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Brief an agent to route inbound leads by territory rules

  • For Sales and customer success
  • You practice Showing an example of what you want
  • Time about 5 minutes

About this exercise

You want an AI agent to route new inbound leads. Write its brief with your rules: any company with 1,000 or more employees goes to Lena (Enterprise) no matter the state; otherwise CA, OR and WA go to Priya (West) and NY, MA and NJ go to Tom (East); anything else goes to you with ASK_HUMAN; and it never emails leads. Output exactly 7 numbered plain-text lines: one per lead in order, then DONE.

Common mistakes when you ask AI for this

  • Not showing the log format. Left alone, the AI writes a friendly report with headings instead of a checkable action log. Try: Show it literally: "Format every line like 1. ACTION: tool(args), then ASK_HUMAN: and DONE: lines. Plain text."
  • Rules in the wrong order. The AI routes by state first, so big companies land with territory reps. Try: Add: "1,000+ employees go to Lena no matter the state. Check that first."
  • No catch-all. The AI assigns Ohio to whoever seems closest. Try: Add: "States outside the territories go to ASK_HUMAN."
  • Letting it email. Given send_email, the AI replies to leads itself. Try: Add: "Never email leads. End with DONE."

What a strong prompt includes

  • Puts the size rule first
  • Lists the territories
  • Has a catch-all
  • Forbids emailing
  • Shows the action-log format

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