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- Built an outbound voice AI + email automation system for a specialty finance lender
- Handles 100-120 calls/hour with consistent qualification questions
- Reduced document collection time from 5 days to 1.5 days
- 3x increase in qualified lead volume without additional headcount
The Problem: Manual Lead Qualification Doesn't Scale
Jay runs a specialty finance lending operation. His team was spending 6+ hours daily calling leads, asking the same qualification questions:
- How long have you been in business?
- What's your average monthly revenue?
- How much funding are you looking for?
- Do you have any existing advances outstanding?
At $25/hour for a caller doing 15-20 calls/hour, each qualified lead was costing $8-12 in labor alone. And the bigger problem was inconsistency - different reps captured data differently, creating chaos in the CRM.
The Solution: Voice AI + Automation Stack
Component 1: Retell AI for Voice
Retell handles phone conversations. The key is writing prompts that sound natural while extracting exact data points:
# Lead Qualification Agent
ROLE: You are Sarah, a funding specialist.
OBJECTIVE: Qualify business owners for MCAs.
QUALIFICATION CRITERIA:
1. Business age: Minimum 6 months
2. Monthly revenue: Minimum $10,000
3. Funding need: $5,000 - $500,000
CONVERSATION FLOW:
→ Warm greeting (use their name)
→ Confirm they're the business owner
→ Ask about business age naturally
→ Transition to revenue question
→ Determine funding needs
→ If qualified: schedule callbackThe biggest mistake with voice AI prompts is being too robotic. Instead of "What is your monthly revenue?" use "And just to get a sense of your business size, roughly what do you guys do in monthly revenue?"
Component 2: Make.com for Data Orchestration
Make.com routes data between systems. When Retell completes a call, it triggers a webhook that:
- Parses the call transcript for qualification data
- Updates HubSpot with structured fields
- Calculates lead score based on criteria
- Triggers appropriate follow-up sequence
- Sends Slack notification for hot leads
Component 3: HubSpot for CRM & Lead Scoring
HubSpot serves as the single source of truth. The lead scoring model:
- +30 points: Business age 2+ years
- +25 points: Monthly revenue $25K+
- +20 points: No existing MCAs
- +15 points: Funding need $25K-$150K
- +10 points: Expressed urgency
The Results: Before vs. After
- Call volume: 15-20/day → 100-120/hour
- Cost per call: $1.25-1.67 → $0.12-0.15
- Document collection: 5 days → 1.5 days
- Qualified leads: 3x increase, same ad spend
Key Lessons Learned
1. Prompt Engineering is Everything
I spent 40% of project time on prompts. The difference between good and great is 20% vs 45% qualification rate.
2. Build for Failure
The AI will make mistakes. If it can't extract data, flag for human review rather than guessing.
3. Start with High-Volume, Low-Stakes
Lead qualification is perfect - calls are short (2-4 min), questions predictable, and mistakes don't cost deals.
Frequently Asked Questions
Voice AI typically costs $0.12-0.15 per call using Retell AI, compared to $3-5 for human reps. For 500+ calls/day, this means 90%+ cost savings.
For B2B lead qualification, Retell AI + Make.com + HubSpot is a proven stack. Retell handles voice, Make.com manages data flow, HubSpot serves as CRM.
Yes, modern voice AI handles multi-branch conversations with conditional logic - verifying business age, revenue, funding needs with natural follow-up questions.
Want a System Like This?
I build voice AI systems for B2B service businesses. Let's talk about what 24/7 lead qualification could do for your pipeline.
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