Does your sales team use WhatsApp to connect with leads and clients? Let’s look at how you can make it a more effective process, so you can manage and coordinate your team smoothly to close more deals.
WhatsApp is a great messaging app for business communication, but it’s not a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. That means you’ll still need to handle your sales activities like lead management, follow-ups, and tracking outside the app. And while communication is a central part of the sales process, especially when your success relies on customer engagement, things can get challenging when you’re managing a sales team who primarily talk to their clients on WhatsApp.
So how do you streamline your sales process on WhatsApp to ensure no lead slips through the cracks and no opportunity is lost due to missed follow-ups or unmanaged nurturing?
This article will guide you in building a simple, effective system to run your sales process on WhatsApp while keeping your team organised and productive. You’ll learn the strategies, tools, and workflows you need to get results, without breaking the bank or relying on complex solutions.
But before we dive into building the system, let’s start by exploring the key areas you need to focus on for a smooth and successful sales process.
The challenges of managing a sales team on WhatsApp
Communication is an important part of any successful sales process. To be effective at getting more sales, your team’s communications need to be both timely and well-organised. While WhatsApp is an excellent platform for staying in touch with clients, it has its limitations. Regular WhatsApp doesn’t help you instantly respond to new leads with auto-personalisation, assign them to team members, or send consistent follow-ups.
This creates a challenge for sales managers: how to prevent leads from slipping through the cracks, especially leads you want to assign to your team members. Without a system to instantly capture and distribute incoming leads, delays are inevitable and can result in lost opportunities.
To run a high-performing sales team, you need more than just a communication tool. You need a structured process that ensures every lead is tracked, every follow-up is timely, and every interaction is measured. Relying solely on WhatsApp means you’ll be managing all of this manually, which not only slows down your team but also increases the chances of missed opportunities.
As a sales manager, you’ll want to complement WhatsApp with the right tools and workflows while being cost-efficient.
With this, let’s create an effective sales process for your team on WhatsApp step by step.
Step 1. Automate lead transfer from your lead sources
External tools needed:
A mobile-first CRM, or a connector tool and a spreadsheet
Whether you’re generating leads from your website, social media, ads, or phone calls, you’d want to assign them to your sales team immediately after a lead submits interest. As the sales manager, you’re usually the one who needs to check for new leads in each source and assign them manually.
If you’re getting just a few leads from a handful of sources, it might make sense to handle them manually – saving them to your phonebook or a spreadsheet and then assigning them to salespeople one by one. But things get complicated once you start generating a high volume of leads from multiple sources. You’ll need to check each platform several times a day just to find new leads and download them manually, one by one. That’s a lot of time and effort wasted.
The bigger problem is that most lead sources don’t notify you when new leads come in. This means you’re likely to miss the opportunity to contact leads on time, or when they’re most engaged, especially those generated outside of your working hours.
Therefore, before even brainstorming on what to send as your first message, you should ensure your leads are automatically transferred from your source to your sales system to ensure your leads can be contacted immediately.
There are a couple of ways to do this.
The first method is by using a mobile-first CRM (Free with Privyr)
A mobile-first CRM can automatically pull leads from your lead sources straight to your phone, so you’re not wasting time downloading or copying them manually. And since your team is already using WhatsApp to connect with leads on their phones, you need a CRM that supports the entire sales process on the go. Privyr is the tool that exactly helps you do that.
Here’s how to use Privyr to receive leads from lead sources instantly.
Step 1. Create a Privyr account and download the app
Go to www.privyr.com, click Sign Up to create your free account. Then, install the Privyr app on your mobile. It’s available on both the App Store and Google Play Store.
Step 2. Connect your lead sources
In the app, tap on Account and select Integrations.
Under the Lead Sources tab, you’ll find a list of lead sources that you can connect with Privyr to automatically receive instant mobile alerts for new leads. Select your lead source and tap on Configure/Connect.
This will redirect you to the lead source’s app or website. Click on Continue. This will integrate Privyr with your lead source. Repeat the same process for other lead sources if you have more. Once that’s set up, every time your lead source captures a new lead, you’ll immediately receive it on your phone with a new lead alert.
Privyr allows unlimited lead transfer from your lead sources under the Free plan.
If you’re generating leads through offline methods, you can add leads to your Privyr app through Integrations > Import/Export where you can upload a CSV file containing your clients, then manage the subsequent sales process effectively.
The second method is by using a connector tool like Zapier or Make
A connector tool can help you automatically send leads from your lead sources to your spreadsheets or CRM. For this, you’ll need to sign up on the platform and set up a lead capture on each lead source you’re using to generate leads.
Here’s how to use Zapier to send leads from your lead sources to spreadsheets:
1. Identify your lead source and spreadsheet
- Confirm the lead source (e.g., Facebook Lead Ads, Website, Google Ads) and the spreadsheet app (Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel) you want to connect.
2. Create a new Zap
- Log in to your Zapier account.
- Click “Create Zap” to start a new automation.
3. Set up the Trigger
- Select your lead source as the trigger app.
- Choose the trigger event (for instance, New lead or New form submission)
- Connect your lead source account and test the trigger to ensure Zapier can pull in sample lead data.
4. Set Up the Action (Send to Spreadsheet)
- Add an action step and select your spreadsheet.
- Choose the action event. It’s mostly “Create Spreadsheet Row.”
- Connect your spreadsheet account.
- Select the specific spreadsheet and worksheet where you want to send the lead data.
