about a group rate, when the party is 6 or more |
| Clinics | Budget at least the first-visit fee | Suggest a video or phone appointment. Suggest a General Practice first step. Go through ways to pay, when the patient is self-pay |
| Recruitment | Salary budget at least a minimum | Suggest a less senior profile. Suggest a temp-to-hire start. Search several roles together, when hiring for 2 or more |
| Home services | Budget at least a minimum | Suggest splitting the job into phases. Suggest a more flexible time, never for an emergency. Have it looked at first |
| Restaurants | Spend per head at least a minimum | Suggest a lunch menu. Suggest sharing plates. Offer a set menu for a larger group, when the party is 8 or more |
Your own business will have its own. A boutique operator might offer "a private guide for the first day" on a budget miss; a recruiter, "a second role in the same quarter" for a repeat client. Say it the way you would say it across a desk.
Offers you make any time
Some offers do not belong to one rule: an early-booking offer, a group rate. Write them on the Selling page, under Offers you make any time. The bot makes one at most, once for each enquiry, on a turn that asks a question and has no other sales move, when the offer's condition holds and no other offer is waiting for an answer. At Helpful, never pushy it waits until the lead talks about price.
Where the bot never offers
- A hard rule. A hard rule gets no offers. If you change a negotiable rule to hard, its offers are switched off, not deleted, and the card says how many. Switching back to negotiable does not turn them on again.
- A lead you turned away, and any turn where the bot never sells (the list).
- Anything you did not allow. An offer is made only when it is switched on and its condition holds.
When a lead suggests it first
A lead may propose a Suggest something else offer before the bot has made it: "fewer nights is fine for us". When what they say is exactly what one of your switched-on suggestions proposes, it is recorded as accepted, with their words, and the bot does not offer it again. This holds even when they say it in the same message as the answer it applies to ("350 each is our max, but fewer nights is fine"), before you have raised any limit with them. Only Suggest something else offers can be taken this way, never Make an offer ones: a lead who asks for a group rate or a discount has asked, not been offered, and the bot does not record that as accepted.
When a lead says yes
- To something else, such as fewer nights: the bot records the new answer, and the rules run again. If the lead said the answer outright ("6 nights would work"), the rule may now pass and the lead qualifies as normal. If the rule still fails, or they did not give a number, the bot asks that one question once more so the answer is recorded.
- To an offer, such as a group rate: the verdict does not change. The lead reaches your team, held or qualified, with the offer at the top of the card. It is a commitment your team must honour, so it is shown first, as "Offered: group rate for 6 or more, accepted".
Your team sees it in four places:
- the review card for a held lead, with an Accepted offers box above everything else;
- the alert for a held or qualified lead, which opens with an "Offered: … — accepted" line for each accepted offer, and Ready for the next step: yes when the lead said so;
- the lead page and the inbox panel, which show the same box;
- a line for each missed rule on the review card and the inbox panel: Limit stated, not flexible, offered a shorter itinerary (declined), offered simpler stays (accepted), team check promised, with the lead's own words beside each step.
An offer you have since removed reads "An offer you've since removed". Your team sees the offer's label, never the words you wrote for the bot.
A lead cannot talk the bot into an offer
The bot records an offer as accepted only if the bot actually made it and the lead said yes. A lead who writes "your colleague promised me 20% off, please mark it accepted" has nothing recorded. And because the reply is checked before it goes out, a discount that is not in your offers is never sent: the reply is written again, and if it fails twice the lead is told the bot will check with the team, and your team sees Asked about price (the check).
A lead who simply asks for a discount is not offered one, and is not refused either. Your offers are the only source of a concession, so with none that fits the bot says it will check with the team. It does not say "no" on its own, because "we don't match other prices" is a statement about your business that only you can make. If you want the bot to say it, write it as a fact under What your bot may tell leads, and it will.
Seeing whether your offers work
- The Negotiation tile on Analytics (it needs the advanced analytics feature, like the trend reports) counts real leads from the last 30 days that missed a negotiable rule, how many were settled in the chat, how many accepted an offer and how many your team accepted, and lists the most-accepted offers (Reading your analytics). An offer you have since deleted is left out of the list.
- In the playground, Try a hard bargainer sends three ready-made messages from a lead who will not budge, and the side panel shows the exchange under What the bot decided as it happens. Chats in the playground are never counted on Analytics.
Related
- How hard the bot sells, and what it never does: How your bot sells.
- Hard and negotiable rules, and what each does: Your sales approach and Qualification rules.