Run a sales pipeline with tags
Turn the Inbox into a lightweight pipeline so you always know which deal is waiting on what.
If you sell or take orders over WhatsApp, the hard part is not replying — it is remembering which of forty conversations is waiting on a quote, which on a payment, and which you have not touched in a week.
Tags fix that. You label each conversation with the stage it is at, and the inbox becomes a pipeline you can filter.
1. Write down your stages
Before touching the Inbox, write down the steps a customer actually goes through with you. Keep it to five or six. A few real examples:
Made-to-order retail
New lead → Awaiting approval → In production → Quote sent → Awaiting payment → Delivered
Clinic
Enquiry → Booked → Attended → Follow-up due
Bookings and events
First enquiry → Call scheduled → Proposal sent → Confirmed
Name them after what you are waiting for, not how the customer feels. Awaiting payment is useful. Interested is not.
2. Create them as tags
Create one tag per stage in the Inbox.
3. Tag every conversation, once
Go through your open chats and give each one a stage. It takes ten minutes the first time and then it is a habit: when something moves, change the tag.
One tag per conversation. If a chat has three stage tags, the pipeline stops telling you anything.
4. Work from the filter, not the list
This is the point of the whole thing. Instead of scrolling the inbox, filter to one stage and clear it:
Quote sent — who needs chasing today
Awaiting payment — who to remind
New lead — who has not had a first reply
5. Prepare templates for the chases
Most pipeline work is following up on conversations that have gone quiet — and a quiet conversation usually means a closed window, so you need a template. Get one approved per stage you chase: a quote reminder, a payment reminder, a delivery update.
See Starting and reopening conversations.
If you work with other people
Combine stages with assignment: the tag says what the deal needs, the assignee says who is doing it. See Set up a shared front desk.
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