Salesforce Docs Portal

Build and Manage Prospecting Agents

Create and configure a Prospecting agent to automatically generate prospects and have a prioritized list of accounts and contacts to target.

Required Editions

Available in: Lightning Experience
Available in: Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions with the Agentforce for Sales or Agentforce for an Industry add-on, or in Agentforce 1 Sales and Industry Editions where included. Requires each user to have the Agentforce for Sales or Agentforce for an Industry add-on to access actions.
User Permissions Needed
To set up Agentforce Prospecting:

View Setup

AND

Modify All Data

OR

Customize Application
To create and configure prospecting agents: Sales Agentic Prospecting Manager
To use ZoomInfo data: ZoomInfo Prospecting Access

Before you begin, Turn On Agentforce Prospecting.

Follow these tasks to configure a Prospecting Agent from initial creation through preview and activation.

Navigate to Agent Builder

Create a Prospecting Agent in our guided setup experience.

  1. From Salesforce Go, go to Agentforce for Sales.
  2. In the Prospecting section, click Go in the Build and Manage Agent step.
  3. Click Build a New Agent.
  4. Select Prospecting for the agent template, and then click Continue.
  5. Enter an internal name for your agent.
  6. Select the agent's language, then click Save and Continue.

Add Sources to the Agent

Add reports that the agent uses to identify accounts for prospect generation.

  1. On the Add Sources page, click Add.
  2. Search for and select the report you want to add.
  3. Click Save and Continue.
    Add up to 20 reports for the agent to reference. Make sure that each report includes an account name field and doesn't include any grouped columns.

Configure Tools for Prospecting

Connect data sources and integrations that the agent uses during account and prospect research.

  1. Integrate with ZoomInfo (Optional).
    1. Click Setup or Connect Now.
    2. Enter your login information and click Log In.
    3. Assign the ZoomInfo Prospecting Access user permission to all users with access to build and manage prospecting agents and who need to connect to ZoomInfo.
    Prospecting Agent consumes ZoomInfo credits according to the ZoomInfo credit usage policy.
  2. Integrate past conversations.
    1. Configure Einstein Conversation Insights and Einstein Activity Capture.
  3. Look up CRM data.
    Prospecting Agent can access your CRM account data by default from your connected reports.
  4. Click Save and Continue.

Define Account Research Criteria

Provide the agent with instructions on how to research accounts when qualifying them to generate prospects. An account qualifies if it meets all the required criteria you establish.

  1. Review and update the default text in the Required Criteria section. These are mandatory qualities an account must meet before the agent generates prospects for that account.
  2. Review and update the default text in the Optional Criteria section. These are qualities you want to see in an account, but aren't mandatory.
  3. Click Save.
  4. Preview your account research output by selecting an account and clicking Preview.
  5. Review results, adjust the criteria as needed, and click Continue.

Define Prospect Ranking

Define what makes a prospect ideal, acceptable, or poor for your business.

  1. Review and update the description for ideal prospects.
  2. Review and update the description for acceptable prospects.
  3. Review and update the description for poor prospects.
  4. Click Save.
  5. Preview ranking output for a selected account, adjust your descriptions as needed, and click Continue.

Configure Prospect Assignment Settings

Define how the agent distributes prospects and assigns their ownership.

On the Assign Prospects page, the settings that appear depend on how you select to distribute prospects. If you distribute prospects equally among sales reps, you configure routing and ownership next. If you distribute all prospects to one sales rep, those additional steps don't appear and you continue to the next page.

  1. On the Assign Prospects page, click Advanced Prospecting Settings.
    1. In Route Prospects from Additional Account Owners, select additional users to prospect on. These are users without access to prospecting agent who own accounts you want the agent to research. Prospects from these accounts are assigned via round-robin to the recipients that you select later on.
    2. In Record Creation, select the Salesforce object to create for new prospects. The agent creates contacts by default.
    3. Click Save.
  2. Select whether to distribute prospects equally among sales reps or to one sales rep.
  3. Enter the maximum number of open prospects per sales rep.
    We recommend starting with a lower volume of open prospects per sales rep, between 10 and 200.
  4. Select how often the agent runs, including the day and time.
  5. If you selected Distribute all prospects to one sales rep, search for and select a sales rep to assign to.
  6. Click Confirm.
  7. If you selected Distribute equally amongst sales reps, click Use the same routing rules for all sources in Manage Routing.
  8. If you selected Distribute equally amongst sales reps, select the scope of which accounts the agent should prospect on.
  9. Select Prospecting Users' Accounts for the agent to research accounts owned by prospecting users only and assign prospects to the account owner or select All Accounts for the agent to research all accounts regardless of ownership and assign prospects to your selected users.
  10. If you selected Prospecting Users' Accounts and selected additional account owners in Advanced Prospecting Settings, then in the optional Route Prospects from Additional Accounts section, search for and select users in Select Recipients, and click Confirm.
  11. If you selected All Accounts, search for and select the users the agent assigns prospects to via round-robin, and click Confirm.
  12. Click Save and Continue.

Review Your Configurations

Confirm that all configuration sections are complete before activating.

  1. In the Review Settings tab, verify your agent configuration.
  2. Confirm that all applicable sections have been tested.

Preview Your Agent

Run a final preview with a target account, then activate the agent.

  1. Click the Preview Agent tab.
  2. Search for and select an account you expect to qualify and whose contacts are familiar to your team.
  3. Click Preview.
  4. Review the response, update your configuration if needed, and then click Activate.