- Map the fields from your lead source (like name, email, phone) to the columns in your spreadsheet.
5. Test and turn on your Zap
- Test the Zap to make sure leads are correctly added to your spreadsheet.
- Once confirmed, turn on the Zap.
With this, every new lead from your source will automatically be sent to your spreadsheet in real time.
Step 2. Automatically assign new leads to your team members
Tools needed:
A mobile CRM, or a connector tool, a WhatsApp Business API provider tool, and a spreadsheet
Assigning the right leads to the right team members immediately after capturing them is another crucial part of an effective sales process. It ensures each lead is handled by the most suitable sales rep and also increases the chances of conversion by reaching out while your offer is still fresh in the lead’s mind.
You can streamline this by using a mobile-first CRM that automatically assigns leads, or by using a connector tool, especially if you prefer managing your leads in spreadsheets.
Privyr helps you easily set up a system that automatically notifies the right team member as soon as a new lead comes in from any of your lead sources. The app works seamlessly with the default WhatsApp application on your smartphone, so there’s no need to configure anything separately on WhatsApp.
Here’s how to automatically assign new leads to your team members using Privyr:
Go to the Team tab on your Privyr app and tap on INVITE TEAM. This allows you to invite your team members via their email address.
Once your sales team accepts your invite, go to Teams and add your lead assignment rule(s) to distribute leads based on your preferences. With this, your sales reps will receive instant lead alerts on their phone. From the notification, they can contact the lead in a few taps with auto-personalised messages. All new leads can be contacted within a minute of them submitting their information on your ads, websites, forms, and more.
Here’s how to assign new leads using a connector tool:
If you prefer using spreadsheets to store your lead information, you can use a connector tool to directly send new leads to your sales rep’s WhatsApp. This might include some manual steps and multiple tools.
- On your Spreadsheet, use formulas and filters to implement the lead distribution rules you defined. Use filters to sort leads by location or inquiry type and add formulas to set up an automatic lead distribution.
- Sign up on a WhatsApp API provider platform (like WATI, Twilio), and create a WhatsApp template for messaging. You may need approval from Meta to complete this action.
Here’s an example template: Hi, {{salesperson}}, a new lead has been assigned to you. Here are their details:
Once your template is ready, go to Zapier and create a Zap. Set Google Sheets as the trigger app, then add your WhatsApp API provider as the action app, and choose “Send WhatsApp Message” as the action
Your sales team will receive a message on their WhatsApp each time a lead is assigned to them.
Step 3. Create effective follow-up schedules for each lead
External tools needed:
A mobile CRM, or a calendar/reminder app
As you already know, most leads don’t convert in just one interaction. Turning leads into customers usually requires multiple conversations and consistent nurturing. That’s why it’s essential to follow up in a timely manner, even if a lead hasn’t responded yet.
On WhatsApp, you can manually build a simple follow-up system using chat labels and a calendar or reminder app on your phone to stay on track.
Here’s how to manually set up a follow-up routine on WhatsApp:
- Label your contacts/conversations in your WhatsApp. You could add a label you can understand, for instance “Follow-up on 4th of May”, or “Hot lead”.
- Set reminders in your calendar app so you get the follow up notification when it’s time to follow up.
If you’re using Privyr, you don’t need to manually set up a follow-up reminder or create labels. The app automatically logs when you contact a lead from your Client Details page, and automatically schedules a follow-up reminder after every interaction. When it’s time to follow up a lead, you’ll receive a notification, letting you re-engage the lead in just a few taps.
4. Track activities
External tools needed:
A mobile-first CRM
The next important step is ensuring your visibility into how each lead is progressing. Without proper tracking, it’s hard to know who’s following up, whether they are actually following up, what stage a lead is in, or where deals are getting stuck.
One way to track progress on WhatsApp without external tools is by using chat labels like “New,” “Interested,” “Closed,” or “Lost.” These labels can help you categorise leads at a glance, but they might not give you a complete picture as they require manual updating.
To stay on top of things, your team can maintain a shared spreadsheet to track lead status. While this can work in the early stages, it can become inefficient as your lead volume grows.
The best way to track your progress and reports is by using a CRM, preferably a mobile-first one. If you’re using Privyr, you don’t need to set up any tools for this. Privyr captures all your team’s communications and automatically generates reports based on each salesperson’s activities. You can easily track conversations, lead status and reports for all your sales processes.
The best practice is to track progress frequently. Track how many leads were contacted, how many of them are hot leads, and how often are follow-ups being done if they’re being done at all. Monitor response time and closure rates to understand your messaging strategies.
Final words
Running an effective WhatsApp sales process requires the right tools and a clear understanding of how your sales workflow operates. The last thing you want is to overcomplicate things with methods or tools that your team finds confusing. Similarly, stacking too many tools to automate each step can make your process more chaotic rather than streamlined, often causing delays and missed opportunities.
The most efficient way to manage your sales process on WhatsApp is by using a mobile-first CRM, since WhatsApp is primarily used on mobile devices. A mobile-first CRM like Privyr eliminates the need for multiple integrations and extra tools while still working seamlessly with your team’s preferred messaging app: WhatsApp. It helps you automate key steps and manage conversations seamlessly, all from your phone.
If you’re looking to enhance and track your sales team’s performance on WhatsApp, Privyr is by-far the most efficient and effective tool you can use. Don’t believe us? Try it for free today!
