Build a Phased AI Sales Bot

A step-by-step process for building a conversational AI bot that evolves from simple deflection to active selling. Based on HubSpot's SalesBot methodology.

When to use: When your team handles significant live chat volume and wants to automate low-intent conversations while preserving human attention for high-value prospects.

Preconditions:

• Active live chat channel with measurable volume
• Access to historical chat transcripts (1,000+ conversations)
• At least one top-performing human agent to define quality standards
• AI/ML capability (in-house or vendor) for RAG architecture and propensity scoring

Key principle: Build human operations first. Quality training data and human examples define what "good" looks like before automation.

Source: What We Learned Building HubSpot's SalesBot