Summary
Astra allows you to automatically qualify leads during conversations using a customizable qualification framework. By default, Astra provides the BANT model (Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline) to help businesses evaluate leads based on their readiness to buy.
You can also customize the qualification criteria, questions, and scoring rules to match your business needs. This guide explains how lead qualification works in Astra and how to configure it using the Qualification IQ settings of the AI agent.
Tip: Companies using qualification frameworks such as BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline) and Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) alignment often see up to 73% higher conversion rates compared to unstructured lead qualification.
Instructions
Where to find lead qualification settings
To configure lead qualification, add the Lead qualification criteria action to your AI agent instructions.
You can find this action in the Action Library, where it can be selected and included as part of your agent’s workflow.
From this page, you can configure the criteria and rules used to qualify leads during conversations.
How lead qualification works
Astra uses an automated process to guide conversations and evaluate leads based on the qualification criteria you define.
During a conversation, the AI agent will ask questions, collect responses, and automatically evaluate the lead.
The process typically follows these steps:
1. Start with BANT or customize your own criteria
Astra provides BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline) as the default lead qualification template.
This framework helps businesses understand:
Budget – Whether the lead has the budget for your product or service
Authority – Whether the lead is the decision-maker
Need – Whether the lead has a real problem your product can solve
Timeline – When the lead plans to make a decision
You can either:
Use the default BANT framework, or
Replace it with custom qualification criteria that better fit your industry.
2. Automatic lead evaluation
Once the setup is complete, Astra's AI agent will automatically evaluates leads during conversations.
The AI agent will:
Ask the qualification questions
Capture the lead’s responses
Evaluate the responses using your qualification rules
Assign a lead category
This process happens automatically without requiring manual review.
3. Lead scoring and labeling
After the evaluation, each lead receives:
A lead score
A lead category (for example High intent, Medium intent, Low intent or Unqualified intent)
This allows your team to quickly identify high-priority leads and focus on prospects that are more likely to convert.
Additional customization options
You can further refine the lead qualification process to better match your sales workflow.
Available customization options include:
Use the default BANT framework or create a custom qualification framework that better fits your business.
Adjust the weightage for each qualification criterion to prioritize the factors that matter most to your sales process.
Define qualification conditions for each criterion, such as High intent, Medium intent, Low intent, or Unqualified intent.
This flexibility allows you to design a qualification process that aligns with your sales strategy, customer journey, and business goals.