How to qualify inbound leads on WhatsApp, Instagram and chat in five questions

Qualify an inbound lead in conversation with five questions: what they need, by when, how big, who decides and what the next step is. Ask one at a time, answer their question first, and hand over to a person when the lead is ready or the question is beyond the rules. Do not turn the chat into a form. Sellinger's inbound goals follow this shape.

Someone who writes to your business on WhatsApp, Instagram or your website chat wants an answer, not an interview. But you cannot help well, or decide who should take over, without a few facts. Qualification is how you get them without making the person feel processed. This guide gives five questions, a way to ask each in a chat, the handover rules and an example conversation.

What is qualification for?

Three decisions.

1. Is this a fit? Do you sell what they need, in the place they are, at a price that works?
2. How urgent is it? Today, this month or someday?
3. Who should answer next? The agent, a salesperson or a specialist.

Every question below serves one of those. If a question does not change a decision, do not ask it.

The five questions

This is the classic budget, authority, need and timeline idea, adjusted for chat. Sellinger's goal library includes a goal to "Qualify inbound interest on budget, authority, need, and timeline. Convert qualified leads to demos and route the rest to nurture."

How do you ask without sounding like a form?

Four habits.

1. Answer first. If they asked "do you deliver to Burgas?" answer that, then ask your question. Hotel Pirin's reservations agent answered guests in a median of 41 seconds, and the share of its replies carrying a price rose from 50% to 92% once it was told to quote as soon as it had dates and party. People want the answer before the question.
2. One question at a time. Two questions in one message get half answers.
3. Make questions optional in tone. "To give you the right options, may I ask when you are planning to come?" is easier than "Date?"
4. Use what they already said. If they mentioned a group of ten, do not ask how many.

Channel differences

Our post on Instagram DMs for B2B covers that channel in depth, and live chat versus chatbot versus AI concierge covers the website widget.

An example conversation

Guest: "Hi, do you have rooms for a team of 12 in January?" Agent: "Hello! Yes, we host groups in January. Which dates were you thinking of, roughly?" (Need confirmed from the message, now timing.) Guest: "Around the 14th to 16th." Agent: "Thanks. For 12 people that is six rooms or more depending on how you share. Do you prefer twin rooms or singles?" (Size.) Guest: "Twin." Agent: "Perfect. Will you be confirming this yourself, or should I send the offer to someone else too?" (Decision.) Guest: "Me." Agent: "Great. I will pass your dates to our reservations team now so they send you an exact offer today. Shall I send it here or by email?" (Next step and handover.)

The details are invented to show the shape. Notice that the agent answers first, asks one thing at a time and ends with a clear handover. It never invents a price.

When should the agent hand over?

Write the rules before you switch the agent on. Sellinger's inbound goals escalate to a person immediately on budget, contract or procurement discussion, frustration language, or six exchanges with no clear next step. The Inbound Lead Handling rule pack also marks as needing attention: complaints from existing customers, VIPs, urgent requests, refund requests, people asking about jobs and large deals. It excludes auto replies, out of office messages, newsletters and spam.

Your own list will differ. Write it down in plain language: "Hand over when the group is larger than 20, when a discount is requested or when the person writes in anger." Then check the first 20 conversations to see whether the agent followed it.

A person takes over with one click in Sellinger, and the agent stays quiet until released. See take over a conversation.

What if the person will not answer the questions?

Do not push. Some people want to browse. Offer something useful and a way back: "No problem. Here is our price list. If you tell me your dates later, I can check availability." Capture a way to contact them, such as an email or phone number, and their main concern. The goal library has a rule for this: if a meeting is not possible, capture the lead's email or phone number and their main pain point so a human can follow up.

How do you teach an agent the five questions?

In the rules and the knowledge base.

• Rules: "Ask at most one qualifying question per message. Always answer the person's question first. Never ask what they have already told you. Ask for dates, size and decision maker in that order unless the person leads elsewhere."
• Knowledge base: prices you may quote, hours, locations and policies. See train your agent with a knowledge base.
• Handover: the conditions above.

Read the first 20 conversations. Look for questions asked twice, questions that sound like a form and handovers that came late. Our post on how an AI SDR qualifies leads goes deeper on scoring.

What does a bad qualification look like?

• The interrogation. Five questions in the first message, before any answer. People leave.
• The brush off. "Please fill in our form" in a chat. The person already wrote; do not send them elsewhere.
• False precision. Scoring a lead from a single reply. One message tells you very little. Keep the notes in the lead record and let the picture build.
• Rejection by assumption. Judging a lead unfit from a short first message. Many real buyers write three words. Ask before you decide.
• Never closing the loop. Qualified leads that wait a day for a person are lost. Agree how fast the person answers, and who.

The cure for all five is the same: use the five questions as a map, not a script. If the person gives you the answer to question three in their first message, skip it. If they ask something unrelated, answer that. The questions serve the conversation.

A checklist

• [ ] I know the three decisions qualification supports.
• [ ] The five questions are in my rules, in a natural order.
• [ ] The agent answers first and asks one thing at a time.
• [ ] Handover conditions are written and tested.
• [ ] Prices and policies sit in the knowledge base.
• [ ] I read the first 20 conversations.