Set up your AI SDR agent (step by step)

This is the click-by-click guide to creating your first AI SDR agent. For what the agent is and how it behaves, read the overview first. Setting up is a five-minute job; the important decision is when to turn on automatic sending, covered at the end.

Step 1: open the agents page

1. Go to Settings in the sidebar.
2. Open the AI SDR agents tile (at /settings/agents).
3. Click + New agent.

You need a lead-gen pitch on your workspace first. If you have not set one, the page points you to Settings → Lead-gen to add it. The pitch is what the agent sells; the brief below is who it targets.

Step 2: write the ICP brief (who to target)

The brief is a plain-English description of your ideal customer. Treat it like a note to a smart new hire. Include three things: what kind of business, where, and any qualifying signals (size, sector tells, recent events). For example:

• “UK food and drink wholesalers, £2m-£100m turnover, selling to independents and hospitality”
• “Recruitment agencies in the North West turning over £2m+, tech or SaaS placement”

Leave the brief blank to fall back to your workspace-wide lead-gen brief. Filling it in lets this agent target something specific without affecting anyone else.

Step 3: write the pitch (what to sell)

The pitch is the sales message the drafts are built around. Keep it to what you offer and the outcome for the customer - the agent uses it as context and will name your product once, but it never pastes the pitch verbatim. Leave it blank to use your workspace-wide pitch.

Step 4: set volume and hours

• Daily target - how many new prospects to work per day (1-50). Start modest, around 10.
• Working hours - the window the agent sends in, in UK time. Sends are paced across it.
• Weekdays only - leave ticked to skip weekends.

Step 5: choose auto-send

Step 6: (optional) turn on follow-ups

Tick Auto follow-ups to chase non-repliers automatically. You set three day counts, measured from the first email:

• Follow-up 1 - default day 3.
• Follow-up 2 - default day 7.
• Mark Lost - default day 12, if there is still no reply.

Each follow-up is freshly written for that lead in your voice, and a reply from anyone on the thread stops the sequence. Follow-ups only fire when auto-send is also on.

Step 7: create, then test with Run now

1. Click Create agent. It appears in the list as Active.
2. Click ✦ Run now to fire it immediately (this bypasses the working-hours window so you can see it work). It finds prospects and writes drafts on the spot.
3. Open /lead-gen to read the drafts. If auto-send is off, send the good ones by hand; if it is on, they have already gone.

After that, the agent runs on its own during your working hours - you do not need to press anything each day. Pause, resume, or archive it any time from the same page.

Before you turn auto-send on

Automatic sending fires cold email from your domain. Set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC first or it will land in spam - see Authenticate your email before auto-send. It is a one-time, ten-minute job.