Agent88 playbook · Event business development

A universal BD workflow for turning event conversations into clients.

This checklist is for Agent88 business development at technical, finance, founder, investor, and professional-service events. The goal is not to collect business cards. The goal is to identify repeat workflows, qualify urgency, create next steps, and convert the right conversations into paid pilots or managed workflow-agent clients.

BD checklist Lead scoring Follow-up copy

5–8

quality conversations to target

24h

maximum follow-up window

workflow per prospect to qualify first

A/B/C

simple lead scoring after event

Core rule

Sell the workflow outcome, not generic AI.

A strong prospect has a recurring process with clear inputs, outputs, owner, review path, and business cost. Agent88 should open conversations by understanding that process first, then show how a private workflow agent can reduce manual work while preserving human approval and auditability.

Checklist

The BD person should move through seven stages.

Before the event: define the hunting thesis

Write the one-line purpose of attending: which buyers, partners, investors, or technical collaborators are worth meeting.
Prepare three target pains to listen for: repetitive research, reporting, client follow-up, document processing, approval bottlenecks, or operational admin.
Prepare one clean Agent88 positioning line: private workflow agents that turn repeat business processes into auditable, human-approved systems.
Decide the desired next step before entering the room: call, workflow audit, sample material request, partner intro, or pilot scoping session.
Prepare a simple capture method: name, company, contact path, pain, urgency, next action, and follow-up date.

Opening: start with their workflow, not our product

Open with context: what brought you to this event, and what kind of workflow problems you are mapping.
Ask what they do and where manual work still slows them down.
Avoid pitching too early. The first objective is to discover whether there is a recurring workflow with value, urgency, and ownership.
Listen for concrete inputs and outputs: PDFs, Excel files, filings, emails, CRM notes, reports, proposals, dashboards, decks, or approval packs.
If they only speak in general AI interest, keep the conversation light. If they describe a repeated business process, qualify deeper.

Qualify: separate curiosity from a real lead

Frequency: is this workflow daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or only occasional?
Owner: who currently does the work and who approves the final output?
Cost: what happens if the work is late, wrong, inconsistent, or not done?
Materials: are there examples, templates, old reports, spreadsheets, or process notes we can review?
Decision path: who would need to approve a pilot or paid engagement?
Risk boundary: what must stay human-reviewed, confidential, or outside automation?
Success definition: what would make the first pilot obviously useful?

Position: translate Agent88 into their problem

Summarize their pain back in plain language before describing Agent88.
Map Agent88 to one workflow, not the whole company. Example: research intake agent, proposal agent, reporting agent, CRM follow-up agent, funding navigator, or approval workflow agent.
Emphasize private deployment, human approval, audit trail, and reusable workflow modules.
Do not claim automation of regulated judgment, investment advice, legal advice, or final business decisions.
End with a small practical next step rather than a broad transformation pitch.

Create the next step before the conversation ends

Ask for permission to follow up with a specific reason, not a generic coffee request.
Choose one clear next action: send a short workflow map, book a 20-minute call, review one sample report, or introduce them to the right Agent88 operator.
Confirm the best contact channel and timing.
Record the exact wording they used for their pain point. Their language becomes the follow-up message.
If there is no next action, mark it as networking only, not a lead.

After the event: follow up within 24 hours

Send a short message referencing the specific conversation and pain point.
Restate one possible Agent88 workflow in their terms.
Ask for one concrete next step: a call, sample material, or confirmation of the right stakeholder.
Log the contact into the CRM or Network Intelligence Agent with source, pain, priority, next action, and follow-up date.
If they do not reply, follow up once with a useful artifact or sharper question. Do not spam.

Convert: move from conversation to client

Run a lightweight workflow audit: current process, inputs, outputs, people, tools, approvals, risks, and success metric.
Request sample materials only after trust and permission are clear. Keep sensitive data boundaries explicit.
Propose a narrow pilot with defined scope, timeline, deliverables, exclusions, and review checkpoints.
Price fairly based on workflow value, complexity, support burden, and trust stage. Reduce scope before discounting price.
After the pilot, convert to implementation or managed retainer only if the output proves repeat value.

Lead scoring

Score every conversation before it becomes CRM work.

Not every useful person is a sales lead. Some belong in the Network Intelligence Agent as relationship context. Active CRM should be reserved for prospects with a real workflow, next action, and conversion path.

A

Has a repeated painful workflow, decision access, sample materials, budget signal, and a next meeting.

B

Clear pain and possible fit, but missing decision-maker, urgency, budget, or sample materials.

C

Interesting contact or partner, but no concrete workflow or immediate next action.

Hold

Good relationship value, but timing is wrong or sensitivity is high. Keep in NIA, not active CRM.

No fit

General AI curiosity only, no business workflow, no owner, no follow-up reason.

Good opening question

“What is one recurring workflow your team still does manually even though the process is mostly repeatable?”

This keeps the conversation universal. It works with finance, consulting, legal, marketing, operations, founders, and investors because Agent88 is looking for repeatable work, not one industry buzzword.

Avoid

Do not pitch “AI transformation” before understanding the workflow.
Do not promise regulated advice, autonomous decisions, or guaranteed business outcomes.
Do not push every event contact into CRM.
Do not leave without a specific next step if the prospect is qualified.

Follow-up templates

Send short, specific messages tied to the workflow they described.

New prospect follow-up

Great meeting you at the event. I liked your point about [specific workflow/pain]. Agent88 builds private workflow agents for exactly this operating layer: source intake, draft output, human review, approval trail, and repeatable delivery. Would be useful to compare notes next week and map whether one part of that workflow is worth piloting.

Sample-material request

If helpful, send one sanitized example of the report/template/spreadsheet you mentioned. We can review it and come back with a simple workflow map: what can be automated safely, what should stay human-reviewed, and what a narrow first pilot would look like.

Partner / builder follow-up

Good comparing notes. Agent88 is focused on the deployment and workflow layer around specialist AI tools: private environments, approvals, reporting surfaces, CRM handoff, and client-specific implementation. If there is a complementary use case, we should explore a small joint demo.

Client conversion path

Conversation → qualified workflow → sample review → pilot scope → paid implementation → managed retainer.

That is the Agent88 event BD loop. Keep it concrete, source-backed, human-approved, and commercially useful.