To politely decline a request that doesn't fit your offer, say in one sentence why it falls outside what you do, then leave the door open. Once a Muzau agent has gathered a prospect's answers, you get a card suggesting what to do next, including “Decline politely”. If you choose it, the agent drafts the refusal with what Muzau knows about your offers, and you review it in “To approve” before it goes out.
A request arrives that doesn't suit you: a project too small, too far away, or outside what you sell. Saying no takes effort, so the email sits in the inbox, then gets forgotten. The person keeps waiting for a quote that will never come, and comes away with the image of a company that doesn't reply.
A clear, polite, quick refusal frees everyone. The prospect looks elsewhere without losing time, your team keeps its hours for the requests it can close, and the door stays open for the day their need fits what you do.
A Muzau agent that qualifies asks each prospect the information you chose for them, and files the answers in its tracking file, column by column and in their own words. Once all the answers are in, you get a card in “To do” and an email: their request, their answers to each of your questions, then who they are in a sentence or two. That card is where you judge whether the request fits your offer. To choose those questions, see how to qualify a prospect; to judge whether the request is worth a meeting, how to tell if a prospect is serious.
The card at the end of qualification offers the next step in one click, out of three: suggest a meeting, send the planned follow-up (a quote, a price, a reminder) or decline politely. You choose which ones when you create the agent; by default, an agent that qualifies has the meeting and the polite refusal. Only one arrives already drafted, the meeting or the planned follow-up. The refusal is only written when you choose it, and its draft waits for you in “To approve”.
The agent writes with what the Brain knows about your company: your offers, your prices, your lead times, your rules and your tone. What you don't do can be written there too, as knowledge you add yourself on the Brain page. In “To approve”, you always review the refusal before it goes out. An edit to the tone, the length or the sign-off becomes, from the first time, a writing rule for all your agents.
The refusal goes to the person who wrote, in the same thread: the address is never chosen by the AI. Once the file is complete, the agent no longer follows up with that prospect and no longer replies to them on its own by email. If they reply to your refusal, their message waits for you in “To do”, and you take the conversation back if the door reopens. One exception: if the agent's last email still asked them a question, the agent answers their reply.
A good refusal fits in five or six lines. It says no early, without detours, and leaves no question hanging.
Three mistakes come up again and again. Leaving the request unanswered, counting on silence to say no: the person keeps waiting. Sending a quote deliberately too high so that it gets turned down: it costs both sides time, and leaves a bad memory. Justifying yourself in three paragraphs: the reason fits in one sentence. As for timing, decline as soon as you know the request doesn't fit, the same day if possible. If it partly fits, it is no longer a refusal: see how to reply to a quote request by email.
Autonomous does not mean unchecked. You set the level of autonomy of every agent, its limits cannot be crossed, everything it does is recorded in a plain-language log, and one gesture stops it all.
For the tasks you don't have time for. You give the address of your website, then describe the work in your own words. Nothing to install.