Business to business salesWe built the platform that answers new business leads, with a person able to take over at any point.
Conduit sells to businesses. The first stage of that work is answering new leads, working out which are worth a meeting, and getting those meetings booked. Saffron built the platform that runs it: AI answers over email and text, a person can take over at any point, and rules decide what may be sent.
- things the AI can do
- 14things the AI can do
- checks before sending
- 5checks before sending
- weeks of building
- 13weeks of building
Counts taken from the finished system, not estimates of outcome.
Where it started.
Replies came into individual inboxes and phones. Contact lists lived in spreadsheets with no reliable record of who could be contacted. Scripts belonged to whoever wrote them, meeting times were typed into calendars by hand, and nothing checked a message before it went.
- Conversations
- BEFOREPersonal inboxes and phones
- NOWOne shared inbox, answered by AI or by a person
- Sending
- BEFOREWhoever pressed send decided
- NOWFive checks run before any message can leave
- Meetings
- BEFOREAgreed in a thread, typed into a calendar
- NOWBooked by the agent into Google Calendar or Cal.com
- Contact lists
- BEFORESpreadsheets, no record of consent
- NOWOne list that records who may be contacted, and who may not
- Scripts
- BEFOREHeld by individual people
- NOWReviewed and published before they answer anyone
- Follow-up
- BEFOREWhenever someone remembered
- NOWThree by default, 48 hours apart, capped at thirty
- Quiet hours
- BEFORENobody's problem
- NOWEnforced in the contact's own timezone
- Record of what happened
- BEFORENone
- NOWEvery action logged, every message traced to who sent it
| WORKFLOW | BEFORE | NOW |
|---|---|---|
| Conversations | Personal inboxes and phones | One shared inbox, answered by AI or by a person |
| Sending | Whoever pressed send decided | Five checks run before any message can leave |
| Meetings | Agreed in a thread, typed into a calendar | Booked by the agent into Google Calendar or Cal.com |
| Contact lists | Spreadsheets, no record of consent | One list that records who may be contacted, and who may not |
| Scripts | Held by individual people | Reviewed and published before they answer anyone |
| Follow-up | Whenever someone remembered | Three by default, 48 hours apart, capped at thirty |
| Quiet hours | Nobody's problem | Enforced in the contact's own timezone |
| Record of what happened | None | Every action logged, every message traced to who sent it |
What Saffron built.
Each part of the system, and the manual step it replaced.
01Contacts ready to message
Import and tidy
Spreadsheets uploaded and matched to the right fields, with anything that fails put in a queue to review.
Replaced. Lists cleaned by hand.
Who may be contacted
Every contact carries whether they can be emailed or texted, and a do-not-contact list that no one can override.
Replaced. No reliable record of who could be contacted.
Groups
Saved filters for picking who a campaign goes to, including groups AI proposes for a person to approve.
Replaced. Filters rebuilt each time.
02The AI that answers
Building an answerer
Set what it knows, what it must not say, and which channels it uses. A quality check advises, never blocks.
Replaced. Scripts held by individual people.
Drafting help
AI can draft a whole setup or a single field. Nothing is saved until a person reviews it.
Replaced. Written from scratch.
What it knows
Facts, common questions, and objections pulled from your own documents and websites, then chosen by a person.
Replaced. Transcribed by hand.
Holding the conversation
It reads the thread, answers, judges whether the lead is worth a meeting, and books one. Fourteen defined actions, nothing improvised.
Replaced. A person on every reply.
03One inbox, with a person in it
Every conversation in one place
Email and text in a single thread view, whoever answered.
Replaced. Scattered across people.
Taking over
Pause the AI on any conversation and reply yourself. The message passes the same checks, recorded as yours.
Replaced. No handover possible.
Handing back
Pricing, contracts, legal questions, and complaints are passed to a person automatically, with a link to the thread.
Replaced. Missed.
Booking the meeting
Reads the closer's calendar, books, reschedules, or cancels, and writes a short summary for whoever takes the call.
Replaced. Typed into a calendar by hand.
04Rules and record
The rules
When messages may be sent, how many, how far apart, and what each must say. Published as versions that cannot be edited.
Replaced. Unwritten, and different for everyone.
Five checks before sending
Do-not-contact, follow-up limit, spacing, quiet hours in the reader's own timezone, and a check on wording and links.
Replaced. Nothing checked a message before it went.
Where the checks sit
They run after the AI writes and before anything leaves, so it cannot see a block and write around it.
Replaced. Nothing to see.
The record
Every action logged with who did it, what happened, and what was refused.
Replaced. No record at all.
Where AI does the work, and where a person decides.
The system prepares the work and stops at the decision.
01A lead replies
The email or text lands in the shared inbox.
- AI DRAFTS
02AI drafts
It reads the thread, checks what it is allowed to say, and writes the next message.
03Five checks run
Do-not-contact, follow-up limit, spacing, quiet hours, and wording. All after the draft, before anything leaves.
- A PERSON DECIDES
04A person can step in
Any conversation can be paused and answered by a person. Pricing, legal, and complaints hand over on their own.
05Sent and logged
It goes out, recorded against whoever sent it, AI or person.
- The checks run on every message, after the AI writes and before anything leaves. The AI cannot see a block and write around it.
- Anyone can pause the AI on a conversation and reply themselves. The message passes the same checks and is recorded as theirs.
- Nothing AI drafts is saved until a person reviews it, from wording to contact groups to campaign settings.
- Pricing, contracts, legal questions, and complaints are handed to a person automatically, with a link to the conversation.
- AI drafted
Aurora Freight
Reply received
- Meeting booked
Kestrel Logistics
Qualified
- Sending
Northbank Group
Follow-up 2 of 3
AI drafted a reply to Aurora Freight.Waiting for your review.
Review and approveOne lead's week.
What the rules do to one conversation, using the standard settings.
5 things happen on a set rhythm, and 1 runs the whole time.
DAY 1
- 1
A lead replies, and the AI answersnever held longer than four hours
- 2
Out of hours where they are? Held until morning
- 1
DAY 3
- 3
No reply: first follow-up48 hours later by default
- 3
DAY 5
- 4
Second follow-up
- 4
DAY 7
- 5
Third follow-up, and the last by defaultno setting can push past thirty
- 5
RUNNING THE WHOLE TIME
- Any day: the meeting is booked, or the conversation is handed to a person
What changed.
- 01
One inbox instead of many.
- 02
Every message passes the same checks, whoever wrote it.
- 03
A person can take any conversation back.
- 04
Built and shipped in thirteen weeks.