Following up a quotation

The sequence#

1. The quotation becomes an opportunity with a value. Values are stored in minor units so nothing is lost to rounding or to a currency assumption.

   Result The pipeline now has something to move, and the follow-up has something to be about.

2. A follow-up is created with a due time and a reason that names the quotation.

   Result Whoever picks it up later knows what was promised without reading the thread.

3. At the due time the chase goes out on the channel the conversation was on, under that channel autonomy rule.

   Result Held under ask_before_send, sent under autonomous, prepared and left alone under draft_only.

4. The reply is classified. Interest moves the stage; a question about the number is escalated; silence schedules the next attempt.

   Result raise_for_review marks an opportunity a person needs to look at, and clear_review is how that ends.

The refusal that makes this usable#

safe_sales.py is the rule that Connect does not invent commercial terms. A price, an SLA or a warranty that Knowledge does not support is refused and escalated to a person rather than improvised. On a quotation chase that rule fires constantly, because the natural next question from a customer is about the number.

Refusing is the correct behaviour rather than a gap, and it is what makes an automated chase safe to run at all. The alternative — an agent that confidently restates a figure it half-remembers from a thread — creates a commitment somebody has to honour or withdraw.

What has to be in Knowledge#

Almost every row escalates when Knowledge is thin, which is the honest shape of this use case: the chase is automatic, the commercial conversation is not, and the ratio between them is decided by what you have written down.

Where it goes wrong#

Every chase ends in an escalation

Knowledge carries no commercial facts at all. The decision log lists the refusals with their rule, which is the fastest inventory of what to write down.

The chase went out after the deal was won

The opportunity moved but the follow-up did not. stop_for_thread and stop_for_person end chasing explicitly, and closing an opportunity is not the same act as closing its commitments.

The customer received two chases

Two conversations about one quotation. A follow-up with the same due time for the same person is deduplicated; two different due times are not, because usually they are two real promises.

The value looks wrong by a factor of a hundred

Values are in minor units. A figure entered as though it were major units is the classic version of this.

A price was quoted on a call

Check price_spoken on the call record. Detection is the mechanism on the realtime path; the carrier path refuses at the sentence.

What it costs#

A quotation chase by email is among the cheapest things Connect does — text, bounded by the daily allowance. By phone it is priced on audio tokens like any call, and a chase that turns into a ten-minute negotiation costs accordingly. The 24-hour lateness rule and the two-per-tick drain both act as spending brakes as much as etiquette ones.

Questions#

Related#

• Sales in Connect
• Why a sales agent should refuse to answer
• Follow-ups in Connect
• A B2B sales team
• Knowledge in Connect
• Chasing appointments and commitments