# Qualified — Piper, the inbound AI SDR, engages website visitors in real time, qualifies them against your ICP and books the meeting. Salesforce-native; Salesforce itself acquired the company in April 2026.

> Source: The Agents Index — https://theagentsindex.com/qualified (structured, researched, re-verified)
> Facts last verified: 2026-07-23

Qualified is a San Francisco sales-and-marketing platform built around Piper, an AI SDR agent that engages inbound website visitors in real time, qualifies them against a buyer's ideal-customer profile, and books meetings with the right rep without a human writing each message. Founded in 2018 by former Salesforce executives Kraig Swensrud and Sean Whiteley, it raised $163M and became one of the best-known Salesforce-native pipeline tools before Salesforce itself acquired the company outright on April 1, 2026 for roughly $1.2 billion, folding Piper into Agentforce.

| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Website | https://www.qualified.com |
| API | Yes |
| Best for | B2B companies already running Salesforce that get meaningful inbound website traffic and want an AI agent to qualify and convert it in real time. |
| Not for | Teams on a non-Salesforce CRM, teams whose bottleneck is outbound prospecting rather than inbound conversion, or anyone wanting transparent self-serve pricing. |

## Verdict

Qualified earns its place in this category by being genuinely differentiated from the outbound-first AI SDRs that dominate it: Piper works inbound, live, on your website and in your inbox, deeply wired into Salesforce rather than treating the CRM as just another integration. The named case studies (Asana, Greenhouse) and the fact that Salesforce itself paid roughly $1.2 billion to acquire the company outright in April 2026 are real, verifiable signals of substance, not just marketing claims. The honest catches: Salesforce is a hard requirement, not an option, pricing is entirely custom (independent procurement data puts the median deal at $61,000/year), and — now that Salesforce owns it — the product's future is tied to Agentforce's roadmap rather than an independent vendor's. Pick Qualified if you're Salesforce-native and your bottleneck is converting inbound traffic; skip it if you need outbound prospecting or run on a different CRM.

## Strengths and weaknesses

- ✓ Named, quantified enterprise case studies (Asana, Greenhouse) back the pipeline-generation claim rather than leaving it as marketing copy.
- ✓ Now backed by Salesforce's own balance sheet and roadmap after the April 2026 acquisition — a strong signal of staying power and continued Agentforce investment.
- ✓ A real, documented public API (qualified.com/api) for teams that want to build custom automation on top of Piper, not just use the dashboard.
- ✗ Requires Salesforce as your CRM — teams on HubSpot, Pipedrive or another CRM cannot use Qualified, and the required Salesforce subscription is billed on top of Qualified's own contract.
- ✗ No public pricing; independent procurement data (Vendr, 183 real deals) puts the median annual contract at $61,000 (range $35,280–$114,600), and a competitor cost breakdown estimates Premier starts near $42,000/year with enterprise deployments reaching $72,000–$100,000+ once Salesforce infrastructure and onboarding are included.
- ✗ Now a Salesforce-owned product following the April 2026 acquisition, not an independent vendor — buyers should expect the roadmap and pricing to move toward Agentforce bundling rather than standalone evolution.
- ⚠ Hard Salesforce dependency, not usable as a standalone product without a Salesforce CRM subscription.
- ⚠ No self-serve trial or published pricing; every deal goes through a sales demo and custom quote.
- ⚠ Built for inbound website engagement, not outbound prospecting, teams wanting an autonomous outbound AI SDR (like 11x or Artisan) need a different tool.

## Key features

- **Piper Conversations** — Real-time website chat that qualifies a visitor against your ICP using live Salesforce CRM and intent data, then routes or books the meeting.
- **Piper Meetings** — Instant, no-back-and-forth scheduling straight out of a qualifying conversation.
- **Piper Email + Offers** — Automated nurture sequences for leads that aren't ready yet, plus mid-conversation personalized content/offers.
- **Agentic Nurture / Agentic PLG** — Two purpose-built modes, one works cold top-of-funnel leads, the other converts free-trial/freemium users into paying customers autonomously.
- **Native Salesforce integration** — Reads and writes Salesforce CRM data directly rather than through a generic sync layer, which is also why it requires Salesforce.

## Use cases

- **Convert high-intent website traffic** — A B2B SaaS company with real inbound volume but not enough reps to chat every visitor deploys Piper to qualify and book meetings with the visitors worth a rep's time, 24/7.
- **Turn free-trial signups into revenue** — A product-led-growth company routes trial users to Piper's Agentic PLG flow to identify buying signals and convert them to a paid plan without a human touch until late in the funnel.
- **Nurture leads that aren't sales-ready** — Marketing hands Piper a list of top-of-funnel leads; Agentic Nurture works them over time via email and on-site engagement until they cross the qualification bar.

## Integrations

Salesforce CRM (native, required) · Slack (Piper for Slack) · Website — embeddable chat widget

## Sources

- https://www.qualified.com
- https://www.qualified.com/api
- https://www.qualified.com/salesforce
- https://www.salesforce.com/news/stories/salesforce-signs-definitive-agreement-to-acquire-qualified/
- https://www.vendr.com/marketplace/qualified
- https://www.knock-ai.com/blog/qualified-pricing