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Prospects

Prepare a prospect search

prospects_prepare · Reads only · Markdown

The interview before a prospect search: up to three questions about the market and the kind of customer, or a ready brief with its price.

Free*

*Free up to 1,000,000 reads a month for the whole account, then $0.50 per 10,000 reads.

An example

We want more restaurant kitchens as customers. Find us about 40 in Hamburg that might need a new dishwasher.

Your agent callsprospects_prepareFree*

The example business is Hansen & Voss, a restaurant-equipment wholesaler in Hamburg with 60 staff. The reply is the one the tool really gives.

With these arguments
{
  "request": "Find 40 restaurants and hotel kitchens in Hamburg that might need a new dishwasher or combi steamer.",
  "about_us": "Hansen & Voss sells, installs and services commercial kitchen equipment (dishwashers, combi steamers, refrigeration) for restaurants, hotels and canteens in northern Germany, from Hamburg. We want first meetings with kitchens that are growing or replacing old equipment.",
  "website": "https://hansenvoss.example"
}
What comes back
{
  "status": "needs_input",
  "summary": "Restaurant and hotel kitchens that could replace or add dishwashers and combi steamers.",
  "questions": [
    {
      "id": "market",
      "prompt": "Where should the search look?",
      "help": "Local searches find more named people with working emails.",
      "selection": "single",
      "allow_custom": true,
      "options": [
        {
          "label": "Hamburg",
          "description": "The city itself",
          "value": "Hamburg, Germany"
        },
        {
          "label": "Northern Germany",
          "description": "Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony",
          "value": "Northern Germany"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Use it when

When the person asks for new customers to contact, before any search starts.

What it does

The interview before a prospect search. From what the person asked for and what you know about the business, Conecto either asks up to three questions with choices, about the market and the kind of customer (never job titles), or writes a ready brief. Ask the questions in your own chat, then call again with the same request and about_us and every answer so far, by question id. When the status is ready, show the person the summary, the count and what it can cost (count x $0.05), and start it with prospects_find once they agree. Only accounts that have topped up search.

What comes back

status needs_input with a summary and up to three questions (id, prompt, help, single or multiple choice, options with a label, description and value, and whether the person may answer in their own words); or status ready with the summary, the brief (customers, industries, places, sizes, people, contact details, must have, leave out), the proposed count and a brief_token for prospects_find. Every reply also carries cost_usd and balance_usd.

Inputs

NameTypeWhat it is
requestRequiredstringWhat the person asked for, in their words: who, how many, where. 3 to 4,000 characters.
about_usRequiredstringWhat the business sells, to whom and where, and what it wants from these prospects, from what you know about it. The interview never asks the person this. 20 to 4,000 characters.
websitestringThe business's website; the account's own when left out. Up to 500 characters.
answersobjectThe answers so far, by question id: a choice's value, several values for a multiple choice, or the person's own words.

The call

Over MCP, call prospects_prepare on https://api.conecto.chat/mcp/prospects. Over REST:

Terminal
curl -X POST https://api.conecto.chat/v1/tools/prospects_prepare \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $CONECTO_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"request":"Find 40 restaurants and hotel kitchens in Hamburg that might need a new dishwasher or combi steamer.","about_us":"Hansen & Voss sells, installs and services commercial kitchen equipment (dishwashers, combi steamers, refrigeration) for restaurants, hotels and canteens in northern Germany, from Hamburg. We want first meetings with kitchens that are growing or replacing old equipment.","website":"https://hansenvoss.example"}'

When it refuses

A refused call costs nothing and says what to do next.

CodeWhenWhat to do
payment_required402The business never topped up, so its balance is free credit.Top up once with POST /v1/topups, then call again.
rate_limited429The business ran 30 interviews in the last hour.Wait, then call again with the same request and answers.
unavailable503The interview took too long, or the engine is busy.Call again with the same request and answers.

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